Textuality » 4A Interacting

DIacumin - The closet scene - verse 10 to 15
by DIacumin - (2011-02-11)
Up to  4 A - Hamlet and the MonologueUp to task document list

After Hamlet described his father as a god using a classical register of language, he continues speaking about his uncle Claudius. The register degrades from classical to popular and words are harsh and imperious to rebuke his mother. According to that Hamlet says that Claudius belongs to a lower class than the one of his father. Words are really important in these lines because they give the idea of what is the esteem of Hamlet’s uncle, a man is infecting the noble father and the reign of Denmark with his impurity, guilty of murder and having get married his brother’s wife after his death. The first adjective Hamlet gives to his uncle is that he is like a mildewed ear, good only for poor people that have no money to pay better food to eat. Then he says that his impure seed is infecting his father. The last statement is a simile between the authority of the two brothers: on the one hand King Hamlet is described as a fair mountain that gives the idea of a nobler person; on the other hand Claudius is described as a moor, a cold and windy land, that gives the idea of a lower class that is not good to command.