Sadness/Melancholy Flashcards
‘Tis unmanly…
‘Tis unmanly grief, it shows a will most incorrect to heaven
- Claudius opinion of hamlet’s mourning
O that this too…
O that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew
- hamlet’s euphemism displaying his suicidal thoughts, disdain for the world
- too repeated highlights extent of his contempt
- melt & thaw connotes freedom, alludes to object being released from its rigidity & form
- hamlet’s lack of concern for his life is again reinforced when he sees ghost & insists he does not care about what happens if he follows it
How weary, stale…
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!
- asyndeton to emphasise hamlet’s disgust with world
- monosyllabic words ‘stale, flat’ sound mundane, illuminating he sees nothing special about world
Am I…
Am I a coward?
- hamlet question suggests his overthinking prevented him from avenging father
- Shakespeare explores the irony of the ability to reason
- self-awareness demonstrated here suggests he is not mad
These but the…
These but the trappings and the suits of woe
- hamlet in deep grief, cloaking himself in black in his mourning
- at Shakespeare’s time, competing catholic & protestant beliefs around death, catholic church’s monetary exploitation of the bereaved resulted in restrictions in ostentation surrounding grief - grew into a repression of grief itself
