Sunday, October 17, 2010

Everything Isn't Always How It Seems

Shakespeare presents multiple different speech patterns in his play, Hamlet. Each character in Hamlet has a contrasting personality and illustrates his/her persona through an individualized dialect. Claudius, the King, is an egotistical and pompous figure who seems to “sound” King-like through his long-winded speech – a type of speech merely based on his arrogance. When read by an audience, Claudius’ manipulating and fear-insecure nature is extremely obvious. Unfortunately, the easy ability to recognize his disguise is not so apparent to the other actors in the play.  Moreover, all one would need to do is scratch the surface of Claudius’ superficiality to reveal his true duplicitous and deceitful personality. 
Thesis: Ultimately, Shakespeare portrays Claudius, through his unusual diction in  Hamlet, as a politically motivated individual who is only concerned with insuring his Kingship.

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