Hamlet. Inner Turmoil

Essay by Ben GuthroHigh School, 11th gradeA-, February 1997

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Inner Turmoil

Within the play Hamlet there exists many puns and phrases which have a double meaning. Little ploys on words which tend to add a bit of entertainment to the dialogue of the play. These forked tongue phrases are used by Shakespeare to cast an insight to the characters in the play...to give them more depth and substance. However, most importantly these phrases cause the reader or audience to think. They are able to show a double meaning that not all people would pick up on, which is the purpose of the comments.

Little is known about Shakespeare's life, other than he was a great playwright whose works serve to meld literary casts for ages to come. This was his occupation, he wrote and directed plays to be performed. This was his sole form of income that we know of, it was his way of putting the bread on the table.

If people did not like what Shakespeare wrote, then he would not earn any money. If the people didn't like what they saw, he became the starving artist. Shakespeare wrote these dialogues in such a manner as to entertain both the Nobility, as well as the peasants.

The Shakespearean theater is a physical manifestation of how Shakespeare catered to more than one social class in his theatrical productions. These Shakespearean theaters has a unique construction, which had specific seats for the wealthy, and likewise, a designated separate standing section for the peasants. This definite separation of the classes is also evident in Shakespeare's writing, in as such that the nobility of the productions speak in poetic iambic pentameter, where as the peasants speak in ordinary prose. Perhaps Shakespeare incorporated these double meanings to the lines of his characters with the intent that only a select amount of his...