Punctuation
This type of punctuation in Hamlet’s soliloquy emphasizes his emotional distress and fragmented thoughts.
What is a dash
The phrase “too too solid flesh” symbolizes this.
What is Hamlet’s physical existence and mortality?
The phrase “Thaw and resolve” is an example of this type of figurative language.
What is a metaphor?
This theme is central to Hamlet’s wish for his “solid flesh” to melt.
What is mortality?
Shakespeare primarily wrote in this poetic meter, which mimics the natural rhythm of speech.
What is iambic pentameter?
The repeated use of this punctuation mark (“O God! O God!”) heightens Hamlet’s intense grief and despair.
What is an exclamation point?
Hamlet compares the world to this, symbolizing decay and corruption.
What is an “unweeded garden”?
“His canon ’gainst self-slaughter” uses this literary device to describe divine law.
What is personification?
Hamlet’s disgust with his mother’s quick remarriage reflects this theme.
What is betrayal?
In the phrase “Thaw and resolve,” this literary device emphasizes Hamlet’s desire for his suffering to disappear.
What is alliteration?
How does Shakespeare’s use of punctuation (such as commas and dashes) affect the pacing of Hamlet’s soliloquy?
What is it slows the speech, mimicking Hamlet’s hesitation and overwhelming emotions?
In the line “Thaw and resolve itself into a dew,” what does “dew” symbolize?
What is impermanence, transience, or the desire to disappear?
How does the metaphor of “solid flesh” reinforce Hamlet’s internal struggle?
What is it highlights his desire to escape his physical existence but also his inability to do so?
Hamlet’s inability to act despite his strong emotions relates to this major theme.
What is the conflict between action and inaction?
If Shakespeare intentionally breaks iambic pentameter in a soliloquy, what effect does it have on the character’s speech?
What is it signals distress, urgency, or a deep emotional shift?
What effect does the punctuation in the line “But two months dead!—nay, not so much, not two:” create?
What is it conveys Hamlet’s disbelief and disjointed thinking?
How does the imagery of an “unweeded garden” reflect Hamlet’s view of Denmark?
What is it suggests that Denmark has become morally and politically corrupt under Claudius?
Identify the literary device in “Hyperion to a satyr.”
What is a classical allusion?
What is the significance of religious themes in this soliloquy?
What is they create an internal conflict where Hamlet longs for death but fears divine punishment?
Identify the type of sound pattern in “self-slaughter.”
What is sibilance?
How does punctuation in this soliloquy reinforce the theme of internal conflict?
What is it creates a stop-and-start rhythm that mirrors Hamlet’s uncertainty and distress?
What does Hamlet’s reference to “self-slaughter” symbolize in the context of his internal struggle?
What is his desire to escape suffering, contrasted with his religious fear of damnation?
In Hamlet, this simile and metaphor suggest that Gertrude’s love for King Hamlet was insatiable, growing stronger the more it was indulged, making her swift remarriage seem contradictory.
What is “Why, she would hang on him, as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on”?
It expresses his deep despair with life following the death of his father and the hasty remarriage of his mother, Queen Gertrude, to his uncle, Claudius.
How does Hamlet’s lament in Act 1, Scene 2 reflect his state of mind and disillusionment?
How does rhythm in this soliloquy reinforce Hamlet’s existential crisis?
What is its variation between flowing and broken rhythms mirrors his fluctuating thoughts on life and death?