Hamlet Intro

In the various works of William Shakespeare, he thoughtfully manipulates language and speech patterns to convey certain aspects of the play and certain characteristics of characters. As particularly seen in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, he utilizes the numerous forms of speech patterns to illuminate the characteristics of and relationships between characters. Shakespeare makes use of linguistic efforts through his juxtaposition of Hamlet and the ghost’s speech patterns. The ghost’s language is very determined and factually based. The ghost’s primary concern is to reveal the truth about the death of Hamlet’s father and to encourage Hamlet to avenge his father’s murderer. Hamlet’s language, however, is much more complex than that of the ghost. His language is easily influenced by the situation he is in and by the general tone of the scene. Hamlet can be very poetic in his language at times, speaking in metaphors for example, but he can also be very short conveying his apparent upset and bothered emotions. Moreover, Shakespeare cleverly employs the ability of differing linguistic tendencies to reveal the contrasting characteristics of Hamlet and the ghost.