Act 1 Flashcards
Claudius: “With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage”
Oxymoronic nature resemblant of Claudius’ deceit
Gertrude: “all that lives must die”
Juxtaposition between life and death foreshadows transient nature of the tragedy
Hamlet: “With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!”
Dysphemistic portrayal of their relationship; metaphorical ‘sheets’ dehumanises their love
Hamlet: “the funeral baked meats did coldly finish forth the marriage tables”
Juxtaposition between funeral and marriage intertwines love with death
Irony of death’s warmth
Hamlet: “sit still my soul; foul deeds will rise, though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes”
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Polonius: “You speak like a green girl!”
Foreshadow’s Claudius’ envy of Hamlet’s father
Hamlet: “The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold”
Pathetic fallacy; personification of the “air”
Ghost: “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder”
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Ghost: “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown”
Bestial presentation of Claudius
Ghost: “That incestuous, that adulterate beast, with witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gift”
Bestial presentation of Claudius; witchcraft punishable by death in Elizabethan England
Ghost: “the royal of bed of Denmark be a couch for luxury and damned incest”
Denmark as a microcosm
