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Essay / Importance of Imagery in Hamlet - 1507
Importance of Imagery in HamletIn “Hamlet,” imagery serves three important functions. First, it allows the major characters of the drama to be individualized. Second, it announces and elaborates major themes. And third, the reiterated images establish the particular atmosphere of the tragedy and keep the underlying mood of a scene, or succession of scenes, before the audience's mind. The crucial dramatic event on which the plot of "Hamlet" hinges - the murder of King Hamlet by his brother Claudius - takes place in the tragedy's prehistory, but it is vividly remembered for Hamlet (and for the audience) by the ghost in 1.5. The old king describes in detail how the poison attacked his body while he was sleeping, and how this healthy organism was destroyed from the inside, without the possibility of defending itself. The leprous distillate, whose effect retains such enmity with the blood of man, that swift as quicksilver it passes through the natural gates and pathways of the body, and with sudden vigor it possesses and curdles, like greedy droppings in milk, blood lean and healthy; mine too, and a very instant tetter barked at most resembling a lazar with a vile and disgusting scab all over my smooth body. At two other points in the action of the play, physical poisoning reappears visually - the poisoning of old Hamlet is reenacted in 3.2 by Lucianus. and the Player King; and in the final scene of the drama, all the main characters, including the arch-poisoner Claudius himself, die from poison. Poisoning also becomes a distinctive recurring motif in the play's imagery. The individual event in the palace garden is transformed into a symbol of the central problem of ...... middle of paper ...... in his hands and philosopher about life and death. Images of animal lust and sensual appetite highlight Hamlet's sense of revulsion at the adulterous and incestuous relationship between his mother and uncle. The carnal nature of their relationship is emphasized through a motif of animal images. In his opening monologue, the grieving prince states his disgust that even an animal lacking the power of reasoning would have cried longer for his companion than Gertrude did for her deceased husband. O God, a beast who wants a discourse on reason would have cried longer and the couple are represented by him as pigs in their lovemaking. No, but to live in the fetid sweat of a buried bed, simmering in corruption, honeying and making love, on wicked swine. Finally, the King of Bloats is variously described by Hamlet as a "satyr", a "beast", a "beast". paddock', 'bat', 'gib'