An analysis of the existence of many puns and phrases in the play hamlet

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Impossibility of Certainty What separates Hamlet from other revenge plays and maybe from every play written before it is that the action we expect to see, particularly from Hamlet himself, is continually postponed while Hamlet tries to obtain more certain knowledge about what he is doing. This play poses many questions that other plays would simply take for granted. Can we have certain knowledge about ghosts?

Hamlet's first words in the play show him playing with words in order to state a paradox: Claudius is twice related to him, as uncle and stepfather, but not really his kin or kind at all. This is Hamlet's response to the King's question, "How is it that the clouds still hang on you?

Hamlet bitterly jokes that the real reason his mother's remarriage came so soon after her husband's death, was so that she could save money by serving the leftover funeral refreshments to the wedding guests.

This famous phrase is widely misunderstood. It does not mean that the custom is widely ignored or given only lip-service. Hamlet is saying, "Yes, it is a long-standing custom for we Danes to make a lot of noise when we drink, but the best way we could do honor to that custom would be to drop it.

Hamlet says this when his friends, Horatio and Marcellus, try to keep him from following the Ghost. So he's saying, "I'll make a ghost of anyone who keeps me from the Ghost.

The basis of the jests is apparently Hamlet's intuition that Polonius forced Ophelia to dump him. In Hamlet's opinion, Polonius sacrificed his daughter's happiness in order to suck up to the King.

Thus, "fishmonger" is often explained as slang for "pimp," despite the fact that there is no evidence that the word was used that way in Shakespeare's time. Hamlet then makes his insult sharper by wishing that Polonius were as honest as a fishmonger, which is to say that Polonius is lower than the lowest of the low.

Hamlet goes on to say that "to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man pick'd out of ten thousand" and then says what Polonius probably thinks is a very crazy thing: One meaning is that it's not surprising that Polonius is such a hypocrite, because the life-giving sun can produce all kinds of disgusting things, especially from other disgusting things.

The second meaning Hamlet explains, though not so Polonius can understand. When Polonius says that he does have a daughter, Hamlet replies, "Let her not walk i' the sun: In other words, if Polonius is going to keep Ophelia away from Hamlet for fear that she'll get knocked up, he better keep her out of the sun, too, because even the sun can produce bastard pregnancies.

Polonius then follows up with a clarification, "What is the matter, my lord? He takes "matter" to mean something wrong as we do when we say "What's the matter with you?

He pretends that the author of the book has written that old men have "grey beards," wrinkled faces, and a "plentiful lack of wit. And although it's not nice to point out to anyone that we all get old, wrinkled and foolish, it's a terrible truth that Polonius doesn't realize about himself. Hamlet puts this last point backwards, saying that Polonius will get younger "old as I am" if he can go backwards in time.

Of course Polonius cannot go backwards in time, but he doesn't understand what Hamlet has just said, thus emphasizing what a dolt he is. Moments later, Hamlet makes a comment that sounds similar, but expresses a great weariness with life.

Polonius says goodbye with the usual polite words, "My lord, I will take my leave of you," and Hamlet replies "You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will willingly part withal:Hamlet’s seven soliloquies PHILIP ALLAN LITERATURE GUIDE FOR A-LEVEL HAMLET Philip Allan Updates 1 Hamlet’s seven soliloquies 1 Act I scene 2 lines –59 Hamlet is suicidally depressed by his father’s death and mother’s remarriage.

- Hamlet: Meaning Within Meaning Within the play Hamlet there exist many puns and phrases, which have a double meaning. Little plays on words which tend to . How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty!

in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! “This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” ― William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

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Hamlet is funny in making his serious points, although sometimes he makes puns just to annoy the people around him. Sometimes he does both at the same time. Here are four examples of Hamlet’s puns: some of them are complex and go very deep.