Foils In Hamlet
Hamlet: Contrast Plays A Major Role
In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, contrast plays a major role. Characters have foils, scenes and ideas contrast each other, sometimes within the same soliloquy. One such contrast occurs in Act Five, Scene One, in the graveyard.
Here, the relatively light mood in the first half is offset by the grave and somber mood in the second half.
The scene opens with two "clowns", who function as a sort of comic relief.
This is necessary, after the tension of Ophelia's breakdown (and subsequent death), and after the ever-increasing complexities of the plot. Previously,
Polonious provided some humour, but since he is dead, a new source must be found
- the gravediggers. Their banter becomes the calm before the storm of the duel, …show more content…
The graveyard now takes on its more traditional role, as a place of grief, rather than a place of drollery. Laertes's words, understandably, contain references to Hell, and also hold no particular benevolence for Hamlet.
The tension of the scene is further heightened by the confrontation which breaks out between Hamlet and Laertes. This altercation foreshadows the final duel between the pair. The gloom of the scene is also furthered by the circumstances surrounding Ophelia's death. The questionable suicide of someone's mad sister is more depressing than the death of someone's sister who died saving children from a fire.
Act Five, Scene one is but one example of Shakespeare's use of contrast in
Hamlet, though there are some features that make this scene particularly unique.
The juxtaposition of the clowns and the graveyard within the larger juxtaposition of the humorous first half and the somber second half is one of these distinguishing characteristics. This is also where the reader (or the audience) sees Hamlet's recent attitude of resignation for the first time.
Hamlet's brush with mortality on the high seas as well as his elusion of
In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, contrast plays a major role. Characters have foils, scenes and ideas contrast each other, sometimes within the same soliloquy. One such contrast occurs in Act Five, Scene One, in the graveyard.
Here, the relatively light mood in the first half is offset by the grave and somber mood in the second half.
The scene opens with two "clowns", who function as a sort of comic relief.
This is necessary, after the tension of Ophelia's breakdown (and subsequent death), and after the ever-increasing complexities of the plot. Previously,
Polonious provided some humour, but since he is dead, a new source must be found
- the gravediggers. Their banter becomes the calm before the storm of the duel, …show more content…
The graveyard now takes on its more traditional role, as a place of grief, rather than a place of drollery. Laertes's words, understandably, contain references to Hell, and also hold no particular benevolence for Hamlet.
The tension of the scene is further heightened by the confrontation which breaks out between Hamlet and Laertes. This altercation foreshadows the final duel between the pair. The gloom of the scene is also furthered by the circumstances surrounding Ophelia's death. The questionable suicide of someone's mad sister is more depressing than the death of someone's sister who died saving children from a fire.
Act Five, Scene one is but one example of Shakespeare's use of contrast in
Hamlet, though there are some features that make this scene particularly unique.
The juxtaposition of the clowns and the graveyard within the larger juxtaposition of the humorous first half and the somber second half is one of these distinguishing characteristics. This is also where the reader (or the audience) sees Hamlet's recent attitude of resignation for the first time.
Hamlet's brush with mortality on the high seas as well as his elusion of