Hamlet's First Appearance
Re-read I, ii, 64-120. What are our first impressions of Hamlet from these lines?
Claudius wants Hamlet to see him as a father figure in the place of his real father as he says ‘But now my cousin Hamlet, and my son’. But Hamlet replies in an aside so that Claudius can’t hear what he says. This aside is quite sarcastic or snide and Shakespeare uses antithesis by stating ‘A little more than kin, but less than kind’. He makes a play on words to imply that Claudius is more than family because not only is he Hamlet’s uncle, he is now his stepfather as well. Adding one more letter to kin would make him kind, but Hamlet expresses his distaste by claiming he is not so. In line 67 Hamlet uses a pun ‘I am too much i’th’sun’. Hamlet’s use of the word ‘sun’ responds to Claudius’s reference to clouds, but it’s also a pun on the word ‘son’ as he’s not comfortable with his new father-in-law. Gertrude, in line 68, tells Hamlet to ‘cast thy nighted colour off’ meaning take off the dark, black clothes off. Hamlet’s dark clothes show that he is in mourning of his dead father as black is the colour of mourning. Two lines under she tries to get Hamlet to stop mourning over his father’s death as if she didn’t really care about her past husband’s death at all after a week or so. And then she goes on to say ‘all that lives must die’ which proves my point in a way showing that the death wasn’t that much of a big deal. Hamlet, in line 76, exclaims to his mother ‘seems madam? nay it is’ by this he shows that he is angry with his mother as he even calls her ‘madam’ instead of mother. Hamlet is really calling his mother shallow because of her lack of sorrow and the speed within which she went and got married with his uncle.
Claudius wants Hamlet to see him as a father figure in the place of his real father as he says ‘But now my cousin Hamlet, and my son’. But Hamlet replies in an aside so that Claudius can’t hear what he says. This aside is quite sarcastic or snide and Shakespeare uses antithesis by stating ‘A little more than kin, but less than kind’. He makes a play on words to imply that Claudius is more than family because not only is he Hamlet’s uncle, he is now his stepfather as well. Adding one more letter to kin would make him kind, but Hamlet expresses his distaste by claiming he is not so. In line 67 Hamlet uses a pun ‘I am too much i’th’sun’. Hamlet’s use of the word ‘sun’ responds to Claudius’s reference to clouds, but it’s also a pun on the word ‘son’ as he’s not comfortable with his new father-in-law. Gertrude, in line 68, tells Hamlet to ‘cast thy nighted colour off’ meaning take off the dark, black clothes off. Hamlet’s dark clothes show that he is in mourning of his dead father as black is the colour of mourning. Two lines under she tries to get Hamlet to stop mourning over his father’s death as if she didn’t really care about her past husband’s death at all after a week or so. And then she goes on to say ‘all that lives must die’ which proves my point in a way showing that the death wasn’t that much of a big deal. Hamlet, in line 76, exclaims to his mother ‘seems madam? nay it is’ by this he shows that he is angry with his mother as he even calls her ‘madam’ instead of mother. Hamlet is really calling his mother shallow because of her lack of sorrow and the speed within which she went and got married with his uncle.