Disillusionment. Depression. Despair. These are the burning emotions churning in young Hamlet's soul as he attempts to come to terms with his father's death and his mother's incestuous, illicit marriage. While Hamlet tries to pick up the pieces of his shattered idealism, he consciously embarks on a quest to seek the truth hidden in Elsinore; this, in stark contrast to Claudius' fervent attempts to obscure the truth of murder. Deception versus truth; illusion versus reality. In the play, Prince Hamlet is constantly having to differentiate amongst them. However, there is always an exception to the rule, and in this case, the exception lies in Act 2, Scene 2, where an "honest" conversation (sans the gilded trappings of deceit) takes place between Hamlet and Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern. Via the use of prose and figurative language, Shakespeare utilizes the passage to illustrate Hamlet's view of the cosmos and mankind. Throughout the play, the themes of illusion and mendaciousness have......
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Approximate Word Count: 939
Approximate Pages: 4 (260 words per double-spaced page) |