Hamlet and his Games
By: Lenny Hu
In the play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare, Prince Hamlet uses many double meaning phrases to speak his mind to the audience and the other characters in the play. \\\"I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw\\\" (II.ii.387-8). This is a classic example of the \\\"wild and whirling words\\\" with which Hamlet hopes to persuade people to believe that he is mad. These words, however, prove that beneath his \\\"antic disposition,\\\" Hamlet is very sane indeed. Beneath his strange choice of imagery involving points of the compass, the weather, and hunting birds, he is announcing that he is calculatedly choosing the times when to appear mad. “Hamlet feigns insanity because it allows him to do several things that he otherwise would not be able to do…” (The Hamlet Paradigm, by John S. Mamoun). Hamlet is very far form being mad, he is perfectly capable of recognizing his enemies. Hamlet\\\'s madness was......
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Approximate Word Count: 1570
Approximate Pages: 7 (260 words per double-spaced page) |