Some manifestations of metaphor in hamlet by shakespeare

SUMMARY OF GRADUATION THESIS SOME MANIFESTATIONS OF METAPHOR IN “HAMLET” BY SHAKESPEARE MéT Sè BIÓU HIÖN CñA NGHÖ THUËT ÈN Dô TRONG "HAMLET" CñA SHAKESPEARE Field : English Literature S

Vinh university Foreign language department

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Vâ PH¦¥NG MAI

SUMMARY OF GRADUATION THESIS

SOME MANIFESTATIONS OF METAPHOR IN

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SUMMARY OF GRADUATION THESIS

SOME MANIFESTATIONS OF METAPHOR IN

“HAMLET” BY SHAKESPEARE

(MéT Sè BIÓU HIÖN CñA NGHÖ THUËT ÈN Dô TRONG

"HAMLET" CñA SHAKESPEARE)

Field : English Literature

Supervisor : M.A Lª §×nh Th¶o Student : Vâ Ph¬ng Mai

Firstly, I would like to express my deep thanks to my supervisor M.A Le Dinh Thao, who has helped me very enthusiastically

Secondly, I am grateful to my family for their great help and encouragement

Finally, I want to send my special thanks to my friends on internet forum and my classmates for their great aids in my study.

Due to the limitation of knowledge of literature and lack of materials, as well as experience; mistakes are unavoidable even though I have done my best I am very glad to receive remarks and comments from my teachers and friends on the shortcomings I may have

1 Rationale for choosing the subject 4

CHAPTER I: Definition; history and etymology; purposes, parts and types of metaphor

Chapter II Metaphor in literature 11

Chapter III Some Manifestations of Metaphor in “Hamlet” 15

3.4 The hallmarks William Shakespeare left in using metaphor for Hamlet 33

3.4.2 Hamlet- a masterpiece of international stature 35

3.5.1 In developing thought in the creativity of writer 353.5.2 Analysis of metaphor in language teaching and learning 36

about what makes us recognize Hamlet such a wonder of literature as well as of the

world and what makes my heart deeply touched The answer is language of the writerand the dominant device in it that must be reckoned is metaphor and its poly-semanticaspects in literature Thanks to it, I got a chance to discern the value of the work’scontent and feel its profound stature of all values in the world and the talent and heart

of Shakespeare- the greatest writer as well Therefore, I decided to get deeper into thework by finding out and do a research on some interesting manifestations of metaphor

in “Hamlet” to touch the beauty within man’s soul , language and literature

themselves through that device

2 Aims of the study

- to discern metaphor in literature

- to analyze the manifestations of metaphor in Hamlet ; hence, to understand thedepth of the characters, the content, and language beauty of Shakespeare

- To recognize the stature of the work “Hamlet” and the writer in World literature

- To learn to apply the use of metaphor

3 Scope of the study

- Studying the theory of metaphor as linguistics in general and metaphor inliterature in particular

- Studying some manifestations of metaphor in “Hamlet” (metaphors areabundantly, literarily and even philosophically used, poly-semantic…)

4 Methods of the study

- studying documents dealing with the thesis

- Using analysis and contrastive methods

- Making use of help of my supervisor- teacher Le Dinh Thao (M.A) and myfriends’ ideas

5 Format of the study

This graduation thesis consists of three main parts:

Part I: Introduction

In this part, I give my background: the rationale for choosing the theme, the aims, thescope, methods and format of the study

Part II: Investigation

This part encounters three chapters:

Chapter 1 entitled “Definition; history and etymology; purposes, parts and types

of metaphor” gives the necessary theories of metaphor as linguistics Chapter 2

“Metaphor in literature” deals with the term metaphor in literature and some

discussions on it Chapter 3 has the title “Some Manifestations of Metaphor in

‘Hamlet’”, I analyze some metaphors in the work such as Hamlet’s famous

soliloquy, mousetrap, nunnery, fishmonger, a rat, daggers, seas of trouble, some other

figures of metaphors and metaphors in some themes and through them ,display somehallmarks of Shakespeare and necessary lessons

Part III: Conclusion

In this part, I give a brief summary on what I have studied above and have a furtheroverview on values of metaphor in Shakespeare’s work in particular and literature ingeneral

PART II: INVESTIGATION

CHAPTER I: DEFINITION; HISTORY AND ETYMOLOGY; PURPOSES, PARTS AND TYPES OF METAPHOR

1.1 Definition

Meanings, as Turner states in Literary Mind, are not mental objects bounded in

conceptual places but rather complex operations of projection, binding, linking, blending,and integration over multiple spaces" that is, "meaning is parabolic and literary" (1996 :57) Many researches on transference of meaning in which metaphor is included showthose semantic characteristics

In language, a metaphor is a rhetorical trope where a comparison is made between twoseemingly unrelated subjects Typically, a first object is described as being a secondobject In this way, the first object can be economically described because implicit andexplicit attributes from the second object can be used to fill in the description of the first.Some (particularly in cognitive linguistics) see metaphor as a basic cognitive function,while others prefer the term analogy for this concept However, metaphor is not alwaysused for practical description and understanding; sometimes it is used for purely aestheticreasons Metaphors are commonly confused with similes This device is known forpoetry, where with few words, emotions and associations from one context are associatedwith objects and entities in a different context

In cognitive linguistics, according to Barcelona (2000:3), metaphor is the cognitivemechanism whereby one experimental domain is partially mapped or projected onto thedifferent experiential so that the second domain is partially understood in terms of thefirst one Metaphor, as we see below, is a conceptual projection whereby one experientialdomain (the source) is partially understood in terms of another experiential domain Forexample, we can liken something to something else on certain grounds For example adangerous and hidden person is commonly referred to as a snake

R Scaife (2004) in a Glossary of Rhetorical Terms defines metaphor as an implied

comparison achieved through a figurative use of words; the word is used not in its literalsense, but in one analogous to it For instance:

“Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor prayer,

that struts and frets his hour upon the stage”.

(Shakespeare, Macbeth)

In brief, metaphor is the transference of word meaning from one thing to another based

on the similarity between the two things It means a new meaning appears as a result ofassociating two objects/phenomena/qualities, etc and it is extended on the basis ofresemblance/feature is common, which produce aesthetic values for language by andlarge as well as literature in particular

1.2 History

Metaphor is present in written language back to the earliest surviving writings From theEpic of Gilgamesh:

''My friend, the swift mule, fleet wild ass of the mountain, panther of the wilderness, after

we joined together and went up into the mountain, fought the Bull of Heaven and killed

it, and overwhelmed Humbaba, who lived in the Cedar Forest, now what is this sleep that has seized you?'' - (Trans Kovacs, 1989)

In this example, the friend is compared to a mule, a wild ass, and a panther to indicatethat the speaker sees traits from these animals in his friend

Even before this example, it is arguable that the stylized cave paintings in the pont-d'arc caves in southern France are a form of visual metaphor Their highly stylizedanimal shapes evoke hierarchical relationships and human connections that are not part ofthe literal depiction

Chauvet-The first writers to discuss metaphor were the Greek philosophers

''The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor It is the one thing that cannot be learned from others; it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an eye for resemblance.”( Aristotle, De Poetica, 322 BCE)

While this might arguably be an exaggeration, there is evidence that fundamental aspects

of human intelligence, pattern recognition and inference drive the human use ofmetaphor

1.3 Etymology

Originally, metaphor was a Greek word meaning “transfer” The Greek etymology isfrom meta, implying “a change” and pherein meaning “to bear, or carry” Thus, the wordmetaphor itself has a metaphorical meaning in English, “a transfer of meaning from onething to another”

In modern Greek the word metaphor also means transport or transfer

There are broad categories of figurative language which are classified as metaphoricalThe more common meaning of metaphor is a figure of speech that is used to paint oneconcept with the attributes normally associated with another

1.4 Parts of metaphor

A metaphor, according to I.A Richards in The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936), consists of

two parts: the tenor and vehicle The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed.

The vehicle is the subject from which the attributes are derived

''All the world's a stage,’’

''And All the men and women merely players’’

''They have their exits and their entrances;''

-William Shakespeare (from “As you like it” 2/7)

This well known quote is a good example of a metaphor In this example, "the world" is

compared to a stage, the aim being to describe the world by taking well-known attributes from the stage In this case, the world is the tenor and the stage is the vehicle "Men and

women" are a secondary tenor and "players" is the vehicle for this secondary tenor The

third line begins selecting the attributes to ascribe from the vehicle onto the tenor The selection of similar attributes is called the ground In the play, Jaques continues this metaphor for another twenty lines beyond what is shown here - making it a good example

of an extended metaphor

1.5 Purposes of metaphor

Newmark (1995:104) states that the purpose of metaphor is basically twofold: referentialand pragmatic

Referential purpose is to describe a mental process or state, a concept, a person, an

object, a quality or an action more comprehensively and concisely than is possible inliteral or physical language By this, metaphor’s goal is cognitive

Pragmatic purpose, which is simultaneous, is to appeal to the senses, to interest, to

clarify “graphically”, to please, to delight, to surprise This makes metaphor aesthetic as

''All the world's a stage,”

''And All the men and women merely players”

''They have their exits and their entrances;”

- William Shakespeare (from As you like it 2/7)

The world is described as a stage and then men and women are subsidiary subjects that are further described in the same context

A mixed metaphor is one that leaps, in the course of a figure, to a second identification

inconsistent with the first one

Example: "Clinton stepped up to the plate and grabbed the Bull by the horn" Here, the baseball and the activities of a cowboy are implied Other examples include: "That wet blanket is a loose cannon"; "Strike while the iron is in the fire"; or (said by an administrator whose government-department's budget was slashed) "Now we can just kiss that program right down the drain".

A dead metaphor is one in which the sense of a transferred image is not present Example: "money", so called because it was first minted at the temple of Juno Moneta To most people though, "money" does not evoke thoughts of the temple at Juno Moneta Dead

metaphors, by definition, normally go unnoticed; people are typically unaware of the

origin of words For instance, consideration is a metaphor meaning "take the stars into account", mantel means "cloak or hood to catch smoke", gorge means throat, and so forth

for thousands more

Linguists have identified other types of metaphor too, though the nomenclatures are notuniversally accepted:

An active metaphor is one which by contrast to a dead metaphor, is not part of daily language and is noticeable as a metaphor For example: "You are my sun."

An absolute or paralogical metaphor (sometimes called an antimetaphor) is one in which

there is no discernible point of resemblance between the idea and the image Example:

"The couch is the autobahn of the living room."

A complex metaphor is one which mounts one identification on another Example: "That throws some light on the question." Throwing light is a metaphor and there is no actual

man was carried away

An implicit metaphor is one in which the tenor is not specified but implied Example:

"Shut your trap!" Here, the mouth of the listener is the unspecified tenor.

A submerged metaphor is one in which the vehicle is implied, or indicated by one aspect Example: "my winged thought" Here, the audience must supply the image of the bird.

A simple or tight metaphor is one in which there is but one point of resemblance between the tenor and the vehicle Example: "Cool it" In this example, the vehicle, "cool", is a temperature and nothing else, so the tenor, "it", can only be grounded to the tenor by one

attribute

A root metaphor is the underlying personal attachments that shape an individual's

understanding of a situation It is different to the previous types of metaphor in that it isnot an explicit device in language but merely a part of comprehension Religion isconsidered the most common root metaphor since birth, marriage, death and other lifeexperiences can convey a very different meaning to different people based on their level

or type of religious adherence An individual's political affiliations are another rootmetaphor that may affect the message conveyed by such terms as conservatism and

liberal In the example: "He is a very conservative politician", "conservatism" is the vehicle, "he" is the tenor and the attributes conveyed are dependent on the root metaphor: is

it a good or a bad thing to be considered conservative?

1.7 Relationship to Other figures of speech

A simile is like a metaphor, in that both compare one object with another, but while a

metaphor is implicit, a simile makes the comparison explicit with a word such as "like,"

"as," or "than." In this respect, a metaphor is a more concrete assertion of identity, andmay result in confusion if taken literally, whereas a simile is clearly just a comparison

Metonymy is the substitution of a closely related word for the intended subject Unlike a

metaphor, a metonymy does not transfer qualities from one word to another; rather, ituses an existing association to draw a link between words

Allegory is an extended section of prose or verse which carries a meaning or message

about something other than its literal subject This can be described as an implicitmetaphor

Metaphor taken to its extreme may be called a hyperbole (in cases where a metaphor is exaggerated) or catachresis (in cases where a metaphor borders on nonsense).

CHAPTER II : METAPHOR IN LITERATURE

2.1 The term metaphor in literature

The term metaphor is mentioned by Lai Nguyen An (2004:12) as a linguistic as well asthinking phenomenon In literal meaning, metaphor is a rhetorical figure which transfersthe features of one object (thing, phenomenon) into another based on their similarity orcontrast in some manner between them Metaphor especially emerges in itsexpressiveness; widen boundless capacities of figuring out the closeness of differentobjects By nature, metaphor is a new way of thinking towards the object It can noticethe hidden nature of the object Poetry bears lots of metaphors which have becomeliterary allusion in common materials for it Also, metaphor mostly reveals the uniqueviewpoint and personal style of a writer Different from the colloquial/familiar/typicalmetaphors, the personal unique ones show a high level of artistic information since theyfree the objects (words) from mechanical perception It is necessary to distinguishmetaphor in the manner of literary image which is usually seen in cognitive linguisticwith metaphor in broad sense such as the type of associative literary image made up byimagination in a certain context especially the images for the purpose of aestheticexpression The development of metaphors becomes the start for the abstractizationprocess of certain notions and for artistic image formations At the time when everythingwas confused and not yet interpreted like gods makes destiny and everything in life such

as nature, history, man’s fate etc, there were a lot of implied symbols and mysteries, artand dogmatic books of the medieval age built a totally metaphorical symbolic system Inthe more modern literature, human beings have no longer been dependent on “the worldbeyond”, but become the age of seeking for the balance between “me and the world”,metaphor has become the mode of promoting efforts and free creativity of writers Someresearchers suppose metaphor is the basic structure of literary images It plays the role ofconsciousness of mankind and art: It brings sharpness and standard to ideas and renewsthe objects, which produces truthful images with vivid emotions but hidden, charming,and impressive In metaphorical literary images, the transference of characteristic signalsfrom one into another and the identity of implied objects bring about a new appearance ofmetaphor which reveals poly-semantic nature of literary image Metaphor in literature isalso the aesthetic element in some other sciences like humane, nature and technology

2.2 Literary metaphor

2.2.1 Poetic metaphor

In More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor, Lakoff and Turner (1989)

states that Metaphor is a tool so ordinary that we use it unconsciously and automatically,with so little effort that we hardly notice it It is omnipresent: metaphor suffuses ourthoughts, no matter what we are thinking about It is accessible to everyone: as children,

we automatically, as a matter of course, acquire a mastery of everyday metaphor It isconventional: metaphor is an integral part of our ordinary everyday thought andlanguage And it is irreplaceable: metaphor allows us to understand our selves and ourworld in ways that no other modes of thought can

Far from being merely a matter of words, metaphor is a matter of thought all kinds ofthought: thought about emotion, about society, about human character, about language,

and about the nature of life and death It is indispensable not only to our imagination butalso to our reason

Great poets can speak to us because they use the modes of thought we all possess Usingthe capacities we all share, poets can illuminate our experience, explore the consequences

of our beliefs, challenge the ways we think, and criticize our ideologies To understandthe nature and value of poetic creativity requires us to understand the ordinary ways wethink

Because metaphor is a primary tool for understanding our world and our selves, enteringinto an engagement with powerful poetic metaphors is grappling in an important waywith what it means to have a human life

In Encyclopedia Britannica (2007), metaphor is discussed as figure of speech that implies

comparison between two unlike entities, as distinguished from simile, an explicitcomparison signaled by the words “like” or “as.” The distinction is not simple Themetaphor makes a qualitative leap from a reasonable, perhaps prosaic comparison, to anidentification or fusion of two objects, to make one new entity partaking of thecharacteristics of both Many critics regard the making of metaphors as a system ofthought antedating or bypassing logic

Metaphor is the fundamental language of poetry, although it is common on all levels and

in all kinds of language Many words were originally vivid images, although they existnow as dead metaphors whose original aptness has been lost—for example, “daisy”(day's eye) In poetry a metaphor may perform varied functions from the mere noting of alikeness to the evocation of a swarm of associations; it may exist as a minor beauty or itmay be the central concept and controlling image of the poem The familiar metaphor

“Iron Horse,” for train, for example, becomes the elaborate central concept of one ofEmily Dickinson's poems, which begins:

I like to see it lap the Miles,

And lick the Valleys up,

And stop to feed itself at Tanks;

And then prodigious step

A mixed metaphor is the linking of two or more disparate elements, which often results in

an unintentionally comic effect produced by the writer's insensitivity to the literalmeaning of words or by the falseness of the comparison A mixed metaphor may also beused with great effectiveness, however, as in Hamlet's:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

in which “sea” should be replaced by “host” for the strictly correct completion the

(Encyclopedia Britannica Online School Edition 23 Feb 2007 retrieved from

http://www.school.eb.com/eb/article-9052289)

2.2.2 Discussions on literary metaphor

G Lakoff (1987), in Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, states that reason is embodied

in the sense that the very structures on which reason is based emerge from our bodilyexperiences Imagination is not mere fancy, for it is imagination, especially metaphor,that transforms the general schemas defined by our animal experience into forms ofreason - forms even richer than the objectivists' transcendental reason has been taken tobe

A Goatly (1997) in the Language of Metaphors shows a multi-dimensional and

quantitative analysis of literary metaphor in naturally occurring discourse that we areaware of Literary genres use more active metaphors than all other genres, apart from thehigh number of nominal metaphors, poetry has relatively more verbal metaphors thanother genres; poetry has much less signaling of metaphor than novels, which seem towork more with similes; poetry has the greatest amount of metaphorical extension

In addition, one of the important theoretical issues that remain to be resolved is theubiquity of metaphor The pervasive presence of metaphor in language and thought hasbeen extensively discussed by cognitive linguists such as Lakoff and Johnson(1999) in

Philosophy in the Flesh and Mark Turner (1989) in A field guide to poetic metaphor ,but

it still needs to be incorporated in the specifically poetic theories of metaphor in literaturethat are based in structuralism For if metaphor is ubiquitous, how can literature (orpoetry, or lyrical poetry) be said to be particularly metaphorical: what is special aboutliterature relatively formal sense Eventually, both types of investigation will have to becarried out in order to produce a complete picture of metaphor in literature

Steen and Gibbs (2004: 349,350), proves the importance of noting that all of these

allegedly typically literary manifestations of metaphor are not restricted to literature So

if these intentionally prominent rhetorical forms are not restricted to literature, how can they be said to be typical of metaphor in literature? Do they exhibit subtle structural or semantic particularities? Or is it our literary reading attitude which pays more attention to their meaning potential, as has been implied by several empirical studies of metaphor in literary text processing? Or, finally, may both answers be correct to a limited extent?

Apart from the possibility that metaphorical figures may be rhetorically prominent and/ordeliberately exploited by readers, there is the additional possibility that metaphor inliterature may be a matter of density, which does not even have to be completelydeliberate from one metaphorically used expression to another This also moves us awayfrom the more spectacular uses of metaphor to the more general use of metaphoricallanguage in literary texts The suggestive findings above by Goatly reported above may

be recalled here

Apart from these general taxonomies, more specific proposals about the nature of literarymetaphor have also been advanced As noted above, structuralist linguistics and poetics

have proposed that the prime function of metaphor may be to foreground the code or themessage for its own sake However, this certainly does not seem to hold for the manyconventional metaphors that are used less intentionally by many novelists unless theirdensity becomes so high as to draw the reader's attention Cognitive linguists Lakoff and

Turner (1989) in More than cool reason – A field guide to poetic metaphor suggested that

literary metaphor is special on the grounds of its extension, elaboration, questioning andcomposition of already available conceptual metaphors

Let us finally take a brief look at metaphor in literature We have discussed some of thepossible properties of literary metaphor by engaging with some of the most importanttheoretical proposals These may range from specific properties of metaphors themselves,their distribution, their combination with other figures, and their combination with othergeneral aspects of language and discourse It is only large-scale corpus work betweenliterary and non-literary discourse which will be able to provide an accurate and precisepicture of the extent to which each of these factors plays a role in the specific nature ofmetaphor in literature

CHAPTER III: SOME MANIFESTATIONS OF METAPHOR

IN “HAMLET”

3.1 An overview on Hamlet

3.1.1 The renaissance background

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are called the renaissance in West Europe After

“Medieval night long”, the West was terrified and surprised at the broken reality in Rome

in the middle of the sixteenth century, the Greek and Roman literature and art remain ofwhich had been splendid, were ruined and distorted by the medieval feudal system andthe church, causing the misconception of their dignity within people Therefore,European desired to recover that cultural quintessence to build a new life, a moreprogressive and intelligent age based on it The meaning of the renaissance wasboundless massive, which Angle called “it’s the greatest turning-point that human beinghave been seen so far…” Along with the changes of economy, politics, society andreligion; there was a renaissance movement of culture emerged all over West Europe,among which was England This new ideology and artistic movement was based onHumanism: the views of morality and ideology aim to appreciate human, the belief inhuman’s mind, meeting the human’s requirement and creating chances for their abilities,protecting human from and against the evil so that human could develop freely andnaturally

3.1.2 William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

William Shakespeare was a poet and a playwright of genius of England and of allprogressive-minded parts of human Living in the Elizabethan age, Shakespearewitnessed the prosperous England and people’s blood and tears along with their suffering

in the first restoration period of capitalism Absorbed with the humane ideology of therenaissance, through his works, he denounced the old feudalism which separated thecountry and protested against the morality, applied serious formalities, treated peopledown; he fought against the ambitious powers of the dominant and the discrimination etc.Simultaneously, he realized the immoral nature of social relations, proved the ruthlessface of the capital class which had just formed and accused the power of money ofdriving the society crazy The works by Shakespeare were the voice of conscience,justice, freedom, firm belief in humans, especially the young generation The greatestwork by Shakespeare is Hamlet (1601)

3.1.3 A brief on the tragedy of Hamlet the prince of Denmark

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, who is studying in German, hears that his father is gone Hedecides to come back to go into mourning for the King, his father Hamlet becomes moreupset when his mother, Queen Gertrude remarries, less than two months afterwards Theman she gets married with is Hamlet’s uncle called Claudius who now becomes the King.The Ghost of Hamlet’s father appears one night and tells Hamlet the truth of his death.Hamlet learns that his father was poisoned by Claudius The Ghost calls on his son totake revenge on Claudius and asks him not to harm his mother but to leave her to hershame and remorse While Hamlet is still irresolute about the way to carry out hisrevenge, a company of actors comes to the castle He decides that they should stage themurder of his father in front of Claudius to open his veil And he is going to kill Claudius

Claudius understands what Hamlet means to him There is a deep struggle in Hamlet’sheart about revenging on Claudius It is also the fight against the dark society and fallenrelationships for justice and purity In a weak moment, Hamlet’s behavior is noticed andthis worries Gertrude and Claudius Hamlet can not do anything more but thinking andstruggling in his soul because of his solitude Claudius makes a scheme of asking theKing of England to kill Hamlet and Hamlet is forced to go to England Before going,Hamlet meets his mother and there he kills Polonius, a wicked mandarin when hearinghis story in secret On the way to England, Hamlet faces the pirates and finds the wayback to Denmark from them to continue his fight Claudius, once again, makes anotherscheme of a sword-fight between Hamlet and Laertes, the son of Polonius Hamlet isinjured because of the poisonous sword of Laertes While fighting, they exchange theswords and Laertes gets hurt in turn The Queen watches the fight, by mistake drinks thepoisonous wine Claudius prepared for Hamlet and dies Hamlet, before leaving the lastbreath, uses the poisonous sword to kill the dangerous King Hamlet is glorified by theKing of Norway for his greatness

3.1.4 The content and device values of the tragedy

As displayed, Hamlet is the most excellent and well-known tragedy by Shakespeare Inspite of being based on a Danish folk story about a prince named Amleth who pretended

to be mad for the purpose of revenging for his father, Shakespeare changed the topic ofthe whole story as well as the main character’s personality: He created “his own Hamlet”

an amazing attraction with a very noble motive in the beautiful heart and quality of ahero, not a person with revenge or ambition of power “The reason why Shakespeare isfound great is within Hamlet” (Lecmontov) for the work along with protagonist himself

is the perfect combination of poetry and philosophy, of art and ideology, of stage and life.Hamlet has the most profound meaning in social psychology among all tragedies byShakespeare Hamlet is a complicated typical character, who knows to feel painful andmeditate on the dirty and unjust society, ponds over to show the wish of rejudging everyrelationship in life, desires to find the measures against the bad and the cruel to build upthe lives, but eventually he becomes the victim of the society itself

Hamlet gains the peak of art creativity and this work has become the model tragedy ofcontent and art Shakespeare’s outstanding talent was revealed uniquely in building theconflict of drama, in describing the characters and psychology of the person in the specialsituations, in applying the images vividly and abundantly, and in using languagesophisticatedly and lyrically with deeply philosophical words throughout the tragedy All

of those values of devices are produced from special and unique metaphorical words andfigures, which also contributes to what so-called Shakespearean metaphor

3.2 Shakespearean metaphor

Good poetry requires powerful language Drafting a poem, we want our verbs to beenergetic; our adjectives need to surprise as well as describe A brilliant constellation ofimages, such as the ones readers find in any number of Shakespeare's sonnets, allows apoem to develop its own imaginative landscape And figures of speech allow the poetwho creates them to extend this landscape further

Simile and metaphor are both figures of comparison "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" Shakespeare asks in his sonnet

His similes make comparisons by using the terms "like" or "as"; metaphors dispense withthese words altogether

Of the two figures of speech offering comparison, metaphor provokes more complex andvarious associations in the reader's mind Similes often associate themselves with one or

two individual features "Cheeks like roses" have petals but no thorns, and in the phrase,

"small as the ear of a mouse," no aspect of mousiness color, scent, or the sound of one skittering across your kitchen counter matters other than size Or take the statement, "She's like a sunset." The reader may associate sunsets primarily with natural beauty, with pink and golden hues, or with certain flamboyance Compare this to the sentence, "She is sunset." Added to the associations mentioned before, and deepening them, is the prospect

of the day's decline Beauty and the end of beauty cohabit in metaphor

Shakespeare's sonnet "That Time of Year" is an example of comparison without the use of

"like" or "as":

That Time of Year

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou see'st the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west,

Which by-and-by black night doth take away,

Death's second self that seals up all in rest.

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire

That on the ashes of

his youth doth lie,

As the deathbed whereon it must expire,

Consumed by that which it was nourished by.

This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Each of the sonnet's three quatrains uses a single metaphor In the first four lines, thepoem's speaker compares himself to a time of year-early winter In lines 5-8, the speakercompares himself to a time of day-twilight, after sunset, night coming on fast In the lastquatrain, the speaker is a dying fire on a bed of ash

Your responses all of them concrete, specific nouns and adjectives will provide themetaphors for you to work with The longer your list, the more aspects of the subject yourpoem will reveal The question, "What kind of animal would this subject be?" mightsuggest a physical resemblance: "John is a Florida panther." Your answer to, "What form

of water would this subject be?" might describe emotional depth with, "John is a stillpond." If your flower is a snapdragon, readers will be affected by the sound of the word

as well as by its visual image

Although this method might seem best for a poem with an individual as its subject, John

Davidson's ballad, "Thirty Bob a Week" uses a series of metaphors to describe a

situation-the plight of situation-the underpaid British workingman:

It's a naked child against a hungry wolf;

It's playing bowls upon a splitting wreck;

It's walking on a string across a gulf

With millstones fore-and-aft about your neck.

Davidson and Shakespeare suggest two ways of structuring a collection of metaphors into

a poem Davidson uses a simple list, rapidly making three metaphors in four lines.Shakespeare extends his into a fourteen-line sonnet by answering each question ingorgeous detail Creating a narrative from your cache of words is a third strategy Insubsequent revisions, an author can decide which and how many metaphors to include.Whatever strategy the author chooses, he has discovered a technique to draw the power

of metaphor into the language of his poems

3.3 Some Manifestations of Metaphor in “Hamlet”

3.3.1 Hamlet’s famous soliloquy

In act III scene I, lines 56-90:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.Soft you now!

The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remember'd.

“To be or not to be” soliloquy is a poly-semantic metaphor rich in philosophical and literary values In line 56 “to be, or not to be: that is a question”: Hamlet wonders about

two possibilities To exist, or not to exist The question is academic really; for he believes

he has a soul, the soul is immortal and can not die and therefore cannot not exist, and thesoul is the person and therefore the person cannot not exist But that does not put Hamletoff He thinks it all through in detail, which means “to fight or to surrender”

It is easier to express it as Hamlet talking about himself and his own situation But notethat he never uses "I" He's engaging his mind in an intellectual debate brought on by hisown experiences in his situation, but he's not wallowing in personal trauma and self-pity

In lines 57-60: “Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles”

To the Renaissance mind fortune (often personified to the female Fortune) is the forcewhich dishes out good and bad stuff to humans It, or she, is 'fickle', "outrageous", "astrumpet" (Act II Scene 2 lines 235-236) That is, she chooses what she dishes out bywhim, not according to what people might deserve, or according to any principle of whatshould be or what is right People are her playthings So Hamlet, enlarging on his initial

"question", wonders whether it is nobler, or more noble-minded, "in the mind" refers to

"nobler", not to "suffer" The "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", the "troubles",which Hamlet lists as those which humanity has to suffer are not only those which themind has to suffer, but also the body But "in the mind" referring to "nobler" emphasizesthe purely abstract nature of nobility, as opposed to the more tangible nature of what must

be suffered to put up with the all the crap, or "troubles", Fortune dishes out; or to fightback and thus bring his suffering of all the crap to an end (The "or" here parallels the

"or" in line “to be or not to be”.)

In lines 60-64: And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

There may be a pun intended with "die", especially when coupled with "consummation"

"Die" was an Elizabethan term for orgasm Here it would be a reference to Hamlet's

desire for Ophelia, which he may not consciously intend at this point Compare "It would

cost you a groaning to take off mine edge", which he says to Ophelia that evening, in Act

III Scene 2 line 244.] beautifully, to his plan to solve his original "question"

Allied to the metaphor Hamlet uses in line 59: “Or to take arms against a sea of troubles”, make it clear what he means To draw a sword and attack the sea with it is a

waste of energy, utterly useless; and it reeks of hubris (that'll be in the dictionary too sort of a mixture of arrogance and vanity), which is why Hamlet questions the nobility of

-it And trying to fight fortune would be the same, an absolutely futile rebellion Except inone way: if he were "to die", fortune could certainly not affect him, and the earthly crap,the "troubles" would "end"

He immediately euphemizes dying to sleeping, but he is talking about suicide At thispoint in his thinking, dying is his not being Renaissance man accepted that the ancientRomans believed it was noble to commit suicide when they felt they could no longer live

with honour (in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra) But

under Christianity, suicide is a sin; because it is taking a human life (we see this with thediscussions over Ophelia's death and burial in Act V.scene1) So the nobility of suicide isalso questionable

But dying to Hamlet, in lines 60-64, is an ending of human life which seems veryattractive ("a consummation devoutly to be wished") because it would stop all the

"troubles" that one has to put up with in human life

But then his thinking goes another step Lines 65-67:

Devoutly to be wish'd To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Hamlet notes that sleeping involves dreaming; and as sleeping is his metaphor for dying,dreaming is his metaphor for the existence of the soul after death

And he acknowledges that he does not know what that would involve Lines 67- 83:

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make