Hamlet Literary Devices

The “To be or not to be” soliloquy characterizes the speaker, Hamlet, through the use of literary devices, as an obsessive, depressed, almost chaotic man who slowly dips into the depths of madness because of his father’s death, his mother’s incestuous marriage and the torment of whether to act, showing how the actions of others influence and mold a person. In the preceding scene, Hamlet's apparent madness was the topic of discussion, with Polonius surmising that his madness is a result of his unrequited love for Ophelia. Hamlet enters the room where Ophelia waits, apparently alone, so that Polonius and Claudius can observe her interactions with Hamlet who then proceeds to deliver the famous soliloquy. The first line, in which he ponders the question …show more content…
Another literary device utilized are caesuras. For example, Hamlet says, “To be, or not to be, that is the question:” revealing Hamlet's disheveled thoughts. The use of punctuation accentuates the pauses between the words in resemblance to how Hamlet seems to come to a halt in his own thought process. This shows that Hamlet is almost chaotic in his thinking, unsure of where he is going, which is a crucial aspect of his character that leaves the audience questioning the veracity to his madness. Hamlet’s thinking is also obsessive, as communicated through the use of anaphoras. For instance, when Hamlet says, “To die, to sleep-” the repeated use of the word “to” expresses the chaotic state of Hamlet’s mind. The word itself is forceful, adding stress to the sentence, displaying how Hamlet’s thoughts are all-consuming. Hamlet himself is an obsessive character, an obsession that ranges from fanatic opinions about his mother’s sex life, to his concern with mortality. His compulsion toward mortality is also expressed through the extended metaphor between death and sleep: “To die, to