Shakespeare employs heroic couplets to amplify Hamlet’s feelings of fury, vengeance, courage, and grief. The technique incorporates simple and direct language to fashion Hamlet as a bold figure, especially in Hamlet’s speeches that close scenes or entire acts. The couplets provide striking conclusions both to violent soliloquies and philosophical monologues, which often end with thoughtful metaphors and imagery, such as patching a wall with the ashes of the dead. Shakespeare purposefully crafts some of Hamlet’s more conversational speeches without heroic couplets, and the lack of them proves noticeable due to their pervading nature throughout the play in Hamlet’s monologues. Heroic couplets emphasize, as the name suggests, the strength of a character, and Shakespeare writes them with stark vocabulary in every act of the play to draw attention to Hamlet’s valor and volatile emotions.
In their most memorable usages in Hamlet, heroic couplets conclude Hamlet’s rants which are filled with rage, aggression, and resentment. In the play, Hamlet stalls for a few acts claiming he intends to kill the King but doing nothing of the sort. Hamlet’s speeches during these acts are often anger-filled pep talks he gives himself to overcome fear and commit to his plan. “O, from this time forth My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth!” (4.4.68-69). Hamlet speaks about how vengeance separates men from beasts, and this heroic couplet simplifies Hamlet’s complex theory by conjuring the vivid image of blood and a sense of desperation.
His rage growing throughout the play is landmarked by the words of each couplet, such as the following from Act 2. “More relative than this. The play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King” (2.2.634-635). In this scenario, Shakespeare involves the couplet to highlight the rising intensity of Hamlet’s resentment of the King and to build up anticipation for the performance of the play. Hamlet’s theatrical attitude about the tragedy caused by the King points to the anger and apathy Hamlet has developed after learning about this betrayal. These emotions come up again in couplet form when Hamlet thinks better of killing the King while he is kneeling in prayer. The couplets in these situations bring clarity to the conflicting feelings of Hamlet, and somewhat resolve the unease and anxiety he exudes in his speeches.
In addition, Shakespeare uses heroic couplets to summarize Hamlet’s intense thinking and moral questioning in moments where the character is stoic and withdrawn. The first few of these bring focus to his conflicted feelings about how to treat his mother, and those moments serve to establish his lingering empathy for her. He begs in Act 3 Scene 2 that his “soul [consent]” to showing mercy towards his mother. Later, towards the end of the play, Hamlet wrestles with mortality and expresses his frustration to the gravedigger through a couplet. “O, that that earth which kept the world in awe Should patch a wall t’ expel the winter’s flaw!” (5.1.222-223). The opposing words awe and flaw bring stark contrast to the imagery. The stylistic choice of prose and language makes Hamlet’s dismay about the world feel more authentic.
Nevertheless, Shakespeare keeps heroic couplets at a healthy moderation to preserve their impact, and crafts some of Hamlet’s speeches to end without them. In some cases, Hamlet’s speeches are not in prose at all and look more like a flowing paragraph, such as in Act 3 Scene 2 when he is speaking with the players who are going to put on The Murder of Gonzago. The emphasis created by the couplet is not required in this scene because he speaks more as if in conversation and less as if he is proclaiming his beliefs to the audience. Hamlet speaks with more gravity in his soliloquies than in his conversations with other characters, and this difference in gravity manifests by nature of the inclusion of the heroic couplet. In other conversational instances, Shakespeare varies the use of the heroic couplet to shape the dramatic arc of the narrative. One example of this is in Act 5 Scene 1, in which Hamlet mostly speaks with the gravedigger without heroic couplets due to the back-and-forth nature of their communication. However, once he reaches the end of his conversation with the gravedigger, he concludes much more directly with a heroic couplet, as mentioned above.
Importantly, the heroic couplets in Hamlet’s speeches portray and solidify him as a heroic figure by establishing memorable, plot-driving quotes that direct the play through conflict. Hamlet speaks of blood and bravery in violent speeches and of spirituality in his more philosophical ones. The vocabulary in these couplets is important not because it is always distinguished and advanced, but because it is striking and concise. Shakespeare constructs the iconic, unforgettable quotes of Hamlet with heroic couplets because they have the power to connect the reader to Hamlet’s intense emotions in that moment.
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