the individualization of shakespeare's characters through imagery

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SHAKESPEARE SURVEY play he has the actors put on he figuratively (as he himself says—'tropically') calls "The Mouse Trap" (m, ii, 250): Claudius is the mouse that Hamlet traps. In another passage he compares Claudius to a peacock (m, ii, 300). Judging by the rhyme, he had meant at first to compare him to an ass, but thought better of it and said peacock (thus spoiling the rhyme, for which meticulous Horatio reproves him): Claudius was not a fool and the comparison to the ornate, proud bird was the more appropriate. In another place Hamlet calls Claudius "a cutpurse" (m, iv, 99). He says that Claudius 'whored' his mother (v, ii, 53). Hamlet compares Osric to a 'water-fly' (v, ii, 84). He calls people who look for security in property and forget that they too cannot escape death "sheep and calves" (v, i, 124). The rich man who acquires land, or 'dirt' (v, ii, 91), becomes the lord of other people and is admitted to the king's table: "let a beast be lord of beasts", says Hamlet, "and his crib shall stand at the king's mess" (v, ii, 88). In other words, Hamlet likens the rich to cattle. In his anger Hamlet compares Gertrude to a sheep: "Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, and batten on this moor?" (m, iv, 66). Hamlet calls the wedding bed of Claudius and Gertrude a "nasty sty" (m, iv, 94). He speaks of "the rank sweat of an enseamed bed" (m, iv, 93). "I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room", he says in reference to Polonius' corpse (in, iv, 212), whom when he was alive he called a 'calf' (m, ii, 112). Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are "fang'd adders" (m, iv, 203). He compares the king's courtiers with sponges: they soak in the wealth of the people and then the king squeezes them dry (iv, ii, 12 and 22). The king does not hurry to swallow them (such officers), but "keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw" (iv, ii, 19). Angry with himself for procrastinating, Hamlet berates himself as a 'whore' and a 'scullion' (n, ii, 622 f.). The reader has probably already been struck by the resemblance between these motifs and the dominant theme in Iago's imagery. This resemblance, however, is confined to the fact that both Hamlet and Iago are realists in their imagery, and that each of them has his own 'menagerie'. However, whereas Iago's 'menagerie' extended to all mankind, all men in general, including Othello ('ass'), Desdemona ('guinea-hen'), and Cassio ('a great fly'), Hamlet's menagerie is confined to his enemies. Therefore, only the following resemblance can be constituted: Hamlet hates his enemies just as Iago hates all mankind, Iago's 'menagerie' is an expression of cynicism, Hamlet's of wrath against his enemy. One reflects predatory nature, the other proves, in the final analysis, to be a component part of the humanistic theme. Hamlet praises man highly, admires him greatly, comparing him with an angel and with a god, calling him "the beauty of the world", "the paragon of animals" (n, ii, 323), and for this reason Claudius' courtiers, whom he observes daily, seem more like animals to him than men. His mother married Claudius immediately after her first husband's death. "O God!" exclaims Hamlet, "a beast, that wants discourse of reason, would have mourn'd longer" (1, ii, 150). (This, of course, does not mean that Hamlet was hostile towards Gertrude in general, but at that particular moment he spoke of her as of an enemy.) "What is a man", asks Hamlet in another passage, "if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more" (iv, iv, 34). (Let us note, by the way, as typical of Hamlet's realistic style, the image of "chief good and market".) In that bestial world in which Hamlet lives even the beautiful may engender evil. Hamlet had proof of this subsequently when Ophelia unconsciously became the accomplice of Claudius and Polonius. "If the sun breed maggots in a dead dog," said Hamlet, "being a god kissing carrion" (n, ii, 183), i.e. even the most beautiful engenders something loathsome when it has to do with loathsome things. 96 Shakespeare Survey Online © Cambridge University Press, 2007
INDIVIDUALIZATION OF SHAKESPEARE'S CHARACTERS The biting severity of those of Hamlet's images directed against his enemies and everything foreign to his nature must certainly have endeared Hamlet to the popular audience: the common people have never been chary of sharp expressions in speaking about their enemies. The general nature of his metaphors and comparisons, the majority of which are realistic, must also have enhanced Hamlet's popularity. Let us recall to the reader's mind some of the images cited above: a saw, an axe, journeyman, "sheep and calves", sheep pasturing on mountains and moors, pigsties, compost, mildew'd ear of grain, beggar eating fish, loads under the weight of which the bearer sweats and grunts, the fell sergeant—all these are images reflecting the life of the lower depths. The riddle images to be found in Hamlet's speeches were also close to'' the heart of the common element". "Yourself, sir, shall grow old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward", Hamlet says to Polonius (n, ii, 209), i.e. if Polonius could grow younger he would in time reach Hamlet's age. The following reply is also in the nature of a riddle: "Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?" asks Claudius. "At supper", replies Hamlet (iv, iii, 18). Hamlet then explains that at this supper Polonius is not eating, but is himself being eaten by worms. We know that this type of riddle used to be very popular among the people in Shakespeare's day. Games, too, figure among Hamlet's images—and always the most popular kind. "Ay' there's the rub", he says in his "To be, or not to be" monologue. Bowling was very popular among the people. Dicing was also very popular in England and eager groups gambling away with dice were to be seen on all the corners and cross roads of London. The game attracted numerous sharpers. Hamlet tells Gertrude that she has made "marriage vows as false as dicers' oaths" (m, iv, 45). "What devil was't that thus hath cozen'd you at hoodmanblind?" he asks Gertrude (m, iv, 76). "Hide fox, and all after!" Hamlet cries to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (iv, ii, 32), repeating the words of a children's game. Hamlet shudders at the thought that human bones, dug out of a grave, can be used for playing "at loggats" (v, i, 89). Similarly comprehensible to the popular audience were metaphors of the medieval theatre and medieval popular revels occurring in Hamlet's role. Hamlet terms exaggerated declamation and gesticulation on the stage "out-heroding Herod" (m, ii, 16), referring to a character in a miracle play. He compares Claudius to "a Vice" (m, iv, 98), a character in a morality play. He likewise calls Claudius "a king of shreds and patches" (m, iv, 102): for him the ranting of an actor is worse than the mouthings of a town-crier (m, ii, 4). Fireworks, all kinds of "fiery showers", formed part of the programme of court festivals, and these not only amused the crowd but often frightened it as well. Hamlet's remark in the 'mouse-trap' scene: "What, frighted with false fire!" (m, ii, 282) when Claudius hastily leaves the hall was comprehensible and peculiarly comical to the groundlings in the yard. It is easy to imagine how the groundlings exulted when Hamlet says: " the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe" (v, i, 149). The affected mannerisms of the courtiers were always ridiculous in the eyes of the common people. And how must the groundlings have enjoyed Hamlet's saying that even as an infant Osric was ceremonious with his mother's breast before he sucked it (v, ii, 193). For Sir John Falstaff, knight, the host of an inn would carry sack to his room on a tray, but in the common ale-houses small beer was poured directly from the barrel, the mouth of which was stopped with a plug. This plug, as Hamlet says, might be made of the dust of Alexander (v, i, 234). Caesar's clay, he says, might be used for patching a wall in winter to keep the wind away (v, i, 238). This evokes the image of a thin-walled house—a picture of the life of the poor. SSII 97 7 Shakespeare Survey Online © Cambridge University Press, 2007
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the individualization of shakespeare's characters through imagery

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