Hamlet - Comment On Humanity Essays - English-language Films

Hamlet - Comment On Humanity Essays - English-language Films Hamlet - Comment on Humanity The Elizabethan play The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark is one of William Shakespeare's most popular works. One of the possible reasons for this play's popularity is the way Shakespeare uses the character Hamlet to exemplify the complex workings of the human mind. The approach taken by Shakespeare in Hamlet has generated countless different interpretations of meaning, but it is through Hamlet's struggle to confront his internal dilemma, deciding when to revenge his fathers death, that the reader becomes aware of one of the more common interpretations in Hamlet; the idea that Shakespeare is attempting to comment on the influence that one's state of mind can have on the decisions they make in life. As the play unfolds, Shakespeare uses the encounters that Hamlet must face to demonstrate the effect that one's perspective can have on the way the mind works. In his book Some Shakespeare Themes & An Approach to Hamlet, L.C. Knight takes notice of Shakespeare's use of these encounters to journey into the workings of the human mind when he writes: What we have in Hamlet.is the exploration and implicit criticism of a particular state of mind or consciousness.In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses a series of encounters to reveal the complex state of the human mind, made up of reason, emotion, and attitude towards the self, to allow the reader to make a judgment or form an opinion about fundamental aspects of human life. (192) Shakespeare sets the stage for Hamlet's internal dilemma in Act 1, Scene 5 of Hamlet when the ghost of Hamlet's father appears and calls upon Hamlet to "revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" (1.5.24). It is from this point forward that Hamlet must struggle with the dilemma of whether or not to kill Claudius, his uncle, and if so when to actually do it. As the play progresses, Hamlet does not seek his revenge when the opportunity presents itself, and it is the reasoning that Hamlet uses to justify his delay that becomes paramount to the reader's underezding of the effect that Hamlet's mental perspective has on his situation. In order to fully underezd how Hamlet's perspective plays an important role in this play, the reader must attempt to answer the fundamental question: Why does Hamlet procrastinate in taking revenge on Claudius? Although the answer to this question is at best somewhat complicated, Mark W. Scott attempts to offer some possible explanations for Hamlet's delay in his book, Shakespeare for Students: Critics who find the cause of Hamlet's delay in his internal meditations typically view the prince as a man of great moral integrity who is forced to commit an act which goes against his deepest principles. On numerous occasions, the prince tries to make sense of his moral dilemma through personal meditations, which Shakespeare presents as soliloquies. Another perspective of Hamlet's internal struggle suggests that the prince has become so disenchanted with life since his father's death that he has neither the desire nor the will to exact revenge. (74) Mr. Scott points out morality and disenchantment, both of which belong solely to an individuals own conscious, as two potential causes of Hamlet's procrastination, and therefore he offers support to the idea that Shakespeare is placing important emphasis on the role of individual perspective in this play. The importance that Mr. Scott's comment places on Hamlet's use of personal meditations to "make sense of his moral dilemma" (74), also helps to support L.C. Knight's contention that Shakespeare is attempting to use these dilemmas to illustrate the inner workings of the human mind. In Hamlet, Shakespeare gives the reader an opportunity to evaluate the way the title character handles a very complicated dilemma and the problems that are generated because of it. These problems that face Hamlet are perhaps best viewed as overstatements of the very types of problems that all people must face as they live their lives each day. The magnitude of these "everyday" problems are almost always a matter of individual perspective. Each person will perceive a given situation based on his own state of mind. The one, perhaps universal, dilemma that faces all of mankind is the problem of identity. As Victor L. Cahn

Definition and Examples of Echo Utterances in English

Definition and Examples of Echo Utterances in English An echo utterance is  speech that repeats, in whole or in part, what has just been said by another speaker. Sometimes called simply echo. An  echo utterance, says  Ãƒâ€œscar Garcà ­a Agustà ­n, isnt necessarily an utterance attributable to a specific person; it can refer to a group of people or even to popular wisdom (Sociology of Discourse, 2015).  A direct question that repeats part or all of something which someone else has just said is called an echo question. Examples and Observations Claire Dunphy: All right, everybody back to work!Gloria Delgado-Pritchett: Everybody back to work!Claire Dunphy: I just said that.Gloria Delgado-Pritchett: And I co-said it.(Julie Bowen and Sofà ­a Vergara, Dance Dance Revelation. Modern Family, 2010) Olivia: If the temperature is dropping, this mess could freeze up. We got to get outta here.Cassie: We got to get out of here.Olivia: I just said that. Where are you going?Cassie: If the temperature is dropping, this mess could freeze up.Olivia: I just said that.Cassie: We got to get out of here.Olivia: I just said that!(Marsha A. Jackson, Sisters. The National Black Drama Anthology, ed. by Woodie King. Applause Theater Books, 1995) Echo Utterances and Meanings We repeat one another. This is how we learn to talk. We repeat one another, and we repeat ourselves. An  echo utterance is a type of spoken language that repeats, in whole or in part, whats just been said by another speaker, often with contrasting, ironic, or contradictory meaning. How old are you, Bob asks.Nineteen, Gigi says.He says nothing, as this does not deserve the courtesy of response.Seventeen, she says.Seventeen?Well, not quite, she says. Sixteen until I get to my next birthday.Sixteen? Bob asks. SIX-teen?Well, maybe not exactly, she says. (Jane Vandenburgh,  Architecture of the Novel: A Writers Handbook. Counterpoint, 2010) Echo Utterances and Attitudes Wolfram Bublitz, Neal R. Norrick,  A phenomenon that is not extra communicative and still represents hardly an instance of metacommunication is the so-called  echo-utterance, where the speaker echoes the preceding speaker by repeating some linguistic material yet giving a specific turn to it . . ..  Echo statements such as in the following example  usually just convey attitudes toward the propositional state of affairs quoted/echoed. He: Its a lovely day for a picnic.[They go for a picnic and it rains.]She: (sarcastically) Its a lovely day for a picnic, indeed.(Sperber and Wilson, 1986: 239) (Axel Hà ¼bler, Metapragmatics. Foundations of Pragmatics, ed. by  Wolfram Bublitz et al. Walter de Gruyter, 2011) The Fifth Type of Sentence The traditional classification of major sentences recognizes statements, questions, commands . . . and exclamations. But there is a fifth type of sentence, used only in dialogue, whose function is to confirm, question, or clarify what the previous speaker has just said. This is the echo utterance.Echo utterance structure reflects that of the preceding sentence, which it repeats in whole or in part. All types of sentences can be echoes. StatementsA: John didnt like the filmB: He didnt what?Questions:A: Have you got my knife?B: Have I got your wife?!Directives:A: Sit down here.B: Down there?Exclamations:A: What a lovely day!B: What a lovely day, indeed! Usage Echoes sometimes sound impolite unless accompanied by an apologetic softening phrase, such as Im sorry or I beg your pardon. This is most noticeable with the question What did you say?  often shortened to What? Dont say what, say pardon is a common parental plea to children.(David Crystal, Rediscover Grammar. Pearson Longman, 2004) Read More Broken-Record ResponseConversation AnalysisRepetitionSpeech ActUtterance