Make Love not Wordcraft: Hamlets Two Fathers Blog 19

If I had to compare and contrast two characters speech patterns in hamlet, I would chose to write about the ghost (hamlets father) and Claudius Hamlets step father/ uncle. They each have there own specific ways of speaking, while Claudius shares a speech pattern with Hamlet, Claudius and the ghost are opposites. The ghost speaks in long sentences but is extremely forthcoming with his information “the serpent that did sting they fathers life now wears his crown” (742). The ghost out right tells hamlet who killed him and then tells hamlet how he should only seek revenge on his uncle and not his incestuous mother. One the other hand, Claudius is extremely lucrative in his speech, trying to almost never give away any information. Even when he commands hamlet that he cannot go back to Germany to attend school, he does not out right say “no” but instead he beats around the bush and when he does say that hamlet cannot go, he makes it sound like advice that hamlet should not go when really it is a royal decree.