Literary Devices

Personification:

- Gertrude- “ . . . if word be made of breath and breath of life . . .” Act 3 Scene 4 (201-202)

- Claudius- “ . . . let the world take note . . . “ Act 1 Scene 2 (108)

- Horatio- “The Spirit, dumb to us, will speak . . .” Act 1 Scene 1 (170)

Allusion:

- Horatio- “Upon whose influence Neptune stands . . .” Act 1 Scene 1 (118)

- Hamlet- “O Jephthah, judge of Israel . . .” Act 2 Scene 2 (388)

- Rosencrantz- “Hercules and his load too . . .” Act 2 Scene 2 (349)

Simile:

- Gertrude- “These words like daggers in my ears.” Act 3 Scene 4 (97)

- Hamlet- “Here is your husband, like a mildewed ear blasting his whole brother.” Act 3 Scene 4 (65-66)

- Pololnius- “Breathing like sacrificed and pious bands.” Act 1 Scene 3 (130)

Metaphor:

- Hamlet- “A king of shreds and patches” Act 3 Scene 4 (104)

- Hamlet- “How now rat?” Act 3 Scene 4 (24)

- Hamlet- “A little more than kin and less than kind” Act 1 Scene 2 (65)

- Horatio- “Season your admiration far a while . . .” Act 1 Scene 2 (192)

Imagery:

- Hamlet- “Nay, but to live in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, stewed in corruption, honeying and making love over the nasty sty.” Act 3 Scene 4 (92-95)

- Hamlet- “ . . . too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and restore itself into a dew . . .” Act 1 Scene 2 (129-130)

Repetition:

- Claudius- “But you must know your father lost a father, that father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound.” Act 1 Scene 2 (89-90)