Hamlet Dramatic Irony Critical Analysis

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Dramatic Irony Critical Analysis For my critical analysis of dramatic irony in Hamlet I chose when Hamlet learns that his father was poisoned by Claudius. This situation is dramatic irony because Hamlet and the reader know that it was Claudius was the one that killed Hamlet’s father, but the rest of Denmark believes that King Hamlet was bitten by a snake. The rest of Denmark believes this because Claudius started this rumor to cover-up what he had done. This scene also manipulates the audience’s sympathies. This scene does this in two ways, making the reader sympathise with Hamlet and making the reader feel apathetic toward Claudius. The audience is manipulated to sympathise with Hamlet because he has just learned that his father’s death was no accident as he had presumed. Furthermore, Hamlet has just learned that it was none other than his uncle that killed his father. This is an unimaginable situation and it leaves the reader no other choice than to feel for Hamlet. On the hand, there lies Claudius. The reader has just learned that he was willing to kill his own brother to become king. Murder is a horrible thing, but killing your own brother for your own selfish needs is far beyond horrible. When learning this, in combination with feel bad for Hamlet, the reader is left hating Claudius for what he has done. Additionally, this is a very important scene in the play. This scene is mainly responsible for kick-starting the play. To begin, this scene introduces who the protagonist and the antagonist will be. Hamlet is presented as the plays protagonist and Claudius as the plays main antagonist. Secondly, this scene presents the plays main conflict. The conflict will be a person vs. person conflict that includes Hamlet and Claudius. Hamlet is seeking revenge for his father’s murder, while Claudius does his best to hide what he has done and to get rid of

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