HAMLET

William Shakespeare

Written during the first part of the seventeenth century (probably in 1600 or 1601), Hamlet was
probably first performed in July 1602. It was first published in printed form in 1603 and
appeared in an enlarged edition in 1604. As was common practice during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, Shakespeare borrowed for his plays ideas and stories from earlier literary
works. He could have taken the story of Hamlet from several possible sources, including a
twelfth-century Latin history of Denmark compiled by Saxo Grammaticus and a prose work by
the French writer Franois de Belleforest, entitled Histoires Tragiques.

The raw material that Shakespeare appropriated in writing Hamlet is the story of a Danish prince
whose uncle murders the princes father, marries his mother, and claims the throne. The prince
pretends to be feeble-minded to throw his uncle off guard, then manages to kill his uncle in
revenge. Shakespeare changed the emphasis of this story entirely, making his Hamlet a
philosophically minded prince who delays taking action because his knowledge of his uncles
crime is so uncertain. Shakespeare went far beyond making uncertainty a personal quirk of
Hamlets, introducing a number of important ambiguities into the play that even the audience
cannot resolve with certainty. For instance, whether Hamlets mother, Gertrude, shares in
Claudiuss guilt; whether Hamlet continues to love Ophelia even as he spurns her, in Act III;
whether Ophelias death is suicide or accident; whether the ghost offers reliable knowledge, or
seeks to deceive and tempt Hamlet; and, perhaps most importantly, whether Hamlet would be
morally justified in taking revenge on his uncle. Shakespeare makes it clear that the stakes riding
on some of these questions are enormousthe actions of these characters bring disaster upon an
entire kingdom. At the plays end it is not even clear whether justice has been achieved.

By modifying his source materials in this way, Shakespeare was able to take an unremarkable
revenge story and make it resonate with the most fundamental themes and problems of the

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Renaissance. The Renaissance is a vast cultural phenomenon that began in fifteenth-century Italy
with the recovery of classical Greek and Latin texts that had been lost to the Middle Ages. The
scholars who enthusiastically rediscovered these classical texts were motivated by an educational
and political ideal called (in Latin) humanitasthe idea that all of the capabilities and virtues
peculiar to human beings should be studied and developed to their furthest extent. Renaissance
humanism, as this movement is now called, generated a new interest in human experience, and
also an enormous optimism about the potential scope of human understanding. Hamlets famous
speech in Act II, What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty,
in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension
how like a godthe beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! (II.ii.293297) is directly
based upon one of the major texts of the Italian humanists, Pico della Mirandolas Oration on the
Dignity of Man. For the humanists, the purpose of cultivating reason was to lead to a better
understanding of how to act, and their fondest hope was that the coordination of action and
understanding would lead to great benefits for society as a whole.

As the Renaissance spread to other countries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, however,
a more skeptical strain of humanism developed, stressing the limitations of human
understanding. For example, the sixteenth-century French humanist, Michel de Montaigne, was
no less interested in studying human experiences than the earlier humanists were, but he
maintained that the world of experience was a world of appearances, and that human beings
could never hope to see past those appearances into the realities that lie behind them. This is
the world in which Shakespeare places his characters. Hamlet is faced with the difficult task of
correcting an injustice that he can never have sufficient knowledge ofa dilemma that is by no
means unique, or even uncommon. And while Hamlet is fond of pointing out questions that
cannot be answered because they concern supernatural and metaphysical matters, the play as a
whole chiefly demonstrates the difficulty of knowing the truth about other peopletheir guilt or
innocence, their motivations, their feelings, their relative states of sanity or insanity. The world

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of other people is a world of appearances, and Hamlet is, fundamentally, a play about the
difficulty of living in that world.

Plot Overview

On a dark winter night, a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore Castle in Denmark. Discovered
first by a pair of watchmen, then by the scholar Horatio, the ghost resembles the recently
deceased King Hamlet, whose brother Claudius has inherited the throne and married the kings
widow, Queen Gertrude. When Horatio and the watchmen bring Prince Hamlet, the son of
Gertrude and the dead king, to see the ghost, it speaks to him, declaring ominously that it is
indeed his fathers spirit, and that he was murdered by none other than Claudius. Ordering
Hamlet to seek revenge on the man who usurped his throne and married his wife, the ghost
disappears with the dawn.

Prince Hamlet devotes himself to avenging his fathers death, but, because he is contemplative
and thoughtful by nature, he delays, entering into a deep melancholy and even apparent madness.
Claudius and Gertrude worry about the princes erratic behavior and attempt to discover its
cause. They employ a pair of Hamlets friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to watch him.
When Polonius, the pompous Lord Chamberlain, suggests that Hamlet may be mad with love for
his daughter, Ophelia, Claudius agrees to spy on Hamlet in conversation with the girl. But
though Hamlet certainly seems mad, he does not seem to love Ophelia: he orders her to enter a
nunnery and declares that he wishes to ban marriages.

A group of traveling actors comes to Elsinore, and Hamlet seizes upon an idea to test his uncles
guilt. He will have the players perform a scene closely resembling the sequence by which Hamlet
imagines his uncle to have murdered his father, so that if Claudius is guilty, he will surely react.
When the moment of the murder arrives in the theater, Claudius leaps up and leaves the room.
Hamlet and Horatio agree that this proves his guilt. Hamlet goes to kill Claudius but finds him
praying. Since he believes that killing Claudius while in prayer would send Claudiuss soul to

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heaven, Hamlet considers that it would be an inadequate revenge and decides to wait. Claudius,
now frightened of Hamlets madness and fearing for his own safety, orders that Hamlet be sent
to England at once.

Hamlet goes to confront his mother, in whose bedchamber Polonius has hidden behind a
tapestry. Hearing a noise from behind the tapestry, Hamlet believes the king is hiding there. He
draws his sword and stabs through the fabric, killing Polonius. For this crime, he is immediately
dispatched to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. However, Claudiuss plan for Hamlet
includes more than banishment, as he has given Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sealed orders for
the King of England demanding that Hamlet be put to death.

In the aftermath of her fathers death, Ophelia goes mad with grief and drowns in the river.
Poloniuss son, Laertes, who has been staying in France, returns to Denmark in a rage. Claudius
convinces him that Hamlet is to blame for his fathers and sisters deaths. When Horatio and the
king receive letters from Hamlet indicating that the prince has returned to Denmark after pirates
attacked his ship en route to England, Claudius concocts a plan to use Laertes desire for revenge
to secure Hamlets death. Laertes will fence with Hamlet in innocent sport, but Claudius will
poison Laertes blade so that if he draws blood, Hamlet will die. As a backup plan, the king
decides to poison a goblet, which he will give Hamlet to drink should Hamlet score the first or
second hits of the match. Hamlet returns to the vicinity of Elsinore just as Ophelias funeral is
taking place. Stricken with grief, he attacks Laertes and declares that he had in fact always loved
Ophelia. Back at the castle, he tells Horatio that he believes one must be prepared to die, since
death can come at any moment. A foolish courtier named Osric arrives on Claudiuss orders to
arrange the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes.

The sword-fighting begins. Hamlet scores the first hit, but declines to drink from the kings
proffered goblet. Instead, Gertrude takes a drink from it and is swiftly killed by the poison.
Laertes succeeds in wounding Hamlet, though Hamlet does not die of the poison immediately.

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First, Laertes is cut by his own swords blade, and, after revealing to Hamlet that Claudius is
responsible for the queens death, he dies from the blades poison. Hamlet then stabs Claudius
through with the poisoned sword and forces him to drink down the rest of the poisoned wine.
Claudius dies, and Hamlet dies immediately after achieving his revenge.

At this moment, a Norwegian prince named Fortinbras, who has led an army to Denmark and
attacked Poland earlier in the play, enters with ambassadors from England, who report that
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Fortinbras is stunned by the gruesome sight of the entire
royal family lying sprawled on the floor dead. He moves to take power of the kingdom. Horatio,
fulfilling Hamlets last request, tells him Hamlets tragic story. Fortinbras orders that Hamlet be
carried away in a manner befitting a fallen soldier.

Character List

Hamlet - The Prince of Denmark, the title character, and the protagonist. About thirty years old
at the start of the play, Hamlet is the son of Queen Gertrude and the late King Hamlet, and the
nephew of the present king, Claudius. Hamlet is melancholy, bitter, and cynical, full of hatred for
his uncles scheming and disgust for his mothers sexuality. A reflective and thoughtful young
man who has studied at the University of Wittenberg, Hamlet is often indecisive and hesitant, but
at other times prone to rash and impulsive acts.

Claudius - The King of Denmark, Hamlets uncle, and the plays antagonist. The villain of the
play, Claudius is a calculating, ambitious politician, driven by his sexual appetites and his lust
for power, but he occasionally shows signs of guilt and human feelinghis love for Gertrude,
for instance, seems sincere.

Gertrude - The Queen of Denmark, Hamlets mother, recently married to Claudius. Gertrude
loves Hamlet deeply, but she is a shallow, weak woman who seeks affection and status more
urgently than moral rectitude or truth.

Polonius - The Lord Chamberlain of Claudiuss court, a pompous, conniving old man. Polonius
is the father of Laertes and Ophelia.

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Horatio - Hamlets close friend, who studied with the prince at the university in Wittenberg.
Horatio is loyal and helpful to Hamlet throughout the play. After Hamlets death, Horatio
remains alive to tell Hamlets story.

Ophelia - Poloniuss daughter, a beautiful young woman with whom Hamlet has been in love.
Ophelia is a sweet and innocent young girl, who obeys her father and her brother, Laertes.
Dependent on men to tell her how to behave, she gives in to Poloniuss schemes to spy on
Hamlet. Even in her lapse into madness and death, she remains maidenly, singing songs about
flowers and finally drowning in the river amid the flower garlands she had gathered.

Laertes - Poloniuss son and Ophelias brother, a young man who spends much of the play in
France. Passionate and quick to action, Laertes is clearly a foil for the reflective Hamlet.

Fortinbras - The young Prince of Norway, whose father the king (also named Fortinbras) was
killed by Hamlets father (also named Hamlet). Now Fortinbras wishes to attack Denmark to
avenge his fathers honor, making him another foil for Prince Hamlet.

The Ghost - The specter of Hamlets recently deceased father. The ghost, who claims to have
been murdered by Claudius, calls upon Hamlet to avenge him. However, it is not entirely certain
whether the ghost is what it appears to be, or whether it is something else. Hamlet speculates that
the ghost might be a devil sent to deceive him and tempt him into murder, and the question of
what the ghost is or where it comes from is never definitively resolved.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - Two slightly bumbling courtiers, former friends of Hamlet
from Wittenberg, who are summoned by Claudius and Gertrude to discover the cause of
Hamlets strange behavior.

Osric - The foolish courtier who summons Hamlet to his duel with Laertes.

Voltimand and Cornelius - Courtiers whom Claudius sends to Norway to persuade the king to
prevent Fortinbras from attacking.

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Marcellus and Bernardo - The officers who first see the ghost walking the ramparts of
Elsinore and who summon Horatio to witness it. Marcellus is present when Hamlet first
encounters the ghost.

Francisco - A soldier and guardsman at Elsinore.

Reynaldo - Poloniuss servant, who is sent to France by Polonius to check up on and spy on
Laertes.

Analysis of Major Characters

Hamlet

Hamlet has fascinated audiences and readers for centuries, and the first thing to point out about
him is that he is enigmatic. There is always more to him than the other characters in the play can
figure out; even the most careful and clever readers come away with the sense that they dont
know everything there is to know about this character. Hamlet actually tells other characters that
there is more to him than meets the eyenotably, his mother, and Rosencrantz and
Guildensternbut his fascination involves much more than this. When he speaks, he sounds as if
theres something important hes not saying, maybe something even he is not aware of. The
ability to write soliloquies and dialogues that create this effect is one of Shakespeares most
impressive achievements.

A university student whose studies are interrupted by his fathers death, Hamlet is extremely
philosophical and contemplative. He is particularly drawn to difficult questions or questions that
cannot be answered with any certainty. Faced with evidence that his uncle murdered his father,
evidence that any other character in a play would believe, Hamlet becomes obsessed with
proving his uncles guilt before trying to act. The standard of beyond a reasonable doubt is

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simply unacceptable to him. He is equally plagued with questions about the afterlife, about the
wisdom of suicide, about what happens to bodies after they diethe list is extensive.

But even though he is thoughtful to the point of obsession, Hamlet also behaves rashly and
impulsively. When he does act, it is with surprising swiftness and little or no premeditation, as
when he stabs Polonius through a curtain without even checking to see who he is. He seems to
step very easily into the role of a madman, behaving erratically and upsetting the other characters
with his wild speech and pointed innuendos.

It is also important to note that Hamlet is extremely melancholy and discontented with the state
of affairs in Denmark and in his own familyindeed, in the world at large. He is extremely
disappointed with his mother for marrying his uncle so quickly, and he repudiates Ophelia, a
woman he once claimed to love, in the harshest terms. His words often indicate his disgust with
and distrust of women in general. At a number of points in the play, he contemplates his own
death and even the option of suicide.

But, despite all of the things with which Hamlet professes dissatisfaction, it is remarkable that
the prince and heir apparent of Denmark should think about these problems only in personal and
philosophical terms. He spends relatively little time thinking about the threats to Denmarks
national security from without or the threats to its stability from within (some of which he helps
to create through his own carelessness).
Claudius

Hamlets major antagonist is a shrewd, lustful, conniving king who contrasts sharply with the
other male characters in the play. Whereas most of the other important men in Hamlet are
preoccupied with ideas of justice, revenge, and moral balance, Claudius is bent upon maintaining
his own power. The old King Hamlet was apparently a stern warrior, but Claudius is a corrupt
politician whose main weapon is his ability to manipulate others through his skillful use of
language. Claudiuss speech is compared to poison being poured in the earthe method he used

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to murder Hamlets father. Claudiuss love for Gertrude may be sincere, but it also seems likely
that he married her as a strategic move, to help him win the throne away from Hamlet after the
death of the king. As the play progresses, Claudiuss mounting fear of Hamlets insanity leads
him to ever greater self-preoccupation; when Gertrude tells him that Hamlet has killed Polonius,
Claudius does not remark that Gertrude might have been in danger, but only that he would have
been in danger had he been in the room. He tells Laertes the same thing as he attempts to soothe
the young mans anger after his fathers death. Claudius is ultimately too crafty for his own
good. In Act V, scene ii, rather than allowing Laertes only two methods of killing Hamlet, the
sharpened sword and the poison on the blade, Claudius insists on a third, the poisoned goblet.
When Gertrude inadvertently drinks the poison and dies, Hamlet is at last able to bring himself to
kill Claudius, and the king is felled by his own cowardly machination.
Gertrude

Few Shakespearean characters have caused as much uncertainty as Gertrude, the beautiful Queen
of Denmark. The play seems to raise more questions about Gertrude than it answers, including:
Was she involved with Claudius before the death of her husband? Did she love her husband? Did
she know about Claudiuss plan to commit the murder? Did she love Claudius, or did she marry
him simply to keep her high station in Denmark? Does she believe Hamlet when he insists that
he is not mad, or does she pretend to believe him simply to protect herself? Does she
intentionally betray Hamlet to Claudius, or does she believe that she is protecting her sons
secret?

These questions can be answered in numerous ways, depending upon ones reading of the play.
The Gertrude who does emerge clearly in Hamlet is a woman defined by her desire for station
and affection, as well as by her tendency to use men to fulfill her instinct for self-preservation
which, of course, makes her extremely dependent upon the men in her life. Hamlets most
famous comment about Gertrude is his furious condemnation of women in general: Frailty, thy
name is woman! (I.ii.146). This comment is as much indicative of Hamlets agonized state of

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mind as of anything else, but to a great extent Gertrude does seem morally frail. She never
exhibits the ability to think critically about her situation, but seems merely to move instinctively
toward seemingly safe choices, as when she immediately runs to Claudius after her confrontation
with Hamlet. She is at her best in social situations (I.ii and V.ii), when her natural grace and
charm seem to indicate a rich, rounded personality. At times it seems that her grace and charm
are her onlycharacteristics, and her reliance on men appears to be her sole way of capitalizing on
her abilities.

Themes, Motifs & Symbols

The Impossibility of Certainty

What separates Hamlet from other revenge plays (and maybe from every play written before it)
is that the action we expect to see, particularly from Hamlet himself, is continually postponed
while Hamlet tries to obtain more certain knowledge about what he is doing. This play poses
many questions that other plays would simply take for granted. Can we have certain knowledge
about ghosts? Is the ghost what it appears to be, or is it really a misleading fiend? Does the ghost
have reliable knowledge about its own death, or is the ghost itself deluded? Moving to more
earthly matters: How can we know for certain the facts about a crime that has no witnesses? Can
Hamlet know the state of Claudiuss soul by watching his behavior? If so, can he know the facts
of what Claudius did by observing the state of his soul? Can Claudius (or the audience) know the
state of Hamlets mind by observing his behavior and listening to his speech? Can we know
whether our actions will have the consequences we want them to have? Can we know anything
about the afterlife?

Many people have seen Hamlet as a play about indecisiveness, and thus about Hamlets failure to
act appropriately. It might be more interesting to consider that the play shows us how many
uncertainties our lives are built upon, how many unknown quantities are taken for granted when
people act or when they evaluate one anothers actions.

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The Complexity of Action

Directly related to the theme of certainty is the theme of action. How is it possible to take
reasonable, effective, purposeful action? InHamlet, the question of how to act is affected not
only by rational considerations, such as the need for certainty, but also by emotional, ethical, and
psychological factors. Hamlet himself appears to distrust the idea that its even possible to act in
a controlled, purposeful way. When he does act, he prefers to do it blindly, recklessly, and
violently. The other characters obviously think much less about action in the abstract than
Hamlet does, and are therefore less troubled about the possibility of acting effectively. They
simply act as they feel is appropriate. But in some sense they prove that Hamlet is right, because
all of their actions miscarry. Claudius possesses himself of queen and crown through bold action,
but his conscience torments him, and he is beset by threats to his authority (and, of course, he
dies). Laertes resolves that nothing will distract him from acting out his revenge, but he is easily
influenced and manipulated into serving Claudiuss ends, and his poisoned rapier is turned back
upon himself.

The Mystery of Death

In the aftermath of his fathers murder, Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of death, and over the
course of the play he considers death from a great many perspectives. He ponders both the
spiritual aftermath of death, embodied in the ghost, and the physical remainders of the dead, such
as by Yoricks skull and the decaying corpses in the cemetery. Throughout, the idea of death is
closely tied to the themes of spirituality, truth, and uncertainty in that death may bring the
answers to Hamlets deepest questions, ending once and for all the problem of trying to
determine truth in an ambiguous world. And, since death is both the cause and the consequence
of revenge, it is intimately tied to the theme of revenge and justiceClaudiuss murder of King
Hamlet initiates Hamlets quest for revenge, and Claudiuss death is the end of that quest.

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The question of his own death plagues Hamlet as well, as he repeatedly contemplates whether or
not suicide is a morally legitimate action in an unbearably painful world. Hamlets grief and
misery is such that he frequently longs for death to end his suffering, but he fears that if he
commits suicide, he will be consigned to eternal suffering in hell because of the Christian
religions prohibition of suicide. In his famous To be or not to be soliloquy (III.i), Hamlet
philosophically concludes that no one would choose to endure the pain of life if he or she were
not afraid of what will come after death, and that it is this fear which causes complex moral
considerations to interfere with the capacity for action.

The Nation as a Diseased Body

Everything is connected in Hamlet, including the welfare of the royal family and the health of
the state as a whole. The plays early scenes explore the sense of anxiety and dread that
surrounds the transfer of power from one ruler to the next. Throughout the play, characters draw
explicit connections between the moral legitimacy of a ruler and the health of the nation.
Denmark is frequently described as a physical body made ill by the moral corruption of Claudius
and Gertrude, and many observers interpret the presence of the ghost as a supernatural omen
indicating that [s]omething is rotten in the state of Denmark (I.iv.67). The dead King Hamlet is
portrayed as a strong, forthright ruler under whose guard the state was in good health, while
Claudius, a wicked politician, has corrupted and compromised Denmark to satisfy his own
appetites. At the end of the play, the rise to power of the upright Fortinbras suggests that
Denmark will be strengthened once again.

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and
inform the texts major themes.

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Incest and Incestuous Desire

The motif of incest runs throughout the play and is frequently alluded to by Hamlet and the
ghost, most obviously in conversations about Gertrude and Claudius, the former brother-in-law
and sister-in-law who are now married. A subtle motif of incestuous desire can be found in the
relationship of Laertes and Ophelia, as Laertes sometimes speaks to his sister in suggestively
sexual terms and, at her funeral, leaps into her grave to hold her in his arms. However, the
strongest overtones of incestuous desire arise in the relationship of Hamlet and Gertrude, in
Hamlets fixation on Gertrudes sex life with Claudius and his preoccupation with her in general.

Misogyny

Shattered by his mothers decision to marry Claudius so soon after her husbands death, Hamlet
becomes cynical about women in general, showing a particular obsession with what he perceives
to be a connection between female sexuality and moral corruption. This motif of misogyny, or
hatred of women, occurs sporadically throughout the play, but it is an important inhibiting factor
in Hamlets relationships with Ophelia and Gertrude. He urges Ophelia to go to a nunnery rather
than experience the corruptions of sexuality and exclaims of Gertrude, Frailty, thy name is
woman (I.ii.146).

Ears and Hearing

One facet of Hamlets exploration of the difficulty of attaining true knowledge is slipperiness of
language. Words are used to communicate ideas, but they can also be used to distort the truth,
manipulate other people, and serve as tools in corrupt quests for power. Claudius, the shrewd
politician, is the most obvious example of a man who manipulates words to enhance his own
power. The sinister uses of words are represented by images of ears and hearing, from Claudiuss
murder of the king by pouring poison into his ear to Hamlets claim to Horatio that I have
words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb (IV.vi.21). The poison poured in the kings ear

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by Claudius is used by the ghost to symbolize the corrosive effect of Claudiuss dishonesty on
the health of Denmark. Declaring that the story that he was killed by a snake is a lie, he says that
the whole ear of Denmark is Rankly abused. . . . (I.v.3638).

Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Yoricks Skull

In Hamlet, physical objects are rarely used to represent thematic ideas. One important exception
is Yoricks skull, which Hamlet discovers in the graveyard in the first scene of Act V. As Hamlet
speaks to the skull and about the skull of the kings former jester, he fixates on deaths
inevitability and the disintegration of the body. He urges the skull to get you to my ladys
chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must comeno one can avoid
death (V.i.178179). He traces the skulls mouth and says, Here hung those lips that I have
kissed I know not how oft, indicating his fascination with the physical consequences of death
(V.i.174175). This latter idea is an important motif throughout the play, as Hamlet frequently
makes comments referring to every human bodys eventual decay, noting that Polonius will be
eaten by worms, that even kings are eaten by worms, and that dust from the decayed body of
Alexander the Great might be used to stop a hole in a beer barrel.

Key Facts

FUL L T I T L E The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

AUT H O R William Shakespeare

T YPE O F WO RK Play

GE NRE Tragedy, revenge tragedy

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L ANGUA GE English

T I ME AND PL ACE WRIT T E N London, England, early seventeenth century (probably

16001602)

DAT E O F FI RS T PUB L ICAT IO N 1603, in a pirated quarto edition titledThe

Tragicall Historie of Hamlet; 1604 in a superior quarto edition

PRO T A GO NIS T Hamlet

MAJO R CO N FL IC T Hamlet feels a responsibility to avenge his fathers murder by his

uncle Claudius, but Claudius is now the king and thus well protected. Moreover, Hamlet
struggles with his doubts about whether he can trust the ghost and whether killing Claudius is the
appropriate thing to do.

RI S I NG A CT IO N The ghost appears to Hamlet and tells Hamlet to revenge his murder;
Hamlet feigns madness to his intentions; Hamlet stages the mousetrap play; Hamlet passes up the
opportunity to kill Claudius while he is praying.

CL I MAX When Hamlet stabs Polonius through the arras in Act III, scene iv, he commits
himself to overtly violent action and brings himself into unavoidable conflict with the king.
Another possible climax comes at the end of Act IV, scene iv, when Hamlet resolves to commit
himself fully to violent revenge.

FAL L I N G ACT IO N Hamlet is sent to England to be killed; Hamlet returns to Denmark

and confronts Laertes at Ophelias funeral; the fencing match; the deaths of the royal family

S E T T I NG (T IME ) The late medieval period, though the plays chronological setting is
notoriously imprecise

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S E T T I N GS (PL AC E ) Denmark

FO RE S H ADO WIN G The ghost, which is taken to foreshadow an ominous future for
Denmark

T O NE Dark, ironic, melancholy, passionate, contemplative, desperate, violent

T H E ME S The impossibility of certainty; the complexity of action; the mystery of death; the
nation as a diseased body

MO T I FS Incest and incestuous desire; ears and hearing; death and suicide; darkness and the
supernatural; misogyny

S YMB O L S The ghost (the spiritual consequences of death); Yoricks skull (the physical
consequences of death)

SHAKESPEARES SONNETS

William Shakespeare
The Sonnets

Shakespeares sonnets are very different from Shakespeares plays, but they do contain dramatic
elements and an overall sense of story. Each of the poems deals with a highly personal theme,
and each can be taken on its own or in relation to the poems around it. The sonnets have the feel
of autobiographical poems, but we dont know whether they deal with real events or not, because
no one knows enough about Shakespeares life to say whether or not they deal with real events
and feelings, so we tend to refer to the voice of the sonnets as the speakeras though he were
a dramatic creation like Hamlet or King Lear.

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There are certainly a number of intriguing continuities throughout the poems. The first 126 of the
sonnets seem to be addressed to an unnamed young nobleman, whom the speaker loves very
much; the rest of the poems (except for the last two, which seem generally unconnected to the
rest of the sequence) seem to be addressed to a mysterious woman, whom the speaker loves,
hates, and lusts for simultaneously. The two addressees of the sonnets are usually referred to as
the young man and the dark lady; in summaries of individual poems, I have also called the
young man the beloved and the dark lady the lover, especially in cases where their identity
can only be surmised. Within the two mini-sequences, there are a number of other discernible
elements of plot: the speaker urges the young man to have children; he is forced to endure a
separation from him; he competes with a rival poet for the young mans patronage and affection.
At two points in the sequence, it seems that the young man and the dark lady are actually lovers
themselvesa state of affairs with which the speaker is none too happy. But while these
continuities give the poems a narrative flow and a helpful frame of reference, they have been
frustratingly hard for scholars and biographers to pin down. In Shakespeares life, who were the
young man and the dark lady?

Historical Mysteries

Of all the questions surrounding Shakespeares life, the sonnets are perhaps the most intriguing.
At the time of their publication in 1609 (after having been written most likely in the 1590s and
shown only to a small circle of literary admirers), they were dedicated to a Mr. W.H, who is
described as the onlie begetter of the poems. Like those of the young man and the dark lady,
the identity of this Mr. W.H. remains an alluring mystery. Because he is described as begetting
the sonnets, and because the young man seems to be the speakers financial patron, some people
have speculated that the young man is Mr. W.H. If his initials were reversed, he might even be
Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, who has often been linked to Shakespeare in
theories of his history. But all of this is simply speculation: ultimately, the circumstances

17
surrounding the sonnets, their cast of characters and their relations to Shakespeare himself, are
destined to remain a mystery.

The Sonnet Form

A sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem, traditionally written in iambic pentameterthat is, in

lines ten syllables long, with accents falling on every second syllable, as in:
Shall I compare thee to a summersday? The sonnet form first became popular during the
Italian Renaissance, when the poet Petrarch published a sequence of love sonnets addressed to an
idealized woman named Laura. Taking firm hold among Italian poets, the sonnet spread
throughout Europe to England, where, after its initial Renaissance, Petrarchan incarnation
faded, the form enjoyed a number of revivals and periods of renewed interest. In Elizabethan
Englandthe era during which Shakespeares sonnets were writtenthe sonnet was the form of
choice for lyric poets, particularly lyric poets seeking to engage with traditional themes of love
and romance. (In addition to Shakespeares monumental sequence, the Astrophel and
Stellasequence by Sir Philip Sydney stands as one of the most important sonnet sequences of this
period.) Sonnets were also written during the height of classical English verse, by Dryden and
Pope, among others, and written again during the heyday of English Romanticism, when
Wordsworth, Shelley, and particularly John Keats created wonderful sonnets. Today, the sonnet
remains the most influential and important verse form in the history of English poetry.

Two kinds of sonnets have been most common in English poetry, and they take their names from
the greatest poets to utilize them: thePetrarchan sonnet and the Shakespearean sonnet. The
Petrarchan sonnet is divided into two main parts, called the octave and thesestet. The octave is
eight lines long, and typically follows a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA, or ABBACDDC. The
sestet occupies the remaining six lines of the poem, and typically follows a rhyme scheme of
CDCDCD, or CDECDE. The octave and the sestet are usually contrasted in some key way: for
example, the octave may ask a question to which the sestet offers an answer. In the following
Petrarchan sonnet, John Keatss On First Looking into Chapmans Homer, the octave

18
describes past eventsthe speakers previous, unsatisfying examinations of the realms of
gold, Homers poemswhile the sestet describes the presentthe speakers sense of discovery
upon finding Chapmans translations:

My love is as a fever, longing still

For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
The uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desprate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure am I, now reason is past care,
And frantic mad with evermore unrest,
My thoughts and my discourse as madmens are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed;
For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

The Shakespearean sonnet, the form of sonnet utilized throughout Shakespeares sequence, is
divided into four parts. The first three parts are each four lines long, and are known as quatrains,
rhymed ABAB; the fourth part is called the couplet, and is rhymed CC. The Shakespearean
sonnet is often used to develop a sequence of metaphors or ideas, one in each quatrain, while the
couplet offers either a summary or a new take on the preceding images or ideas. In
Shakespeares Sonnet 1 47 , for instance, the speakers love is compared to a disease. In the first
quatrain, the speaker characterizes the disease; in the second, he describes the relationship of his
love-disease to its physician, his reason; in the third, he describes the consequences of his
abandonment of reason; and in the couplet, he explains the source of his mad, diseased lovehis
lovers betrayal of his faith:

19
Much have I travelld in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse have I been told
That deep-browd Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He stard at the Pacificand all his men
Lookd at each other with a wild surmise
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

In many ways, Shakespeares use of the sonnet form is richer and more complex than this
relatively simple division into parts might imply. Not only is his sequence largely occupied with
subverting the traditional themes of love sonnetsthe traditional love poems in praise of beauty
and worth, for instance, are written to a man, while the love poems to a woman are almost all as
bitter and negative as Sonnet 147 he also combines formal patterns with daring and
innovation. Many of his sonnets in the sequence, for instance, impose the thematic pattern of a
Petrarchan sonnet onto the formal pattern of a Shakespearean sonnet, so that while there are still
three quatrains and a couplet, the first two quatrains might ask a single question, which the third
quatrain and the couplet will answer. As you read through Shakespeares sequence, think about
the ways Shakespeares themes are affected by and tailored to the sonnet form. Be especially
alert to complexities such as the juxtaposition of Petrarchan and Shakespearean patterns. How
might such a juxtaposition combination deepen and enrich Shakespeares use of a traditional
form?

Themes, Motifs & Symbols

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Themes

Different Types of Romantic Love

Modern readers associate the sonnet form with romantic love and with good reason: the first
sonnets written in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Italy celebrated the poets feelings for their
beloveds and their patrons. These sonnets were addressed to stylized, lionized women and
dedicated to wealthy noblemen, who supported poets with money and other gifts, usually in
return for lofty praise in print. Shakespeare dedicated his sonnets to Mr. W. H., and the
identity of this man remains unknown. He dedicated an earlier set of poems, Venus and
Adonis and Rape of Lucrece, to Henry Wriothesly, earl of Southampton, but its not known what
Wriothesly gave him for this honor. In contrast to tradition, Shakespeare addressed most of his
sonnets to an unnamed young man, possibly Wriothesly. Addressing sonnets to a young man was
unique in Elizabethan England. Furthermore, Shakespeare used his sonnets to explore different
types of love between the young man and the speaker, the young man and the dark lady, and the
dark lady and the speaker. In his sequence, the speaker expresses passionate concern for the
young man, praises his beauty, and articulates what we would now call homosexual desire. The
woman of Shakespeares sonnets, the so-called dark lady, is earthy, sexual, and faithless
characteristics in direct opposition to lovers described in other sonnet sequences,
including Astrophil and Stella, by Sir Philip Sidney, a contemporary of Shakespeare, who were
praised for their angelic demeanor, virginity, and steadfastness. Several sonnets also probe the
nature of love, comparing the idealized love found in poems with the messy, complicated love
found in real life.

The Dangers of Lust and Love

In Shakespeares sonnets, falling in love can have painful emotional and physical consequences.
Sonnets 1 2 7152 , addressed to the so-called dark lady, express a more overtly erotic and
physical love than the sonnets addressed to the young man. But many sonnets warn readers about

21
the dangers of lust and love. According to some poems, lust causes us to mistake sexual desire
for true love, and love itself causes us to lose our powers of perception. Several sonnets warn
about the dangers of lust, claiming that it turns humans savage, extreme, rude, cruel (4 ), as in
Sonnet 1 2 9 . The final two sonnets of Shakespeares sequence obliquely imply that lust leads to
venereal disease. According to the conventions of romance, the sexual act, or making love,
expresses the deep feeling between two people. In his sonnets, however, Shakespeare portrays
making love not as a romantic expression of sentiment but as a base physical need with the
potential for horrible consequences.

Several sonnets equate being in love with being in a pitiful state: as demonstrated by the poems,
love causes fear, alienation, despair, and physical discomfort, not the pleasant emotions or
euphoria we usually associate with romantic feelings. The speaker alternates between professing
great love and professing great worry as he speculates about the young mans misbehavior and
the dark ladys multiple sexual partners. As the young man and the dark lady begin an affair, the
speaker imagines himself caught in a love triangle, mourning the loss of his friendship with the
man and love with the woman, and he laments having fallen in love with the woman in the first
place. In Sonnet 137 , the speaker personifies love, calls him a simpleton, and criticizes him for
removing his powers of perception. It was love that caused the speaker to make mistakes and
poor judgments. Elsewhere the speaker calls love a disease as a way of demonstrating the
physical pain of emotional wounds. Throughout his sonnets, Shakespeare clearly implies that
love hurts. Yet despite the emotional and physical pain, like the speaker, we continue falling in
love. Shakespeare shows that falling in love is an inescapable aspect of the human condition
indeed, expressing love is part of what makes us human.

Real Beauty vs. Clichd Beauty

To express the depth of their feelings, poets frequently employ hyperbolic terms to describe the
objects of their affections. Traditionally, sonnets transform women into the most glorious

22
creatures to walk the earth, whereas patrons become the noblest and bravest men the world has
ever known. Shakespeare makes fun of the convention by contrasting an idealized woman with a
real woman. In Sonnet 130 , Shakespeare directly engagesand skewersclichd concepts of
beauty. The speaker explains that his lover, the dark lady, has wires for hair, bad breath, dull
cleavage, a heavy step, and pale lips. He concludes by saying that he loves her all the more
precisely because he loves her and not some idealized, false version. Real love, the sonnet
implies, begins when we accept our lovers for what they are as well as what they are not. Other
sonnets explain that because anyone can use artful means to make himself or herself more
attractive, no one is really beautiful anymore. Thus, since anyone can become beautiful, calling
someone beautiful is no longer much of a compliment.

The Responsibilities of Being Beautiful

Shakespeare portrays beauty as conveying a great responsibility in the sonnets addressed to the
young man, Sonnets 11 26 . Here the speaker urges the young man to make his beauty immortal
by having children, a theme that appears repeatedly throughout the poems: as an attractive
person, the young man has a responsibility to procreate. Later sonnets demonstrate the speaker,
angry at being cuckolded, lashing out at the young man and accusing him of using his beauty to
hide immoral acts. Sonnet 95 compares the young mans behavior to a canker in the fragrant
rose (2) or a rotten spot on an otherwise beautiful flower. In other words, the young mans
beauty allows him to get away with bad behavior, but this bad behavior will eventually distort
his beauty, much like a rotten spot eventually spreads. Nature gave the young man a beautiful
face, but it is the young mans responsibility to make sure that his soul is worthy of such a
visage.

23
Motifs

Art vs. Time

Shakespeare, like many sonneteers, portrays time as an enemy of love. Time destroys love
because time causes beauty to fade, people to age, and life to end. One common convention of
sonnets in general is to flatter either a beloved or a patron by promising immortality through
verse. As long as readers read the poem, the object of the poems love will remain alive. In
Shakespeares Sonnet15 , the speaker talks of being in war with time (13 ): time causes the
young mans beauty to fade, but the speakers verse shall entomb the young man and keep him
beautiful. The speaker begins by pleading with time in another sonnet, yet he ends by taunting
time, confidently asserting that his verse will counteract times ravages. From our contemporary
vantage point, the speaker was correct, and art has beaten time: the young man remains young
since we continue to read of his youth in Shakespeares sonnets.

Through art, nature and beauty overcome time. Several sonnets use the seasons to symbolize the
passage of time and to show that everything in naturefrom plants to peopleis mortal. But
nature creates beauty, which poets capture and render immortal in their verse.
Sonnet 1 0 6 portrays the speaker reading poems from the past and recognizing his beloveds
beauty portrayed therein. The speaker then suggests that these earlier poets were prophesizing
the future beauty of the young man by describing the beauty of their contemporaries. In other
words, past poets described the beautiful people of their day and, like Shakespeares speaker,
perhaps urged these beautiful people to procreate and so on, through the poetic ages, until the
birth of the young man portrayed in Shakespeares sonnets. In this waythat is, as beautiful
people of one generation produce more beautiful people in the subsequent generation and as all
this beauty is written about by poetsnature, art, and beauty triumph over time.

24
Stopping the March Toward Death

Growing older and dying are inescapable aspects of the human condition, but Shakespeares
sonnets give suggestions for halting the progress toward death. Shakespeares speaker spends a
lot of time trying to convince the young man to cheat death by having children. In Sonnets 1 1 7,
the speaker argues that the young man is too beautiful to die without leaving behind his replica,
and the idea that the young man has a duty to procreate becomes the dominant motif of the first
several sonnets. In Sonnet 3, the speaker continues his urgent prodding and concludes, Die
single and thine image dies with thee (14 ). The speakers words arent just the flirtatious
ramblings of a smitten man: Elizabethan England was rife with disease, and early death was
common. Producing children guaranteed the continuation of the species. Therefore, falling in
love has a social benefit, a benefit indirectly stressed by Shakespeares sonnets. We might die,
but our childrenand the human raceshall live on.

The Significance of Sight

Shakespeare used images of eyes throughout the sonnets to emphasize other themes and motifs,
including children as an antidote to death, arts struggle to overcome time, and the painfulness of
love. For instance, in several poems, the speaker urges the young man to admire himself in the
mirror. Noticing and admiring his own beauty, the speaker argues, will encourage the young man
to father a child. Other sonnets link writing and painting with sight: in Sonnet 24, the speakers
eye becomes a pen or paintbrush that captures the young mans beauty and imprints it on the
blank page of the speakers heart. But our loving eyes can also distort our sight, causing us to
misperceive reality. In the sonnets addressed to the dark lady, the speaker criticizes his eyes for
causing him to fall in love with a beautiful but duplicitous woman. Ultimately, Shakespeare uses
eyes to act as a warning: while our eyes allow us to perceive beauty, they sometimes get so
captivated by beauty that they cause us to misjudge character and other attributes not visible to
the naked eye.

25
Readers eyes are as significant in the sonnets as the speakers eyes. Shakespeare encourages his
readers to see by providing vivid visual descriptions. One sonnet compares the young mans
beauty to the glory of the rising sun, while another uses the image of clouds obscuring the sun as
a metaphor for the young mans faithlessness and still another contrasts the beauty of a rose with
one rotten spot to warn the young man to cease his sinning ways. Other poems describe bare
trees to symbolize aging. The sonnets devoted to the dark lady emphasize her coloring, noting in
particular her black eyes and hair, and Sonnet 13 0 describes her by noting all the colors she does
not possess. Stressing the visual helps Shakespeare to heighten our experience of the poems by
giving us the precise tools with which to imagine the metaphors, similes, and descriptions
contained therein.

Symbols

Flowers and Trees

Flowers and trees appear throughout the sonnets to illustrate the passage of time, the transience
of life, the aging process, and beauty. Rich, lush foliage symbolizes youth, whereas barren trees
symbolize old age and death, often in the same poem, as in Sonnet12. Traditionally, roses
signify romantic love, a symbol Shakespeare employs in the sonnets, discussing their
attractiveness and fragrance in relation to the young man. Sometimes Shakespeare compares
flowers and weeds to contrast beauty and ugliness. In these comparisons, marred, rotten flowers
are worse than weedsthat is, beauty that turns rotten from bad character is worse than initial
ugliness. Giddy with love, elsewhere the speaker compares blooming flowers to the beauty of the
young man, concluding in Sonnets 98 and 99 that flowers received their bloom and smell from
him. The sheer ridiculousness of this statementflowers smell sweet for chemical and biological
reasonsunderscores the hyperbole and exaggeration that plague typical sonnets.

26
Stars

Shakespeare uses stars to stand in for fate, a common poetic trope, but also to explore the nature
of free will. Many sonneteers resort to employing fate, symbolized by the stars, to prove that
their love is permanent and predestined. In contrast, Shakespeares speaker claims that he relies
on his eyes, rather than on the hands of fate, to make decisions. Using his eyes, the speaker
reads that the young mans good fortune and beauty shall pass to his children, should he have
them. During Shakespeares time, people generally believed in astrology, even as scholars were
making great gains in astronomy and cosmology, a metaphysical system for ordering the
universe. According to Elizabethan astrology, a cosmic order determined the place of everything
in the universe, from planets and stars to people. Although humans had some free will, the
heavenly spheres, with the help of God, predetermined fate. In Shakespeares Sonnet 25, the
speaker acknowledges that he has been unlucky in the stars but lucky in love, thereby removing
his happiness from the heavenly bodies and transposing it onto the human body of his beloved.

Weather and the Seasons

Shakespeare employed the pathetic fallacy, or the attribution of human characteristics or

emotions to elements in nature or inanimate objects, throughout his plays. In the sonnets, the
speaker frequently employs the pathetic fallacy, associating his absence from the young man to
the freezing days of December and the promise of their reunion to a pregnant spring. Weather
and the seasons also stand in for human emotions: the speaker conveys his sense of foreboding
about death by likening himself to autumn, a time in which natures objects begin to decay and
ready themselves for winter, or death. Similarly, despite the arrival of proud-pied April (2 ) in
Sonnet 9 8 , the speaker still feels as if it were winter because he and the young man are apart.
The speaker in Sonnet 18 , one of Shakespeares most famous poems, begins by rhetorically
asking the young man, Shall I compare thee to a summers day? (1). He spends the remainder
of the poem explaining the multiple ways in which the young man is superior to a summer day,

27
ultimately concluding that while summer ends, the young mans beauty lives on in the
permanence of poetry.

Sonnet 1

From fairest creatures we desire increase,

That thereby beautys rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feedst thy lightst flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the worlds fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content
And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the worlds due, by the grave and thee.
Caesar and Cleopatra (play)

Themes

Shaw wants to prove that it was not love but politics that drew Cleopatra to Julius Caesar. He
sees the Roman occupation of ancient Egypt as similar to the British occupation that was
occurring during his time.[1] Caesar understands the importance of good government, and values
these things above art and love.[2]

Shaw's philosophy has often been compared to that of Nietzsche.[citation needed]

Their shared
admiration for men of action shows itself in Shaw's description of Caesar's struggle

28
with Pompey.[citation needed] In the prologue, the god Ra says, "the blood and iron ye pin your faith
on fell before the spirit of man; for the spirit of man is the will of the gods."

A second theme, apparent both from the text of the play itself and from Shaw's lengthy notes
after the play, is Shaw's belief that people have not been morally improved
by civilization and technology.[citation needed] A line from the prologue clearly illustrates this point.
The godRa addresses the audience and says, "ye shall marvel, after your ignorant manner, that
men twenty centuries ago were already just such as you, and spoke and lived as ye speak and
live, no worse and no better, no wiser and no sillier."

Another theme is the value of clemency. Caesar remarks that he will not stoop to vengeance
when confronted with Septimius, the murderer of Pompey. Caesar throws away letters that
would have identified his enemies in Rome, instead choosing to try to win them to his side.
Pothinus remarks that Caesar doesn't torture his captives. At several points in the play, Caesar
lets his enemies go instead of killing them. The wisdom of this approach is revealed when
Cleopatra orders her nurse to kill Pothinus because of his "treachery and disloyalty" (but really
because of his insults to her). This probably contrasts with historical fact.[3] The murder enrages
the Egyptian crowd, and but for Mithridates' reinforcements would have meant the death of all
the protagonists. Caesar only endorses the retaliatory murder of Cleopatra's nurse because it was
necessary and humane.
Wiki

Pygmalion

THEMES
The theme of any work is generally defined as the overall subject of the piece of writing. In
Pygmalion, the three most prominent themes George Bernard Shaw presents to his reader are:
feminism, change, and communication. How a woman is supposed to behave is a societal
construct that has a firm hold on many people. It had an especially firm grasp on people during
the late 1800s, which gives the reader the setting for Shaws play. In this play, Shaw explored
what it means to be a woman and what the womans proper place is. Look at, for example,
Mrs. Pearce, who fulfilled the traditional role of a housekeeper. She was a prime example of a
proper woman. When she is juxtaposed with Eliza, however, the reader is able to see that
while both characters are lovable, only one is proper. Eliza defied the traditional role of
women in British society with her poor use of the English language and her livid cursing.
Through those two prominent female characters, Shaw explored a theme of the role of women in
society.

In addition, Shaw also explored a more obvious theme: that of change. Eliza quite literally

29
transformed during the play in a rather physical sense. This is as opposed to Higgins, who
transformed ever so slightly in the emotional sense. The final theme of communication was also
rather obvious. Throughout his work, Shaw pushed the reader to define what communication
was and how it affected the characters. Of course, there was the literal communication that was
achieved, but on a deeper level, how the words were pronounced changed how Higgins
interacted with Eliza. That same idea--that how one pronounces words changes how they are
treated--is still common today. This is what made Shaws theme so universal. Take, for
example, the typical Valley Girl. Due to the stereotype that a Valley Girl uses phrases such as
whatever, as if, and like, in a high-pitched, quipped manner that is perceived as annoying,
many treat the Valley Girl with blatant disrespect. Thus, Shaws theme is universal. The three
most prominent themes of Shaws work were those surrounding femininity, change, and
communication.
SYMBOLS

Clothing: what the characters wore was representative of their societal status. The
exchange of rags for fine dresses is symbolic of Eliza's societal transformation from a
poor flower girl to an upper class woman.
The Mirror: Eliza has never seen herself clearly before, and therefore sees herself without
flaws. The mirror she sees in Higgins' bathroom is representative of Eliza "waking up" to
realize she can improve her life and herself.
Flower Shop: The flower shop that Eliza wishes to own at the beginning of the play
symbolizes all of Eliza's hopes and dreams.
The Bath: The bath that Eliza takes once Higgins and Pickering make their bet represents
Eliza washing herself of her past life and speech patterns.

PYGMALION THEMES

Class
The social hierarchy is an unavoidable reality in Britain, and it is interesting to watch it play out
in the work of a socialist playwright. Shaw includes members of all social classes from the
lowest (Liza) to the servant class (Mrs. Pearce) to the middle class (Doolittle after his
inheritance) to the genteel poor (the Eynsford Hills) to the upper class (Pickering and the
Higginses). The general sense is that class structures are rigid and should not be tampered with,
so the example of Liza's class mobility is most shocking. The issue of language is tied up in class
quite closely; the fact that Higgins is able to identify where people were born by their accents is
telling. British class and identity are very much tied up in their land and their birthplace, so it
becomes hard to be socially mobile if your accent marks you as coming from a certain location.

Gentility and Manners

Good manners (or any manners at all) were mostly associated with the upper class at this time.
Shaw's position on manners is somewhat unclear; as a socialist, one would think that he would
have no time for them because they are a marker of class divisions. Yet, Higgins's pattern of
treating everyone like dirt--while just as democratic as Pickering's of treating everyone like a
duke or duchess--is less satisfactory than Pickering's. It is a poignant moment at the end of

30
Pygmalion when Liza thanks Pickering for teaching her manners and pointedly comments that
otherwise she would have had no way of learning them.

Marriage and Prostitution

These institutions are very much related in Shaw's plays, especially in Mrs. Warren's profession.
From his unusual standpoint of being committed to a celibate marriage, Shaw apparently feels
free to denounce marriage as an exchange of sexuality for money similar to prostitution (even
though this was not happening in his own marriage). Ironically, while her father expresses no
regrets when he is led to believe that Liza will take up this profession, it is she who denounces it.
She declares that she was less degraded as a flower-seller than as a "genteel" lady trying to make
an appropriate marriage--because as a flower-seller, at least, she wasn't selling her body.

Myths of Creation
Of all Shaw's plays, Pygmalion has the most references to Greek and Roman mythology. Higgins
represents Pygmalion, a Greek sculptor who lived alone because he hated women. Pygmalion
created a sculpture of a perfect woman and fell in love with it; after he prayed, Aphrodite
brought it to life for him. This statue is named Galatea, and it is represented in Shaw's play by
Liza. Unlike the myth, Shaw's play does not end in a marriage between the pair, and Liza is
infuriated with Higgins's suggestion that her success is his success and that he has made her what
she is. She has worked to recreate her identity as well.

Language
In this play and in British society at large, language is closely tied with class. From a person's
accent, one can determine where the person comes from and usually what the person's
socioeconomic background is. Because accents are not very malleable, poor people are marked
as poor for life. Higgins's teachings are somewhat radical in that they disrupt this social marker,
allowing for greater social mobility.

Professionalism
At the time that this play was written, the idea of female professionals was somewhat new. Aside
from the profession of prostitution, women were generally housewives before this period, and
there is some residual resistance to the idea of normally male professions being entered by
females in the play.

Moreover, Pickering is initially horrified by the idea of Eliza opening a flower shop, since being
involved in a trade was a mark of belonging to the lower class. Pickering is shaken similarly after
his experience of watching Eliza fool everyone at a garden and dinner party, saying that she
played her part almost too well. The idea of a professional female socialite is somehow
threatening to him.
Gender Solidarity or Antagonism
Although British society is supposed to break down along class lines, Shaw makes a point of
highlighting gender loyalties in this play. Although Mrs. Higgins initially is horrified by the idea
that her son might bring a flower-girl into her home, she quickly grows sympathetic to Liza. As a

31
woman, she is the first to express a concern for what will be done with the girl after the
experiment--the idea that her training makes her highly unmarriageable by anyone anywhere on
the social scale. When Liza runs away from Wimpole St., she instinctively knows that Mrs.
Higgins will take good care of her. Higgins's mother sides with Liza before even her son, not
revealing that Liza is in the house while Higgins is dialing the police.
In contrast, relations between people of opposite genders are generally portrayed by Shaw as
antagonistic. Higgins and his mother have a troubled relationship, as do the professor and Mrs.
Pearce.Freddy and Liza get along better perhaps only due to his more passive, feminine
demeanor.

The Portrait of a Lady Themes

Henry James often addresses the difference between the "old world," or European values and
culture, and the "new world," or American values and culture. Literature and art are often
considered to be places where a culture can showcase its sophistication, traditions, and values in
their highest form. For Europeans during the mid to late 19th century, it was a novel idea that
Americans were developing a higher culture capable of producing works of great literature. By
the time The Portrait of a Lady was written though, several American authors had already gained
respect in the Old World, such as Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and
Walt Whitman. Yet, the question remained: what cultural ideas and values did Americans
represent? Could such new ideas change European culture? The literary tradition associated with
the Old World at the time was after all, in a state of decadence. The character of Lord
Warburton represents this. He has many political ideas about revolution and change, but he
benefits from the very institution against which he rebels in thought. Madame Merle and Gilbert
Osmond, though both are Americans, are examples of Old World values -- they are Americans
who have come to Europe and fully adapted to the lifestyle of the Europeans. (For example, it is
explicitly mentioned that Madame Merle is of the "old world" and Gilbert Osmond is likened to
convention itself.) When Isabel Archer arrives in the first scene at Gardencourt, the men are
discussing the possibility of women bringing new ideas with them. Isabel Archer represents
American modernity and culture. When she walks in, she is the materialization of the hope that a
fresh perspective on things could help revive old European traditions that are decadent and
rigidly formal. However, in the book, she falls under the power of an American who has
committed to Old World values; she falls for the illusion that there is a real system of value
behind his aestheticism.
Aesthetics
Gilbert Osmond is the villain of the novel. He is characterized by his fine taste and fine vision,
but, practically speaking, he is incapable of taking action in life. Although he is a very capable
curator of his own home, he is not even very good at making art himself. For example, Madame
Merle, who also is known to have very fine taste, dislikes his drawings. Thus he is the
characterization of a person who lives aesthetically by collecting objects, by doing nothing in life
but looking and judging things. He does not create anything. Isabel however, originally believes
that there is a system of value behind the way in which Gilbert Osmond judges things. She only

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later learns that he is only superficial, and he creates the illusion that there is some inscrutable
secret behind his judgments that only he has access to. Because she believes that there is some
sort of value behind his appearances, she believes she is "doing" something in enabling him to
continue living as an aesthete by giving him money. Recall that all characters in the novel are
constantly discussing what Isabel Archer will "do" in life. How will she exercise her ideas? She
ends up believing that marrying Gilbert Osmond is a way of helping him exercise his ideas. This
ultimately ends up being her "idea": helping another person to express himself. However, the
truth comes out that he has no ideas; he just likes appearing as if he does have higher ideas by
mystifying other people. Henry James is critiquing this kind of inactive life of aesthetic judgment
without moral grounding. For more on the cultural context of aestheticism surrounding the novel,
see Freedman's book in the works cited.
Freedom and Independence
What does it mean to express one's own freedom? How can one go about expressing it? This is
an issue in the novel. Isabel enjoys her independence, and one of our first characterizations of her
is from Mrs. Touchett, who in a telegram describes her as "quite independent." (8) The telegram
represents the difficulty of finding the means for an expression of "freedom": because the
telegram is such a limited means of communication, it is hard for Mr. Touchett and Ralph to
understand what Mrs. Touchett means when she says Isabel is independent. Does she mean
Isabel is financially independent? Spiritually? Unmarried? The telegram then represents how
language limits our ability to express the meaning of freedom, because we are dependent on the
limited nature of signs for expression. To express the concept of freedom, we are dependent
upon a system of convention that other people agree upon: language. Thus, in expressing
freedom -- our independence from the world and others -- we necessarily show our dependence.
This is dramatized in the telegram's lack of clarity, which is an even more restricted method of
communication than language in general. Likewise, Isabel's grand "idea" that she would like to
express throughout the book seems to be the concept of freedom, but she has no means to do so
other than rejecting the opinions and desires of others. So she expresses her freedom by turning
down Caspar Goodwood and Lord Warburton's marriage proposals. Freedom is expressible only
negatively. Ralph believes he is simply providing her with the "means" to better express her
freedom of thought when he gives her half of his inheritance. However, this means of expression,
money, ends up determining the events of the novel, and the content of her idea. The medium is
the message, as Marshall McLuhan says: the way she expresses herself ends up determining
what she has to express.
Morality
This novel deals with the mistreatment of other people. Madame Merle keeps hidden the nature
of her relationship to Osmond from Isabel, and she also calculates such that Isabel will end up
marrying Osmond. She does this for Pansy. There is the suggestion that Madame Merle has
treated Isabel only as a "tool" for an end in the scene where Isabel confronts Merle in the
convent. We can understand this as a Kantian ethical formulation: one should not treat others as
means, but rather only as ends in themselves. That is, we should not use others to achieve
something we would like, but we need to recognize the way they have their own desires in life.
Isabel demonstrates her moral superiority by wanting to aid Pansy in what Pansy herself wants --
not what she personally has determined is "best" for Pansy. This shows a commitment to
allowing people to choose their own path in life rather than determining what they should do in
life.
Psychological Realism

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Another aspect of morality that is important is the recognition of motivation as determining the
moral content of an action. This shows how psychological realism, a representation of what goes
on in the mind of another person, is an important aspect of Henry James' moral vision. For
example, both Ralph Touchett and Madame Merle are agents in Isabel's fate. They both deceive
Isabel by keeping a truth from her knowledge: Ralph Touchett does not tell Isabel that it was his
idea to give her his inheritance, and Madame Merle does not tell Isabel that she knew Gilbert
Osmond intimately. Isabel would not have been a target if Ralph had not given her the money.
Mr. Touchett, Ralph's father, even recognizes that fortune hunters may come after Isabel, and
that Ralph's action may not be moral. However, we recognize Ralph as a good friend, and
Madame Merle as a traitor of Isabel. Ralph only intended to help Isabel express her own idea,
whereas Madame Merle's intention was to trick Isabel into marrying Osmond, a man she knew
would make Isabel miserable. The evaluation of whether a good or a bad intention was the
motivation for an action is important for the novel. In Henry James' world, a person who is very
perceptive is able to attribute various motivations to others, while also seeing these other people
as whole human beings. They are able to perceive the different possibilities of how other people
think, of what other people want, rather than imposing conventional desires upon their readings
of these people. This is what is occurring in Chapter 42, which Henry James believes is his great
achievement of the novel. Isabel sits up and begins to read the people around her: she begins to
wonder what they really want, trying to figure out how their relationships to each other might
provide her with some sort of clue.
Marriage and the Modern Woman
Women were expected to marry at this time, and they were flaunting convention when they did
not. While the concept of romantic love did exist in the late 19th century, it was still more
common to marry for social status and wealth. Isabel, however, chooses not to marry for social
status or wealth. We might assume that she marries instead for romantic love. But if we look
closely at Isabel's psychological motivations, the narrator does not explicitly say that she is in
love with Osmond. Why should one marry? Henry James remained a bachelor his entire life.
Isabel does not exactly choose the path of romantic love either. It seems instead that she has
another idea: she wants to use her marriage to help others, so as to be able to "do" something in
life. Her idea of taking action is still to marry, but it is to marry for reasons other than money,
love, or social status. Henrietta serves as an interesting contrast to Isabel because she is the
depiction of a modern woman who does actually have an occupation. Yet, Henrietta is a limited
character because she often does not care very much for the nuances of other people. She is
somewhat intolerant of other people's views. Isabel on the other hand, is too generous when it
comes to her perspective of others: she has a talent for caring. The implication is that Isabel has
no talent in writing, and that there are no real pathways for women who have other talents during
this time period.
The Bildungsroman and Idealism
Some critics have called this a Bildungsroman (see for example Baruch, works cited). In a
Bildungsroman, a hero undergoes a process of education in society -- he has life experiences
from which he learns how to live in the world, how to realize his goals in the world. This novel is
a more interior exploration of that process of education. We meet Isabel in the library reading a
book of German philosophy. She is likely reading a book of German Idealism, which asserts that
the world is made up of ideas. However, in practice she ends up learning that such ideas are very
much influenced by the world. There is no pure idea that exists separate from our world

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experiences. Her process of education then reveals the gap between the internal nature of ideals
and how they come to be in the external world.

The Portrait of a Lady Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

Portraiture
Often there are moments in the novel when one person looks at another as if he or she were a
"portrait." This is representative of the attempt to read another person as one reads a work of art.
What makes a particular piece of art valuable? Some of us might say it is the value a community
bestows upon that work of art that makes it valuable. Similarly, Isabel Archer, the subject of
"The Portrait of a Lady" is valuable because so many other people think she is an original. Other
people though might say that a work of art is valuable for giving us the illusion of reality: a good
work of art tells us something about society as it really is, and the truth of life. Osmond is the
aesthete who creates an illusion that there is a truth, but this illusion is wholly created from the
obfuscation of the lack of the truth. However, Isabel ultimately comes to know his true nature.
She is the means by which the true emptiness of reality is revealed and, hence, she is like a
good work of art.
Windows
Osmond's house is described as a place with windows that do not communicate with the outside
world. This symbolizes Osmond's own attitude toward society. He is reclusive. Later, Isabel feels
like Osmond is the keeper of a house who likes to look down upon her from high above in his
tower, from a window. This again, demonstrates Osmond's attitude, his worldview, as the desire
to be superior to others.
Architecture
This is a specific kind of art that is built not just for its style, but also for its function. Henry
James often employs architectural metaphors to explore his own aesthetic competence. He wants
his book to be built and constructed for a purpose, not just for the illusion of aesthetics, like
Gilbert Osmond would have it, as he outlines in the preface. Osmond's house is introduced as a
prison, which windows do not communicate with the outside world. Henry James' "house of
fiction" in contrast is supposed to allow each person to have his own individual perspective on a
particular scene.
Objects/Commodities
When one person looks at another, he or she often compares the other person to an object that he
or she knows is valuable. This allegorization of another person, comparing him or her to
something that is inherently unlike it, is an indication of a modern problem. How do our
relationships to objects and commodities end up determining our relationships to other people?
For example, Osmond likes having many collector's items, and is unafraid to use other to obtain
these items.
Gardencourt
Gardencourt, the manor of the Touchetts, has a long, English history. By the opening of the
book, it has passed into the hands of American expatriates. The house is a symbol, then, of the
Old vs. New World motif. It was in a state of decrepitude when it was purchased, implying
that the English people either no longer appreciate the aesthetic, and that the Americans are the
ones who will inherit the rich cultural tradition of the past.

The Portrait of a Lady Metaphors and Similes . Extended Metaphor

35
Ruth Yeazell has written an analysis of how a metaphor in the language of the narrator of James'
fiction ends up actually affecting particular plot points. Typically, we differentiate between the
discourse of a narrator, who talks about characters through his own words, and the discourse of
characters, who could potentially be directly quoted in their thoughts. However, James employs a
technique whereby he takes a metaphor that seems to be the language of the narrator, and then
allows the character to look as if he is thinking through this metaphor. Once the character
employs this metaphor in his thought, the logic of the language of the metaphor affects what he
does, rather than what the metaphor represents itself. So for example, on page 307, Osmond
compares a lady's mind to a reflective surface. We might first think of a mirror as a reflective
surface. However, the narrator goes on to describe how Osmond's understanding of a surface is
like that of a "silver plate." This then ends up making for a place upon which one can put "ripe
fruits," one can give a "decorative value" to such a surface. This allows for us to understand how
Osmond is not just interested in his pure reflection, but also for the use Isabel will have to serve
as a false representative for his own self.
Ships
Ralph compares Isabel to a ship when he says he would like to "put a little wind in her sails" by
giving her some money. Voyages by ship are associated with freedom and novelty, so the
comparison indicates that Ralph would simply like to help her become freer.
Music
When Ralph and Isabel argue about her decision to marry Osmond, Ralph's response strikes
Isabel as a "false note." Music is often used as a metaphor for James in social interactions --
when something is off about a social interaction, one person is found to have struck the wrong
key or note, as if in a musical score. Notably Isabel meets Madame Merle when Merle is playing
piano beautifully. This indicates that Merle hardly ever strikes a false note: she is very good at
making social relationships appear harmonious.
Glass/Reflections
When glasses are presented, it is a simile for the particular point of view that a certain situation
offers, and the uniqueness of a person's vision. So, for example, when Isabel discovers that
Madame Merle is treacherous, and she bumps into her at Pansy's convent, she sees it "as if" she
sees through a large clear glass. It is also used in James' preface to show how each person has
their own particular pair of glasses that offer a unique vision to them. This means they can
attribute their own meanings to certain situations and events because they are original
individuals.
A kiss like white lightning
When Caspar kisses Isabel at the end of the novel, she perceives this kiss to be like white
lightning. This simile refers to the shock and violence of sexual arousal for Isabel, at the same
time the simile disguises the nature of Isabel's sexuality. Similes offer more vivid description in
some sense, at the same time this very vivacity can be used to disguise and aestheticize the
vulgarity of the truth.
Ironic Distance
The narrator can generally see into the minds of the main characters of this novel, telling us what
is going on in their heads. However, at times he ironically restricts his point of view, claiming
that he does not know what goes on in their minds, but that he is only imagining it. This
technique of 'ironic distance', where the narrator claims there is a disparity between what he
reports and what the character experiences, is often used to provide an approximate figuration of
a character's subconscious thoughts.

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Verbal Irony
'Verbal irony' is when someone says something and means something else. So for example, when
Madame Merle declares that she feels like she is the clothes that she wears, that a person is
nothing but his or her accouterments, the signs that he or she gives off, Merle is expressing
herself ironically. She is pretending to be forthright and frank with Isabel, but the meaning of her
words can only be that her words do not express any authentic idea at all.
Dramatic Irony
'Dramatic irony' occurs when a character acts on knowledge or articulates something that the
reader knows to be untrue. So, for example, when Osmond tells Isabel that she ought to honor
her marriage vow to him and not visit Ralph, he tells he forbids the visitation: "Because I think
we should accept the consequences of our actions, and what I value most in life is the honour of
a thing!" This is ironic because the reader knows that Osmond is not an honorable person. The
very fact of his articulating this shows how he is willing to use Isabel's own sense of honor
against her -- how dishonorable he is.
Situational Irony
When a narrative creates certain expectations due to the circumstances in a story, does not fulfill
these expectations, and then shows a resulting situation that is perversely appropriate to the
circumstances instead, this can be said to be situationally ironic. So for example, Isabel's
promise of asserting her freedom and her own idea in life sets up the expectation that she will do
something great and original, something unexpected. However, she ends up fulfilling these
expectations ironically by marrying Osmond -- nobody expected her to marry Osmond, nor did
anyone want her to, and this then has the appearance of being an "original" idea of her own. The
perversity of this is that a marriage to Osmond disallows her from expressing herself as she is.
Settings
It is notable that when James describes a setting, it is actually very difficult to picture the image
he has in mind. So on the first pages of the novel, at Gardencourt, we are given the image of
persons "upon the lawn of an old English country-house" in what the narrator calls "the perfect
middle" of a "splendid summer afternoon." The scene "expresses a sense of leisure." Notice how
relative all of the adjectives are to the speaker -- "perfect" "splendid" and "sense of leisure" do
not actually tell us much about what is physically there, but it leaves more up to the readers
imagination. Whatever qualities we may think are splendid or perfect can be imparted to the
scene, as we so desire.
Abstract Ideas to Describe Images
James often uses abstract ideas to describe the physical qualities of one image. So for example,
Isabel thinks of Gardencourt as: "gratifying a need," with a "sense of well-ordered privacy," "in
the centre of a 'property.'" We do not usually think of "needs" and "privacy" and "property" as
things we can picture in our heads. However, rather than giving us a picture by describing
physical details, James gives us these conceptions.
Windows as Eyes
The windows of houses are often depicted as if they are the "eyes" of a house. This tells us
something about the nature of the house, how communicative and sociable the people inside it
are. For example, Osmond's house is described as having "heavy lids, but no eyes."
Pansy
Descriptions of Pansy offer very vivid imagery as to her weak nature - she is often seen meekly
preparing tea or offering up timid tokens of affection. Even her very name is an image: she is a

37
soft, innocent flower and very weak willed. Osmonds overpowering will easily destroys her
weak nature.
Ruins of the Forum in Rome
When Isabel is on a visit to Rome at the beginning of Chapter 27, she is wandering alone
amongst the ruins of the Forum. Noticeably, the description of what she sees is actually a mirror
image of the landscape of her mind. As she sees some people digging for some ruins of the past,
she seems to almost conjure Lord Warburton -- an element of her past -- out of thin air. In this
way it both foreshadows what will happen and it crystallizes what Isabel seeks to reflect upon in
order to figure out what she will do in life. Whenever James describes a scene, it is more
interesting for him insofar as it offers a chance to reflect on the activity of a person's thoughts,
rather than being a realistic picture of the world.

Heart of Darkness: Imperialism

Heart of Darkness abounds in several themes. It has the theme of self-restraint, of the
working of the subconscious mind, of the exploration, of barbarism and primitivism and the
theme of imperialism. Conrad's handling of white imperialism was influenced by his own visit to
Congo and his rendering of Marlows conscious and sub-conscious thoughts was also based
upon his own reactions to what he himself witnessed in Congo.

The keynote of the theme of imperialism is struck at the very outset of Marlows narration of the
ancient Roman conquest of Britain. Their conquest was robbery with violence and murder on
a large scale. Marlow says that conquest can be excused only if the conquerors perform some
constructive work in the conquered country. The white man certainly has a duty to whom he
subdues and if he fails in this duty, his government of the backward countries cannot be justified.

Power corrupts man and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The white man had failed to perform his functions in Congo. Instead of civilizing the savages,
they became exploiters. The Belgian trading companies sent their agents into the Congo for
trading purposes. The chief commodity which these Belgians found was ivory, useless for the
natives, while the white men collected ivory and sent it to Europe. Ivory dominates the thoughts
of the manger, of the brick-maker, of the several white agents whom Marlow gives the name
of faithless pilgrims. Ivory not only dominates the thoughts of Mr. Kurtz but has become his
obsession. He collects more ivory than all the other agents taken together. Ivory symbolizes the
white mans greed and their commercial mentality. The greater the ivory collected by an agent,
the greater is his achievement and the higher is the promotion which he can expect. Nowhere do
we find any service being rendered by these white men in Congo.

The sights seen by Marlow in Congo are very gloomy, depicting the misery of the natives, and
the futility of the white mans seemingly useful work. He sees a lot of naked black people
moving about like ants.

A lot of people, mostly black and naked, moved about like ants.

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He sees half a dozen men chained to one another and each wearing an iron collar on his neck.
These men are criminals who have violated the laws and are being punished. Marlow feels
deeply upset at this sight.

I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron
collar on his neck,
and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them,
rhythmically clinking.

He sees black figures crouching under the trees, leaning against the trunks, and clinging to the
earth, dying slowly.

'They were dying slowly it was very clear.' They were not enemies, they were not criminals,
they were nothing
earthly now - nothing but blackshadows of diseaseand starvation, lying confusedly in
the greenish gloom.

Here Marlow feels as if he has entered into the gloomy circle of some inferno. It is obvious that
the white mans indifference and his unconcern are responsible for this state of affairs.

Few other sights also indicate the hypocrisy of the white men wasting time and effort. Marlow
sees that a rock is being blasted though it does not stand in the way of the railway line being laid.
He sees some pieces of decaying machinery, a large heap of rusty rails and a boiler lying unused
in the grass. Marlow had seen a warship firing its guns into the forest aimlessly. He found a
touch of insanity in it. This waste of effort and the unused machinery offer a sharp contrast to the
starving natives.

The futility of the white mans actions becomes more evident when we meet certain employers
of the trading Company. The manager of the Central Station could inspire neither respect not
love nor fear but only uneasiness. Marlow found nothing within this man. His mind is full of fear
lest he should be superseded by Mr. Kurtz. The brick-maker is equally satirical and critical. The
brick maker is described as a papier-mch Mephistopheles for his cunning. He makes no
bricks but acts as a spy for the manager. The men, loitering around the Central Station, are idlers.
They only gossip, speak ill of one another and hatch intrigues. Conrad conveys his strong
disapproval and disapprobation of these white men most effectively.

The cannibal crew of Marlows steamer is most efficient, hard working and strong who deserve
encouragement but the way in which they are treated is disgusting. Without this crew the steamer
could not have gone ahead and yet the white bosses do not bother whether or not these men are
properly fed. The cannibal crew themselves are exercising self-restraint and are not attacking the
white men to eat their flesh. Thus the white men are totally unconcerned about the welfare on
whose labour and toil they depend.

Mr. Kurtz, who held that the white man should confer huge benefits upon the backward people,
has done nothing for the uplift of the natives. Rather, he has himself become a savage in their
company.

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Where there is no check on a man, the worst of him may come out.

He failed to exercise any self-restraint, and begun to satisfy his various lusts without any limit.
Even in his prime of life he had written down the following words conveying an opposite
message:

Exterminate all the brutes.

Heart of Darkness conveys to us the deceit, robberies, arson, murder, slave-trading, and
cruelty in the Congo. There is an incident of fire, and there is the long trek during which the
natives have to carry a heavy load on their heads. The chief accountant can afford to dress
perfectly when the natives around are disease-stricken and starving. In this novel, indeed, the
brutal futility of the Belgian imperialist rule is memorably captured in image after image.

Conrad not only exposes the futility and the failing of the Belgian imperialism over the Congo
but also reminds us of British imperialism in various countries of his time. Today white
imperialism has crumbled and most of the counties have become independent. Conrad's
accusation of imperialist rule in Congo had a valuable message for both the exploiters and the
exploited.

In the business of exploration, both exploiter and exploited are corrupted.

Today this message has only a historical interest. The evil imperialist rile has ended, but other
evils have come into existence.
__________________
The Me you have always known, the Me that's a stranger still.

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