Monday, January 7, 2013

What are some examples of pathetic fallacy in Hamlet?

In Hamlet, much of Act I makes use of
pathetic fallacy in order to instill in the audience a sense of fear, confusion, foreboding, and
the supernatural.


A pathetic fallacy is an attribution of human
emotions to inanimate objects (namely in nature) or an overly-ornate description of nature.  For
example, Francisco says:


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'tis bitter
cold,

And I am sick at
heart.



The soldier is
connecting the weather ("cold") with his fear ("sick at heart").  This use of drawing on the
external weather to describe human emotions is a simple example of pathetic
fallacy.


Here's another, Horatio
says:



I have
heard,

The cock, that is the trumpet to the
morn,

Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding
throat

Awake the god of day; and, at his
warning,

Whether in sea or fire, in earth or
air,

The extravagant and erring spirit
hies

To his confine: and of the truth
herein

This present object made
probation.



First of all,
there is no "trumpet to the morn," "god of day," or "extravagant and erring spirit."  Horatio
here is using poetic language to explain an otherwise common occurence--a rooster's crow--but he
is doing so in order to heighten the sense of mystery surrounding the third appearance of King
Hamlet's Ghost.  So, he is attributing a sense of mystery to the cock's crow to say there is some
spiritual connection between the human world and the natural one.

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