Used Words In Middle English example essay topic

Shakespeare's Hamlet Introduction Hamlet was written around the year 1600 in the final years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who had been the monarch of England for more than forty years and was then in her late sixties. William Shakespeare began writing as a playwright during the 17th and 18th centuries and was considered a pioneer for what is now known as "Middle English", Some of his greatest works were his plays; one in general is the tragedy Hamlet. The play is home to many of Shakespeare's quotable quotes. In Act I, Scene II (129-158), the reader is introduced to Hamlet's first important soliloquy.

Hamlet speaks these lines after enduring the unpleasant scene at the court of Claudius and Gertrude, then being asked by his mother and stepfather not to return to his studies at Wittenberg but to remain in Denmark, presumably against his wishes. Here, Hamlet thinks for the first time about suicide (desiring his flesh to 'melt', and wishing that God had not made 'self-slaughter' a sin), saying that the world is 'weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable. ' In other words, suicide seems like a desirable alternative to life in a painful world, but Hamlet feels that the option of suicide is closed to him because it is forbidden by religion. Hamlet then goes on to describe the causes of his pain, specifically his intense disgust at his mother's marriage to Claudius. He describes the haste of their marriage, noting that the shoes his mother wore to his father's funeral were not worn out before her marriage to Claudius. He compares Claudius to his father (his father was 'so excellent a king' while Claudius is a bestial 'satyr').

As he runs through his description of their marriage, he touches upon the important motifs of misogyny, crying, 'Frailty, thy name is woman'; incest, commenting that his mother moved 'with such dexterity to incestuous sheets'; and the ominous omen the marriage represents for Denmark, that 'it is not nor it cannot come to good. ' Each of these motifs recurs throughout the play. Vocabulary Shakespeare was considered by many to be a pioneer in the field of vocabulary in many cases creating new words in his works. In Hamlet's first soliloquy the majority of the words used are very comprehensible for today's modern reader. Some prime examples of recognizable terminologies include; mother, heaven, earth, unprofitable, appetite, loving, woman, uncle, solid, and flesh. I found myself flummoxed by a select few of the terminologies used.

One of the most used words in Middle English was the word thy. The word was used quiet frequently and as stated by the OED the word had originated from the court of King Alfred who ruled through the Early English period. The word is out of date for today's standards but has evolved into the words that or the. For another example Shakespeare writes, "Frailty, thy name is woman!" According to the OED the word frailty consists of three different definitions, the meaning by which Shakespeare was using was that of "referring to a weakness". The term frailty has become more or less obsolete in today's modern language for upon further investigation in the OED I was able to uncover that the word is related to the more modern tern of "fragile". An additional word I was baffled by was the word galled.

As maintained by the OED the term galled consists of numerous meanings. From Shakespeare's perspective the word implies to having pain or swelling or how it was known throughout the middle ages as "gall". According to the OED some of the last recorded uses of the word occurred late in the 19th century, yet another Shakespearian word that has found itself archaic to today's standards. I was also able to uncover that Shakespeare had used both of the preceding words throughout a variety of his works in his career.

In each case it seemed as if Shakespeare used the words in the same context referring to the same definition. Spelling While the majority of words are spelled similar in reference to the spelling of today's norm, however, particular Middle English spelling principles are quite apparent throughout the soliloquy.