How does Shakespeare in his play Hamlet and the selected poets use literary devices to present characters who are facing forces in the world beyond their control?

Shakespeare within his play uses literary devices on characters facing forces such as love, death, fate which are all beyond their control. One main theme bringing the poems ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ by Dylan Thomas, On My First Sonne by Ben Jonson and Hamlet the play by William Shakespeare, is death. Moreover, the poems are based on real life experiences involving lots of emotion.

Ben Jonson:

Acceptance, as shown in the metaphor that relates to lending. The sustained iambic meter further supports this.

Dylan Thomas:

Anger and denial, shown in the interruption of the iambic pentameter with the words “rage, rage”

Rudyard Kipling:

Courage against the inevitability of war (you have an example of the sea). The metre is also iambic without interruption.

William Shakespeare (Hamlet):

Equivocation, “To be or not to be” soliloquy. Metaphor: “Slings and arrows…” Iambic pentameter.

Within the soliloquy in Hamlet the play, act 3 scene 1 Shakespeare uses quotes such as ”To die–to sleep, No more; and by sleep to say  we end”

ESSAY STRUCTURE *(ORDER)

P1. Intro

P2. Explain what the force each author is identifying that is beyond their/their character’s control

P3. Metaphors used by each

P4. Metre used by each

P5. Personification used by each

P6. Additional ideas

P7. Conclusion.