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Moreover, I believe the ghost’s description of Claudius as a serpent adds to this allusion. In addition, I believe that the ghost is using ‘orchard’ to sound elegant (kings such as King Henry IV spoke formally and elegantly in Shakespeare’s plays) and to provoke imagery that alludes to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which bore the forbidden fruit of which Adam and Eve ate. Scripture does refer to where the fall of Adam and Eve occurs as the ‘garden’ of Eden and not an ‘orchard’, but I think Shakespeare’s inclusion of the word ‘ serpent’ supports this passage’s allusion to scripture. According to the OED, an ‘orchard’ is an enclosed garden for herbs and fruit trees (n, 1), and it is essentially another word for ‘garden’ (which is defined with identical terms n, 1a.).
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#Hamlet monologue full
I believe Shakespeare writes Hamlet comparing his life to a garden full of weeds in order to show his state rather than to tell it this technique to ‘show, not tell’ is often encouraged in literature, and it seems Hamlet’s lamentation in act one prepares the reader for Hamlet’s fourth soliloquy about suicide by suggesting he …show more content… Shakespeare uses the word ‘garden’ to introduce the garden and weed motif in Hamlet’s first soliloquy, and in this scene, Shakespeare uses ‘orchard’ instead. He goes on to lament that suicide is against God’s law, then describes his life as “an unweeded garden / that grows to seed things rank and gross in nature / possess it merely” (1.2.135-137). In this passage, Hamlet is talking to himself after the Queen and Claudius ask why he is acting so strangely.
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Show More Hamlet’s first soliloquy is an example of Shakespeare’s motif of garden imagery and a theme of corruption in the play.