Implicit in Hamlet's scheme is the idea that an immoral world order has established itself, imposing a political and social meaning on the once purely corporeal sense and function of the ears and hearing. Although one must necessarily rely on the ear to know the truth, the ear is also predisposed to misperception. Thus, the previously reliable sensory organ of the ear has become a zone fraught with danger and deception, subverted by the feudal figures of Claudius and Polonius to serve as both literal and metaphorical vehicles for murder and the distortion of truth. In a system full of deception and disguise on all sides, the listener emerges not only as a potential victim but also as a perpetrator of infiltration and dishonesty – in other words, a spy. This subversion can be observed not only in the pervasiveness of the language of auditory assault but also in the construction of both parent-child and ruler-subject relationships, interactions necessarily contingent on inequitable auditory communication. Unaccustomed and still naive to the pragmatically ruthless ways of the court (just returned from his scholastic commitments abroad), the insular and isolated Hamlet positions himself in direct opposition to his society by rejecting the accepted hierarchical modes of hearing promoted in favor of creation of a radically reciprocal means of auditory transmission with his friend Orazio. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The tragic trajectory of the play can be traced to Hamlet's attempt to defeat his political rivals and take revenge in the contextualization of an auditory arena. The royal court is presented as a place that, insofar as silence and speech are problematized, closely resembles the conception of the ear as it is developed throughout Hamlet. Shakespeare's numerous references to ears routinely present them as vessels of violence, characterized by their vulnerability to both verbal and physical assault. The fact that the receptacle for Claudius' use of poison was to be King Hamlet's ear is therefore made significant. It is this visceral image of the literally corrupted ear that is echoed in the many rhetorical descriptions that follow. The broader decay of the Danish state, reflected in the Specter's claim that "the whole ear of Denmark" has become "badly abused" (1.5.38), itself manifests itself on a more localized and individual level, so that assorted ears become responsible victims of all types of attacks. Hypothetical and real ears are variously "take[n] captive" (2.2.401), "cleave[d]" (2.2.484), "moldy" (3.4.65), and metaphorically pierced by "words like daggers" (3.4.96). The inevitable susceptibility of the “porches” of the ear as a sensory organ and the consequent duality of functions that arises from it is one of the major obstacles Hamlet faces in the play (1.5.63). Hamlet's growing awareness of this dichotomy finds resolution (albeit hesitantly) in the adoption and exploitation of the sensory faculty of hearing. As a result, hearing in the work is rendered as more of a political function than an anatomical one, due to the definitions and demarcations of both. family and social relationships through the fundamental act of listening. In Hamlet, Shakespeare delves into the ancient linguistic and conceptual link between hearing and obedience: according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "to hear" means "to perceive or have the sensation of sound", but it means alternatively "to obey" and "to obey". "belong". In the hierarchical structure of the family unit, listening (asvital precursor of obedience) is necessarily an act of submission: the receptive child is the one who submits to parental authority. From the beginning of the play Hamlet seems to rebel against this unfair conception of hearing. He makes no attempt to listen attentively to Claudius, interrupting and even misunderstanding (accidentally or intentionally) the king's speech to him (1.2.64-67). Hamlet's refusal to listen to Claudius in the appropriate manner therefore indicates his complete rejection of Claudius as a surrogate father: instead he shifts his dutiful obedience to his mother into a biting remark: "I will obey you with all my best, lady" ( 1.2 .120). His denial is twofold: by refusing to listen to Claudius, Hamlet shirks his responsibilities as both son and prince and also denies Claudius' power to control speech. In doing so, Hamlet exposes Claudius' weakness and deceit as a ruler even before the full extent of his crime is revealed. Ultimately, Claudio is revealed to be nothing more than a politician who exploits the ears of others, working through the devious methods of poison and persuasion. When the ghost of old King Hamlet appears, Hamlet's recognition and acceptance of the ghost as that of his father and the reaffirmation of the father-son relationship are both appropriately presented in the figurative terms of ear and hearing. The ghost refuses to speak to Horace: only the son must be the listener and recipient of the father's speech and authority. Establishing himself as patriarch, the ghost's control over Hamlet is accomplished through his command over Hamlet's hearing: GHOST: Pity me not, but lend thy earnest hearing / To what I will explain to thee. HAMLET: Speak. I'm obligated to listen. GHOST: So it is you who takes revenge, when you hear (1.5.5-8) Whether or not the ghost is really Hamlet's father is left deliberately ambiguous; this vagueness is complemented and accentuated by the way the Ghost operates, similar to that of Claudius. The ghost's power depends on Hamlet's compulsion to listen and obey, a “commandment” that exploits both the constructive and destructive functions of hearing (1.5.103). By listening, Hamlet will not only fulfill his filial duty ("List, list, oh, list! / If ever I had loved thy dear father") but will also be "bound" to realize and complete the ghost's thirst for revenge (1.5. 21-22). In the ghost's tale, Claudius literally poisons King Hamlet's ear; in telling the story to Hamlet, the ghost metaphorically poisons Hamlet, to the point that Hamlet even begins to feel physical symptoms: "Here, hold, my heart, / And thou, my nerves, grow not instantly old" (1.5.93-94 ). Hamlet's lingering suspicion and distrust of the ghost are implied, though never directly stated. Even after claiming the ghost as his father, Hamlet remains reluctant to obey; his underlying resistance to listening to the ghost manifests itself in the delay of the actual revenge plot and the misdirection of Hamlet's guilt towards his mother, which the ghost explicitly warned against. Unlike Hamlet, who cannot find an adequate father figure to fully acquiesce to, Laertes behaves every bit like a son and a loyal subject, paying attention and asking no questions to both Claudius and his father. Fittingly, his behavior is reflected in his diction, which is as polite and forthright as Hamlet's is discursive and full of puns: towards Claudius, he states his "duty" and praises the "gracious dismissal and pardon" of the king (1.2.53-57 ). Laertes is equally respectful towards his father, paying attention to his every word despite his boring nature andapparently facetious about the advice of the pedantic Polonius. He does not intervene as Hamlet does and only speaks when he is about to leave: “Humbly I take my leave, my lord” (1.3.81). Laertes' acquiescence can be traced back to the speech that precedes him: although Polonius does not immediately appear to the reader as a suitable father figure, a closer examination of his speech reveals that his advice, while not succinct, is sharp and insightful. In his parroting of hackneyed sayings such as "Lend your ear to everyone, but your voice to few." Accept every man's censure, but reserve your judgment," Polonius expresses expert, worldly wisdom; indicates that the way to survive and succeed in society is through being a good, but cautious listener (1.3.67 -69).His words have relevance to the critical issue at hand; it is clear from Hamlet's actions and words that the prince, Laertes' foil, was not the willing recipient of such paternal guidance the diction of both Polonius and Hamlet is an interesting linguistic commonality that juxtaposes two characters who represent completely different worldviews and express antithetical variations on the thematic motif of the ear and hearing in the play's capacity king, Polonius is positioned as Hamlet's main enemy, being the man who listens most diligently to Claudius draws his influence from listening to the king, while Hamlet's power comes directly from the opposite action: it is by rejecting the speech of. Claudius that Hamlet is able to behave more independently. Pushing the boundaries of Hamlet's moralistic sense of hearing (“For God's sake, let me hear!”), Polonius always tries to hear what he shouldn't: “find directions through indirect indications” (1.2.195, 2.1. 63-65). His subversive acts of listening extend beyond the political realm, so much so that Polonius problematically confuses both his parental and courtly roles: not only is he ordered to eavesdrop for Claudius, Polonius also appoints Rinaldo to spy on Laertes and uses his daughter Ophelia as bait for his plans. .Like Claudius' other father figure (and probably the ghost), Polonius exploits the ear's function for his own gain; its fraudulent practices are characterized by hearing manipulation and eavesdropping. There are no people with whom Polonius can relate and interact on an honest level: his distrust of his own offspring and his desire to snoop and "listen" to the private bond between mother and child lead to his fall and ironically appropriate death. , “ in the ear / Of all their lectures” (3.1.183, 3.3.32). Although Polonius proclaims himself "a faithful and honorable man," Hamlet ultimately exposes and condemns him as a "wretched, reckless, foolish intruder" (3.4.31). Hamlet's accidental killing of Polonius is perhaps not so accidental after all; rather, it can be interpreted as more than instrumental to his ultimate goal of revenge. Claudius has poisoned Hamlet's father's ear, and Hamlet has now killed Polonius, Claudius' symbolic one-ear extended avatar ("Behind the tapestry I will take / To hear the trial [...] I will call upon you before you go to read / And I tell you what I know") (3.3.33-34). If Hamlet appears to jeopardize his entire identity by refusing to listen to Claudius, his defiance should not be interpreted as a byproduct of an irrational, adolescent attitude. stubbornness but rather as a reflection of his stubborn intellectual resolve and newfound cognition. Kettle writes in his essay “From Hamlet to Lear” that “Hamlet can no longer base his values ​​and actions on the accepted assumptions of the conventional sixteenth-century prince” (Kettle 147). Hamlet". !”” (5.2.332, 372).