Meaning Of The Word Nothing In Shakespeare's Hamlet

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Throughout Hamlet, Shakespeare emphasizes the many meanings a word can contain through his usage of the word “nothing” in various different contexts.
Shakespeare’s uses the word “nothing” with regard to Hamlet and Ophelia to reveal Hamlet’s feelings towards Ophelia, Ophelia’s innocence, and Hamlet’s disdain towards his family. Preceding the “Mousetrap Play”, Hamlet and Ophelia have a brief exchange wherein Hamlet rejects his mother’s company and goes to Ophelia, deliberately to show his affection for her. After a brief exchange of where Hamlet asks her, implying sexual innuendo, “Do you think I meant country matters?” (III, ii. Line 123). Ophelia’s responds saying “I think nothing, my lord.” (III, ii. Line 124). In the early 1600’s, the word …show more content…
After the death of Polonius, the news reaches Ophelia, his daughter. She is distraught and does nothing but mutter to herself, prompting a line from the Gentleman “Her speech is nothing,/Yet the unshaped use of it doth move/The hearers to collection.” (IV, v. Lines 9-11). In this instance the word nothing means “In vain, to no purpose” according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The Gentleman is saying that Ophelia has lost all reason and can essentially no longer function. While in previous instances, “nothing” has held different meanings at different times, later in the scene, Laertes uses the same definition of the word as seen here. He says “This nothing’s more than matter.” (IV, v. Line 198). He to, is referencing her nonsense, however while his is using the same word and meaning, it conotes a different sense. He is defending her, saying that there is substance in her nonsense. The capacity for nuance and wordplay shown by Shakespeare to have the same word, with the same meaning, but to result in a different result is one of the many reasons he is considered one the greatest wordsmiths of all

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