햄릿의 말놀이 연구

Abstract

Kweon O-sookIn Shakespeare's dramas there are a lot of meta-linguistic expressions to reveal his skepticism on language. Most characters of his dramas continually are talking about words and language: the limits of language and the way in which meaning slips away. In Hamlet, through Hamlet's puns, Shakespeare shows us the instability of signs. Hamlet lives in a society where language has been debased and sincere dialogues are impossible. There he uses 'wild and whirling words' to protect himself from Claudius. Hamlet uses language unconventionally and interprets other people's messages arbitrarily ignoring their original meaning. Hamlet's pun has a lot of functions. First of all, it is a linguistic disguise to hide his mind from Claudius' group. And it is a means to disturb the social stability of Claudius' court. And then, it is the expression of his open attitude to view the world affairs: he thinks there is nothing determinate in the world, saying 'there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so'. Lastly, it discloses Hamlet's unconsciousness. Disgust at Gertrude's incestuous marriage to Claudius is expressed in his wordplay, a distorted linguistic form.By using those puns and other forms of wordplay frequently Shakespeare tells us that words, like any other human actions, have multiple meanings. Hamlet's puns which have a kinship with Derridian wordplay and Bakhtinian heteroglossia warn us about the danger of drawing premature conclusions in anything.