Hamlet Writing Style
Verse and Prose
Hamlet, like Shakespeare's other plays, is written in a combination of verse (poetry) and prose (how we talk every day). (Note: The play Richard II is the one exception to this rule – it's the only Shakespeare play written entirely in verse.)
Verse
Reading Hamlet often feels like reading a lengthy poem and that's because Shakespeare's characters often speak in verse.
What kind of verse do they speak? Well, the nobles typically speak in unrhymed "iambic pentameter" (also called "blank verse"). Don't let the fancy names intimidate you – it's pretty simple once you get the hang of it. Let's start with a definition of "Iambic Pentameter":
An "iamb" is an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one. "Penta" means "five," and "meter" refers to a regular rhythmic pattern. So "iambic pentameter" is a kind of rhythmic pattern that consist of five iambs per line. It's the most common rhythm in English poetry and sounds like five heartbeats: ba-DUM, ba-DUM, ba-DUM, ba-DUM, ba-DUM.
Let's try it out on these two lines from Hamlet:
o THAT this TOO too SOLid FLESH would MELT
thaw AND reSOLVE itSELF inTO a DEW.
Every second syllable is accented, so this is classic iambic pentameter. Since these lines have no rhyme scheme ("melt" and "dew" don't rhyme), we call it "Unrhymed Iambic Pentameter," which is also known as "Blank Verse."
Blank verse, as we've said, is typically reserved for the nobility and other important characters since it's kind of a formal way to speak. Think, for example, of Claudius's opening speech in Act I, scene ii, where he addresses the court. Hamlet's soliloquies are usually in verse as well but he also speaks a lot of prose. (This has a lot to do with all the role-playing he does, which you can read about in "Art and Culture.")
Prose
Not everyone in the play speaks in blank verse, which we've established is the elegant, high-class way of talking. Characters lower on the social scale – like the gravediggers (which is about as low as we get in Hamlet) don't talk in a special poetic rhythm; they just talk. Hamlet himself, however, sometimes speaks in prose, and even some of his most poetic or most important lines don't fall into that iambic pentameter beat. Take, for instance, the following line: "How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?" (2.2.250). That's high on the Poetry Richter scale yet it's written in prose. It's also worth noting that when Ophelia goes mad, she communicates through prose and songs.
