The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body. The king is a thing.
Thanks!!
2007-02-04 07:48:23 · 8 answers · asked by martinashasha 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Homework Help
The king is dead while his spirit remains to seek out Hamlet. If you had read the book or viewed the movie, you would know that Hamlet was informed by his father, the king, that his brother (the kings brother, not Hamlets) murdered him by pouring poison in his ear while he slept. The king, now dead appears to Hamlet several times to warn him of the treason of his brother. So the king is dead is the same as the body being in the coffin, the king is not with the body is the same as the spirit visiting Hamlet at the castle. The King is the thing is the thing Hamlet sees on the battlement of the castle because Hamlets company ask Hamlet what is there, what does he see?
2007-02-04 07:53:09 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
Hamlet Act 4 Scene 2
2016-11-14 20:43:29 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, as others have noted, Hamlet is commenting he is too much in the spotlight, but it is critical to note that he is making a pun with the words sun and "son": He is expressing his bitterness at his situation: he is the son of the dead king, and Claudious is now his surrogate father by his relationship with Gertrude. In this early scene, we are seeing some of the first of Hamlet's word play, which is symbolic of how he is always seeing the many sides to a situation, which is one of the main reasons he struggle so much with what to do.
2016-05-24 05:10:25 · answer #3 · answered by Kelly 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's a matter of law. "The body is with the king" means that the king, in his own body, can make laws and enforce them; "but the king is not with the body" means that you can't stop paying the king's taxes when the king's body is dead, because the king is not just a body, but "a thing."
2007-02-04 07:51:16 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It means that the king is more than a human body, it is a spirit, a symbol, an icon that represents all that his kingdom embodies. Good enough?
2007-02-04 07:58:48 · answer #5 · answered by deno 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are a number of possible meanings, and Shakespeare loved to have his characters use jokes that implied more than one meaning, or "rich ambiguity": First, for example, it can have a legal-political meaning: King Claudius is physically present with the people (with the body politic), but the body politic is not in agreement with Claudius. Second, it could be commentary on his dead father s ghost and the corpse of Polonius: The (ghost of the) deceased king is with the body (the corpse of Polonius, because he can appear anywhere), but the corpse of Polonius is not with the dead king, because the (body of the) dead king is already in the graveyard, and the ghost of the dead king is in purgatory or hell, where bodies do not go. Third, it could mean the ghost of the dead king is still working on behalf of the people (by trying to bring his murderer to justice), but the subjects of the kingdom are not where the ghost of the king is. Fourth, because there are so many biblical allusions in the play, there are religious meanings: The King, Jesus, is with the body (with the people who belong to his church), but the people, due to sin, are alienated from Christ the king. Or it may have Eucharistic implications, given disputes about Eucharist at the time: Christ the King is present in the Eucharist (the Catholic understanding of transubstantiation, which many leaders of England questioned), but the "body," the Eucharist, has not ascended to heaven where Jesus went after his death; or many of the people no longer believe in transubstantiation, so they are no longer in harmony with Jesus. These are some possibilities for the first part of the quote. // The second part of the quote, in its entirety, is actually, "The king is a thing[...] of nothing." To understand at least one joke implied here, recall that in Shakespeare s time, the joke was that men are equipped with a "thing" between their legs, and women have a "nothing" between their legs, so the title of another Shakespeare play, "Much Ado About Nothing," meant "much ado about" that part of the female anatomy. So when Hamlet says the king is a thing of nothing, he s saying Claudius is a (male anatomy part) that came out of a woman s "nothing." He is also saying (as others have noted) that the king is something inconsequential, that Claudius does not matter and Hamlet does not respect him.
2016-07-03 07:00:32 · answer #6 · answered by Paul 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It means dont fall down in the bath tub
2007-02-04 07:50:20 · answer #7 · answered by BTH L 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
never read it,but i'm assuming he's dead?And though his body may die,his crown,or office,his peoples faith and fealty,will all be passed to his succesor
2007-02-04 07:55:59 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋