The Speech of “The Rugged

Pyrrhus”

Why Choose This Speech? -Hamlet enjoys this speech so much because it reminded

him of the revenge he was trying to seek for his father -Hamlet is testing the First Player's ability to strike emotion

in the soul of an observer and conjure a reaction that is seen as guilt.

-Theme, Theme, Theme! -Shakespeare used this as a way of foreshadowing -When Shakespeare inserted this speech and for this

allusion to be effective, the Elizabethan audience would have known the story of Pyrrhus

-Very Cathartic speech

Going Back in Time

Achilles( Father of Pyrrhus) kills Hector who was the son of Priam

Paris(Son of Priam) goes and kills Achilles because he wanted revenge for the death of his brother, Hector.

Phyrrhus seeks revenge on his Father and brutally kills Priam.

13th -12th Century BC (During the war of the Trojans and Greeks)

To Kill, or Not to Kill…That is the Question

“Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying./And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven./And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned…./To take him in the purging of his soul/When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?/No./Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.”(III.iii.73-88)

Pyrrhus is not troubled by killing Priam, even as Priam begs for his life. Pyrrhus slays Priam violently with no conscience in front of his wife Hecuba

In "Hamlet", young Hamlet's delays and suspended taking revenge for his father's death at the hands of Claudius because he was praying.

BOO!!! I’m a Ghost.

-There were many superstitions in the Elizabethan era and ghost became a huge superstition among Elizabethans.

-Ghost were usually seen as mysterious and spiteful, it was believed that most ghost were on this earth with the intention of luring you to hell.

Hecuba V.S Queen Gertrude

Hecuba plays a big role in the story of Pyrrhus because she is used to exaggerate the difference between how she is so full of grief and sorrow of her husbands death and how the Queen Gertrude who remarried so quickly and shows no emotion or empathy for the death of her first husband.

“In mincing with his sword her husband’s limbs/The instant burst of clamor that she made/(Unless things mortal move them not at all)/Would have made milch the burning eyes of/heaven/And passion in the gods”(II.ii.525-530)

Hamlet V.S Pyrrhus Hamlet Pyrrhus

Hamlet was not brutal, and did have a conscious telling him what he was doing was wrong

-Pyrrhus and Hamlet were both angry about their father’s murder (taking away that father-son relationship)

Pyrrhus is not troubled by killing Priam, even as Priam begs for his life.

-Were both of high status. Hamlet was a Prince and Pyrrhus’s mother was a princess

Let’s Talk Shakespeare 1. What obstacles exist for Hamlet in order

for him to get his revenge against Claudius? Think about: Girlfriend

Mother King

The End

Any Questions?