Question

How does dramatic irony strengthen our relationship with Hamlet, while at the same time alienating us from the Elizabethan conventions and customs?

Answer 1

Shakespeare is the most accomplished user of irony, according to the philosopher Kierkegaard. In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses irony as a device to make the reader confront Hamlet´s hesitation in becoming strong enough to follow his destiny, that is, to avenge his father´s death, or fall into madness. Irony is then a resource that Shakespeare presents to make the reader confront one´s own consciousness, allowing one to understand that the mind is not an entity that is structured from the onset (from birth, for example), but rather, it is a construct which, in the end, reveals the conflicting nature of identity and the formation of one´s own self. Finally, this is a marked deviation from Elizabethan conventions and customs, where the reign of Queen Elizabeth was all powerful, and where social stability did not encourage self-doubt, which, most decidedly, could lead to revolts or social unrest.