Speaking Loudly: Critical Stylistic Analysis of Selected Soliloquies in Hamlet

Abbas Lutfi Hussein,Raad Mohammed Hussein

doi:10.32996/ijllt.2021.4.6.21

Abbas Lutfi Hussein, Raad Mohammed Hussein

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.32996/ijllt.2021.4.6.21

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Abstract

Critical Stylistics is concerned with the study of ideology in literary and political texts. It draws on certain criteria from the stylistic analysis. Thus, this paper attempts to apply Jeffries’ (2010) model of critical stylistics to soliloquies of Shakespearean Hamlet. It specifically aims at analyzing the two soliloquies made by the character Hamlet using only three textual-conceptual functions of the model: Representing Actions/ Events/ States; Exemplifying and Enumerating; and Hypothesizing. These functions are adopted here because they somehow represent what the character is saying loudly. The data is analyzed qualitatively to show how the tools are used and then quantitatively to show how many times these same tools are used. This paper concludes that Shakespeare’s language is ideologically loaded and there are discrepancies in the frequency and function of these tools. Besides, the frequency of these tools proves how the ideology is enforced through the language of the text.

Highlights

1 Critical Stylistics, proposed by Jeffries (2010), studies ideology through the way speakers/ writers construct language, through linguistic choices and what other ways are possible to construct the sentence
The model of critical stylistics consists of ten tools that are called “Textual-Conceptual Functions”
This paper aims at analyzing Shakespeare’s soliloquies by applying the critical stylistics model

Summary

Introduction

1 Critical Stylistics, proposed by Jeffries (2010), studies ideology through the way speakers/ writers construct language, through linguistic choices and what other ways are possible to construct the sentence. The model of critical stylistics consists of ten tools that are called “Textual-Conceptual Functions”. These tools are a guideline to show what the text is doing or functioning. That is the reason why they are represented in the present participle tense, as will be seen. This paper aims at analyzing Shakespeare’s soliloquies by applying the critical stylistics model. This study aims to answer the questions; is Shakespeare’s language ideological? How does Shakespeare use language to convey ideology? How are the textual-conceptual functions used to express ideology or affect the reader? This study aims to answer the questions; is Shakespeare’s language ideological? How does Shakespeare use language to convey ideology? How are the textual-conceptual functions used to express ideology or affect the reader?

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