Antic Disposition: Hamlet in the Light of Cooperative Principle

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to analyse an extract from Shakespeare’s ‚Hamlet‛ in
terms of Grice’s cooperative principle. The extract is selected from Act II/ii, ll.170-
219, which consists of a conversation between Hamlet and Polonius. Discourse
analysis is the analysis of language in use. A discourse analyst looks at language in
its context and describes it in terms of its purpose and functions in human affairs.
In other words the main focus of a discourse analyst is ‘context, text and function’
(Cutting, 2002:2). The cooperative principle enables the speaker and the listener
to convey and interpret the implications of an apparently metaphorical utterance
(Grice, 1975). Cutting (2002: 34-5) has discussed the four maxims of the
cooperative principle as proposed by Grice (1975), which might be observed or
flouted by participants according to their purpose. By flouting a maxim, the
speaker conveys more than what is said through ‘implicature’. The selected extract
from Hamlet has been analysed using the principles of cooperation and
implicature. Hamlets speech in the selected extract can be treated as an explicit
example of the violation of the four maxims of the cooperative principle. It is
concluded that Hamlet accomplishes his purpose of putting on an ‚antic
disposition‛ by flouting the four maxims of the cooperative principle.