Hamlet is a play that is filled with male characters who express their conflicts to the audience in conversation with their male friends, family, and sometimes in monologue. No female characters exist in the play besides the Queen and Ophelia. The three men that Ophelia is close with are all important to the plot in…
“Hamlet” is a play composed by William Shakespeare between 1599 and 1601 that was first published in 1603. The drama depicts astonishingly realistic periods of true and created insanity ranging from profound sorrow to rage while also dealing with problems such as betrayal, vengeance, incest, and moral decay. Throughout the play, Hamlet philosophizes, speaks to…
Ghost: “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/ Now wears his crown.” (1.5.776-77) The fact that Claudius killed the King by pouring poison into his ear while he was asleep was revealed to Hamlet in the very first Act of the play. The only ones who initially know of this are Hamlet and the…
Character + scene Quote Analysis Horatio 1.1.68 “this bodes some strange eruption to our state” Horatio says this after seeing the ghost Foreshadows unnatural disturbance and corruption to come Hamlet 1.2.76 ‘seems’, madam – nay it is” Reveals his grief His grief and mistrust of others as he feels he’s the only one grieving the…
The “to be or not to be” soliloquy in Act 3 Scene 1 is significant in showing Hamlet’s tragic flaw; his inability to decide and inability to take action. The main purpose of this soliloquy is to establish Hamlet as a characteristically reflective, analytic, and moral character which leads to his tragic fall. In this…
Shakespeare presents Hamlet’s and Gertrude’s relationship as a crucial factor for the plot of the play. Gertrude is vital in fuelling Hamlet’s hatred of women as well as his drive for revenge. Her remarriage also causes Hamlet to sink into melancholy as Bradley states it provided a ‘violent shock to his moral being’. Gertrude’s remarriage…
Hamlet and Ophelia’s relationship is very complicated, and many critics have questioned whether Hamlet genuinely loved Ophelia. Hamlet genuinely loved her before his father’s death, and this is shown by the love letters they have from before. However, after Hamlet’s father’s death, he develops trust issues and resentment especially towards women after his mother’s haste…
Shakespeare presents corruption as the cause of Denmark’s decay. Claudius’ corruption acts as the poison that leads to Denmark’s decay of stability and security. Likewise, Hamlet corrupting his own morals causes his own mental decay as well as the decomposition of the State of Denmark as his insistence of following his revenge is at the…
Q1. Who joins Bernardo, the watchman, on his watch of the castle? Marcellus and Horatio joins Bernardo on his watch of the castle. Q2. What do Marcellus and Bernardo want to show Horatio? They want to show him a ghost. Q3. What proves to Horatio that the ghost is that of the King? It was…
Claudius is undoubtedly considered the main villain in Hamlet, due to the murder of the King. However, Shakespeare has made his character a lot more nuanced. His actions after his initial villainous crime are representations of his ability to manipulate, showing his intelligence rather than his villainy. This argument is supported by a possible interpretation…
The play Hamlet is a Shakespearean tragedy that dates back to the 1600s. It follows young Prince Hamlet as he struggles to cope with the loss of his father, his mother’s hasty remarriage to his uncle, and the truth behind the King’s death: His new stepfather was the one who murdered his father. Shakespeare presents…
Relationship Description Evidence Claudius and Gertrude Gertrude is trusting of Claudius When Hamlet kills Polonius, Gertrude confides in Claudius. Claudius loves Gertrude to an extent Claudius stops Gertrude from drinking the poisoned wine that was meant for Hamlet. Gertrude protects Claudius Gertrude is always defending Claudius. For example, when Claudius is disturbed by Hamlet’s play,…
Scene One The Elsinore castle is a very symbolic setting, introducing dark imagery suggesting that the castle is a virtual prison where death and strife are inescapable and past human control. The cold, gloomy setting further heralds the tragic events to occur later. The North Star or “pole” star’s repeated appearance with the ghost of…
Act one, scene two; Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt…. In this soliloquy, Hamlet starts off by expressing his wish to fade away, or even to kill himself. “Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His…
William Shakespeare explores the fundamental concepts of modern psychology in his plays. In one of his longest plays, Hamlet, he not only utilizes characters and time to portray the beliefs of the late 16th century but to additionally examine basic principles and interactions of humans. The psychoanalytical notion that children have a repressed desire to…
Shakespeare’s plays, Hamlet (1603) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1600), explore the theme of conflict and its repercussions, each play highlighting different aspects of the theme due to differences in genre and subject. Conflict, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is “a serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one”, and would therefore seem to…
Hamlet is the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays for theater audiences and readers. It has been acted live in countries throughout the world and has been translated into every language. Polonius is one of the major characters in Hamlet, his role in the play is of great interest to scholars. Parts of Hamlet present Polonius…
Shakespeare often has his characters speak in soliloquies during the course of his plays. Soliloquies are essential to the presentation of a story through the medium of a play because they provide the opportunity and chance to tell the audience specific pieces of information which cannot be disclosed through normal conversation. In his work, Hamlet,…
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a very clear moral order is established as the protagonist, Hamlet, completes his journey through the phases which define a Shakespearean tragedy. The play begins with Hamlet encountering his father’s ghost, at which point he learns his father had in fact been murdered by his own brother, Claudius. It is Hamlet’s wish…
Though seeming to simply be a minor character, Laertes is of great importance in the play, Hamlet, and much more than one would initially believe, due to his extensive inner conflict. He is good, loyal, and honorable, seeming to possess the greatest virtue of all the characters, yet he still is doomed to die along…