Study Like a Boss
Some works of literature portray childhood and adolescence as times graced by innocence and a sense of wonder. Others portray it as times of tribulation and terror. In J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, childhood seems to be shown more as times of innocence. Childhood is praised by the protagonist Holden Caulfield, as he … Read more
Othello is a man of action. Hamlet is a man of inaction. If Hamlet were placed in Othello’s world and vice versa one could assume that both would function well in those circumstances. Othello is a man of action in a play that demands his hesitation and thought. Hamlet is a philosopher in a situation … Read more
The Dynamics of the relationship between Hamlet, and Horatio. Horatio is the only person in the play that Hamlet trusts. Horatio is one of the two people who know for certain that Hamlet’s madness is an act. Horatio is the only friend/family Hamlet has. Horatio is the only one caring for him, taking care of … Read more
“This above all, to thine own self be true” (1.3.88). As Polonius offers this advice to his departing son Laertes, he also states one of the defining principles of the philosophical branch known collectively as existentialism. A paradigm firmly rooted in the individual experience, existentialism champions responsibility and states that man is nothing but the … Read more
Antithesis is a rhetorical device in which two contrasting words or concepts are juxtaposed within a parallel grammatical structure (literarydevices.com). In this case, the repeated use of this literary convention and the balanced structure it employs is meant to highlight the irony of the fact that Hamlet himself can’t seem to find a healthy balance: … Read more
“Hamlet challenges the conventions of revenge tragedy by deviating from them” (Sydney Bolt, 1985) The typical Elizabethan theatre-goer attending the first production of ‘Hamlet’ in 1604 would have had clear expectations. The conventions of Elizabethan revenge tragedy were already well established, drawn initially from the Senacan model of revenge tragedy, which combined bloody and treacherous … Read more
In Hamlet, the philosophy and ideas of Stoicism make their appearance onstage and shape the themes and dialogue of the play. Stoicism, which praises the superiority of reason and civilization over the more base element of emotion, is the backbone of much of the conflict in Hamlet. Hamlet’s dedication to his Stoic beliefs ends up … Read more
Elizabeth Fowler Drama Essay / Eng 113-700 April 28, 2006 In William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Queen Gertrude’s culpability of King Hamlet’s death has been the subject of much debate. Although her guilt or innocence in this matter is arguable, her culpability of many other deaths is also a subject worth investigating. Queen Gertrude is a woman … Read more
The play, The Tragedy of Hamlet The Prince of Denmark, follows the story of Hamlet after his father’s murder. Hamlet learns that Claudius, his stepfather and uncle, poisoned his brother and his father wants his death to be avenged. Claudius spies on Hamlet after discovering Hamlet has learned the truth of his father’s death by … Read more
Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 1 Scene II is his first of the play and, as a consequence, allows the audience to see his inner thoughts for the first time. The subjects of this soliloquy are numerous: his father’s death, his mother’s response to this death, his mother’s remarriage to his uncle and Hamlet’s own sense … Read more
The Kite Runner is a book written by Khaled Hosseini in the year 2003. The author of the book is an Afghan-American who tells the story of Amir who is a small boy from the district of Kabul. The novel exposes many themes based on the Afghanistan customs and cultural practices. The book has many … Read more
Alone in his childhood home, his father buried and his mother married to another man, Hamlet laments, “O that this too too sullied flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into dew” (1.2.129-30). Hamlet brings up suicide early in Act I and ponders it throughout the play. He not only considers the idea, but intentionally … Read more
Introduction The theme of revenge keeps recurring in William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. Most of the revenge missions that different characters in the play undertake end up in tragedy. Although Hamlet, the main character, contemplates revenging his father’s murder, he considers the tragedy that will result from his actions and therefore, he tries to rescind his … Read more
Trickery and Deception in Hamlet Trickery and deception are two devices that are demonstrated frequently throughout the Hamlet universe. First and foremost, Claudius, King Hamlet’s brother, murders King Hamlet to steal the throne of Denmark. Claudius tricked the entire kingdom, and deceived young Hamlet and his mother. Claudius murders the late King Hamlet by pouring … Read more
The author Izaak Walton noted, “The person that loses their conscience has nothing left worth keeping.” The characters in Hamlet constantly struggle with the power of their consciences, as they are tempted to satiate their innermost desires. Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, is the epitome of the power of conscience in the play. Although at … Read more
In Shakespeare’s text, Hamlet, madness is represented as the inability to act. For instance, Hamlet is unable to act as Claudius takes his rights to the throne though Hamlet is the rightful heir. It seems that any time hamlet acts, he is obligated to do so. Madness in Shakespeare’s text is represented as an obligation … Read more
In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Shakespeare illustrates a nature in Hamlet that Sigmund Freud identified long after the play was made. Right when the association amongst Hamlet and his mom is inspected, Freud’s oedipal complex speculation strikes a note. The oedipal complex is a hypothesis made by Freud which imparts that, “the child takes both … Read more
Hamlet and Macbeth are two of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays. Each share not only fame, however, but format: Both feature main characters with tragic flaws that become their demise. In the cases of Hamlet and Macbeth, this flaw is madness. Whether their insanity is feigned or unfeigned, it plays a key role in their … Read more
Insanity is defined as doing something over and over again and expecting a different outcome. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the young and not fully mature Hamlet might be thought of as insane. However, although he says and does things that are out of the ordinary, he is not doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome. It … Read more
Antithesis is a rhetorical device in which two contrasting words or concepts are juxtaposed within a parallel grammatical structure (literarydevices.com). In this case, the repeated use of this literary convention and the balanced structure it employs is meant to highlight the irony of the fact that Hamlet himself can’t seem to find a healthy balance: … Read more
In his powerful play, “Hamlet,” William Shakespeare utilizes the theme of playacting as a medium through which Hamlet can make political statements, as well as shield himself in supposed madness. Hamlet uses plays to not only inform Claudius that someone knows his secret, but also as a way to maneuver through different situations, so that … Read more
One of the significant conflicts within Renaissance culture was how to rationalize the many instances of violence which took place in a society with such strong Christian values. While some preached from the New Testament of the importance of love and treating others well, many drew on the numerous descriptions of murder and war found … Read more
“Understanding kills action.” With these three simple words, Nietzsche explains the idea behind Shakespeare’s development of the acting of thought as inaction, and also the reason that Hamlet hesitates for over 3000 lines of blank verse and prose to avenge the murder of his father. The motif of delay and inaction as thought can be … Read more
The act of revenge never fails to gather an audience, due to the simple fact that revenge raises one of the great questions in regards to human life: how does one seek justice when the law ceases to function properly? William Shakespeare tapped into the human fascination for the act of revenge, and produced a … Read more
Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 1 Scene II is his first of the play and, as a consequence, allows the audience to see his inner thoughts for the first time. The subjects of this soliloquy are numerous: his father’s death, his mother’s response to this death, his mother’s remarriage to his uncle and Hamlet’s own sense … Read more
In Shakespeare’s play, the protagonist, Hamlet, is faced with the mission of avenging his father. He decides to act mad as part of his plan to kill Claudius and avenge his father. As the plot of the play rises, his madness becomes more and more believable. The readers know that Hamlet is acting mad because … Read more
I. Introduction Past critics have deemed Ophelia an insignificant and marginal character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, functioning only to further define Hamlet. One such critic, Jacques Lacan, interprets Ophelia as a mere object of Hamlet’s sexual desire: she is essential only because she is inextricably linked to Hamlet. Literary criticism denies Ophelia a story and purpose … Read more
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Claudius, brother to the late King Hamlet, secretly messed with the minds of others to get what he wanted when he wanted it. People thought of him as a supporter to people’s problems while he was the one behind all of them along. He will manipulate his wife, Queen Gertrude, who … Read more
Revenge in Hamlet In modern times justice is virtually always served. Most crimes and wrong doings are reprimanded and punishments are given. Yes, there are the scarce few who go above and beyond the law to take matters into their own hands. But it is the co formality of the law and of justice that … Read more
The author Izaak Walton noted, “The person that loses their conscience has nothing left worth keeping.” The characters in Hamlet constantly struggle with the power of their consciences, as they are tempted to satiate their innermost desires. Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, is the epitome of the power of conscience in the play. Although at … Read more
A common interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, based on the widely read Folio edition of the text, is that the titular character is motivated by darkness, exhibiting depression and suicidal tendencies. The young prince often refers to suicide, and his soliloquies contain language that indicates that thoughts of death and suicide heavily impact his mentality. However, … Read more
Throughout his pieces and plays, Shakespeare incorporates themes that define human nature. In his play “Hamlet” he uses the characters to portray desire and flaws with society to teach the audience a lesson that is not always visible on the surface of his works. The lessons not only meant to be a lesson but also … Read more
How many different interpretations can be derived from one source? Due to the ubiquitous distinctions that exist within each person, the result we perceive from an event changes with each individual perception. Out of the various editions of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 version pairs historic visuals to the original script. Equally critically acclaimed … Read more
Hamlet: A Picture of Renaissance Humanism The renaissance was an era of great change in philosophical thought and morality. Before the 15th century, monastic scholasticism had dominated European thinking. Monasticism’s emphasis on a black and white system of morality, which relied on a dogmatic and narrow interpretation of Christian theology, created a system that valued … Read more
The Dynamics of the relationship between Hamlet, and Horatio. Horatio is the only person in the play that Hamlet trusts. Horatio is one of the two people who know for certain that Hamlet’s madness is an act. Horatio is the only friend/family Hamlet has. Horatio is the only one caring for him, taking care of … Read more
Almost every tragedy has a villain, to provide the conflict which catapults the plot into its bitter end. William Shakespeare was a master at providing an audience with a keen insight into the human psyche through the actions and words of his heroes, and even more so, his villains. Perhaps the two most infamous villains … Read more
A statistician would balk at the idea of analyzing women in Hamlet: as there are only two members of the fairer sex in the entire cast, surely any observations drawn are unreliable. However, when approaching Hamlet, it is best to remember that numbers and statistics can never fully explain the motives of people who are … Read more
Though the identity of the “editor” responsible for deleting Hamlet’s final soliloquy from the 1623 Folio edition of Hamlet may be lost to history, the possible reasons for his omission of the Quarto’s fifty-eight lines are as relevant and accessible to the present day as a membership card at Kim’s video rental. The question posed … Read more
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1600-01), regarded by many scholars and critics as his finest play, is based on the story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, which first appeared in the Historia Danica, a Latin text by the twelfth-century historian Saxo Grammaticus. The main protagonist, being Hamlet, the so-called “Dark Prince” of Shakespearean tragedy, is an extremely … Read more
The central conflict in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is between the title character’s high moral standards and his quest for the truth. Arising from this conflict is what many would agree is the quintessential problem of the play: Why does Hamlet delay in avenging his father’s death? There is no doubt that he does in fact delay, … Read more
Beginning with Hamlet’s encounter with his father’s ghost, Shakespeare introduces a line of “action” which his hero then follows throughout the narrative. From missed opportunities to sporadic bursts of movement and progression, Hamlet initially struggles with his stagnancy in change and his reluctance to challenge the present and the secure. Much of his inhibition stems … Read more
In the fourth act of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, many lines are filled with character, plot and theme development. However, more importantly, this act has been sophisticatedly worded to build up the theme of honor, revenge and justice and foreshadows the disastrous end of the play. One line that is of great importance and mainly is of … Read more
Literary techniques evoke images, emotion and in the case of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” teach a lesson. The dominant literary technique ongoing throughout “Hamlet” is the presence of foils. A foil is a character who, through strong contrast and striking similarities, underscores the protagonist’s distinctive characteristics. Hamlet shares many distinct characteristics and situations with both Laertes, son … Read more
Expectation My Great-Aunt Melon gave me a lime green shirt with a bedazzled pickle splashed across the chest for my fifteenth birthday. It also rained. I wasn’t shocked or sad at all. It had rained on my birthday every year for the past fourteen. Mom even said there was a thunderstorm the day I was … Read more
For many decades, plays are themed around family dysfunction to help families in real life deal with their own relationships. According to Laurence Smardan in the journal article, “The Use of Drama In Teaching Family Relationships”, Greek plays were able to educate young people with the use of family drama and tragedy to teach aspects … Read more
Our universe is a diverse place with people of different cultural grounds and personalities. We influence each other in unparalleled measure both constructively and destructively. Despite the various traits among people, we always find a way to co-exist as humans. How we perceive the world directly affects our output and relations amongst us. People do … Read more
Film Comparison Hamlet is suppose to avenge his fathers death but things get in his way and prevent him from doing so, causing more stress to his life. Hamlet’s problems cause him to debate his existence. During the soliloquy, Hamlet is debating to kill himself, but in the end determines people are too cowardly to … Read more
To understand Hamlet’s insecurities, we must understand Ophelia’s point of view. It is she who makes him most uncomfortable over the course of the play, and it is her rejection of him that drives Hamlet closer to insanity. Her reasons for this rejection are as important to Shakespeare’s greatest masterpiece as Hamlet’s own reasons for … Read more
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare the protagonist, Hamlet, is faced with multiple situations where he has to make a moral decision. After Hamlet learns that his father was killed by Claudius, he goes on a quest of revenge. With this situation a lot of lines between good and evil end up being blurred. … Read more
Ophelia’s situation in Shakespeare’s Hamlet not only invokes pity in the reader but also provides an example of the nature of men and women and accentuates Hamlet’s tragic flaws. Shakespeare so beautifully links the female with the liquid, insanity, and frailty through this character that we often fail to realize the underlying message he intended … Read more
