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Hamlet Essay

It can be argued that Hamlet, is one of the greatest tragedy pieces written by William Shakespeare throughout his life. The play provides conflict between a variety of personalities all in the pursuit of power or their own interruption of moral justice. It encompasses the themes of deception, manipulation, and malevolence to create the “perfect storm” of exploitation, chaos, and perhaps insanity.

One of the most puzzling elements though of this play is the personality of the protagonist, Hamlet, son of old king Hamlet and rightful heir to the throne. Although he receives supernatural assurance that Claudius secretly murdered his father, and witnesses with the questionable hasty re-marriage of his mother to his uncle, Hamlet remains incapable to take any physical revenge on the behalf of his father.

His own doubts about the ghost, uncertainties of his own ambitions, and his overanalyzing of the world around him are three of the many dissensions which keep him indecisive thus prolong his revenge and resulting in his ultimate dismay.

During the first act of the play, Hamlet’s friends encounter the spirit of Old King Hamlet roaming about the outer ramparts of the castle. Seeing the spirit as a bad omen they quickly report the appearance to his very distraught son, Hamlet.

The spirit explains to him that he had been murdered by his deceitful younger brother, Claudius and that Hamlet must take revenge on the spirit’s behalf. This incident initiates Hamlet’s investigation into his father’s murder; however, it is his doubt in the cause of this apparition that keeps him indecisive and prevents him from taking his revenge.

First, Hamlet almost immediately questions the authenticity of his father’s spirit after its disappearance. “ The spirit that I have seen maybe the devil and the devil hath the power to assume a pleasing shame; yet, and perhaps out of my weakness and my melancholy, as he is very potent with such spirits, abuses me to damn me.” (II, ii, 596- 601).

Hamlet grows unsure if the ghost’s story holds any authentication as he plunges deeper and deeper into his own melancholy; Hamlet wonders if this is the work of the devil praying on his weak state of mind. This uncertainty prompts Hamlet to test his Uncle Claudius’ conscience because of his own lack of faith in the ghost and himself; which only prolongs this revenge.

Second, because Hamlet is so doubtful about the story told to him by the ghost, he must test his Uncle’s reaction first. “Observe mine uncle, if his acute guilt. Do not itself unkennel in one speech. It is a damned ghost we have seen. And my imagination is on foul as Vulcan’s stithy.” (III, ii, 80- 84 Shakespeare).

This uncertainty in the ghost results in Hamlet prolonging his revenge on Claudius in an attempt to confirm the ghost’s story. This course of action leads to him being called upon by his mother, accidentally murdering Polonius, and then being poisoned by Laertes. Without this additional prerequisite to begin his revenge, Hamlet could have potentially avoided the resulting confrontations and his death.

Third, Hamlet’s trust in the story is only confirmed by seeing his Uncle’s reaction to the play. “O good Horatio, I’ll take the ghost’s word for a thousand pound..” (III, ii, 281- 282). Without Claudius’ reaction to the play Hamlet would probably remain in limbo about his own thoughts and the ghost and may never take revenge.

The play is the confirmation for Hamlet’s revenge scheme and its lengthy process was necessary to convince Hamlet of the ghost’s story; Nevertheless Hamlet’s continual indecisive behavior after the play gave Claudius amply time to plot Hamlet’s murder. However, an even greater conflict within Hamlet to prorogue his revenge and keep him unsure is his own doubts of what he really desires in terms of kingship and life in general.

After the loss of old King Hamlet, the people of Denmark are asked to choose between Hamlet or Claudius to rule in place of their lost king. The people choose Claudius to rule over them, who will be succeeded by a much older and perhaps wiser Hamlet. Knowing Claudius killed the old king, Hamlet understands he is the rightful king of Denmark; however Hamlet is unresolved about his desires for that position and makes him hesitant to take any action.

First, Hamlet confesses to Ophelia of traits that he is reprehensible of, one of which is ambitious. “I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it was better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious…”(III, ii, 132- 135). This personality presented by Hamlet provides a contradiction to his behavior. He wishes to remove Claudius from the thrown however states he would rather not be ambitious, about can be assumed, his right to be king.

At this moment it seems that Hamlet is unwilling to be king, which will keep him indecisive and hinder his revenge. Second, Hamlet does however reveal to Rosencrantz he is “distempered” because he “lacks advancement”. “Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? You do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend……….. Sir, I lack advancement.”

Contrary to what he previously states during his conversation with Ophelia, Hamlet now reveals his desire to “advance”. This change in ambition could be seen as the possibility for his revenge to finally transpire, however, Hamlet may not be referring to his succession as king but his plans for his revenge; consequently not knowing if he desires both delays Hamlet from taking his revenge.

Finally, Hamlet tells Horatio of his desire to be king, and the disappointment of being denied this right. “Does it not, think’st thee, stand me now upon– He that hath kill’d my king and whored my mother, Popp’d in between the election and my hopes, Thrown out his angle for my proper life…” (V, I, 69- 72).

This final explanation by Hamlet reveals that he does have the intention to become king and therefore the expectation can be made that he will take his reveal shortly, which he prompted does in the next scene. However, by the time he finally discovers this truth about his ambitions, it is already too late and his murder has already been planned. Furthermore, all of this could have been avoided if Hamlet did not put so much thought into his revenge and just acted upon his feelings.

Throughout the play, Hamlet is constantly overanalyzing the world around him. Every action that he takes, Hamlet tediously examines all the potential outcomes and reasoning behind it. This overthinking of the world around him is a reason for his indecisiveness and consequently his downfall.

First, Hamlet argues to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about the philosophy of what is “good” and “bad”. “Why, then, ’tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison.” (II, ii, 260- 262). This point made by Hamlet only illustrates how critically he thinks of the world around him.

His insight of the objectiveness of all behavior, made only subjective through perspective displays he is character of deep thought who must analyze a problem from all angles before processing often resulting in him being indecisive on an issue. Second, Hamlet reveals in his soliloquy, his justification of why humans, and himself, fear death and anything related to it.

“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pith and moment with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action” (III, I, 91- 95). This over analyzing of death of what makes Hamlet question his right to kill another human and the fear that all humans have toward death.

This scrutinizing of his own plan, only makes Hamlet doubt himself and prolong his revenge even more. It also illustrates that Hamlet does fear killing another and inaction on his behalf is this awareness of his fear. Finally, Hamlet debates to himself what the reasoning behind his inaction on his father’s behalf.

Now whether it be b*stial oblivion, or some craven scruple of thinking too precisely on th’ event…” (VI, vi, 39- 46). This is a realization on Hamlet’s behalf that the cause of his inaction is indeed his overanalyzing of all his behavior just to establish his own excess thought and deliberations. The examination of so many situations of his life causes Hamlet to yet again prolong his revenge and seem indecisive to the reader.

In conclusion, there were many paths Hamlets could have taken throughout the course of the book, which his own indecisiveness prevented him from doing. Hamlet’s dismay is attributed to the hesitant behavior toward his father’s revenge due to several internal conflicts and personality traits Hamlets posses.

From the beginning of the play, Hamlet is in an indeterminate state about the validity of anything occurring around him. Furthermore, Hamlet’s doubts in the truthfulness of his father’s spirit, doubts of his own ambitions, and over-analyzing of the world around him left Hamlet a very indecisive man which ultimately led him to his own death.

Fatality in Hamlet
Immortality in Hamlet
Hamlet: The Theme of Revenge
Hamlet and His Tragic Flaw

Author: William Anderson (Schoolworkhelper Editorial Team)

Guidelines for Writing A Great Hamlet Analysis Essay

To enhance the independent work of students and the development of public speaking skills, many teachers resort to such a form of knowledge control as an essay. This type of activity can be attributed to small written works. The essay in its volume is significantly inferior to the thesis since it is usually related to a specific subject under study and includes an analysis of a limited number of concepts considered during training.

Writing a literary essay is usually based on an analysis of a literary text. Sometimes it’s difficult for students to complete this assignment, but at any time they can contact professionals, such as WriteMyPaper4Me , and get a stellar paper! However, it is very important to learn to overcome such difficulties and to complete an essay without any help. Below we will give you recommendations for writing a great Hamlet analysis essay.

5 Key Writing Tips

As it is known, Hamlet has long been recognized by society as the great eternal image of world literature. The play “Hamlet” became not only the closest story for the reader, literary and theatrical critics, actors and directors, but acquired the significance of a text-generating work of art. The eternal image of the doubting Hamlet inspired a whole string of writers who, one way or another, used his character traits in their literary works.

In order to conduct a good literary analysis of the protagonist and the novel as a whole, and as a result, write an excellent essay, the author should take into account the following recommendations:

Define the structure of your paper. As a rule, an essay consists of three main structural elements: introduction, main part, and conclusion;
In the introduction a narrator should point the topic, highlight the main issues that need to be considered;
In the main part, it is advisable to represent a system of argumentation based on a deep study of the play. You should put forward new different ideas in a logical sequence, which will enable the reader to trace the direction of your answer. For the convenience of presentation and clarity of the logic of each argument, evidence, and statement, the main content is divided into paragraphs or sections that may have independent subheadings;
The conclusion is the last basic element of an essay. The writer usually represents here a summary of basic ideas;
When checking the work, it is necessary first of all to pay attention to whether the ideas are arranged in a logical order. Usually, each paragraph of the main text should contain no more than one idea in question. In addition, it is important to check each sentence of the work for errors, as a good knowledge of the language should be demonstrated in the essay.

We hope our tips will help you to write a Hamlet analysis essay at the highest level!

Combine all five tips to write the perfect Hamlet analysis essay.

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Hamlet Essays

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Shakespeare's characterization of Gertrude and Ophelia in Hamlet is paradoxical as it challenges as well as complements the contemporary social traditions and norms. Gertrude is the best example of this paradox that is manifested through her extraordinary supremacy over all the major characters of...

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Introduction When discussing “Hamlet”, whether in casual company, stage production or academic study, the conversation can quite literally go in a million different directions. Widely regarded as Shakepeare’s most complex play, Hamlet can in fact be deeply examined and extensively interpreted...

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It is chiefly character that is responsible for the tragic fate of the hero, but a Shakespearean tragedy also arouses a feeling that there is a mysterious power in this universe, whom we may call Fate or Destiny or Providence that operates in the universe and is responsible for the manner in which...

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1. Hamlet, one of William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies possesses an intense environment of uncertainty. This sense of “uncertainty” is governed primarily by the indecision and hesitation demonstrated by the protagonist, Hamlet, the prince of Denmark. He is always in two minds and cannot seem...

William Shakespeare once said that “action is eloquence”. Hamlet finds it easy to make a choice to avenge his father’s death, but is unable to execute this choice. Hamlet’s choices and inconsistencies in carrying them out is what will lead to multiple tragedies and ultimately, his redemption...

The 1996 film version of Hamlet directed and starred in by Kenneth Branagh in the title role is a faithful adaptation of William Shakespeare’s famous play. The exposition of the plot occupies the first few minutes of the story. It begins with the appearance of a ghost to the castle guards. This...

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The first soliloquy of Hamlet occurs (act I, scene ii, lines 129-59) after the King and the Queen have urged Hamlet in the open court to cast off the deep melancholy which, as they think, has taken possession of him as a consequence of his father’s death. In this soliloquy, Hamlet reveals the...

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Introduction Every emotion and feeling of human beings is captured by literary works such as stories, novels and poems. The characters, plot and themes in the stories and novels bring forth the varied emotions experienced by human beings. Two such stories which focus on the feelings and emotions...

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English 30-1 Hamlet Personal Response March 21 2013 Final Draft Interior Monologue My uncle is dead. Along with everyone else I love and the people they care about. My mother Gertrude, Ophelia, Laertes, and their father Polonius. Dead and gone to heaven forever. I finally killed Claudius! He has...

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Essays About Hamlet: Top 5 Examples and 10 Prompts

To write or not to write? To discover interesting topic ideas for your next essay, see below our round-up of helpful essays about Hamlet and writing topic prompts.

The tragedy of Hamlet , Prince of Denmark, is arguably the most famous work of William Shakespeare – or perhaps in the world of literature. A play revolving around love, betrayal, madness, and revenge, Hamlet is a masterpiece that opens with the murder of the King of Denmark. The ghost of the king will go on to appear before his son Hamlet throughout the play, seeking his help for vengeance by killing the new king, Hamlet’s uncle.

Written from 1600 to 1601 with five acts and published in a quarto edition, Hamlet has since been a beloved on the theatrical stages and modern film adaptations, becoming Shakespeare’s longest play and one of the most quoted in many art forms with its “To be or not to be” soliloquy.

Read on to see our essays and prompts about Hamlet.

Top 5 Essay Examples

1. ”review: in a powerful ‘hamlet,’ a fragile prince faces his foes” by maya phillips, 2. “the concept of madness in hamlet by shakespeare” by cansu yağsız, 3. “analyzing the theme of religion in william shakespeare’s ‘hamlet’” by journey holm, 4. “ophelia, gender and madness” by ellaine showalter, 5. “the hamlet effect” by holly crocker, 1. the beginnings of hamlet, 2. was hamlet mad or not, 3. physicians’ diagnosis of hamlet, 4. feminism in the eyes of ophelia, 5. religion in hamlet, 6. oedipal complex in hamlet, 7. imageries in hamlet, 8. shakespeare’s language in hamlet, 9. an analysis of “to be or not to be” , 10. hamlet as a philosophical work.

“Hamlet” is one of the Shakespeare plays that most suffers from diminishing returns — adaptations that try too hard to innovate, to render a classic modern and hip.”

With the many theatrical adaptations of Hamlet, it may be a tall order for production companies to add new flairs to the play while being faithful to Shakespeare’s masterpiece. But Robert Icke, a theater director, stuns an audience with his production’s creative and technical genius, while Alex Lawther, his actor, offers a refreshing, charismatic portrayal of Hamlet.

“The cause of these three characters’ madness are trauma and unrequited love. They also have a spot in common: a devastating loss of someone significant in their lives… In my view, Shakespeare wrote about these characters’ madness almost like a professional about psychology, making the causes and consequences of their madness reasonable.”

Madness is the most apparent theme in Hamlet, affecting the main character, Hamlet, his love interest, Ophelia, and her brother, Laertes. The novel is most reflective of Shakespeare’s attraction to the concept of madness, as he was said to have personally studied its causes, including unrequited love, trauma from losses, and burnout.

“…I will argue that Hamlet’s hesitance to avenge his father’s death comes from something deeper than a meditation on another man’s life, a sort of faith. I will use three scenes in Shakespeare’s Hamlet to establish that the reason for Hamlet’s hesitance is religion and the fear of his own eternal damnation in hellfire.”

The essay builds on a pool of evidence to prove the religiousness of Hamlet. But, mainly, the author underscores that it is Hamlet’s religious reflections, not his alleged mental incapacity, that stifle him from performing his duty to his father and killing his murderer.

“Shakespeare gives us very little information from which to imagine a past for Ophelia… Yet Ophelia is the most represented of Shakespeare’s heroines in painting, literature and popular culture.”

The essay walks readers through the depictions of Ophelia in various stages and periods, particularly her sexuality. But the fascination for this heroine goes beyond the stage. Ophelia’s madness in the play has paved the way for constructive concepts on insanity among young women. She has also inspired many artists of the Pre-Rapahelite period and feminists to reimagine Hamlet through the lens of feminism.

“… [A]s the shame-and-troll cycle of Internet culture spins out of control, lives are ruined. Some of these lives are lesser, we might think, because they are racist, sexist, or just unbelievably stupid. Shakespeare’s Hamlet cautions us against espousing this attitude: it is not that we shouldn’t call out inane or wrong ideas… He errs, however, when he acts as if Polonius’s very life doesn’t matter.”

An English professor rethinks our present moral compass through the so-called “Hamlet Effect,” which pertains to how one loses moral standards when doing something righteous. Indeed, Hamlet’s desire for retribution for his father is justifiable. However, given his focus on his bigger, more heroic goal of revenge, he treats the lives of other characters as having no significance.

10 Writing Prompts For Essays About Hamlet

Essays About Hamlet written by Shakespeare

It is said that Shakespeare’s primary inspiration for Hamlet lies in the pages of François de Belleforest’s Histories Tragique, published in 1570 when Shakespeare was six years old. For your historical essay, determine the similarities between Belleforest’s book and Hamlet. Research other stories that have helped Shakespeare create this masterpiece.

Hamlet is the most fascinating of Shakespeare’s heroes for the complexity of his character, desire, and existential struggle. But is Hamlet sane or insane? That question has been at the center of debates in the literary world. To answer this, pore over Hamlet’s seven soliloquies and find lines that most reveal Hamlet’s conflicting thoughts and feelings.

Physicians have long mused over Hamlet’s characters like real people. They have even turned the cast into subjects of their psychiatric work but have come up with different diagnoses. For this prompt, dig deep into the ever-growing pool of psychoanalysis commentaries on Hamlet. Then, find out how these works affect future adaptations in theaters.

Throughout the play, Ophelia is depicted as submissive, bending to the whims of male characters in the play. In your essay, explain how Ophelia’s character reflects the perception and autonomy of women in the Elizabethan era when the play was created. You can go further by analyzing whether Shakespeare was a misogynist trapping his heroine into such a helpless character or a feminist exposing these realities.

Hamlet was written at a time London was actively practicing Protestantism, so it would be interesting to explore the religious theme in Hamlet to know how Shakespeare perceives the dominant religion in England in his time and Catholicism before the Reformation. First, identify the religions of the characters. Then, describe how their religious beliefs affected their decisions in the scenes.

Father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud proposes that Hamlet is hesitant to kill Claudius due to his Oedipus Complex, which grows with him in his adult years. An Oedipus Complex pertains to a male infant’s repressed desire to take possession of his mother from his father, who is viewed as a rival. First, write your analysis on whether you agree with Freud’s view. Then, gather evidence from passages of the play to agree or argue otherwise.

Hamlet in an “inky cloak” to signify his grief, a Denmark under Claudius linked to corruption and disease — these are just some imageries used in Hamlet. Find other imageries and explain how they achieved their dramatic effect on highlighting the moods of characters and scenes.

During Shakespeare’s time, playwrights are expected to follow the so-called Doctrine of Decorum which recognizes the hierarchy in society. So the gravediggers in Hamlet spoke in prose, as Hamlet does in his mad soliloquies. However, Shakespeare breaks this rule in Hamlet. Find dialogues where Shakespeare allowed Hamlet’s characters to be more distinct and flexible in language.

In the “To be or not to be” soliloquy, Hamlet contemplates suicide. Why do you think these lines continue to be relevant to this day even after centuries since Shakespeare? Answer this in your essay by elaborating on how Hamlet, through these lines, shares the suffering of the “whips and scorns of time” and our innate nature to endure.

In your essay, evaluate the famous philosophies that resound in Hamlet. For example, with the theme of suicide, Hamlet may echo the teachings of Seneca and the movement of Stoicism , who view suicide as freedom from life’s chains. One may also find traces of Albert Camus’s lessons from the Myth of Sisyphus, which tells of a human’s ability to endure.

Interested in learning more? Check out our essay writing tips . If you’re still stuck, check out our general resource of essay writing topics .

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Jeffrey R. Wilson

Essays on hamlet.

Written as the author taught Hamlet every semester for a decade, these lightning essays ask big conceptual questions about the play with the urgency of a Shakespeare lover, and answer them with the rigor of a Shakespeare scholar. In doing so, Hamlet becomes a lens for life today, generating insights on everything from xenophobia, American fraternities, and religious fundamentalism to structural misogyny, suicide contagion, and toxic love.

Prioritizing close reading over historical context, these explorations are highly textual and highly theoretical, often philosophical, ethical, social, and political. Readers see King Hamlet as a pre-modern villain, King Claudius as a modern villain, and Prince Hamlet as a post-modern villain. Hamlet’s feigned madness becomes a window into failed insanity defenses in legal trials. He knows he’s being watched in “To be or not to be”: the soliloquy is a satire of philosophy. Horatio emerges as Shakespeare’s authorial avatar for meta-theatrical commentary, Fortinbras as the hero of the play. Fate becomes a viable concept for modern life, and honor a source of tragedy. The metaphor of music in the play makes Ophelia Hamlet’s instrument. Shakespeare, like the modern corporation, stands against sexism, yet perpetuates it unknowingly. We hear his thoughts on single parenting, sending children off to college, and the working class, plus his advice on acting and writing, and his claims to be the next Homer or Virgil. In the context of four centuries of Hamlet hate, we hear how the text draws audiences in, how it became so famous, and why it continues to captivate audiences.

At a time when the humanities are said to be in crisis, these essays are concrete examples of the mind-altering power of literature and literary studies, unravelling the ongoing implications of the English language’s most significant artistic object of the past millennium.

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Why is Hamlet the most famous English artwork of the past millennium? Is it a sexist text? Why does Hamlet speak in prose? Why must he die? Does Hamlet depict revenge, or justice? How did the death of Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, transform into a story about a son dealing with the death of a father? Did Shakespeare know Aristotle’s theory of tragedy? How did our literary icon, Shakespeare, see his literary icons, Homer and Virgil? Why is there so much comedy in Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy? Why is love a force of evil in the play? Did Shakespeare believe there’s a divinity that shapes our ends? How did he define virtue? What did he think about psychology? politics? philosophy? What was Shakespeare’s image of himself as an author? What can he, arguably the greatest writer of all time, teach us about our own writing? What was his theory of literature? Why do people like Hamlet ? How do the Hamlet haters of today compare to those of yesteryears? Is it dangerous for our children to read a play that’s all about suicide?

These are some of the questions asked in this book, a collection of essays on Shakespeare’s Hamlet stemming from my time teaching the play every semester in my Why Shakespeare? course at Harvard University. During this time, I saw a series of bright young minds from wildly diverse backgrounds find their footing in Hamlet, and it taught me a lot about how Shakespeare’s tragedy works, and why it remains with us in the modern world. Beyond ghosts, revenge, and tragedy, Hamlet is a play about being in college, being in love, gender, misogyny, friendship, theater, philosophy, theology, injustice, loss, comedy, depression, death, self-doubt, mental illness, white privilege, overbearing parents, existential angst, international politics, the classics, the afterlife, and the meaning of it all.

These essays grow from the central paradox of the play: it helps us understand the world we live in, yet we don't really understand the text itself very well. For all the attention given to Hamlet , there’s no consensus on the big questions—how it works, why it grips people so fiercely, what it’s about. These essays pose first-order questions about what happens in Hamlet and why, mobilizing answers for reflections on life, making the essays both highly textual and highly theoretical.

Each semester that I taught the play, I would write a new essay about Hamlet . They were meant to be models for students, the sort of essay that undergrads read and write – more rigorous than the puff pieces in the popular press, but riskier than the scholarship in most academic journals. While I later added scholarly outerwear, these pieces all began just like the essays I was assigning to students – as short close readings with a reader and a text and a desire to determine meaning when faced with a puzzling question or problem.

The turn from text to context in recent scholarly books about Hamlet is quizzical since we still don’t have a strong sense of, to quote the title of John Dover Wilson’s 1935 book, What Happens in Hamlet. Is the ghost real? Is Hamlet mad, or just faking? Why does he delay? These are the kinds of questions students love to ask, but they haven’t been – can’t be – answered by reading the play in the context of its sources (recently addressed in Laurie Johnson’s The Tain of Hamlet [2013]), its multiple texts (analyzed by Paul Menzer in The Hamlets [2008] and Zachary Lesser in Hamlet after Q1 [2015]), the Protestant reformation (the focus of Stephen Greenblatt’s Hamlet in Purgatory [2001] and John E. Curran, Jr.’s Hamlet, Protestantism, and the Mourning of Contingency [2006]), Renaissance humanism (see Rhodri Lewis, Hamlet and the Vision of Darkness [2017]), Elizabethan political theory (see Margreta de Grazia, Hamlet without Hamlet [2007]), the play’s reception history (see David Bevington, Murder Most Foul: Hamlet through the Ages [2011]), its appropriation by modern philosophers (covered in Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster’s The Hamlet Doctrine [2013] and Andrew Cutrofello’s All for Nothing: Hamlet’s Negativity [2014]), or its recent global travels (addressed, for example, in Margaret Latvian’s Hamlet’s Arab Journey [2011] and Dominic Dromgoole’s Hamlet Globe to Globe [2017]).

Considering the context and afterlives of Hamlet is a worthy pursuit. I certainly consulted the above books for my essays, yet the confidence that comes from introducing context obscures the sharp panic we feel when confronting Shakespeare’s text itself. Even as the excellent recent book from Sonya Freeman Loftis, Allison Kellar, and Lisa Ulevich announces Hamlet has entered “an age of textual exhaustion,” there’s an odd tendency to avoid the text of Hamlet —to grasp for something more firm—when writing about it. There is a need to return to the text in a more immediate way to understand how Hamlet operates as a literary work, and how it can help us understand the world in which we live.

That latter goal, yes, clings nostalgically to the notion that literature can help us understand life. Questions about life send us to literature in search of answers. Those of us who love literature learn to ask and answer questions about it as we become professional literary scholars. But often our answers to the questions scholars ask of literature do not connect back up with the questions about life that sent us to literature in the first place—which are often philosophical, ethical, social, and political. Those first-order questions are diluted and avoided in the minutia of much scholarship, left unanswered. Thus, my goal was to pose questions about Hamlet with the urgency of a Shakespeare lover and to answer them with the rigor of a Shakespeare scholar.

In doing so, these essays challenge the conventional relationship between literature and theory. They pursue a kind of criticism where literature is not merely the recipient of philosophical ideas in the service of exegesis. Instead, the creative risks of literature provide exemplars to be theorized outward to help us understand on-going issues in life today. Beyond an occasion for the demonstration of existing theory, literature is a source for the creation of new theory.

Chapter One How Hamlet Works

Whether you love or hate Hamlet , you can acknowledge its massive popularity. So how does Hamlet work? How does it create audience enjoyment? Why is it so appealing, and to whom? Of all the available options, why Hamlet ? This chapter entertains three possible explanations for why the play is so popular in the modern world: the literary answer (as the English language’s best artwork about death—one of the very few universal human experiences in a modern world increasingly marked by cultural differences— Hamlet is timeless); the theatrical answer (with its mixture of tragedy and comedy, the role of Hamlet requires the best actor of each age, and the play’s popularity derives from the celebrity of its stars); and the philosophical answer (the play invites, encourages, facilitates, and sustains philosophical introspection and conversation from people who do not usually do such things, who find themselves doing those things with Hamlet , who sometimes feel embarrassed about doing those things, but who ultimately find the experience of having done them rewarding).

Chapter Two “It Started Like a Guilty Thing”: The Beginning of Hamlet and the Beginning of Modern Politics

King Hamlet is a tyrant and King Claudius a traitor but, because Shakespeare asked us to experience the events in Hamlet from the perspective of the young Prince Hamlet, we are much more inclined to detect and detest King Claudius’s political failings than King Hamlet’s. If so, then Shakespeare’s play Hamlet , so often seen as the birth of modern psychology, might also tell us a little bit about the beginnings of modern politics as well.

Chapter Three Horatio as Author: Storytelling and Stoic Tragedy

This chapter addresses Horatio’s emotionlessness in light of his role as a narrator, using this discussion to think about Shakespeare’s motives for writing tragedy in the wake of his son’s death. By rationalizing pain and suffering as tragedy, both Horatio and Shakespeare were able to avoid the self-destruction entailed in Hamlet’s emotional response to life’s hardships and injustices. Thus, the stoic Horatio, rather than the passionate Hamlet who repeatedly interrupts ‘The Mousetrap’, is the best authorial avatar for a Shakespeare who strategically wrote himself and his own voice out of his works. This argument then expands into a theory of ‘authorial catharsis’ and the suggestion that we can conceive of Shakespeare as a ‘poet of reason’ in contrast to a ‘poet of emotion’.

Chapter Four “To thine own self be true”: What Shakespeare Says about Sending Our Children Off to College

What does “To thine own self be true” actually mean? Be yourself? Don’t change who you are? Follow your own convictions? Don’t lie to yourself? This chapter argues that, if we understand meaning as intent, then “To thine own self be true” means, paradoxically, that “the self” does not exist. Or, more accurately, Shakespeare’s Hamlet implies that “the self” exists only as a rhetorical, philosophical, and psychological construct that we use to make sense of our experiences and actions in the world, not as anything real. If this is so, then this passage may offer us a way of thinking about Shakespeare as not just a playwright but also a moral philosopher, one who did his ethics in drama.

Chapter Five In Defense of Polonius

Your wife dies. You raise two children by yourself. You build a great career to provide for your family. You send your son off to college in another country, though you know he’s not ready. Now the prince wants to marry your daughter—that’s not easy to navigate. Then—get this—while you’re trying to save the queen’s life, the prince murders you. Your death destroys your kids. They die tragically. And what do you get for your efforts? Centuries of Shakespeare scholars dumping on you. If we see Polonius not through the eyes of his enemy, Prince Hamlet—the point of view Shakespeare’s play asks audiences to adopt—but in analogy to the common challenges of twenty-first-century parenting, Polonius is a single father struggling with work-life balance who sadly choses his career over his daughter’s well-being.

Chapter Six Sigma Alpha Elsinore: The Culture of Drunkenness in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Claudius likes to party—a bit too much. He frequently binge drinks, is arguably an alcoholic, but not an aberration. Hamlet says Denmark is internationally known for heavy drinking. That’s what Shakespeare would have heard in the sixteenth century. By the seventeenth, English writers feared Denmark had taught their nation its drinking habits. Synthesizing criticism on alcoholism as an individual problem in Shakespeare’s texts and times with scholarship on national drinking habits in the early-modern age, this essay asks what the tragedy of alcoholism looks like when located not on the level of the individual, but on the level of a culture, as Shakespeare depicted in Hamlet. One window into these early-modern cultures of drunkenness is sociological studies of American college fraternities, especially the social-learning theories that explain how one person—one culture—teaches another its habits. For Claudius’s alcoholism is both culturally learned and culturally significant. And, as in fraternities, alcoholism in Hamlet is bound up with wealth, privilege, toxic masculinity, and tragedy. Thus, alcohol imagistically reappears in the vial of “cursed hebona,” Ophelia’s liquid death, and the poisoned cup in the final scene—moments that stand out in recent performances and adaptations with alcoholic Claudiuses and Gertrudes.

Chapter Seven Tragic Foundationalism

This chapter puts the modern philosopher Alain Badiou’s theory of foundationalism into dialogue with the early-modern playwright William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet . Doing so allows us to identify a new candidate for Hamlet’s traditionally hard-to-define hamartia – i.e., his “tragic mistake” – but it also allows us to consider the possibility of foundationalism as hamartia. Tragic foundationalism is the notion that fidelity to a single and substantive truth at the expense of an openness to evidence, reason, and change is an acute mistake which can lead to miscalculations of fact and virtue that create conflict and can end up in catastrophic destruction and the downfall of otherwise strong and noble people.

Chapter Eight “As a stranger give it welcome”: Shakespeare’s Advice for First-Year College Students

Encountering a new idea can be like meeting a strange person for the first time. Similarly, we dismiss new ideas before we get to know them. There is an answer to the problem of the human antipathy to strangeness in a somewhat strange place: a single line usually overlooked in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet . If the ghost is “wondrous strange,” Hamlet says, invoking the ancient ethics of hospitality, “Therefore as a stranger give it welcome.” In this word, strange, and the social conventions attached to it, is both the instinctual, animalistic fear and aggression toward what is new and different (the problem) and a cultivated, humane response in hospitality and curiosity (the solution). Intellectual xenia is the answer to intellectual xenophobia.

Chapter Nine Parallels in Hamlet

Hamlet is more parallely than other texts. Fortinbras, Hamlet, and Laertes have their fathers murdered, then seek revenge. Brothers King Hamlet and King Claudius mirror brothers Old Norway and Old Fortinbras. Hamlet and Ophelia both lose their fathers, go mad, but there’s a method in their madness, and become suicidal. King Hamlet and Polonius are both domineering fathers. Hamlet and Polonius are both scholars, actors, verbose, pedantic, detectives using indirection, spying upon others, “by indirections find directions out." King Hamlet and King Claudius are both kings who are killed. Claudius using Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet mirrors Polonius using Reynaldo to spy on Laertes. Reynaldo and Hamlet both pretend to be something other than what they are in order to spy on and detect foes. Young Fortinbras and Prince Hamlet both have their forward momentum “arrest[ed].” Pyrrhus and Hamlet are son seeking revenge but paused a “neutral to his will.” The main plot of Hamlet reappears in the play-within-the-play. The Act I duel between King Hamlet and Old Fortinbras echoes in the Act V duel between Hamlet and Laertes. Claudius and Hamlet are both king killers. Sheesh—why are there so many dang parallels in Hamlet ? Is there some detectable reason why the story of Hamlet would call for the literary device of parallelism?

Chapter Ten Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: Why Hamlet Has Two Childhood Friends, Not Just One

Why have two of Hamlet’s childhood friends rather than just one? Do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have individuated personalities? First of all, by increasing the number of friends who visit Hamlet, Shakespeare creates an atmosphere of being outnumbered, of multiple enemies encroaching upon Hamlet, of Hamlet feeling that the world is against him. Second, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are not interchangeable, as commonly thought. Shakespeare gave each an individuated personality. Guildenstern is friendlier with Hamlet, and their friendship collapses, while Rosencrantz is more distant and devious—a frenemy.

Chapter Eleven Shakespeare on the Classics, Shakespeare as a Classic: A Reading of Aeneas’s Tale to Dido

Of all the stories Shakespeare might have chosen, why have Hamlet ask the players to recite Aeneas’ tale to Dido of Pyrrhus’s slaughter of Priam? In this story, which comes not from Homer’s Iliad but from Virgil’s Aeneid and had already been adapted for the Elizabethan stage in Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragedy of Dido, Pyrrhus – more commonly known as Neoptolemus, the son of the famous Greek warrior Achilles – savagely slays Priam, the king of the Trojans and the father of Paris, who killed Pyrrhus’s father, Achilles, who killed Paris’s brother, Hector, who killed Achilles’s comrade, Patroclus. Clearly, the theme of revenge at work in this story would have appealed to Shakespeare as he was writing what would become the greatest revenge tragedy of all time. Moreover, Aeneas’s tale to Dido supplied Shakespeare with all of the connections he sought to make at this crucial point in his play and his career – connections between himself and Marlowe, between the start of Hamlet and the end, between Prince Hamlet and King Claudius, between epic poetry and tragic drama, and between the classical literature Shakespeare was still reading hundreds of years later and his own potential as a classic who might (and would) be read hundreds of years into the future.

Chapter Twelve How Theater Works, according to Hamlet

According to Hamlet, people who are guilty of a crime will, when seeing that crime represented on stage, “proclaim [their] malefactions”—but that simply isn’t how theater works. Guilty people sit though shows that depict their crimes all the time without being prompted to public confession. Why did Shakespeare—a remarkably observant student of theater—write this demonstrably false theory of drama into his protagonist? And why did Shakespeare then write the plot of the play to affirm that obviously inaccurate vision of theater? For Claudius is indeed stirred to confession by the play-within-the-play. Perhaps Hamlet’s theory of people proclaiming malefactions upon seeing their crimes represented onstage is not as outlandish as it first appears. Perhaps four centuries of obsession with Hamlet is the English-speaking world proclaiming its malefactions upon seeing them represented dramatically.

Chapter Thirteen “To be, or not to be”: Shakespeare Against Philosophy

This chapter hazards a new reading of the most famous passage in Western literature: “To be, or not to be” from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet . With this line, Hamlet poses his personal struggle, a question of life and death, as a metaphysical problem, as a question of existence and nothingness. However, “To be, or not to be” is not what it seems to be. It seems to be a representation of tragic angst, yet a consideration of the context of the speech reveals that “To be, or not to be” is actually a satire of philosophy and Shakespeare’s representation of the theatricality of everyday life. In this chapter, a close reading of the context and meaning of this passage leads into an attempt to formulate a Shakespearean image of philosophy.

Chapter Fourteen Contagious Suicide in and Around Hamlet

As in society today, suicide is contagious in Hamlet , at least in the example of Ophelia, the only death by suicide in the play, because she only becomes suicidal after hearing Hamlet talk about his own suicidal thoughts in “To be, or not to be.” Just as there are media guidelines for reporting on suicide, there are better and worse ways of handling Hamlet . Careful suicide coverage can change public misperceptions and reduce suicide contagion. Is the same true for careful literary criticism and classroom discussion of suicide texts? How can teachers and literary critics reduce suicide contagion and increase help-seeking behavior?

Chapter Fifteen Is Hamlet a Sexist Text? Overt Misogyny vs. Unconscious Bias

Students and fans of Shakespeare’s Hamlet persistently ask a question scholars and critics of the play have not yet definitively answered: is it a sexist text? The author of this text has been described as everything from a male chauvinist pig to a trailblazing proto-feminist, but recent work on the science behind discrimination and prejudice offers a new, better vocabulary in the notion of unconscious bias. More pervasive and slippery than explicit bigotry, unconscious bias involves the subtle, often unintentional words and actions which indicate the presence of biases we may not be aware of, ones we may even fight against. The Shakespeare who wrote Hamlet exhibited an unconscious bias against women, I argue, even as he sought to critique the mistreatment of women in a patriarchal society. The evidence for this unconscious bias is not to be found in the misogynistic statements made by the characters in the play. It exists, instead, in the demonstrable preference Shakespeare showed for men over women when deciding where to deploy his literary talents. Thus, Shakespeare's Hamlet is a powerful literary example – one which speaks to, say, the modern corporation – showing that deliberate efforts for egalitarianism do not insulate one from the effects of structural inequalities that both stem from and create unconscious bias.

Chapter Sixteen Style and Purpose in Acting and Writing

Purpose and style are connected in academic writing. To answer the question of style ( How should we write academic papers? ) we must first answer the question of purpose ( Why do we write academic papers? ). We can answer these questions, I suggest, by turning to an unexpected style guide that’s more than 400 years old: the famous passage on “the purpose of playing” in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet . In both acting and writing, a high style often accompanies an expressive purpose attempting to impress an elite audience yet actually alienating intellectual people, while a low style and mimetic purpose effectively engage an intellectual audience.

Chapter Seventeen 13 Ways of Looking at a Ghost

Why doesn’t Gertrude see the Ghost of King Hamlet in Act III, even though Horatio, Bernardo, Francisco, Marcellus, and Prince Hamlet all saw it in Act I? It’s a bit embarrassing that Shakespeare scholars don’t have a widely agreed-upon consensus that explains this really basic question that puzzles a lot of people who read or see Hamlet .

Chapter Eighteen The Tragedy of Love in Hamlet

The word “love” appears 84 times in Shakespeare’s Hamlet . “Father” only appears 73 times, “play” 60, “think” 55, “mother” 46, “mad” 44, “soul” 40, “God" 39, “death” 38, “life” 34, “nothing” 28, “son” 26, “honor” 21, “spirit” 19, “kill” 18, “revenge” 14, and “action” 12. Love isn’t the first theme that comes to mind when we think of Hamlet , but is surprisingly prominent. But love is tragic in Hamlet . The bloody catastrophe at the end of that play is principally driven not by hatred or a longing for revenge, but by love.

Chapter Nineteen Ophelia’s Songs: Moral Agency, Manipulation, and the Metaphor of Music in Hamlet

This chapter reads Ophelia’s songs in Act IV of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the context of the meaning of music established elsewhere in the play. While the songs are usually seen as a marker of Ophelia’s madness (as a result of the death of her father) or freedom (from the constraints of patriarchy), they come – when read in light of the metaphor of music as manipulation – to symbolize her role as a pawn in Hamlet’s efforts to deceive his family. Thus, music was Shakespeare’s platform for connecting Ophelia’s story to one of the central questions in Hamlet : Do we have control over our own actions (like the musician), or are we controlled by others (like the instrument)?

Chapter Twenty A Quantitative Study of Prose and Verse in Hamlet

Why does Hamlet have so much prose? Did Shakespeare deliberately shift from verse to prose to signal something to his audiences? How would actors have handled the shifts from verse to prose? Would audiences have detected shifts from verse to prose? Is there an overarching principle that governs Shakespeare’s decision to use prose—a coherent principle that says, “If X, then use prose?”

Chapter Twenty-One The Fortunes of Fate in Hamlet : Divine Providence and Social Determinism

In Hamlet , fate is attacked from both sides: “fortune” presents a world of random happenstance, “will” a theory of efficacious human action. On this backdrop, this essay considers—irrespective of what the characters say and believe—what the structure and imagery Shakespeare wrote into Hamlet say about the possibility that some version of fate is at work in the play. I contend the world of Hamlet is governed by neither fate nor fortune, nor even the Christianized version of fate called “providence.” Yet there is a modern, secular, disenchanted form of fate at work in Hamlet—what is sometimes called “social determinism”—which calls into question the freedom of the individual will. As such, Shakespeare’s Hamlet both commented on the transformation of pagan fate into Christian providence that happened in the centuries leading up to the play, and anticipated the further transformation of fate from a theological to a sociological idea, which occurred in the centuries following Hamlet .

Chapter Twenty-Two The Working Class in Hamlet

There’s a lot for working-class folks to hate about Hamlet —not just because it’s old, dusty, difficult to understand, crammed down our throats in school, and filled with frills, tights, and those weird lace neck thingies that are just socially awkward to think about. Peak Renaissance weirdness. Claustrophobicly cloistered inside the castle of Elsinore, quaintly angsty over royal family problems, Hamlet feels like the literary epitome of elitism. “Lawless resolutes” is how the Wittenberg scholar Horatio describes the soldiers who join Fortinbras’s army in exchange “for food.” The Prince Hamlet who has never worked a day in his life denigrates Polonius as a “fishmonger”: quite the insult for a royal advisor to be called a working man. And King Claudius complains of the simplicity of "the distracted multitude.” But, in Hamlet , Shakespeare juxtaposed the nobles’ denigrations of the working class as readily available metaphors for all-things-awful with the rather valuable behavior of working-class characters themselves. When allowed to represent themselves, the working class in Hamlet are characterized as makers of things—of material goods and services like ships, graves, and plays, but also of ethical and political virtues like security, education, justice, and democracy. Meanwhile, Elsinore has a bad case of affluenza, the make-believe disease invented by an American lawyer who argued that his client's social privilege was so great that it created an obliviousness to law. While social elites rot society through the twin corrosives of political corruption and scholarly detachment, the working class keeps the machine running. They build the ships, plays, and graves society needs to function, and monitor the nuts-and-bolts of the ideals—like education and justice—that we aspire to uphold.

Chapter Twenty-Three The Honor Code at Harvard and in Hamlet

Students at Harvard College are asked, when they first join the school and several times during their years there, to affirm their awareness of and commitment to the school’s honor code. But instead of “the foundation of our community” that it is at Harvard, honor is tragic in Hamlet —a source of anxiety, blunder, and catastrophe. As this chapter shows, looking at Hamlet from our place at Harvard can bring us to see what a tangled knot honor can be, and we can start to theorize the difference between heroic and tragic honor.

Chapter Twenty-Four The Meaning of Death in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

By connecting the ways characters live their lives in Hamlet to the ways they die – on-stage or off, poisoned or stabbed, etc. – Shakespeare symbolized hamartia in catastrophe. In advancing this argument, this chapter develops two supporting ideas. First, the dissemination of tragic necessity: Shakespeare distributed the Aristotelian notion of tragic necessity – a causal relationship between a character’s hamartia (fault or error) and the catastrophe at the end of the play – from the protagonist to the other characters, such that, in Hamlet , those who are guilty must die, and those who die are guilty. Second, the spectacularity of death: there exists in Hamlet a positive correlation between the severity of a character’s hamartia (error or flaw) and the “spectacularity” of his or her death – that is, the extent to which it is presented as a visible and visceral spectacle on-stage.

Chapter Twenty-Five Tragic Excess in Hamlet

In Hamlet , Shakespeare paralleled the situations of Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras (the father of each is killed, and each then seeks revenge) to promote the virtue of moderation: Hamlet moves too slowly, Laertes too swiftly – and they both die at the end of the play – but Fortinbras represents a golden mean which marries the slowness of Hamlet with the swiftness of Laertes. As argued in this essay, Shakespeare endorsed the virtue of balance by allowing Fortinbras to be one of the very few survivors of the play. In other words, excess is tragic in Hamlet .

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Read our detailed notes below on the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Our notes cover Hamlet summary, themes, characters and analysis.

Introduction

Hamlet is a tragic play written by William Shakespeare somewhat in 1599. The exact date of publication is unknown, however, many believe that it was published between 1601 and 1603. The play is set in Denmark.

Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, is Shakespeare’s longest play and is well-thought-out as the most influential literary work of literature. The play stages the revenge that Hamlet is to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius, for killing his (Hamlet’s) father.

The story of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is supposed to be derived from the fable of Amleth, written in the 13th century and reiterated in the 16th century by a scholar named Francois de Belleforest. We can assume the popularity of the play by this that throughout centuries, the role of Hamlet is staged by the highly skillful artist.

Hamlet has different version published at different ages. Each version is different from others as it includes lines or excludes them making them entirely different from other. The main characters of the play are Hamlet, the protagonist; Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle; Queen Gertrude; Polonius; Ophelia; Laertes. The major themes of the play include fate, free will, revenge, political instability, mortality, and madness. Yorick’s skull is the major symbol used by the writer to introduce artistic effect in the play.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare Summary

The play opens with Prince Hamlet being summoned to Denmark from Germany for his father’s funeral. When he reaches there, he finds that his mother Queen Gertrude has already remarried to his fraternal uncle, Claudius. For Hamlet, this marriage was a big shock and considered it “foul incest”. Even worse than this, Claudius has crowned himself disregard of the fact that being King’s son, this crown belongs to Hamlet. Hamlet doubts the whole scenario as foul play.

All of Hamlet’s doubts and suspicions are confirmed when his father’s ghost visits the Castle and complains that because he is murdered, he is unable to rest in peace. Moreover, the ghost claims that Claudius had poured poison in the ear of King Hamlet when he was sleeping causing his death. The king’s ghost, impotent to confess and find redemption, is now condemned to pass his days in despair and walk on earth at night. He persuades and begs his son Hamlet to take revenge from Claudius, however, he asks to spare Gertrude and let her fate decided by heaven.

Hamlet pledges to avenge his father’s death and wears a mask of madness so that he would be able to observe the interactions among people in the castle. However, by doing so, Hamlet finds himself somewhat very confused and questions the trustworthiness of the ghost. What if the ghost is a devil’s agent directed to allure him? What if by killing Claudius consequences Hamlet to revive his memory throughout for life? Hamlet cannot stop himself from over-thinking and worries over his thought and perceive them as his cowardice. Words restrict action, however, the world in which he lives pay back every action.

To test the sincerity of the Ghost. Hamlet takes help from the troupe of actors who staged a play named The Murder of Gonzago. Hamlet added few scenes to play that resembles the murder of the King Hamlet as described by the ghost. Hamlet named this revised play as “The Mousetrap”. The play is proved successful as the Claudius reacted to the play and seems to be conscience-stricken, as hoped by Prince Hamlet. Claudius immediately leaves the place as he faces difficulty to breathe. Prince Hamlet, being convinced by the sincerity of the ghost, vows to avenge his father’s death and decided to kill Claudius. But “conscience doth make cowards of us all”, as observed by Hamlet.

Hamlet, by his unwillingness to avenge Claudius, causes six subsidiary deaths. The first victim is Polonius, an old man, who is stabbed by Hamlet through a wall hanging as Polonius spies on hamlet and his mother. Claudius banishes Hamlet to England to punish him for Polonius’ death and instructs Hamlet’s school chums, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to handover him to English king for execution. Hamlet, during the journey, discovers what is going on and arranges a plot for the execution of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Ophelia, highly upset on her father’s death and Hamlet’s behavior, drown herself while singing a song and lamenting over the fate of a despised lover. Laertes, her brother, follows next.

When Laertes returned to Denmark to kill Claudius to avenge his father’s death, sees that Ophelia, his sister, has drowned by madness. Laertes, in the love of her sister, pledges to kill Hamlet for being the cause of Ophelia’s death. Through his creative words, Laertes convinced Claudius to kill Hamlet. Hamlet and Laertes have a sword fight. In the middle of the fight, Laertes drops his poisoned sword that is retrieved by Hamlet and wounds Laertes. Laertes tells Hamlet of the poisoned sword and as Hamlet is already been wounded by the sword, he, too, will die soon. Meanwhile, Horatio informs Hamlet that “Queen Falls”. Gertrude has drunk a sip from the poisoned cup, that was prepared by Claudius for Hamlet and she dies.

Laertes, before he dies, made another confession to Hamlet of his part in the plot and tell him the Claudius is responsible for Gertrude’s death. Enraged Hamlet stabs the poisoned sword into Claudius and pours the remaining poisoned wine into Claudius’ throat.

Before he dies, the throne should pass to the Prince Fortibras of Norway, declares Hamlet. He also begs his friend Horatio to tell him accurately the events that lead to such bloodshed.

The play ends with a grand funeral for Prince Hamlet as ordered by King Fortinbras of Denmark.

Themes in Hamlet

The question of life and death is introduced just as the play opens. Hamlet, throughout the play, ponders the complexity of life and considers the meaning of life. Throughout the play, many questions emerge as what happens when one dies? Will someone directly goes to heaven, if he/she is murdered? etc. Furthermore, Hamlet is very uncertain about the afterlife and causes him to quit suicide. The death of almost all the major characters of the play, towards the end of the play, doesn’t fully answer the question of mortality. The character of Hamlet represents exploration and discussion disregard of a true perseverance.

Hamlet, after hearing confessions from the ghost acts like a mad person to fool people in order to know the reality of the people around him. He acts so to prove himself harmless. However, this madness was recognized by Polonius. The irony arises when he falsely believes that Hamlet’s method stems from his love for Ophelia. It was impressive of Polonius that he recognizes the method behind Hamlet’s madness.

However, Hamlet starts losing his hold on reality by acting mad. He faces difficulty in handling the circumstances that are emotionally driven. Surrendering himself to physical violence displays that he has more issues than merely acting mad. This all scenario comes up with a question that what compels Hamlet to act such without considering the consequences?

There are only two female characters in the play Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother and Ophelia, Polonius’ daughter and Hamlet’s beloved.

Hamlets seem to be nervous while communicating with both of the women. In Hamlet’s life, both of these women have a special position, however, he is suspicious of both. The too early remarriage of her made him very suspicious of her mother. Secondly, Ophelia is in cahoots with her family and Hamlet realizes it when he starts acting mad.

Both of the ladies let Hamlet down. However, Ophelia is viewed as a victim of Hamlet brutality while Gertrude is represented as the more flexible character.

Political Livelihood

With the death of King Hamlet, the nation of Denmark starts deteriorating as the death of a king causes political turmoil in the country. Hamlet erratic behavior leads to unrest in the country. At various points in the play, the mad behavior of Hamlet is linked with the political livelihood of the country.

Hamlet Characters Analysis

He is the Prince of Denmark and son of the deceased king. He is called from Wittenberg University in Germany to attend his father’s funeral. When he reaches Denmark, he comes to know that his mother has remarried very soon to his uncle. Moreover, his uncle has crowned himself. This makes Hamlet very suspicious. These suspicious changes to reality when Hamlet encounters his father’s ghost. After hearing his father’s confession he vows to avenge his father’s death. Hamlet, in the play, is a highly confused person that leads to the bloody end of the play. To be or not to be is one the most celebrated dialogue of Hamlet and representation of his confused state of mind.

He is the present king of Denmark and brother of the deceased king, King Hamlet. He is accused of killing his brother and remarries widow of the Queen.

She is the Queen of Denmark and also the wife of deceased King Hamlet. She immediately remarries to Claudius, brother of King Hamlet.

He is a son of Polonius and brother of Ophelia. He is a student in Paris. Who first appears at the funeral of the King Hamlet and secondly at the death of his sister, Ophelia.

He is a loyal friend and a schoolmate of Prince Hamlet.

He is an old chief counselor of Claudius. He is murdered by Prince Hamlet when caught him spying.

She is the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and Hamlet’s beloved. She commits suicide after her father’s death.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

The classmates of Hamlet at Wittenberg whom Claudius called to spy on him.

The minor characters of the play are:

He is King of Norway, who vows to avenge his father’s death who was killed by the Danes’ hands.

A minor character who acts as the messenger between Hamlet and Laertes.

Voltimand and Cornelius

They are the courtiers of Danish kingdom who are directed as diplomats to the Courtyard of Norway.

Marcellus and Barnardo

They are Danish officers who guard the castle of Elsinore.

A Danish soldier to guard castle of Elsinore.

A young man whom Polonius trains to spy on his son and report him.

Hamlet Literary Analysis

Throughout the play, Hamlets seems to be highly confused regarding the idea of death. His famous soliloquies line “to be or not to be” shows Hamlet confused mindset for suicide; whether he should suicide or not; what would be an afterlife.

The play has a turning point where Hamlet realizes at the graveyard and encounters the skull of a man whom he is fond of. In his contemplation, Hamlet realizes that death vanishes the class difference among society. Everything is created by man himself. All these differences are illusions that diminish with death.

The play demonstrates a conflict between fate and free will and this what the classical tragedians appreciated. In every great tragedy, there lies a struggle between the predisposition a man to accept the fate and his natural desire to control his destiny.

Whether it is Sophocles or Shakespeare, both demonstrate that there is a continuous struggle between destiny and choice to control human life. To Shakespeare, man’s dilemma is represented when he is given to choose between good and bad. In the play, Hamlet was well aware of his shortcomings and his powerlessness to stand for what is right and to correct what seems to be wrong to him.

He, through his intellectual guidance, tries to pursue his fate. Hamlet resembles a modern man who is tossed between good and bad. To him, there is nothing good or bad, it is what our thinking makes it so. Like Hamlet, every man struggles to live between what he expects and what he gets; the battle that a man never wins. God asks man one thing and he demands another.

Lesson plan; Exploring the Depths of Hamlet: A Voyage into the Maze of Revenge, Madness, and Love

Learning objectives:.

Students will identify the key plot points and characters of Hamlet.

Students will develop their critical thinking skills by analyzing Shakespeare’s language and symbolism.
Students will express their understanding of the play through creative writing and discussion.

Pre-study activities:

Introduce the play to the class using this Hamlet lesson plan Do the pre – reading stage. Read Hamlet’s soliloquy, you find the full text of the play here . If you need you will find a simpler version here. Hamlet
Do worksheet A and B and discuss with class – talk about what you find in this Simpsons’ interpretation of Hamlet what is similar and what is different from the original ! See video below. You can also have a look at the Cartoon Hamlet it is an easy way to talk about the play!

After reading play – (you might only read one act)

Here is a quiz for the class to work on. Lots of questions! hamlet-quiz
Look at this google map. Where is this? Who lived here ?
Read this summary of the play and answer some questions while watching.
Test yourself with the Cambridge test
Study the picture (Image here) Ophelia by Sir John Everet Millais

Watch this revision by SparkNotes to remember main facts

Extra activities and places to visit if time:

Look at these clips “Ophelia’s madness “ , Ophelia drowning , Ophelia’s sad destiny
Look at video from YouTube. Hamlet Act3 Scene1 Soliloquy.

Shakespeare animated books:

Essay Questions:

Revenge: How does the theme of revenge manifest itself in Hamlet? To what extent does Hamlet’s pursuit of revenge shape his actions and ultimately affect his fate?

Madness: Explore the concept of madness in Hamlet. What does it mean to be mad in the play? How does Hamlet’s feigned madness differ from his genuine moments of despair? How does madness affect the play’s characters and its overall plot?

Love: Analyze the complex portrayal of love in Hamlet. How does love influence the actions and decisions of the play’s characters? How does love contribute to the play’s tragic events? What insights does the play offer into the nature of love and its potential consequences?

Relationships: Examine the intricate web of relationships in Hamlet. How do the relationships between Hamlet, Gertrude, Claudius, Ophelia, Laertes, and others contribute to the play’s central conflicts and themes? How does the play explore the complexities of human relationships, including love, betrayal, and manipulation?

Written Activities:

Character Analysis: Choose one or two characters from Hamlet and write a comprehensive analysis of their personalities, motivations, and roles in the play. Provide specific examples from the text to support your analysis.

Theme Exploration: Select one of the central themes of Hamlet, such as revenge, madness, love, or relationships. Write an essay exploring the theme in depth, providing evidence from the play and analyzing its significance in the overall message of the play.

Visual Interpretation: Create a visual representation of a scene or moment from Hamlet. This could be a drawing, painting, collage, or any other creative form that conveys your interpretation of the scene. Be sure to include a brief explanation of your interpretation and how it relates to the play’s themes.

Play Adaptation: Write a brief adaptation of a scene from Hamlet, changing the setting or characters to a modern context. Consider how the themes and messages of the play might resonate in a contemporary setting.

Literary Analysis: Compare and contrast Hamlet with another Shakespearean tragedy, such as Macbeth or Othello. Identify similarities and differences in the themes, characters, and overall structure of the plays. Discuss how the two tragedies explore universal human experiences and questions.

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107 Exceptional Hamlet Essay Topics: Questions & Prompts

Every academic paper starts with a captivating idea, and Hamlet research paper or essay shouldn’t be an exception. In the list below, our team has collected unique and inspiring topics for you. You can use them in your writing or develop your own idea according to the format.

Here are some Hamlet essay topics for you:

Elaborate on the weather in Denmark. How does it reflect the state of affairs and mood in the country? How does it change throughout the play? Start this Hamlet essay by describing the foggy weather in the first scene and gradually provide more examples as evidence.
Think of irony in Hamlet . How and for what purposes did Shakespeare incorporate it in the play? Provide examples of the lines and situations that can be considered ironic.
Reflect on Gertrude’s marriages. Why did she marry Claudius? Did they have an affair when King Hamlet was alive? Or did she agree on the new marriage to help the country?
Compare and contrast Claudius and King Oedipus from Oedipus the King . What character traits do they share? Who is a better politician? Why?
Explain whether you think Gertrude is on Hamlet’s or Claudius’ side. Did she switch the side by the end of the play? Analyze her conversation with Hamlet and how she later told Claudius that Hamlet was mad. Why did she drink the suspicious (poisoned) wine?
Analyze the fact that dying Hamlet asked Horatio to spread his story. Will Horatio retell it without changes? Can he tell the truth about what happened at all?
Examine an approach to violence in Hamlet . Are violence and aggression excessive in the play? How do characters react to it? Comment on how violence is mainly linked to vengeance.
Consider the Ghost of Old Hamlet and all his appearances in Hamlet . Who saw him? Who do you think can see him? In your Hamlet essay, analyze every scene where he occurred and elaborate on why he did so.
Talk about the relationship between Gertrude and Old Hamlet. Analyze what we know about their marriage and her reaction to her husband’s death. Did Gertrude see the Ghost in the scene with Hamlet? Could she have pretended that she didn’t?
If Hamlet had survived, would he have been a good king? Analyze his strengths and weaknesses concerning the matter. Did he prove to be a good leader or politician in the play? Consider that Fortinbras explicitly stated that Hamlet could’ve become a good ruler.
Elaborate on the way Hamlet killed Polonius in act 3, scene 4. Why did Hamlet act so quickly and calmly when he hesitates to kill his enemy, Claudius? Was this murder intentional? Did Hamlet regret it or freak out about it?
Explore Hamlet’s mental state. How did grief affect him? His depression and suicidal tendencies are apparent. How do they change throughout the play?
Compare Hamlet’s attitude towards the only women in the play, Ophelia and Gertrude. Why does he shame both of them for their sexual relationships? Examine his dialogues with his mother and his (ex)girlfriend, where he expresses cruelty. Elaborate on how his mother’s remarriage affected his relationships with the women.
Examine the madness that Hamlet may or may not obtain. Thanks to his dialogue with Horatio, we know that he fakes his insanity. But could it have changed by the end of the play? What could’ve caused it? Analyze the evidence of his abnormal behavior and whether you can consider it natural, not acted.
Analyze how Hamlet reflects on suicide. Provide examples from the soliloquies where Hamlet presumably tells the truth about his feelings. He considers suicide as an option, way out of the situation. Why doesn’t he commit it? Or was his death close to suicide?
Consider whether the Ghost exists or not. A few people have seen him, but may it have been a case of mass hysteria? Hamlet may have gone mad over the death of his father and his mother’s remarriage. What if he imagined his dialogues with deceased King Hamlet? Provide evidence for that opinion or refute it.
Elaborate on Hamlet’s trust issues. He suspects everyone from the start except for one person. Why does Hamlet trust Horatio? Analyze how the prince never lies during their conversations, even when the truth is a little insane. Why does Horatio believe everything he says?
Examine friendship in Hamlet . Most of the relationships in the play are based on manipulation and benefit. Who can you see as friends in Hamlet ? Reflect on whether Hamlet values his friendship with Horatio. What can you say about Hamlet’s friends from childhood?
Analyze the literary period during which Shakespeare came up with Hamlet . What features of the Elizabethan era does he illustrate in the play? Examplify various scenes and dialogues to prove your point.
Consider prominent theatrical productions of Hamlet . How did they change over the centuries? What does modern theatre do that the Medieval one could not? Did theatrical performances evolve?
Compare and contrast the original play and Lion King by Disney corporation. What are the key differences that were made in the cartoon? Why did Disney decide to come up with them? Analyze which version do you like more and why.
Comment on the theme of death and mortality What events and objects made Hamlet obsessed with death? Elaborate on the role that religion plays in his considerations concerning the matter.
Examine Claudius’ soliloquy . What’s its role in the play? What’s the crucial idea of his speech? Elaborate on the reasons why Claudius, the villain, has a soliloquy in Hamlet .
Analyze all the symbols of death in the play What symbols from Hamlet refer to mortality? Speculate whether you can call fences, poison, unweeded gardens, flowers, and so on a symbol of death.
Explore the conflicts of Hamlet . The play combines inner and outer conflicts, which are addressed mainly through Hamlet’s monologues. List the fundamental oppositions and lines that exemplify them.
Reflect on Hamlet’s relationship with Gertrude Why is he upset with her? How does it affect his actions and opinion about all the women? Does Gertrude love her son?
Analyze the setting of the play. Does the fact that Hamlet takes place in Denmark play any crucial role? Speculate why Shakespeare may have decided upon this country and support your opinion with evidence.
Elaborate on Hamlet’s relationship with Ophelia. Does the prince consider her significant? Does he care about her? Compare how he treated Ophelia before and after her death.
Comment on Hamlet’s religious beliefs Does religion have an impact on the prince’s decisions? Why is Hamlet considered a protestant? Prove your point by providing evidence from the play.
Reflect on the theme of revenge Why does everyone value revenge in the play? Why do people passionately seek it in the society presented in Hamlet ? Elaborate on what impact it has on the characters’ motivations and decisions.
Consider the language of Hamlet . Explain that Shakespeare’s play is well-known for its rich language and broad vocabulary. He composed a few characters who pay close attention to the words they say and hear. Why is language crucial for Hamlet?
Examine Fortinbras. Who is he? Why is he a character foil for Hamlet? Analyze why he succeeded in everything he did and even became the king of Denmark.
Analyze imagery and descriptions in the play. How does Shakespeare enhance each scene by alternating descriptions of the weather and nature? Provide examples of prominent images presented in the play and elaborate on their purpose.
Compare Hamlet to Oedipus Rex . What do the characters of the famous plays have in common? Do they have a similar goal? Elaborate on how their character traits affect the endings of the respective plays.
Explore the deception in Hamlet . What things and events are built on lies? Why and how do characters try to manipulate each other throughout the whole play?
Elaborate on the imagery of rot and diseases How do unweeded gardens reflect the state of affairs? Explain how ill atmosphere foreshadows and represents problems caused by the actions of the royal court’s members.
Comment on the role of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the play. Speculate whether they are simply comic relief characters or they have another purpose in Hamlet . Why did Shakespeare decide that he needed such characters in the play?
Analyze Gertrude’s attitude towards Ophelia. Elaborate on the scenes where Gertrude communicates with Ophelia and mentions her. What does the queen think of her and her relationships with Hamlet? How does Gertrude comments on Ophelia’s death?
Compare Hamlet’s and Horatio’s character traits. In what ways are they different and similar? What Horatio’s qualities Hamlet explicitly admires and lacks?
Speculate on Shakespeare’s opinion about theatre. Examine a few references to the English stage of the Elizabethan era that the author put in the play in Act 2. How does he comment on the theatre of his own time through Hamlet’s lines of dialogue?
Explore the relationships between Hamlet and Claudius. Why does Hamlet suspect his uncle from the start? Does Claudius think of Hamlet as dangerous? When does he become highly aware of his nephew’s capabilities?
Consider the death of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. When and how did they die? Why does a reader find out about it after the deaths of the royal family members? Speculate on the reasons why it was structured to be so anticlimactic. Why did W. S. Gilbert write a short comic play about them?
Analyze the reception and comprehension of Hamlet . Why is it one of the most popular Shakespeare’s plays even today? Is it still relevant? Explain why nowadays our understanding of the play differs from the one from the writer’s era.
Comment on the appearance vs. reality in Hamlet . Why do so many characters pretend to have another personality or obtain character traits that they don’t have? Why does Hamlet see through the pretense?
Elaborate on Ophelia’s death . Was it a suicide, how gravediggers presumed, or an accident, as Gertrude claimed? Explain in your Hamlet essay the reasons for Ophelia to commit suicide. Did she have a choice?
Reflect on political corruption. What characters represent corrupted politicians in the play? How do they manipulate public opinion?
Analyze one movie adaptation of Hamlet . Write about the changes that were made in the film version. What differences from the play did you like? What changes were you surprised to see?
Examine the political situation in the play. What war did Fortinbras lead? Why? How does it affect Denmark during the play and after it’s the last scene?
Explore the role of women in Hamlet . The play presents the social norms that were relevant for people of this period. What parts of women’s lives did men explicitly control? Provide examples from the play.
Compare Laertes and Hamlet . Laertes is known as Hamlet’s character foil. Examine similarities and differences in their character traits.
Consider the doubt and indecisiveness of Hamlet . Why are such traits uncommon for the genre? What do they say about the prince as a character? Explain how these qualities affect the plot and Hamlet’s thought process.
Elaborate on the symbolism in the play. Finding symbolism can be challenging as the interpretations differ. Some individuals consider particular objects as symbols, while others don’t. What do you view as examples of symbolism in the play? Why? What role do they play in understanding the story?
Reflect on the Oedipus complex. Comment on whether Hamlet has it or not. Provide evidence from the play, especially from the scene with Gertrude, to prove your point. How can this idea be approached on the stage? Find examples of theatrical productions where Hamlet and Gertrude had a conversation in her closet.
Compare and contrast Claudius and Polonius. What character traits do they have in common? Explain how they are not who they are trying to appear. Who is better at lying and manipulating others? Why?
Examine how revenge affected characters in Hamlet . Three characters wish to avenge their fathers: Laertes, Hamlet, and Fortinbras. How does revenge affect their lives? Who succeeded in getting their revenge?
Consider the family theme. What role does family play for various characters? Elaborate on how blood ties motivate multiple characters.
Reflect on Yorick’s role in the play. Who was Yorick? What impact did he have on Hamlet during the prince’s childhood and present time? Elaborate on how Yorick led Hamlet to his last soliloquy.
Analyze the religious conflict of the play. How did events from Shakespeare’s time affect the theme of religion? Explain how Hamlet presents the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism through the prince and King Hamlet.
Comment on the theme of madness. Who went mad in the play? Compare Hamlet’s and Laerte’s insanity to Ophelia’s one. How was her madness different from the other examples?
Explore Polonius’ character. What was Polonius’ motivation throughout the play? Whom did he manipulate, and why? Explain why he tried to appear a good person and a parent.
Elaborate on the reasons why Hamlet is the protagonist of the story. What makes him a tragic hero? Why is he considered a good person after every crime he committed and every cruel thing he said to his mother and Ophelia?
Think of the conflict of good and evil. What imagery is associated with each of them in the play? Does evil spread like a disease?
Explain how Hamlet differs from other plays of Shakespeare’s time . What new features and connections within the story did the writer present? How did Shakespeare make characters contribute to the plot?
Analyze the “To be or not to be” speech. It’s one of the most famous lines in history, but what meaning is behind it? Elaborate on the circumstances around the monologue and whether Hamlet is partially lying.
Reflect on performances of Hamlet. Choose a couple of performances on the stage or in a movie and compare them. Whose version of the character you prefer and why?
Elaborate on the movie Ophelia (2018). What’s intriguing about a story told from Ophelia’s point of view? Exemplify the differences from the original play and how the change of perspective affected the story.
Explore Hamlet’s obsession with inaction and action . What stops Hamlet from acting decisively? Exemplify situations from the play when characters act quickly, without any doubt compared to Hamlet’s almost constant hesitance.
Compare Hamlet and King Lear. What similar character traits have an impact on the respective plays? Can we call the prince and the king victims of the social norms?
Think of how the play’s themes are relevant nowadays . Which of them remained timeless, relevant for any period? Are any themes become obsolete and useless in today’s world? Elaborate on each theme separately with examples from the play.
Reflect on Hamlet’s mood swings . Provide examples of how the prince’s mood affects his actions and speech. What can and did influence his mood?
Examine Polonius’ death. Why was he hiding behind the tapestry during the scene? Was it his idea? How did he die? Elaborate on irony in the way he was murdered. How did it affect the plot?
Analyze Hamlet as an actor. Is he good at playing a character? Elaborate on his dialogue with the First Player and his opinion about acting.
Consider the motif of betrayal. Who betrays Hamlet? Explain how the attitude towards this act varies from character to character. How does Hamlet’s betrayal affect Ophelia?
Explore the connection between honor and revenge . Explain why it’s the principal motivation for such characters as Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras. Comment on scenes where it reveals itself through actions and conversations.
Elaborate on Hamlet’s death. Was it the only logical conclusion for Hamlet’s psychological and emotional development? Was he satisfied?
Comment on the genre of the play . Can we call it revenge tragedy without any reservation? How did Shakespeare ruin the genre by Hamlet ?
Compare Hamlet and the Ghost. What can you say about the language that the characters use? List the lines that state that Hamlet and the Ghost look similar.
Think of the father-son relationships in the play . Analyze the relationships between Hamlet and King Hamlet and compare them to those of Laertes and Polonius. Which features are common for both of them?
Elaborate on the name Hamlet . What does it mean? What’s its country of origin? Add a sentence or two about Amleth.
Consider allusions to historical figures in the play. Why does Hamlet mention Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar in act 5? Why did Shakespeare include allusions at all?
Examine soliloquies in Hamlet . What’s their role in the play? Provide lines from soliloquies that let us dive into the thoughts and intentions of a character. Does anyone lie during such a speech?
Compare the two film adaptations of the play. Elaborate on different film techniques and alterations of the plot. Concentrate on one scene in particular and explain what changes were made.
Explore Hamlet’s nihilism. When does Hamlet start to display features that are inherent to this school of thought? Explain how the prince came to nihilism, what pushed him to this.
List the most painful moments of Hamlet’s life and elaborate on them. Include events that happened before the first act and within the play. Prove your point with evidence from the prince’s lines.
Think of what poison represents. What does it refer to? Who dies from poison in the play?
Consider the play from the public’s perspective. How does Claudius manipulate the public’s opinion? What do people think of the new king and Hamlet?
Compare and contrast Gertrude and Ophelia. What traits do they have in common? Explain differences and similarities in their affection towards Hamlet. Who controls these women?
Elaborate on the villain of the story. Who can be considered an antagonist of the play? Why do some people regard Hamlet as a villain?
Imagine how Hamlet could’ve reacted to modern society. What aspects of the future would he appreciate? What social norms would shock him? Would he be more comfortable in our period?
Evaluate all the relationships in Hamlet’s life. What’s the most significant one? Why? What relationships changed throughout the play?
Comment on contradictions in the play. What contradictions does Hamlet face? Is he himself a contradictory character? Provide examples of Hamlet’s contradictions
Explore the fencing in the last scene of Hamlet . What does it contribute to the story? Does it affect the end of the duel?
Elaborate on the gravediggers. How did their job affect their attitude towards death? Comment on their humor and whether it’s a coping mechanism. Does it illustrate their perception of life?
Compare Claudius and King Hamlet. What qualities differentiate them? What do they have in common? Speculate on who was a more talented politician and a better leader.
Think of comic relief in Hamlet . Comment on how Polonius, Osric, gravediggers, and Hamlet’s dialogues with them enlighten the mood. Was the humor appropriate for revenge tragedies before Shakespeare?
Consider foreshadowing in the play. What events are foreshadowed early on in Hamlet ? Present lines and features from act 1 that indicate the tragic end.
Elaborate on justice and truth . How does Shakespeare show attitude towards justice common for this time? Does Hamlet approach fairness differently from the others? Elaborate on how Hamlet both pursue the truth and ignores it.
Examine the “Get thee to a nunnery, go.” sentence. Why did Hamlet say so to Ophelia? What made the prince think that she was vicious?
Comment on Hamlet’s cruelty. When does Hamlet become cruel towards other characters? Is he cruel towards himself? Analyze situations where Hamlet talks viciously and whether it’s intentional or not.
Explore Hamlet’s character . Why is the prince such an unusual figure for revenge tragedies? Explain how Shakespeare created the hero who struggles to act with firmness and constantly reflects on his actions and decisions. Is he easy to understand and relate to?
Analyze the play within the play. What’s its role in plot development? Why did Hamlet let the play take place? Explain what scene he added and why. Elaborate on the title The Mousetrap .
Examine the consequences of revenge . What conclusion does Shakespeare provide for the theme of revenge? Explain how does it influence the deaths of Hamlet and Laertes, the absolute victory of Fortinbras.
Reflect on Hamlet’s hesitance to kill Claudius . Why does he consider murdering his uncle in act 1? What stops him? Illustrate all the occasions when Hamlet could’ve killed Claudius but didn’t, and one time he did. What pushed him in the end?
Compare Claudius to Laertes. Are there any similarities? How do these characters form an alliance by the end of the play?
Comment on Gertrude’s guiltiness . Hamlet considers his mother guilty of too many crimes, but was she guilty of anything? Speculate whether she participated in King Hamlet’s murder or had an affair with Claudius before her husband’s death. Was she loyal to Hamlet?
Elaborate on the “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark …“ line. Who says it? Explain the context of the line, its meaning, and what it foreshadows.
Examine Polonius’ advice to Laertes. Provide its meaning and reflect on Polonius’ intentions. Why is this speech ironic?

Thanks for checking our list! You can consider some free Hamlet samples or other articles about the play, following the links below.

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1. IvyPanda . "107 Exceptional Hamlet Essay Topics: Questions & Prompts." August 14, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/lit/hamlet-study-guide/essay-topics/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "107 Exceptional Hamlet Essay Topics: Questions & Prompts." August 14, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/lit/hamlet-study-guide/essay-topics/.

Folger Shakespeare Library - Digital Hamlet

The best edition of Hamlet provided by Folger Shakespeare Library . This is a TREMENDOUS resource. USE IT.

Enjoying the Play

Try having the play next to you while you listen or watch the play.

On the left you can see that I'm using the Folger edition of the play, so that I can copy and paste the lines I might want to remember. If you hover over the line, you will get the act, scene and line number. I usually will open the ENTIRE PLAY from Folger.

On the right hand side of my screen you'll see the Digital Theatre+ version of the play. I can jump to any a ct, key scene or speech that I want to.

Reading / Viewing Schedule

We are going to read the play together. I will go over the passages I find interesting, regardless if they were brought up in class by students.

There are 2 ways for you to prepare for class :

Preread the Reading Questions and as the play unfolds, stop and jot down your answer.

Don't preread the Reading Questions , watch the play while skimming the lines (see picture below). When 30 minutes are up, answer the questions in sequential order.

If you cannot answer the Reading Questions , then it might be a good idea to:

Start reading and watching the act again.

Changes the questions. Use the generic Drama: The Art of Analysis questions to help you understand the play.

If you can't answer these questions, you should go back and start again with the previous act. It may be that you have not understood the beginning of the play.

Timestamps for the Stratford Festival's Hamlet on Digital Theatre+

Act 1 0:00 - 38:00 (Digital Theatre+ 36 min)

Act 2 38:00 - 1:10 (Digital Theatre+ 32 min)

Act 3 1:10 - 1:54 (Digital Theatre+ 39 min)

Act 4 1:54 - 2:14 (Digital Theatre+ 24 min)

Act 5 2:14 - 2:46 (Digital Theatre+ 28 min)

Digital Theatre+

You must see drama, to understand it.

Watch Hamlet , Stratford Festival version at Digital Theatre+ . URL, username and password are all in our Google Classroom.

Search for "Hamlet Stratford". (Thanks Angela N.)

All the versions are equally good. We use the Stratford Festival version of Hamlet because of audio quality and timestamps.

Drama: The Art of Analysis

Use these questions when you finish reading or watching a scene in drama.

In assessing the dramatic importance or function of any scene or speech, ask yourself the following questions: (Note, no single dramatic sequence will fulfill all of these functions, of course. You must decide upon the most important functions served by a speech or scene - or part of a scene.) Watch carefully for how these functions are fulfilled.

About Character

Does it introduce a character? (directly or indirectly)

Does it reveal something about someone's character?

Does it show characters in conflict?

Does it reveal a particular relationship between characters?

Does it explain the motivation of a character?

Does it create sympathy for a character?

Does it move the plot forward?

Does it foreshadow a future event?

Does it create suspense or excitement?

Does it provide background information?

Does it provide comic relief?

Does it create humour?

Does it lay the foundation for the plot?

About Setting

Does it reveal the setting?

Does it offer a contrast to the previous (or following) setting?

Does it engage the audience's interest?

Does it create atmosphere or mood?

Does it have anything to do with the theme?

Does it serve to indicate the passage of time?

Some Dramatic Effects of a Scene in a Play

A scene in any play will aim at one or more of the effects in this list:

A scene may reveal character, or it may show development of a character.

It may give background information about events occurring before the actions of the play.

It may present a dramatic contrast in character or mood.

It may give information about events occurring offstage which cannot be shown onstage.

It may develop pathos.

It may foreshadow coming events.

It may advance the plot.

It may create suspense.

It may establish relationships between characters, or it may show these relationships changing.

It may afford a relief of tension.

It may direct the audience's sympathies toward a certain character.

Oedipus Rex

A Play by Sophocles , 400 BCE.

The cycle of religions:

Trying to understand the human condition: Life, Death, Light, Dark, Known, Unknown

Deities fulfilling roles / ritual / structure that extends to the society

The movement of those gods to art / drama / song / poetry

What happens when we move past the gods? Who takes the 'role'? Kings, Nobility, Generals, The Merchant class, you?

Oedipus Rex in a nutshell:

A king, at the height of his game, consults the Oracle. (Sounds familiar?)

A child, hidden away. Grows, but becomes aware of his difference. (Sounds familiar?)

Two men, mirrors of one another, meeting at a river.

A monster is vanquished. A riddle is solved.

Confusion insures, how does the kingdom move forward? How is the hero rewarded?

What do we understand about Fate and Free Will?

Existentialism

Do some homework.

What does this word mean?

What does this picture mean?

Let's look at Aristotle 's Poetics.

Ask yourself, how do the 4 phases of tragedy lead to the essence of tragedy ?

Who / What kind of character takes the lead role?

How does the cycle of religion connect to art?

Why is the Great Chain of Being (hierarchical order) important?

Aristotle's Poetics

Aristotle's 4 phases of tragedy.

How do we get to pathos, and catharsis?

Arrogance, or sin of pride. Part of nature. Not anyone's fault but theirs.

Action based on hubris. Error of thought or action. Linked to hubris.

Anagnorisis

Moment of realization. I can't go back, I must keep going.

Downfall. Must be death. Nemesis delivering the retribution.

The Essence of Tragedy

Sadness, pity, contempt.

Release of emotion.

The Tragic Hero

Must be well intentioned at the outset

Born of noble birth

Responsible for own fate

Has a tragic flaw

Makes a serious error in judgment

Falls from great heights or from high esteem

Realizes they made an irreversible mistake

Faces and accepts death with honour

Meets a tragic death

The Great Chain of Being

List will be provided. Where do you fit in?

Fate, Family, and Oedipus Rex

Fate, Family, and Oedipus Rex: Crash Course Literature 202

The battle of the Greek tragedies

The battle of the Greek tragedies - Melanie Sirof

Tragedy Lessons from Aristotle

Tragedy Lessons from Aristotle: Crash Course Theater #3

Reading Questions for Hamlet

Reading Questions for Hamlet are taken from the Norton Edition of Hamlet, hosted at Saint Xavier University.

(Keyed to The Norton Shakespeare )

The best beginning procedure is always to familiarize yourself with the cast of characters and then to read the play (or at least an act or a scene) all the way through so that you know what's happening. The notes can help if you're stuck, but try to get the big picture of a scene before getting bogged down in details. Read through, then go back and clear up details. Then you're ready to think about the questions.

1. What happens when Francisco and Bernardo meet at the beginning of 1.1? Where are we, and when? Why is there confusion over which one is supposed to challenge the other by asking "Who's there"? Why is Horatio with Bernardo and Marcellus? Who is he?

2. What is Horatio's initial response to the story of the apparition? What happens when the ghost appears for the first time (1.1.37.1)? Notice that Horatio addresses it as "thou." This is the form of address used with friends or inferiors. Shakespeare's audience would have been much more attuned to the difference than we are. What is the effect of Horatio's addressing the ghost as "thou"?

3. What does Horatio first assume the appearance of the ghost means (1.1.68)? Why are there such intense war preparations in Denmark? (Read 1.1.69-106 carefully to get the international background of the play.) What does Horatio suggest by his discussion of Julius Caesar's death (1.1.106.5-.18)? Why does he choose the example of Rome? Why is the passage set off and in italics? (See note 2, line 106.)

4. What happens when the ghost appears for the second time (at the SD before 1.1.108.1)? Why does it leave so abruptly? The questions Horatio asks it represent, according to the thought of the time, the reasons why a ghost could appear.

5. What is the purpose of the two discussions of the crowing of the cock, Horatio's pagan one (1.1.130-37) and Marcellus' Christian one (1.1.138-45)?

6. What do we know so far about the nature of the ghost? Do we know yet if it is a "good" ghost (i.e., "really" the spirit of the person it appears to be) or a "damned" ghost (a devil or evil spirit in the shape of the person it appears to be)?

1. What is Claudius telling the court in the first part of his speech (1.2.1-16)? What does he say about young Fortinbras and his uncle the king of Norway (ll. 17-41)? How is Claudius responding to the threat? (You may also want to keep in mind that the name "Claudius" appears only in the opening stage direction for 1.2. The name is never spoken in the play. He is simply "the King.")

2. What does Laertes want from the King? How does Claudius respond to him? Based on his first 64 lines in office (1.2.1-64), how would you rate Claudius as a ruler? In what ways does he already differ from Old Hamlet as king? (Consider how Old Hamlet would have responded to Young Fortinbras.)

3. What do Claudius and Gertrude want Hamlet to do that he doesn't want to do? What won't they let him do it? How does he respond to them? How do they respond to the way he responds to them? (You probably know three names associated with the University of Wittenberg in Germany: Martin Luther, Doctor Faustus, and Hamlet. Can you see any connections among the three?)

4. How seriously do you take Claudius' argument against Hamlet's "prolonged" mourning (1.2.87-108)? How long has Hamlet been mourning (1.2.138)? (The normal mourning period of a noble or gentle woman for a dead husband at this time [ca. 1600] was a year or more.)

5. Read Hamlet's first soliloquy (1.2.129-59) carefully. What is it that is really bothering him about what has happened since his father's death? How would you describe the tone of his feelingsdetached, impassioned, rational, ironic, or what?

6. What is Hamlet's response to the news from Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo? Notice the way Hamlet questions them. How much do we know about how his mind works at this point of the play? What does he suspect as the reason for the ghost's appearance (1.2.254-57)?

1. What does Laertes warn Ophelia about? What, apparently, has been the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia since his return from Wittenberg?

2. How seriously do you take Polonius' precepts (1.3.58-80)? Consider especially the last one (1.3.78-80).

3. How willing is Ophelia to discuss with her father what she has discussed with Laertes? What is his response to Hamlet's interest in her and her response to him? How seriously should she take their warnings about Hamlet's lack of seriousness and his inability to choose his own wife?

4. What do we know about Laertes, Polonius, and Ophelia by the end of 1.3? What sort of people are they? What sort of family are they? Who is missing from this family? How strong-willed in Ophelia?

1. Why do the trumpets and cannons sound, according to Hamlet? What does Hamlet think of the custom?

2. Read 1.4.18.7-.22 carefully. What is Hamlet saying here?

3. How does Hamlet respond to the ghost? If it is a "damned ghost," is he as safe as he thinks he is in 1.4.45-48? Why don't the others want him to go? Why can't/don't they stop him? What does Marcellus still think the nature of the problem is (1.4.67)?

1. Is Hamlet surprised when the Ghost asks him to revenge his father's murder? Is he surprised when he learns who the murderer is?

2. Do father and son have the same opinion of Claudius? (Compare 1.2.139-40, 152-53 and 1.5.47-52.) Would others in the court, not knowing about Claudius' crime, see Claudius as this much below his dead brother?

3. How did Claudius murder Old Hamlet?

4. What does the Ghost tell Hamlet to do about his mother?

5. Read Hamlet's second soliloquy carefully (1.5.92-113). What does Hamlet say he has learned? In other words, what general piece of wisdom does he want to save from this encounter (1.5.109). Is this shockingly new information to us? Or is Hamlet just becoming "grown up"? (When did you first learn that you couldn't always trust people?) Notice how quickly Hamlet moves from the specific (Claudius) to the general ("one"). Compare the same movement he makes from the specific person Gertrude to "frailty, thy name is woman" (1.2.146). Given this soliloquy, how soon would you expect Hamlet to go for his revenge?

6. What happens when the others find Hamlet. What does he ask them to swear? What does his mention of an "antic disposition" (1.5.173) suggest about his future plans? How might you expect Hamlet to be acting when next we see him?

1. How much time has passed between Act 1 and Act 2? How do you know? (Keep watching for evidence.)

2. What is Polonius telling Reynaldo to do? What does this tell up about Polonius and his way of thinking and acting?

3. Why is Ophelia so upset when she enters at 2.1.74.1? What has happened to her? Does Hamlet's appearance (in her telling) as a madman (a distracted lover) come as a surprise after what we last heard him say? Why would he appear in this sort of madness to her? Is there any possibility he really is a distracted lover responding to Ophelia's apparent rejection of him? How well has she obeyed her father's orders in 1.3?

4. What is Polonius' response to what Ophelia tells him? Where are they going?

1. Why have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern come to court? What is their relation to Hamlet? What use does Claudius have for them? Does this remind you of Polonius' use for Reynaldo? Are there any significant differences?

2. We've now had several different explanations of Hamlet's madness: love (2.1.86, 103), his father's death (2.2.8), and that plus "our o'erhasty marriage" (2.2.57note Gertrude's awareness of impropriety). Are people content with these explanations? Are you?

3. What results have come from Cornelius' and Voltemand's trip to Norway? Has Claudius' use of diplomacy rather than war been justified? What will Fortinbras be doing next? Can we expect to see him in Denmark after all? Why?

4. How effective is Polonius as a bearer of news? How convinced are Claudius and Gertrude that Polonius has found the answer? How do they plan to test this answer? Does Polonius' plan sound like his normal way of operating (2.2.163-68)?

5. Immediately following the discussion of the plan, Hamlet appears. Wouldn't this be a good time to try out the plan? Do they?

6. How does Hamlet behave when he enters? Does Polonius think he is mad? Is this the way we would expect Hamlet to act after Ophelia's description in 2.1? Why does he call Polonius a fishmonger? (It may help to know that fishmongers' wives, and daughters, apparently because of the fish, were assumed to be extremely fertile and thus able to conceive easilyand thus the connection in 2.2.185-86.)

7. How does Hamlet behave initially with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (through 2.2.216-66)? Is it different from the way he just acted with Polonius? How does Hamlet change when he realizes that the two were sent for by Claudius and Gertrude?

8. How seriously should we take Hamlet's view of the world and of "man" (2.2.287-98). How do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern react to Hamlet's use of "generic" man (2.2.298-300)?

9. Why are the players traveling? What has been going on in the city? (Much of 2.2.317-46 refers to contemporary events in London around 1599-1601.)

10. What is the significance of Hamlet's referring to Polonius as Jephthah (2.2.385). Jephthah's story is interesting in this contextsee Judges 11:30-40.

11. What is unusual about the speech Hamlet begins to recite (2.2.430-44) and the First Player continues (2.2.448-498). How is its style different from that of the surrounding lines of Hamlet ? Why is its subject matter appropriate? (See Note 2 to line 430.) Do lines 461-62 echo anything from or about the play Hamlet ? Why can't the First Player finish the speech?

12. What play does Hamlet want the players to play? What does he want to do to the play?

13. Read Hamlet's third soliloquy carefully (2.2.526-82). How does he use the player's response to show how different his own position is? Is the comparison justified by what we have seen happen in the play? He complains that he hasn't acted on his vengeance. Why hasn't he? Why does he need the play? What will he learn from it?

1. How much have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern learned from/about Hamlet?

2. Finally the planned meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia is arranged, spies and all. What does Polonius give Ophelia to read (3.1.46)? What response does his remark get (in an aside) from Claudius? Why is this speech of Claudius' important? What do we learn that we have not learned before?

3. Read Hamlet's fourth soliloquy carefully (3.1.58-90). How is this soliloquy different from the first two? Think about the way Hamlet's mind works within the first two--is the same thing happening here? What is the main idea of this third soliloquy? (For an interesting variant of this speech, you might want to look at the duke's version in chapter 21 of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -a great parody/pastiche.)

4. What happens between Hamlet and Ophelia in the so-called "Nunnery scene" (3.1.90-160)? Does Hamlet know that he's being watched? Does he determine that during the scene? Can you spot a place where he might? (Remember how he changed his way of talking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at 2.2.267.) Who is the "one" referred to in "all but one" (3.1.147)? What does it add to note that in talking about marriage in 3.1.146-48 Hamlet seems to be echoing St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 7?

5. How does Claudius respond to what he has seen and heard? Is he convinced that love is the cause of Hamlet's madness? What does he plan to do about Hamlet? How does Polonius respond? Is he willing to give up his "love" answer? What does he propose as an additional way to find out what Hamlet is thinking? Are you surprised that it includes spying?

1. What advice does Hamlet have for the actors? Why?

2. Why does Hamlet say he especially likes Horatio (3.2.56-67, esp. 64-67)? Does Hamlet see Horatio as similar to him or different from him?

3. What function is served by the discussion of Polonius as an actor (3.1.89-96)? Hamlet was written within a year or two of Julius Caesar ; what is added to the scene for the audience if Richard Burbage, playing Hamlet, also played Brutus? Can you guess what part the actor playing Polonius might have played in Julius Caesar ?

4. Based on 3.2.116, how much time elapsed between Act 1 and Act 2 (since the action has been continuous since the beginning of Act 2)?

5. How does the play-within-the-play (3.1.122.1-242) reflect the issues bothering Hamlet? Can you identify the lines he has had inserted? (Don't worry, nobody else can either.) Interestingly, the story of Gonzago as known outside Hamlet turns into a revenge story, with Gonzago's son revenging his father's death. So what we've seen is only the first few minutes of a much longer play. What lines would hit the intended audience hardest? (Consider, certainly, 3.2.159-62.) Although Hamlet is interested in Claudius' response, notice that so far Gertrude has taken the strongest "hits" (except, perhaps, for the poisoning in the earone of the new "Italianate" evil inventions, a way to murder someone without it appearing to be murder). Consider also the Player King's more abstract speech in 3.2.1168-195. How does this speech reflect issues that appear elsewhere in the play?

6. What is Claudius' mood as he stops the play at 3.2.247? How does Hamlet respond? If Hamlet has learned that Claudius is indeed guilty (if that's why he stopped the play and not for some other reason), Claudius has also learned something from the presentation of the play. What has Claudius learned?

7. What message do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have for Hamlet? Despite the chaos at the end of the play, is this message unexpected after hearing Polonius' suggestion at the end of the Nunnery scene (3.1)? What lesson does Hamlet teach with a recorder?

8. Read Hamlet's fifth soliloquy carefully (3.2.358-69). How is it different from the other soliloquies? What is the mood of the soliloquy? How do you react to it? What about line 360? What is happening to Hamlet?

1. What has Claudius decided to do with Hamlet? Who will go with him? What "theoretical" message about kingship does Rosencrantz tell to Claudius?

2. Where is Polonius going?

3. What does Claudius admit in his attempt to pray? Has the play actually had an effect on him? Why can't he ask for forgiveness?

4. What happens when Hamlet enters? Why doesn't Hamlet kill Claudius then? What is ironic about Hamlet's decision?

1. How successful is the first part of the interview between Gertrude and Hamlet? What goes wrong (even before Polonius' death)? Who controls the conversation? Why does Gertrude call for help?

2. Does Gertrude know that Claudius killed Hamlet's father? (Consider 3.4.27-29, 38-39, 50-51.)

3. What device does Hamlet use to force Gertrude to consider what she has done?

4. Hamlet seems to be getting through to Hamlet when the Ghost enters. Why does the Ghost appear at this point? How is his appearance different from his appearances in Act 1? Who saw him then? Who sees him now? What is his message to Hamlet?

5. After the Ghost leaves, does Hamlet succeed in what he came to do? What is Gertrude's state when he leaves? What should she do, and what should she not do?

6. What does Hamlet think of his upcoming trip to England? What does he expect to do?

1. Does Gertrude tell Claudius the truth about what happened between her and Hamlet (4.1.6-7)? Is she following Hamlet's advice at the end of 3.4?

2. How does Claudius respond to the death of Polonius? Does he understand the implications of what happened? What will he do now?

1. What do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern learn from Hamlet?

1. Why does Claudius believe he can't simply arrest Hamlet?

2. What is the result of Hamlet's joking about death and worms? What connection do the worms and their diet have with Wittenberg? (Note 4 to line 31gives most of the answer. The Diet, headed by the Emperor and meeting at Worms in 1521, pronounced its ban on Luther after he refused to recant.) Keep the whole "worm" discussion in mind when you get to 5.1, the graveyard scene. This discussion is a prelude to that one.

3. Is Hamlet going to England as a prisoner or in the guise of a royal representative?

4. What do Claudius' letters tell England (i.e., the king of England) to do with Hamlet? Why does Claudius expect to be obeyed? (The situation is more or less historical, since England was ruled by a Danish king from 1016-1042. The original Hamlet story seems to date from about this time.)

1. Why is Fortinbras' army passing through Denmark? (Remember 2.2.60-80.)

2. Notice that the Folio text contains only lines 1-9 of this scene. What is the effect of having only those lines? Why would even that much of the scene appear? In other words, what is the function within the play of 4.4.1-9?

3. What sort of judgment does the Captain make about the place they are fighting for? How does Hamlet describe it (4.4.9.15-.19)?

4. Where is Hamlet going when he meets the Captain?

5. Read Hamlet's sixth soliloquy carefully (4.4.9.22-.56). What is unusual about it given its position in the play? Has Hamlet been delaying, as he says? What example does he compare himself to? (And what other soliloquy does this one remind you of?)

6. Look at 4.4.9.43-.46 closely. What is Hamlet saying? (See note 8 to line 9.46 for a suggestion. Is this the only possibility?) This passage introduces the idea of "honor" that we will be meeting again, particularly as represented by the "code of dueling," something new in the late 16th century that is represented in the play by Laertes and his "French connection" (as opposed to Hamlet's Wittenberg, philosophical connection). And be sure to recall what Falstaff had to say about it ( 1H4 5.1.127-39.)

7. 4.4 ends a long "movement" in the play that began at 2.1 with Polonius taking Ophelia to the King and Queen, followed by the arrival of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and then of the players. 3.1 begins the day after the players arrive (the day the play is to be performed); the action of that day runs through the rest of Act 3 and the first scenes of Act 4. In 4.4 we must assume that it is early morning of the next day and that Hamlet is on his way to England. In 4.5 Laertes returns, having had enough time to learn in Paris of his father's death, so some time must pass between 4.4 and 4.5.

1. What do we learn about the state of Gertrude's soul in her aside (4.5.17-20)? What does this say about how she has responded to Hamlet's accusations and recommendations in 3.4?

2. The court assumes Ophelia's madness is caused by her father's death. Judging from her songs, are they correct? Is that the only thing that has made her mad? What else is on her mind and coming to the surface in her madness?

3. What is Laertes' approach to revenging his father's death? How does it compare to Hamlet's? How much support does he have? Whom does he initially blame?

4. What is being threatened as Laertes enters (4.5.107.1)? How well does Claudius handle this emergency?

5. How does Laertes respond to mad Ophelia? What offer does Claudius make to get his discussion with Laertes back on track?

1. Who brings Hamlet's letter to Horatio? What has happened to Hamlet? (Happily, we have been spared seeing Hamlet as Errol Flynnsee Olivier's movie version for that. However, this letter does show us a Hamlet quite capable of acting when the occasion presents itself.)

1. Claudius has obviously convinced Laertes of his innocence. What things of a personal nature do we learn about Gertrude and Claudius (4.7.11-16)? Laertes wants his revenge, but Claudius tells him "You shortly shall hear more." What does Claudius expect to be able to tell Laertes soon?

2. What does Hamlet's letter tell Claudius? Why does Hamlet want to see him"alone"? What seems to be Hamlet's plan?

3. What plan do Claudius and Laertes develop? What happened when Lamord came to Denmark two months ago? How will Claudius and Laertes use Laertes' reputation to get revenge?

4. What would Laertes do to get revenge (4.7.98)? How does this compare to Hamlet? How does Claudius respond?

5. How many tricks and poisons does it take (according to Claudius and Laertes) to kill a Hamlet?

6. What happened to Ophelia? Did she kill herself, or is her death accidental (based on this description; her death gets a different spin in 5.1)?

7. What is Laertes' response to her death? What does Claudius fear will happen?

1. What are the two clowns doing while they talk? Who is the "she" of 5.1.1? Why, according to the second clown, is she really being given a Christian burial?

2. What happens in the discussion between Hamlet and the Gravedigger? What does Hamlet learn from his confrontation with Yorick's skull? What does he learn from his meditation on Alexander and Caesar? How does the mood here differ from that in 4.3.17-38?

3. How old is Hamlet?

4. What do we learn from Gertrude's farewell to Ophelia (5.1.227-30)? Would Polonius have been surprised if he had heard this?

5. What happens when Hamlet appears to the others? What is significant about him calling himself "Hamlet the Dane" (5.1.242see the footnote)? Why is he so angry?

1. What new sort of attitude to life do you see in the Hamlet of the first 81 lines of 5.2 ?

2. What would have happened to him in England? How did he find out? What did he do about it? What has happened to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? Do they know what hit them? (See Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead .) How does Hamlet feel about them?

3. What sort of person is Osric? What message does he have for Hamlet? What seems to be the problem with his hat? What is the wager (5.2.122-25)? (No one has been able to explain this speech in a way convincing to everyone.)

4. What is Hamlet's reaction to the idea of the match (5.2.148-61)? (The Folio text has an additional sentence at the end: "Let be.")? How well does Hamlet expect to do? Why does he go ahead with it? How does this reflect the new attitude we saw in Hamlet in 5.1?

5. Hamlet clearly apologizes to Laertes (5.2.163-81). How does Laertes respond? Given what we know about the plans of Laertes and Claudius, how do you take Laertes' promise (5.2.187-89)? Can we say he has any honor at all? Has he followed his father's precept in 1.3.78-80?

6. What is Laertes doing at line 202?

7. What is the "union" Claudius promises to put in the cup at line 210 and perhaps does not put into the cup until after line 225? What problem is created by Hamlet's response in line 227? What happens at line 232? (And what is the score by now?)

8. Look carefully at lines 245-55, noting who wounds whom and with what sword, and what happens to Gertrude (including Claudius' lie at line 251).

9. Why is Hamlet so concerned that Horatio stay alive to tell his story? How much do the other people at court know at this point?

10. Do you believe Horatio in his assumption that Hamlet is saved and not damned? Why or why not?

11. Does the Hamlet Fortinbras describes (5.2.339-44) sound like the Hamlet we have known? What will happen to the kingdom under Fortinbras?

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare hosted at MIT contains full text copies of his plays.

Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet hosted at Palomar College contains link lists of valuable resources.

In Search of Shakespeare hosted at PBS contains a very thorough time line of Shakespeare's life.

Online Literary Criticism about Hamlet is the Internet Public Library's search results for essays on Hamlet.

Shakespeare on PBS

PBS.org has great materials on Shakespeare and his works. I've done the search for you .

7 Soliloquies found in Hamlet

"O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt ..." (1.2.133)

"O all you host of heaven!" (1.5.99)

"O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!" (2.2.577)

"To be or not to be—that is the question:" (3.1.64)

"’Tis now the very witching time of night" (3.2.419)

"Now might I do it pat, now he is a-praying" (3.3.77)

"How all occasions do inform against me" (4.4.34)

In a soliloquy, a character is alone, and dealing with their thoughts. Soliloquies are heard by the audience but are considered the internal monologue of a character. Other characters do not hear them. Soliloquies tend to start off with a a question or a problem, and the character works towards a solution or an answer. Because the character is speaking to themselves, they are honest.

Getting Ready for Big Ideas in Hamlet

Why should you read "Hamlet"? - Iseult Gillespie

Why tragedies are alluring - David E. Rivas

Shakespeare's Tragedies

Who am I? A philosophical inquiry - Amy Adkins

What is existentialism? | A-Z of ISMs Episode 5 - BBC Ideas

The philosophy of absurdism | What is the point of life? | A-Z of ISMs Episode 1 - BBC Ideas

Nihilism vs. Existentialism vs. Absurdism — Explained and Compared

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare is hosted at MIT. You can get a read a copy of Hamlet by act and scene or the entire play . An important resource for many reasons. I wish it had line numbers. In a pinch, this will help.

#ToBeBlack | The Public Theater

"Listen as Black actors across the nation explore the truth in the painful reality of being Black in America with Shakespearean text. Timeless words that were never intended for us, yet the notion ”To Be or Not To Be” carries infinite weight throughout Black American history.

We call on America to listen with empathy and to act in alliance with Black Lives Matter.

This Nation possesses power that will remain latent until we unlock its truths.” - Kimber Elayne Sprawl

Shakespeare is for all time, all people.

When you are deciding which version to watch, expand your horizon. Consider that DigitalTheater+ has several productions to choose from.

Paapa Essiedu (Hamlet) in Hamlet (RSC)

Raphael Sowole (Hamlet) | Hamlet | Tara Arts

Eben Figueiredo | In Defence of Character - Hamlet - Text in Performance

Theatre and Drama

What Is Theater? Crash Course Theater #1

Straight Outta Stratford-Upon-Avon - Shakespeare's Early Days: Crash Course Theater #14

The English Renaissance and NOT Shakespeare: Crash Course Theater #13

Hamlet In Class Demand Writing Assignment

Hamlet summative - demand writing.

Your topic will be given out in class. You will have 1 period to complete the assessment.

You will brainstorm and compose your demand writing assignment in class. You will write, double spaced, on paper in class.

You will be writing in a shortened mini-essay format. There are several variants of the mini-essay. They all do the same thing, they allow the writer to focus and produce succinct writing.

The mini-essay OMITS both the introduction and conclusion paragraphs. You can help the fluidity of your writing by maintaining transitions and introducing your quotes properly .

Shortened mini-essay style (thesis + 1 body)

Thesis statement. In an in class demand writing scenario you have to weigh the importance of a positional thesis versus a thesis which lists arguments.

Body Paragraph

Topic Sentence

1 Sentence

Quote from the text that supports your point

Explain / Analysis # 1

1- 2 Sentences

Explain / Analysis # 2

1-2 Sentences

Explain / Analysis # 3

Concluding Sentence

Transitions are important. Have a few memorized. Use standard, formal English. There are no MLA style marks on the the demand writing assignment.

In an in class demand write, you have to weigh the importance of a positional thesis against a formulaic list of arguments thesis. Prepare by becoming comfortable writing a 2 sentence thesis. Order does not matter, but content does. One sentence will be your formulaic thesis (text, author, arguments and a reworking of the questions). The other sentence will be your position. Don't make the mistake of incorporating a position in the thesis and then not dealing with it in your body paragraphs.

Don't waste time or space on plot summary or "translation". Focus on your question, analyse your quotes and remember your audience.

In Class Demand Writing Assignment Rubric

Hamlet Writing in Role Assignment

Hamlet summative – write in role.

Using your knowledge and understanding of the text, along with your own inferences and creativity, write a passage from the perspective of a character. You may choose any character except for Hamlet himself.

Two pages double spaced, size 12 font, 500 words max.

A monologue, diary entry, or letter.

Mandatory context to include: write 1-3 sentences describing when this passage takes place in the play and which character you are portraying.

Make sure you have quotes from the play. MLA in-text citations.

Example: a diary entry from Ophelia, “I overheard Hamlet muttering ‘to be or not to be,’ (3.2 64) as he passed by today. I sent a page to inquire about the meaning of these utterances.” As you go through the play with the class, you will find that this is impossible for Ophelia to know. Pay attention to who knows what in the play.

Write in standard English. Keep in mind that contractions and "I" are allowed. Avoid slang. Pay attention to how the characters naturally speak in the play for more direction on contractions and pronouns.

Submit your assignment as a Google Doc to our Google Classroom.

What does writing in character involve?

Vivid and descriptive writing from the perspective of a character

You may include stories and anecdotes

Consider the thoughts and feelings of the character

Things to Consider

What/who is this passage about?

What is your character feeling?

Where (setting) is your character?

Who (if anyone) is your character addressing?

What are the given circumstances?

What specific events have happened so far?

What events will follow?

Where does this passage take place in the play?

What specific circumstances are happening right now?

What events have affected your character mentally/emotionally/physically?

What does your character want?

What motivates them?

What is their immediate objective or aim?

What is the intention of your passage?

To reveal a secret?

To provide more information about a situation?

To further develop a character?

To tell a story?

This is entirely up to you – you have creative freedom.

How to Get Started

In addition to the above considerations, it might be useful to create a biography to help you get into the mindset of your character. Try brainstorming with some of the following prompts:

How old is your character?

Describe their most significant relationship.

Describe their most tumultuous relationship (this could be with themselves or with others)

What does their relationship with their family/friends like?

What is their current job or status in society?

Do they have any children?

Do they think positively or negatively about themselves?

What motivates them?

What are their character flaws? Are they aware of them?

What are their strengths?

What qualities do they dislike in others?

What are their greatest fears?

What are their hopes and dreams?

Is there something they’ve done that they're not proud of?

What five words would a friend describe them as?

What makes them the happiest?

Helpful Videos

Both videos cover the process of writing a character from scratch but are nevertheless helpful when building out your already established Hamlet character.

How to Write an Interesting Character in 5 Minutes

3 Tips for Writing Compelling Characters | Advice from Kurt Vonnegut

Writing in role rubric.

If you can't see the document, please read: You Do Not Need Permission To View Any Documents .

Hamlet Essay Mini-Essay Outline Assignment

Read Carefully, the original assignment has been edited because of remote learning.

Choose a topic, compose your original thesis, and write a formal essay mini-essay outline where you prove your thesis. Your essay mini-essay outline will be in MLA format. The rubric has been provided below. You will be given class time to complete the writing process . Your essay mini-essay outline will be submitted to our Google Classroom.

Parallelism / Character Foils

Self examination and the introspective nature of the major soliloquies

The role of women

Hamlet's indecisiveness

The theme of ambition

The theme of obligation (Political, Filial, Self)

The mini-essay outline has a specific format. I made a layout if you prefer images .

MLA format (noting new under the sun)

12 pt. font size

Arial or Times New Roman font

double spaced

formal style

MLA header (Your name, my name, course code, date)

MLA Work(s) Cited page PLEASE NOTE THAT OWL PURDUE HAS A BUILT IN CITATION TOOL. USE IT!

page numbering

italicize titles of texts

If you are unsure about MLA format, check out Purdue's OWL

Writing Process

You need a writing process. Try this one , earnestly.

Develop your thesis .

Please use the essay planner provided .

Link your arguments and paragraphs together using transitions .

You need textual support .

Want to describe something?

You are handing this in to our Google Classroom. Due date is in our calendar .

Please use the Formal Essay Mini-Essay Outline Rubric below

Mini-Essay Outline Rubric

Formal essay rubric.

IMAGES

📗 Hamlet Essay Example: Life Is the Sum of Your Choices
How Hamlet Changes Throughout the Play (300 Words)
Hamlet & Ibsen/Coleridge essay
Essay on hamlet (first sample)
Module B: Hamlet Essay
Hamlet Module B Essay

VIDEO

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The Bossman's pro-tips for Hamlet Revision (OCR A-Level English Literature Paper 1)
Hamlet 2- What Is Your Problem, Man
Hamlet and His Problems objective correlative By T.S Eliot in hindi summary
Richard Burton is Hamlet II.ii (“What a piece of work is a man…”)
Hamlet: The Possibility of Gay Stuff

COMMENTS

Hamlet Essay
The Tragic Story of Hamlet. Essay grade: Satisfactory. 2 pages / 1016 words. Hamlet is a tragic story where there is a hero and criminals. Everyone has an imperfection that leads to something tragic or r emotional in all of the history. The main evil in this story is Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
Hamlet Research Paper & Essay Examples
Focused on: Reasons for Hamlet's procrastination and its consequences. Characters mentioned: Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, Polonius. Role of Women in Twelfth Night and Hamlet by Shakespeare. Genre: Research Paper. Words: 2527. Focused on: Women in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Hamlet.
William Shakespeare: Hamlet's Actions and Inactions Essay (Critical
"Hamlet" is a play for all times. Its protagonist is a contradictory and mysterious person. If he is guided by blind revenge or righteous feel of justice, why he hesitates and lingers to punish culprits if he is prudent or light-minded - these adages may be united under two maxims:" Look before you leap" and "He who hesitates is lost".
Hamlet Essay
English. Hamlet Essay. It can be argued that Hamlet, is one of the greatest tragedy pieces written by William Shakespeare throughout his life. The play provides conflict between a variety of personalities all in the pursuit of power or their own interruption of moral justice. It encompasses the themes of deception, manipulation, and malevolence ...
Shakespeare: Hamlet
The story of the play is about the prince Hamlet whose father was the king of Denmark. The king was murdered by Hamlet's uncle Claudius who also married Hamlet's mother Gertrude. The play is centered on Hamlet's anxiety and indecision on how to avenge his father's death. We will write a custom essay on your topic. 809 writers online.
Hamlet: Mini Essays
Most likely, Hamlet's decision to feign madness is a sane one, taken to confuse his enemies and hide his intentions. On the other hand, Hamlet finds himself in a unique and traumatic situation, one which calls into question the basic truths and ideals of his life. He can no longer believe in religion, which has failed his father and doomed ...
Hamlet: Suggested Essay Topics
5. Suicide is an important theme in Hamlet. Discuss how the play treats the idea of suicide morally, religiously, and aesthetically, with particular attention to Hamlet's two important statements about suicide: the "O, that this too too solid flesh would melt" soliloquy (I.ii.129-158) and the "To be, or not to be" soliloquy (III.i ...
Hamlet Sample Essay Outlines
Sample Essay Outlines. PDF Cite. The following paper topics are based on the entire play. Following each topic is a thesis and sample outline. Use these as a starting point for your paper. Topic ...
How To Write A Literary Analysis Hamlet Essay
Define the structure of your paper. As a rule, an essay consists of three main structural elements: introduction, main part, and conclusion; In the introduction a narrator should point the topic, highlight the main issues that need to be considered; In the main part, it is advisable to represent a system of argumentation based on a deep study ...
Hamlet Essays for College Students
1 869 words. "Hamlet" by Shakespeare. 1. Hamlet, one of William Shakespeare's greatest tragedies possesses an intense environment of uncertainty. This sense of "uncertainty" is governed primarily by the indecision and hesitation demonstrated by the protagonist, Hamlet, the prince of Denmark.
Shakespeare's Hamlet essay, summary, quotes and character analysis
Characters: Review of each character's role in the play including defining quotes and character motivations for all major characters. Characters Analysis: Critical essay by influential Shakespeare scholar and commentator William Hazlitt, discussing all you need to know on the characters of Hamlet. Hamlet Essay: Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous ...
Essays About Hamlet: Top 5 Examples And 10 Prompts
Hamlet in an "inky cloak" to signify his grief, a Denmark under Claudius linked to corruption and disease — these are just some imageries used in Hamlet. Find other imageries and explain how they achieved their dramatic effect on highlighting the moods of characters and scenes. 8. Shakespeare's Language in Hamlet.
Essays on Hamlet
Essays on Hamlet. Written as the author taught Hamlet every semester for a decade, these lightning essays ask big conceptual questions about the play with the urgency of a Shakespeare lover, and answer them with the rigor of a Shakespeare scholar. In doing so, Hamlet becomes a lens for life today, generating insights on everything from ...
151 Hamlet Essay Titles, Examples, & Thesis Ideas
Write your Hamlet essay thesis statement during outlining and refine it when you start writing. It is possible to revise it when the essay is already finished, and you see ways to improve the thesis. Tip #4. Start writing your Hamlet essay. When you begin to write an essay, you can check available samples and titles to get inspiration.
Hamlet essay prep Flashcards
Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Hamlets' bouts of urgency --> drive plot, Ghost --> gives Hamlet a purpose, improves mental state, Ophelia's funeral reveals the hidden beliefs of the Denmark court. and more.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare Summary, Themes, and Analysis
Hamlet is a tragic play written by William Shakespeare somewhat in 1599. The exact date of publication is unknown, however, many believe that it was published between 1601 and 1603. The play is set in Denmark. Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, is Shakespeare's longest play and is well-thought-out as the most influential literary work of literature.
Revision Cards
Read through the key points, then print the cards as a handy revision aid. 1 Decode the question. Make sure you understand the question before you start writing. Highlight the key words and then use them to help you structure your essay. EXAM TIPS. Hamlet: AS & A2. 2 Plan your answer. Make sure you haven't got too many / too few ideas to ...
Hamlet In-Class Essay Handout
ENG 4U In-Class Essay on Hamlet Instructions: Write an essay on Hamlet based on one of the prompts below. Evaluation: Based on the Senior English: Formal Essay Rubric Length: Between 1000 and 1500 words (approx. 4-7 double spaced pages) You will be given portions of two class periods to prepare for this essay: First Class: Tuesday Jan 10th Second Class: Thursday Jan 12th You will write the ...
Hamlet: Full Play Analysis
Full Play Analysis. In telling the story of a fatally indecisive character's inability to choose the proper course to avenge his father's death, Hamlet explores questions of fate versus free will, whether it is better to act decisively or let nature take its course, and ultimately if anything we do in our time on earth makes any difference.
Lesson plan; Exploring the Depths of Hamlet: A Voyage into the Maze of
Written Activities: Character Analysis: Choose one or two characters from Hamlet and write a comprehensive analysis of their personalities, motivations, and roles in the play. Provide specific examples from the text to support your analysis. Theme Exploration: Select one of the central themes of Hamlet, such as revenge, madness, love, or relationships. . Write an essay exploring the theme in ...
107 Exceptional Hamlet Essay Topics: Questions & Prompts
107 Exceptional Hamlet Essay Topics: Questions & Prompts. by IvyPanda Updated on: Aug 14th, 2023. 12 min. 6,561. Every academic paper starts with a captivating idea, and Hamlet research paper or essay shouldn't be an exception. In the list below, our team has collected unique and inspiring topics for you. You can use them in your writing or ...
Mr. Liconti
Choose a topic, compose your original thesis, and write a formal essay mini-essay outline where you prove your thesis. Your essay mini-essay outline will be in MLA format. The rubric has been provided below. You will be given class time to complete the writing process. Your essay mini-essay outline will be submitted to our Google Classroom.
PROJECT: PREPARING THE CRITICAL ESSAY IMPORTANT NOTE All written
Preparing a Critical Essay on Hamlet. In order to prepare a critical essay on William Shakespeare's Hamlet, it is essential to first establish a focused thesis statement that articulates your main argument about the play. Following the thesis, an organized outline should be developed that will guide the structure of your essay.

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Hamlet Essays

Essays About Hamlet: Top 5 Examples and 10 Prompts

Top 5 Essay Examples

10 Writing Prompts For Essays About Hamlet

Jeffrey R. Wilson

Bibliography

Introduction

Hamlet by William Shakespeare Summary

Themes in Hamlet

Political Livelihood

Hamlet Characters Analysis

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Voltimand and Cornelius

Marcellus and Barnardo

Hamlet Literary Analysis

More From William Shakespeare

Lesson plan; Exploring the Depths of Hamlet: A Voyage into the Maze of Revenge, Madness, and Love

Pre-study activities:

After reading play – (you might only read one act)

Extra activities and places to visit if time:

Shakespeare animated books:

Essay Questions:

Written Activities:

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107 Exceptional Hamlet Essay Topics: Questions & Prompts

Study Guide Menu

Folger Shakespeare Library - Digital Hamlet

Enjoying the Play

Reading / Viewing Schedule

Timestamps for the Stratford Festival's Hamlet on Digital Theatre+

Digital Theatre+

Drama: The Art of Analysis

About Character

About Setting

Some Dramatic Effects of a Scene in a Play

Oedipus Rex

Existentialism

Aristotle's Poetics

Anagnorisis

The Essence of Tragedy

The Tragic Hero

The Great Chain of Being

Fate, Family, and Oedipus Rex

The battle of the Greek tragedies

Tragedy Lessons from Aristotle

Shakespeare on PBS

7 Soliloquies found in Hamlet

Getting Ready for Big Ideas in Hamlet

Why should you read "Hamlet"? - Iseult Gillespie

Why tragedies are alluring - David E. Rivas

Shakespeare's Tragedies

Who am I? A philosophical inquiry - Amy Adkins

What is existentialism? | A-Z of ISMs Episode 5 - BBC Ideas

The philosophy of absurdism | What is the point of life? | A-Z of ISMs Episode 1 - BBC Ideas

Nihilism vs. Existentialism vs. Absurdism — Explained and Compared

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

#ToBeBlack | The Public Theater

Theatre and Drama

Hamlet In Class Demand Writing Assignment

Shortened mini-essay style (thesis + 1 body)

In Class Demand Writing Assignment Rubric

Hamlet Writing in Role Assignment

What does writing in character involve?

Things to Consider

How to Get Started

Helpful Videos

How to Write an Interesting Character in 5 Minutes

3 Tips for Writing Compelling Characters | Advice from Kurt Vonnegut

Hamlet Essay Mini-Essay Outline Assignment

Writing Process

Mini-Essay Outline Rubric

IMAGES

VIDEO