...4UE Ms. Parsons May 3rd, 2015 Setting in Hamlet and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time In many situations, the way that people act and react to certain situations is the deciding factor towards the reasons that others judge them. However, Christopher John Francis Boone, from the novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, has no control over this certain aspect of his life. He cannot control his feelings or his initial instinct on how to react to something that does not necessarily please him. Christopher’s way of dealing with situations that he is not used to is similar to that of Hamlet in the novel, Hamlet. Both of these characters allow the setting of their lives, and the routine procedures that they are used to going through on a daily basis, to cause them to falter when something does not necessarily go their way. Hamlet grows up in Denmark, he knows the country and the people of his country better than anyone. Then, when his father mysteriously dies, his uncle marries his mother just two months after the death of his father, and Hamlet finds the people, and more so the country itself, undistinguishable. This is similar to the story of Christopher because Christopher’s biggest fear was straying from the very routine life style that he was living. Christopher and Hamlet both grow and change as characters throughout their novels as the setting and atmosphere change and force them to adapt to those changes. To begin with, Christopher found himself...
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...In Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the play suggests the relationship of reality and illusion through what is actually happening versus what may be wrongly perceived or interpreted. In the play, the main character, Hamlet is distraught and upset about his father’s death. His father was killed by his brother, Claudius, and since Hamlet’s father was the King, Claudius most likely killed him because he was power hungry and wanted to become King. This made Hamlet furious because Claudius also married his mother, Queen Gertrude. Throughout the play Hamlet’s behavior and actions are strange because he wants to get revenge on King Claudius by killing him. As a result of this, everyone around him notices how he’s acting and that he is not acting as himself. One character who demonstrates the theme of illusion versus reality is King Claudius, the King of Denmark, who demonstrates his love towards Hamlet, however it is considered as fake because he does not truly love him. Therefore he is manipulating Hamlet because Claudius pretends he loved his brother, however it is conflicting because how could one love someone so much yet he killed his brother to gain power....
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...Individuals may find peace and happiness throughout their lifetime, viewing it as a complete fulfillment and endless enjoyment. Sometimes, however, peace and happiness does not last forever and comes hardships. These hardships are something that the characters in Hamlet have to deal with, and it is also something the audience can relate to. This way of life is very relevant in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, which covers the competency of love, hate and power struggles found within the characters which later leads to an unfortunate ending. Hamlet, the main character of William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, is one of the most complex characters ever created. His intricacy can be seen in the amount of soliloquies he speaks throughout the play. Each one of Hamlet’s soliloquies reveals his innermost thoughts and gives the reader or audience insight as to what he is feeling at that time. The audience cannot help but to show some feeling towards the characters such as Hamlet, Fortinbras and King Claudius. All throughout the play, Shakespeare uses various characters to represent the social, economical, and cultural effects that are shown in Hamlet that may also correspond to the Elizabethan audience. Some characters that represent these effects include Hamlet, Fortinbras, Claudius, and Rosencrantz. It is through these characters’’ speeches and actions that really target the audience. The numerous soliloquy presented by Hamlet is one of the speeches in the play that captivates the audience. This...
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...Dramatic Irony In Hamlet There are several accounts of dramatic irony utilized in ‘Hamlet’ but one that was most effective to the overall play was in act 1 scene 5, when Hamlet converses with the ghost of his father. In this scene, the ghost came to Hamlet to reveal Claudius as his murderer and explained how his brother came to him in his sleep and poured poison in his ear. The ghost of Hamlet’s father tells him to avenge his death but not act violently towards his mother. Soon after, Marcellus and Horatio approached Hamlet but the ghost had vanished and Hamlet requested that the two not speak of the ghost’s visit to anyone. The important truth of old Hamlet’s murder will contribute to shape the plot and define Hamlet’s actions. Without the confession of the ghost, Hamlet would have no knowledge of the truth behind his father’s death. Therefore, every aspect of Hamlet’s ‘madness’ is defined by the new found truth that has been bestowed upon him. This scene creates dramatic irony throughout the play because the motives of Hamlet’s behavior is made clear to the audience. The lack of this scene would be inadequate because Hamlet would have no incentive to avenge his father’s murder because his knowledge stretches to believing a snake bite killed him. The audience is aware that Hamlet’s actions have meaning and everything he does contributes to his prior knowledge of the death/murder. This scene also contributes to other dramatic ironies like the mock play that upsets Clau...
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...Module B: Critical Study of Texts In the context of your critical study of Hamlet, to what extent does your response to this section of the soliloquy inform your judgment of this play as a whole? In your response, make detailed reference to Hamlet. The third soliloquy primarily explores Hamlet’s struggle to take action and avenge his father’s death. This inner conflict creates a dramatic tension that is sustained throughout the play and contributes to the textual integrity. The themes of Hamlet’s self-loathing, his resistance to action, and revenge, dominate this soliloquy and recur consistently for the duration of the play. They reveal Hamlet’s weak and procrastinating character which only changes towards the very end when he overcomes his cowardice and takes revenge for his father’s death by finally killing Claudius. The audience’s attitude towards Hamlet develops through the third soliloquy as they are informed to a large extent about what the core of the drama is about. This in turn shapes their judgement of the play as a whole. Hamlet’s self-loathing arises from his frustration in not having avenged his father’s death. This is constant throughout the play because it is the character’s prime focus. His inner conflict of feeling he is incapable of killing Claudius, and then hating himself for it, begins in the first line of his soliloquy, when he uses direct speech to the audience, referring to himself as a ‘rogue and peasant slave’. This juxtaposes the image of his...
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...William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is possibly the most famous work in Western Literature. Since its first performance around 1600, Hamlet has been Shakespeare’s most performed, read, and studied drama. One of the most intriguing of these interpretive questions concerns madness in the play. How we as readers view Hamlet’s sanity has a profound impact on how we see his character and how we view the play as a whole. Throughout Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet's questionable madness is explored through his real madness and feigned actions towards his madness. The first reference to madness comes in Act 1, Scene 5. Here Hamlet sets the stage for his alleged madness throughout the rest of the play by telling Horatio “As I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on....” (1.v. 171-72). In these lines Hamlet is telling his friend Horatio that he will play the role of a mad man so that no one will be able to discover his true purpose of avenging his father’s most foul and unnatural death. After seeing the ghost, Hamlet's mind is bombarded with thoughts of the world unseen that leave him full of emotion and desperate to know the truth. This is maybe the biggest influence on Hamlet in his life. He changes personal so much from the beginning to end, from living to dead. In some instances, Hamlet's madness can be seen as real. For example, Hamlet states as he makes a pass through the arras and kills Polonius, "How now! a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!" (3.4, 25). Hamlet's...
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...character changes. Additionally, in Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, Hamlet behaves a certain way to get attention off his scheme of murdering his uncle, Claudius due to his ungrateful decision of killing his father, King Hamlet. In The Handmaid’s tale, Offred’s character forcefully changes due to where she has to live. Offred is taken away from her family, and she now lives in the Republic of Gilead where everything is tidy and in good shape; such as pictures in the magazine, gardens, absence of...
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...Life, Philosophy and Hamlet Hamlet is considered to be one of the most complex characters ever created. Basically, Hamlet is a play about growing up. At the start of the play Hamlet still believes life should be beautiful and perfect and people should be good and honest. He is shocked and angry when he discovers that many people are not good nor honest. He thinks life should have deep meaning but he can find no meaning at all. Trough the play he struggles to accept that life is painful and difficult. All the beautiful things he believed are gradually destroyed and he becomes depressed and suicidal. Hamlet has had many opinions throughout the play about how things in life work out. Hamlet believes that humans are amazing creatures because they are capable of doing so many things. He also believes the world is a beautiful place. To Hamlet though the world seems nothing more than air, “it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.” (Ham.II.ii.301-303) and humans are nothing more than dust “And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?” (Ham.II.ii.308) In another speech, Hamlet points out the uselessness of the law and no matter how much you gain in life, it’s not going to mean anything when you die. This is shown when Hamlet said, “The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box” (Ham.V.i.107-108) Hamlet is revealing that you can obtain many material items in life, but ultimately when you die you won’t be able to bring...
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...Death in Hamlet Ideas and beliefs surround the mystery of death, which fills the story of Hamlet. Ever since the first scene, we are thrown into a world in which the line between life and death has become very thin. As one of the first characters we are introduced to is the Ghost of the former King of Denmark, Hamlet’s father. In the first scene, a meeting with the dead is come about, although Horatio, Bernardo and Marcellus are afraid by the Ghost as he appears. They are blown with curiosity and want to know why he has reappeared in the living world, “Stay! Speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!” (1.1.65). This curiosity is passed on to the audience and brings them into a wondering with the death of the King that sets the tone for the rest of the play. Hamlet is one of the characters that is consumed with the idea of death after the death of his father. He is driven by the knowledge that he will someday also be perished, and this death is what forces Hamlet to set revenge. In perhaps his most famous speech, “To be or not to be,” Hamlet introduces the question on what the difference is between living and dying and what the point is. Hamlet is not disturbed by his father’s death, but how his mother has gotten over it so quickly, because he is afraid if someone could get over someone’s death like that, then life has no meaning what so ever. Death imagery really sticks the theme of death in the audiences mind throughout the play. The word”rank” shows up constantly in Hamlet’s...
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...Name Subject Professor Date Hamlet’s Insanity In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the theme of insanity is portrayed through Hamlet. Hamlet’s mental state mirrors the play’s ambiguity. Hamlet’s character elicits different hypotheses that include the following: First, Hamlet is sane throughout the play but opts to feign insanity. Secondly, Hamlet’s insanity was latent but fully developed after the play produced by the hero. Hamlet claims he will take on an “antic disposition” ( Bloom, 45). The first thing that indicates his insanity is his madness. His madness can be hypothesised as an indication of this disposition. His madness is further shown when it is stated that he was only mad after an interview with a ghost. This interview with a ghost is by all reasons, an indication of madness. Therefore, Hamlet is insane and its insinuation in the play is not a ploy. Secondly, the suicidal tendencies of Hamlet justify his insanity. When the play opens, Hamlet wishes that his, “flesh” would melt and, “dissolve” (Thiher, 39). Hamlet’s need for self-slaughter is brought out and portrayed throughout the play. Besides, the murder of his father and the betrayal of his mother make him be of the belief that the world is a very corrupt place: Of, that this too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. (Shakespeare, 1.2.6-11) One of the factors that impair Hamlet’s...
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...ENG 4U Ms. Straus May 23, 2015 Hamlet Quotation Test Quotation 1: “How all occasions do inform against me And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. Sure he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and godlike reason To fust in us unus’d.” (Hamlet: IV, iv, 3238) Literal Level: This quotation is from Act IV, Scene IV, when Hamlet observes Fortinbras leading the army through Denmark towards Poland. Hamlet learns that the Norwegians are going to war with the Polish over a small, worthless patch of land. In this soliloquy, Hamlet ponders how these men are willing to risk their lives for such a small cause, when he is still so hesitant to act on his revenge on Claudius for his father's murder. 1. This passage helps to develop Hamlet’s character and the plot of the play because it is in this scene that Hamlet realizes that he must act on his revenge plan or else he is just going to be a purposeless “beast”. Throughout the play, Hamlet struggles with whether or not to exact revenge on Claudius because he is not certain of all of the facts. When Hamlet sees how willing the soldiers are to fight over such a small piece of land, he realizes that without action Hamlet is not taking advantage of the gift of life that God has given him. Hamlet realizes that humans have “capability and godlike reason” and that ...
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...Hamlet is thought to be one of William Shakespeare's most honored works and is a piece of art in its form that has been studied in depth by many scholars since its time. The storyline of Hamlet follows a vein of madness that begins with Claudius' murdering King Hamlet and ending with the tragic killing of almost every main character. Many reasons have been proposed for the ultimate tragedy, which occurs at the conclusion of the play. Indeed Hamlet is mad, but the other characters' madness also helped in contributing to his own. It is or is it not true that Hamlet was faking his insanity? Highly doubtful that Hamlet was faking the whole thing. The meaning for insanity on Dictionary.com is “a permanent disorder of the mind.” Hamlet didnt have a permanent disorder of the mind he knew what he was doing and even planned the majority of the events that happened. Most of the time anyway. Having your father die is bad enough, but to have your mother marry your uncle, within a few weeks of your father’s death? Then to see the ghost of your dead father. That would drive anyone a little insane, but maybe not to the extent that everyone thought Hamlet was acting. Hamlet is torn between acting sane and letting everyone else see him as insane. Throughout the story Hamlet pretends to be insane and even dies acting out this front of insanity. At first it seems as though Hamlet is just acting, but then it appears that he does truly indeed go insane. Even after he has gathered evidence against...
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...in William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. It is the very basis for the play and a string of words familiar to many different people all over the globe. In the infamous ‘To Be or Not to Be’ soliloquy, Hamlet makes a universal conviction about life and death, though in the end makes a conclusion that individuals who think too much can destroy themselves”by including, the diction, the syntax, and the imagery. The diction in this piece truly shapes and adds character to the meaning of the soliloquy. Words such as “undiscovered country” (Shakespeare 63), “fardels” (Shakespeare 63), “ills” (Shakespeare 63), “suffer” (Shakespeare 63), and “calamity” (Shakespeare 63) make the reader...
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...Trust is an issue that is often problemcatic. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the character Hamlet trusts only a small number of people. He hides his real personality and opinions from his friends and family. Hamlet, to fool others, often changes his character. He questions the loyalty of his friends and family. In the play, friends and family cannot be trusted. Hamlet does not trust those who are close to him because of the numerous betrayals from his family and friends. Hamlet is unable to trust others due to the fact that his family and friends are willing to betray him. When Hamlet’s mother remarries, he speaks of how he feels he has been betrayed by his mother: “‘By what it fed on, and yet within a month – Let me not think on’t; frailty, thy name is woman! … Would have mourn’d longer, - married with my uncle, My father’s brother, but no more like my father … With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not, nor it cannot come to good; But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue!’” (Act I scene II, 145 – 159.) Hamlet feels betrayed by his mom because of her marriage to his uncle, but he cannot voice his opinion to her. Along with his feelings of betrayal, he feels angry about her quick decision to marry again. He links her quick remarriage with her inability to control her sexual desires. He is furious at the fact that his mother prefers instant pleasure over love, and feels that his...
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...A Hero’s Journey: Hamlet and Simba What images come to mind as you reflect on your childhood? Playgrounds, blackboards, and soccer balls may be among the warmest of memories. Yet for many mermaids swim their thoughts, princesses get swept of their feet, and lions roar to their loyal place in the animal kingdom. There is no doubt that today’s entertainment has most of its touch using classical influences. Walt Disney has produced animated films that have captured the heart and imagination of audiences of all ages around the world through the magic of storytelling and imagery. Many of us appreciate the imagination and magic that Disney puts into its animations with out knowing they are based off of classical and traditional storylines that have been around for many years. For example the Disney movie The Lion King that is based off of the classical Shakespeare play Hamlet. The Lion King is possibly the most well known movie of the Disney collection that portrays a strong moral to its viewers. The journey that is taken by the characters in this movie is one from innocence to experience through confronting challenging situations. Just how Disney uses magic and imagination to capture its audience William Shakespeare also captured the hearts of people everywhere through the representation of emotions and feeling in his plays. Hamlet is without a question one of the most famous play in English literature. Through Hamlet Shakespeare shows a brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle...
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