...Outline Hamlet Essay Politics, hatred, envy, incest, love, and most importantly revenge. These are all themes that boldly occur in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Literature is made to be understood and related to by the audience and throughout Hamlet; Shakespeare presents his audience with many soliloquies. As a matter of fact, the most famous of words in English literature "To be or not to be" (III, i, 58) is in a soliloquy said by Hamlet. Like all speeches in Shakespearean pieces, Hamlet's soliloquy captures the audience's eyes, ears, and hearts with relation to the economic, social, and political aspects of life. Through the common social tendencies of humans and Body Paragraph 1 Death is all around, whether caused through nature or by another man it will always haunt the world. Many people tremble upon the subject of death and it even haunts many to think of dying, this is why and how Shakespeare found a way to captivate his audience. This is evident when Hamlet says "while, to my shame, I see the imminent death of twenty thousand men, that for a fantasy and trick of fame, Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, which is not tomb enough and continent to hide the slain?" (IV, iv, 59-65). Here Hamlet expresses the great number of people that are being slaughtered in comparison to the one man who he is destined to kill to avenge his father. The audience analyzes this and now understands what it means to take a life. Shakespeare shows...
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...The Characterization of Hamlet William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is an emotional play, filled with such dark attributes as revenge and evil. In Act I Scene II, Hamlet, the protagonist of the play, makes his first appearance and also, right after an exchange with his mother Gertrude and his uncle Claudius, delivers his first soliloquy which reveals his inner thoughts to the audience. This is where the tension begins to build up; Hamlet expresses his anger and frustration he feels towards his father’s death and the hasty marriage between his mother and his uncle. This introduces Hamlet’s outlook on and attitude towards this series of events, thus establishing a foundation for the course of his future actions. Through the content of the soliloquy, as well as through the use of diction and figurative language, Shakespeare brings out the characterization of Hamlet, establishes the very essence of the play and foreshadows its course by exposing the genuine yet dark thoughts of the protagonist to the audience. As it is Hamlet’s first soliloquy, and thus the audience’s first contact with his feelings, Hamlet exposes little other than his attitude towards this affair; nothing is really revealed about his intentions. It is made clear that Hamlet desires to die, but dares not commit suicide because God forbids it. The audience is then introduced to Hamlet’s reverence for his father and his distaste for his uncle, then his increasing mistrust of women, and finally his vexation at the incestuous...
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...Hamlet Final Essay What do you think makes Shakespeare’s Hamlet such a powerful and enduring play? Thesis William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1603) explores the intrinsic aspects of humanity creating a powerful and enduring play by subverting the audiences’ expectation of a revenge tragedy play. Shakespeare enables universal anthropological appreciation through the emphasis on the thematic concerns of: the mystery and transcendental nature of death, clouded grey areas in between the dichotomy of good and evil morals, and the twisted manipulative nature of human behaviour. Therefore, through critical study of the play, Shakespeare augments and connects to the audience’s perspective and interpretations. Body Topic sentence 1. Overarching idea i. Point ii. Quote iii. Technique iv. Elaboration Sample Sentence Linking sentence (concluding sentence) Body 1 – Death Death is the inescapable reality of human life as explored in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the fact that the living world is made of death and decay is visible anywhere there is life. 1. Hamlet’s bereavement over his father i. Bereavement is an inescapable reality in which all humans must endure. ii. “But I have more within which passes show – These but the trappings and the suits of woe” iii. Rhyming couplet iv. To reinforce Hamlet’s underlying argument to his grief over the finality of his father’s death. Bereavement is an inescapable reality, exemplified when Hamlet says...
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...Hamlet, In spite of a prejudice current in certain circles that if now produced for the first time it would fail, is the most popular play in our language. ~ G.H.Lewes. The distinctive concerns of a time and place construct the foundation and shape meaning in a text. The Shakespearean play of Hamlet is an enduring play as the themes introduced in the play by Shakespeare are closely parallel and touch on with the intricacies of human conditions. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is complex play where numeral themes are intertwined. These themes reinforce the development of a revenge tragedy. Without any doubt, the most essential theme present in Hamlet is revenge. Revenge is a frightening bloodthirsty emotion which forces individuals to act blindly. This aspect of revenge is explored through the play by Shakespeare creating the idea in which Hamlet seeks to avenge the murder of his father, King Hamlet, by Claudius. In a typical revenge tragedy, a revenger craves and takes his revenge, leaving himself in a vicious cycle of ongoing revenge. However Hamlet is quite different, “prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, / must like a whore unpack my heart with words” As instead of taking revenge he talks about it. William Shakespeare very effectively uses soliloquies to accentuate character traits and to reinforce specific themes in his play. A soliloquy spoken by hamlet in act 3 clearly portrays his character flaws and reinforces...
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...The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude, the old king's widow and Prince Hamlet's mother. The play vividly portrays both true and feigned madness – from overwhelming grief to seething rage – and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption. Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in the English language, with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others." The play was one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime It has inspired writers from Goethe and Dickens to Joyce and Murdoch, and has been described as "the world's most filmed story after Cinderella". Shakespeare based Hamlet on the legend of Amleth, preserved by 13th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum as subsequently retold by 16th-century scholar François de Belleforest. He may also have drawn on or perhaps written an earlier Elizabethan play known today as the Ur-Hamlet. He almost certainly created the title role for Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeare's time. In the 400 years since, the role has been performed by highly acclaimed actors and actresses from each successive age. Three...
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...Cause and Effect Hamlet Essay William Shakespeare, arguably the greatest language in the English language and England’s national poet, has written numerous histories, tragedies, comedies and poems. Throughout his plays, his use of dramatic irony, immaculate word choice and wording, and his vast imagination has made him a successful playwright even in his time. Shakespeare’s scripts for his theatrical company, needed to pertain to the needs and fascinations of the Elizabethan audience. It is safe to assume that all his sonnets, poetic speeches, electrifying action and soliloquies in his play were created for the delicate and quickly appreciative of language Elizabethans of his time. A particular example out of the many soliloquies present in the tragedy of Hamlet is the beautiful and moving speech in Act IV, Scene IV (IV, iv, 35-70) of Hamlet depicting his admiration of Fortinbras and his disappointment in himself. The poetic loving audience is noticeably the cause while this splendid speech, along with the many others, is the effect. This soliloquy is a mere example of Shakespeare’s disgust for the political manipulations of his time, the acceptance of murder, and the change of self brought on by others. In the brilliant vocalization of Shakespeare’s feelings through the speech made by Hamlet, it is evident that Shakespeare despises the waste of lives due to war without justification. Perhaps, knowingly that the audience would share this view or dissentient of lives lost...
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...Amongst the most tragic story lines of Shakespeare’s plays, Hamlet is definitely one of them. In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Fortinbras, Hamlet and Laertes each demonstrate the ways revenge leads to tragedy when they are unable to cope with the loss of a loved one. Young Fortinbras has intentions of honoring his father’s loss by gaining the territory that was rightfully theirs. The lengths he is willing to go compare to Hamlet’s determination to seek revenge upon his uncle, and father’s murderer, Claudius. Hamlet’s hopes of wanting to destroy Claudius the way he had done to King Hamlet are delayed several times throughout the play, making it nearly impossible to follow through with his plan. One of Hamlet’s setbacks is being shipped off to England for the murder of Polonius, which is Laertes’ father. After discovering that Hamlet was responsible for the death of Polonius, Laertes does all he can to get revenge on Hamlet. The three men’s need for revenge relates to the corruption of the characters within the play. The corruption of the characters within the play results in the tragic death of each major character. The first of the murdered fathers was King Fortinbras who was the King of Norway. King Fortinbras challenged King Hamlet to a single combat over the state of Denmark by which King Hamlet won. This incident is responsible for Young Fortinbras’ hopes of seeking revenge upon his father’s death and winning back the land that he believes was rightfully his family...
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...respective genres and interests due to creativity and quality. Some of these composers have even shaped new forms of art and creative outlets. One such artist is William Shakespeare, the famous English poet behind plays like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Shakespeare’s plays have managed to gain and maintain cult followings for hundreds of years. Shakespeare is arguably one of the biggest and most notable names in literary history thanks to his extensive contribution to the English theatre. With such great influence and cultural reach comes...
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...Troubles”: The Supernatural and the Natural Order in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth In order to assimilate into the worlds of William Shakespeare’s most enthralling tragedies, entirely coherent atmospheres must be accommodated. Hamlet and Macbeth each introduce a spectrum of radical physical and metaphysical concepts which allow audiences the opportunity to understand the fabric of the universe as being much more tightly woven than previously conceivable. One of Shakespeare’s great consummations as a writer is explaining supposed and naturally occurring phenomena during a time when people readily accepted the existence of supernatural beings without reasoning or understanding. Each of the plays begins with a paranormal occurrence, delivered in the form of a ghost and a threesome of witches respectively. Shakespeare uses the shocking unrealism of such occurrences to illustrate disturbances to natural order. Specifically, Hamlet and Macbeth showcase the supernatural to convey nature’s innate responsiveness to human immorality. Prior to examining the crude repercussions of immorality, natural law and conscience must be traced in accordance with Hamlet and Macbeth to distinguish evil deeds from justifiable human action. Conscience is an awareness of a natural order which gives life significance and purpose under a natural law. The mind is compelled to seek out rationality and organization provided by such a natural order. Shakespeare’s tragic heroes are extraordinarily human under this...
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...What Dreams May Hamlet Prompt: Similarities and/or differences in “Hamlet” and “What Dreams May Come” “The Tragedy of Hamlet”, or Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play, and is often ranked among the most powerful and influential tragedies in world literature, with a story capable of ‘seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others.’ “What Dreams May Come” by Vincent Ward is a film based off of Shakespeare's “The Tragedy of Hamlet.” Although these films are vastly different from one another, they have many similarities such as their character development. Hamlet is a tragic piece written by William Shakespeare between the dates 1599 and 1602. The setting is in the medieval Kingdom of Denmark and it is a play that dramatises the revenge of Prince Hamlet towards his uncle Claudius who murdered King Hamlet in order to seize the throne and marry his deceased brother’s widow. Prince Hamlet's love interest, Ophelia, is a young noblewoman of Denmark who was his potential wife before the series of unfortunate events within this play. She was a public figure looked upon highly until the death of her father. After his funeral, Ophelia begin to talk in riddles and rhymes and is described by other characters in the play as ‘mad.’ This play has been deemed as the most skilled at rhetoric. Shakespeare uses developed metaphor, stichomythia, and non...
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...prominent piece 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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...Introduction Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one of the most famously problematic plays ever written. It has inspired critics to argue over it, since it first appeared on the stage in 1601. • John Dennis implies that there is no clear moral lesson in the play, since both good and bad characters die, but he refers to Hamlet as the best of Shakespeare’s tragedies. • Samuel Johnson generally praises Hamlet for its entertaining variety and balance but he dislikes its resolution. • Johann von Goethe sees the character of Hamlet as lacking in heroism. • T.S. Eliot felt that Hamlet was an artistic failure. • A.C Bradley says “It was not that Hamlet is Shakespeare's greatest tragedy or most perfect work of art; it was that Hamlet most brings home to us at once the sense of the soul's infinity, and the sense of the doom which not only circumscribes that infinity but appears to be its offspring”. The layers of Hamlet seem endless. Even after more than four hundred years of critical debates, there is no consensus about the play. Interestingly, Hamlet begins with a question and it remains infinitely open to interpretation. It is therefore a play of mystery. One of the central concerns of the play is the nature and the role of the Ghost who takes the form of Hamlet’s dead father. In order to understand it, we firstly ought to consider the theatrical impact of ghosts and spirits on Shakespeare’s audience. Ghosts in Shakespeare’s Time Shakespeare’s contemporaries...
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...In Reta A. Terry’s ‘Vows to the Blackest Devil’: Hamlet and the Evolving Code of Honor in Early Modern England , his view of honor is that it changes greatly from one generation to another because the sense of honor revises. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as stated by Reta A. Terry, honor is identical with promise, “Yet, integral to the early modern honor code was, and is, the word, and Shakespeare’s use of the word of honor – of promise – can be examined in order to discern the shifting concept of honor itself” (Terry 1071). Terry goes on to describe how Shakespeare used honor in Hamlet by expressing, “Shakespeare’s characters’ concepts of honor can be perceived in the ways in which they use, and respond to, promise” (1071). Hamlet exemplifies honor...
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...Struggle with Life and Death In Act III, scene I of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the thematic imagery, along with the symbolic use of syntax and diction that Shakespeare uses helps convey Hamlet’s state of mind as troubled and as having a painful view to life which, overall, is subtly expressed with weakness as he talked about death. Death is a major theme in Hamlet and through Shakespeare’s astonishing words in his “To be, or not to be,” soliloquy; it is obvious that Hamlet is conveyed as a troubled character. He is unsure about death. “To be, or not to be, that is the question:” (line 1), proves that Hamlet is troubled because the use of a colon is a sign that he is not only answering his own question, but he is expressing opposing views about life thus leaving him with an unsure decision about suicide. He answered himself by saying: “Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer/ The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune;” (Lines 2-3.) This imagery shows that Hamlet questions the honor of death, and since he is open to death he does not realize whether it would be honorable to go through the act of committing suicide or if it would be considered a sin. This makes him have a troubled state of mind because he has these two opposing views of death floating in the vastness of his thoughts. The first sentence of his soliloquy finishes with: “Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing, end them.” (Lines 4-5.) Hamlet still questions life and suicide, and the imagery...
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...Middle Ages – wrote brilliantly on circumstances of human existence o Aristotle – the great philosopher ENTER SHAKESPEARE – THE LITERARY GIANT Spelling of Shakespeare: Spelling not yet standardized, thus name spelled in different ways • Shakespeare, Shakspere, Shackspere, Shaxper, Shagspere, Shaxberd, etc. Shakespeare: The most well known playwright of Elizabethan times is Shakespeare. But there were also other writers who in their time were just as, or even more famous than him. WHAT MAKES SHAKESPEARE STAND OUT? – The volume of his works Plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare ■ 14 COMEDIES – funny play – with amusing events – ended in marriage / or happily o Midsummer Night’s Dream, Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Much Ado about Nothing… ■ 10 HISTORIES – Richard III, Richard II, Henry IV… ■ 10 TRAGEDIES – ends in death ← Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Julius Caesar… ■ 4 Romances – ( chivalry and love) Pericles,...
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