... “Summary on the Plot of Hamlet.” William Shakespeare's Hamlet follows the young prince Hamlet home to Denmark to attend his father's funeral. Hamlet is shocked to find his mother already remarried to his Uncle Claudius, the dead king's brother. And Hamlet is even more surprised when his father's ghost appears and declares that he was murdered. Exact dates are unknown, but scholars agree that Shakespeare published Hamlet between 1601 and 1603. Many believe that Hamlet is the best of Shakespeare's work, and the perfect play. Prince Hamlet is depressed. Having been summoned home to Denmark from school in Germany to attend his father's funeral, he is shocked to find his mother Gertrude already remarried. The Queen has wed Hamlet's Uncle Claudius, the dead king's brother. To Hamlet, the marriage is "foul incest." Worse still, Claudius has had himself crowned King despite the fact that Hamlet was his father's heir to the throne. Hamlet suspects foul play. When his father's ghost visits the castle, Hamlet's suspicions are confirmed. The Ghost complains that he is unable to rest in peace because he was murdered. Claudius, says the Ghost, poured poison in King Hamlet's ear while the old king napped. Unable to confess and find salvation, King Hamlet is now consigned, for a time, to spend his days in Purgatory and walk the earth by night. He entreats Hamlet to avenge his death, but to spare Gertrude, to let Heaven decide her fate. Hamlet vows to affect madness — puts "an...
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...In what ways does Stoppard make it clear to an audience that the world of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead is absurd? Stoppard’s play, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead” is a form of absurdist theatre where the otherwise unacceptable, unbelievable happenings of the universe are taken in by the audience and absorbed as part of the play. The main absurd component of the play revolves around the idea of existentialism where the central characters are completely unaware of their past or why they exist. They are surrounded by absurd events, which they are unable to understand or explain. This is one of the signs that the world of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is absurd as they are set ‘in a place without any character’. This opening introduces the audience to the absurd with a meaningless world of no obvious setting or environment as ‘(Guildenstern’s) attention (is) being directed at his environment or lack of it’. This also emphasises not only a lack of background to their location but also their own background. The pair of them have no memory of where they come from nor what they were doing but dwelling on their “unremembered past” – until they recall that they were summoned, giving them a purpose and direction to their life. There are several events in the play that emphasise how absurd this play is, such as the coin tossing incident with “eighty-five in a row” of consecutive ‘heads’, which under natural forces is completely impossible, but in their absurd world anything...
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...Horatio, to watch with them. When he sees the ghost, he decides they should tell Hamlet, the dead King's son. Hamlet is also the nephew of the present King, Claudius, who not only assumed his dead brother's crown but also married his widow, Gertrude. Claudius seems an able King, easily handling the threat of the Norwegian Prince Fortinbras. But Hamlet is furious about Gertrude's marriage to Claudius. Hamlet meets the ghost, which claims to be the spirit of his father, murdered by Claudius. Hamlet quickly accepts the ghost's command to seek revenge. Yet Hamlet is uncertain if what the ghost said is true. He delays his revenge and begins to act half-mad, contemplate suicide, and becomes furious at all women. The Lord Chamberlain, Polonius, concludes that Hamlet's behavior comes from lovesickness for Ophelia, Polonius's daughter. Claudius and Gertrude summon two of Hamlet's old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to find out what's wrong with him. As Polonius develops a plot to spy on a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia, Hamlet develops a plot of his own: to have a recently arrived troupe of actors put on a play that resembles Claudius's alleged murder of Old Hamlet, and watch Claudius's reaction. Polonius and Claudius spy on the meeting between Ophelia and Hamlet, during which Hamlet flies into a rage against women and marriage. Claudius concludes Hamlet neither loves Ophelia nor is mad. Seeing Hamlet as a threat, he decides to send him away. At the play that night, Claudius runs...
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...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...
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...COSTUME AND FASHION SOURCE BOOKS Elizabethan England Kathy Elgin Copyright © 2009 Bailey Publishing Associates Ltd Produced for Chelsea House by Bailey Publishing Associates Ltd, 11a Woodlands, Hove BN3 6TJ, England Project Manager: Patience Coster Text Designer: Jane Hawkins Picture Research: Shelley Noronha Artist: Deirdre Clancy Steer All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Chelsea House, an imprint of Infobase Publishers, 132 West 31st Street, New York, NY 10001. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Elgin, Kathy. Elizabethan England / Kathy Elgin. p. cm. — (Costume source books) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60413-379-0 1. Clothing and dress—England—History—16th century—Juvenile literature. 2. England—Social life and customs—16th century— Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series. GT734.E44 2009 391.00942'09031—dc22 2008047258 Chelsea House books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York on (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Chelsea House on the World Wide Web at: http://www.chelseahouse.com. Printed and bound in Hong Kong...
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