1. Stage the final scene in Hamlet, paying special attention to how you place the bodies of the falling dead on the stage. Why would you choose to place them thus? 2. Conduct a mock jury trial to prove whether Hamlet is or is not mad. 3. Conduct a mock […]

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1. What kind of a King is Claudius? What evidence shows the kind of monarch he is and the kind of man he is? Is this his appearance, or is it his true character? 2. What is Hamlet’s conflict over the Ghost’s existence? Why does he continue to doubt the […]

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adoption tried friendship that has stood the test of time. aery nest. aim to guess or conjecture. angle fishing line. an’t if it. antique Roman The ancient Roman was ever ready to commit suicide when confronted with calamity. apoplex’d paralyzed. argal therefore. arms a coat of arms, being a group […]

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Adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays and other works have been featured in nearly 500 films and/or videos world-wide. That makes Shakespeare the most filmed playwright of all time! Here are the best, and most noteworthy, versions of Hamlet that can help you study and better understand the play. Hamlet 1948 Produced […]

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“That it should come to this!” (Act I, Scene II) What does it mean? Just after speaking to his mother Gertrude and uncle (and step-father) King Claudius, Hamlet has his first of five soliloquies. When Hamlet exclaims, “[t]hat it should come to this,” he’d just finished describing how the world […]

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Although Gertrude says the branch broke and swept Ophelia down the river, the church denies her a full Christian burial on the grounds that she killed herself. Prevailing wisdom is that one of two things is at work here: Either an inconsistency in Shakespeare’s writing, which is not uncommon — […]

Read more Critical Essays Ophelia’s Dilemma

The Classical tragedians appreciated the conflict between fate and free will. At the heart of every great tragedy lies the universal struggle between the human inclination to accept fate absolutely and the natural desire to control destiny. Both Sophocles and Shakespeare would agree that the forces of destiny and choice […]

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Throughout the play, Hamlet muses on and toys with the idea of death. His famous fourth soliloquy’s opening lines, “To be, or not to be” shows Hamlet thinking about suicide. His turning point of realization comes in the graveyard scene. Hamlet looks at the skull and remembers the man he […]

Read more Critical Essays Yorick’s Skull as a Major Symbol

Explore the different themes within William Shakespeare’s tragic play, Hamlet. Themes are central to understanding Hamlet as a play and identifying Shakespeare’s social and political commentary. Mortality The weight of one’s mortality and the complexities of life and death are introduced from the beginning of Hamlet. In the wake of […]

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Scholars know little about Shakespeare the Man, but significant evidence exists to suggest that Shakespeare the Writer/Producer/Actor/Director achieved success as an entrepreneur, and that he possessed an acute sense of what makes good theater and good entertainment. The very prosperous middle class that spawned him allowed William Shakespeare to parlay […]

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