Hamlet

First performed between the years 1600-01, first printed in 1603.

Throughout Shakespeare's plays, the maintenance of identity is a very common conflict, as it was shown in Macbeth and now in Hamlet. In this play Shakespeare has portrayed young Hamlet to convey the two sides to him; one side shows his insane behaviour towards his family, the other side determines his thoughts of either doing right or wrong according to what he has seen. The play trembles with conflicts: one being identity, which shows all the characters in different disputes of their own. We also see the problems of lack of self-confidence, misjudgement, and betrayal.--Submitted by imran.

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Best/recommended edition of Hamlet

Hi guys! I'm searching for one with spacious, clear formatting, short summaries of plot at the top of each page with some discussion prompts dotted here and there. I don't want one that has commentary and critique from just a single person, but one that adresses the basic, main themes, quesitons etc. I wish I had my old A-level one still :( Thanks! :)

Posted By TheDave at Tue 18 Nov 2008, 3:41 PM in Hamlet || 1 Reply

Please help me with Act 4 quotes!

"Mad as the sea and wind when both contend/which is the mightier." "his poisoned shot, may miss our home and hit the woundless air". "It is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you/shall be dry again." "the body is with the king, but the king is not/ with the body. The king is a thing___" " A man may fish with the worm that hath eat/ of a king and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm" "he will stay till you come" "Do it, England," "My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth" I need help with these quotes they are all found in act 4

Posted By LilBoom at Sat 15 Nov 2008, 12:41 AM in Hamlet || 3 Replies

Zeffirelli's hamlet

Why do you think that Zeffirelli protrays Hamlets "discussion" with his mother after the "mousetrap" play with incestuous sexuality. IS there a deeper reason for it or is he just trying to show that his mother is a whore.

Posted By Taezer at Thu 13 Nov 2008, 5:27 PM in Hamlet || 0 Replies

Dire need of a little assistance pretty please!

I'm doing an a level course in eng lit and we're studying Hamlet. For our coursework i have chosen the question, "How important is revenge as a motivating factor in the Shakespearean tragedy you are studying?" I'm majorly struggling on this as we've been focusing on the link between aristotle's theory of tragedy and how it links in with Hamlet. I cant seem to get my head round how to write my coursework and what parts of Hamlet to concentrate on. I feel so silly not being able to do it as everyone else in my class has already finished theirs, but ive got such a creative block I havent even reached 600 words! ANY HELP! would be greatly appreciated as English is what I hope to pursue as a career, and if I cant put this work together, I'm in big trouble. HELP asap HELP asap HELP ASAP!!!!!!!!!! xc.

Posted By nice_hair at Wed 5 Nov 2008, 6:55 AM in Hamlet || 1 Reply

hamlet and oedipus

anyone can explain me the relationship between hamlet and his mother?there is something of oedipicus in him? in what chapeter can I find an hamlet discourse about his mother in this oedipicus sense? Thanks a lot:yawnb:

Posted By igle at Sat 1 Nov 2008, 4:17 PM in Hamlet || 1 Reply

I need Help deciphering these Hamlet Quotes Please Help

here are the quotes " Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth" - Polonius (2,1 Line 70) "that hath made him mad" -Polonius (2,2 line 125) "Thanks Rosencrantz and Gentle Guildenstern" -King (2,2 line 35) "Thanks Guildenstern and Gentle Rosencrantz" - Queen(2,2 line 35) "It might please you to give wuite pass/through your dominions"- Voltemand (2,2 Line 84) " More matter less Art"-Queen (2,2 line 103) "Though this be madness, yet there is method In't" - Polonius (2,2 line 220) "Denmark's A prison"-Hamlet (2,2 line 262) "I am mad but North-North west" -Hamlet (2,2 line 402) "They Are the Abstract and Brief chronicles of the time" -Hamlet (2,2, line 550) "what's Hecuba to him, or he to (hecuba) "-Hamlet (2,2 line 586) " The spirit i have seen/may be a devil"-Hamlet (2,2 line 628) "The Play's the thing" - Hamlet (2,2 line 635) *note The legend for the location of the quote is as follows (act,scene,Line number) ok were good thanks to everyone who decides to help me! What i need from these quotes 1: Speaker( I already put the speakers 2. Situation 3: dramatic importance to the play please help me out i can even give you the direct line locations if you want but all these quotes are from act 2 someone help?

Posted By LilBoom at Wed 29 Oct 2008, 5:39 PM in Hamlet || 14 Replies

Come poke holes in my logic

So I'm writing a 2-3 page paper where I will prove Hamlet gradually slips into madness. My logic looks like this: 1.) Hamlet does not act mad at the start of the play (he warns others that he will start acting mad so they don't worry; this shows his clarity of thought) 2.) Hamlet acts mad at the end of the play (this point is uncontested) 3.) Hamlet does not garner any benefit or gain anything from acting mad at the end of the play (most of the proof will be required here) Therefore, Hamlet is crazy because he is acting mad during the play for no reason. Here is where I need some help. What possible benefits could Hamlet derive from acting mad? The only gains I can think of would be that he gathers information with ease because others let their guard down. That would explain why he acted mad originally, but then why would he continue to act mad once he knows that it was Claudius that killed his father? Why would he continue to act mad enough to pick a pissing match with Laertes in the graveyard? I have read through other threads marked similar and have not found information about the positive side of feigning madness. If you can't think of any, please post so; that is really the confirmation I'm looking for. If you see a reason why my logic if flawed, let me know so I can fix it.

Posted By HowlingBarley at Tue 28 Oct 2008, 11:27 PM in Hamlet || 10 Replies

Tragedy - I am so not a lit major

Ok, so I am pre-law, and although I love to read, very much so, it is the in-depth stuff (in-depth to me anyway) that I struggle with. That is why I waited to take my Lit 103 requirement until senior year! So my prof wants me to identify the following in Hamlet, and although some of it I am coming up with, I am looking for ideas/answers from those who know better than I (and if you have any questions about con or admin law, I will help you - but really who cares but me). 1. Introduction (if I can't figure that out, I'm in trouble) 2. Rising action - this is stuff I've never learned, I am not sure exactly what this phrase means (yes I am 29, and still do not know this stuff) 3. Crisis (may be a series of them) 4. Reversal (of fortune, change of direction) 5. Recognition (horrifying disclosure) 6. Climax 7. Tragic fall 8. Resolution I don't know if these then appear in this order. I mean, I can guess on some, but still am not sure - i.e. for Recognition I have Claudius' prayerful admission to his guilt in Hamlet Sr's murder. Thanks to anyone who can help. I don't want to cheat, I just feel so clueless, so don't give too much away.

Posted By smarkosa at Sun 19 Oct 2008, 9:08 PM in Hamlet || 3 Replies

Help!

I need to memorize all these lines. I have all the Hamlet part smemorized but then, I'm stumped does anybody know how to memorize quickly? HAMLET To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? 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.--Soft you now! The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember'd. HAMLET I humbly thank you; well, well, well. HAMLET No, not I; I never gave you aught. HAMLET Ha, ha! are you honest? HAMLET Are you fair? HAMLET That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty. HAMLET Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness: this was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. HAMLET You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it: I loved you not. HAMLET Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father? HAMLET Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool no where but in's own house. Farewell. HAMLET If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell. HAMLET I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages: those that are married already, all but one, shall live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go. Exit KING CLAUDIUS Love! his affections do not that way tend; Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little, Was not like madness. There's something in his soul, O'er which his melancholy sits on brood; And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose Will be some danger: which for to prevent, I have in quick determination Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England, For the demand of our neglected tribute Haply the seas and countries different With variable objects shall expel This something-settled matter in his heart, Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus From fashion of himself. LAERTES How now! what noise is that? Re-enter OPHELIA O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt, Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye! By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight, Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May! Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia! O heavens! is't possible, a young maid's wits Should be as moral as an old man's life? Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine, It sends some precious instance of itself After the thing it loves. LAERTES Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge, It could not move thus. LAERTES This nothing's more than matter. LAERTES A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted. LAERTES Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself, She turns to favour and to prettiness.

Posted By shakespeare87 at Tue 5 Aug 2008, 12:44 PM in Hamlet || 1 Reply

religious development...

how do hamlet's religious views develop during the play? what's different between how he starts off, and how he ends up...? and kinda hurry... :)

Posted By inneedofhelp at Fri 1 Aug 2008, 2:03 PM in Hamlet || 9 Replies

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