... trust between Hamlet and Laertes in the play because Laertes does not know the whole truth about his father's murder. He believes everything that Claudius tells him, some of which is true. The very fact that Laertes questions Hamlet about his father's death, shows just how difficult it ... Claudius. An inability unable to trust one another is the main factor that makes this play evolves. With out the establishment of trust, a relationship can never succeed. Hamlet is having a conversation with his mother on the decision she has made: Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,...

• Word Count: 1278
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... Prince Hamlet is believed by everyone to have gone mad. Everyone thought that Hamlet's madness grew upon his father's death, and his mother's marriage to Hamlet's uncle Claudius. Hamlet does indeed act in madness like ways. He does things and says things that are clearly out of the ordinary. However, it is all an act that ... this point in the story everyone is mad and because of all of the killings and they all think it is Hamlets fault. Now we come to Hamlet's love life. This may be the last place where Hamlets madness is but it is a huge factor of the play when dealing with anger. Th...

• Word Count: 1944
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• Grade Level: High School

... frightens his mother and treats her as if she were almost as loathsome as Claudius to him. The audience certainly doesn't see Gertrude as woman who truly loved her first husband, but her love for Claudius does not seem to warrant the hate Hamlet expresses in this scene. We see ... and crowds are gathered onstage. Hamlet apologizes for wronging Laertes in his madness, and Laertes superficially accepts his repentance. As the duel commences, King Claudius toasts to Hamlet with wine and secretly prepares a poisoned chalice which is meant to kill hamlet is Laertes fails to slay him. Hamlet beg...

• Word Count: 1476
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... . King Hamlet, his father, died recently. Shortly following King Hamlet's death, Gertrude, the mother of Hamlet, married the brother of her dead husband. Claudius, the brother of Old King Hamlet is now the King and husband of Gertrude. Hamlet returned home to for both the celebration of his mother's wedding ... were come" (1.3.42). He spoke to a ghost, which was Old Hamlet, and stated that his death was a murder, by the hand of his brother, Claudius. The ghost told this to Hamlet by saying, "the serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown" (1.5.51). Hamlet's personality ...

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• Grade Level: High School

... forgiveness so he would not be murdered. However Claudius causes the murder of Gertrude and himself, which eventually led to the ending of the play. Despite Claudius" actions there are similarities between himself and Hamlet. They both are murderers and liars and both are passionate men. Both love Gertrude in a unique way and both are very influential. Hamlet gets what he wants in ... avenging his father's murder and Claudius carries out his plans for murder, although neither turned out ... as u would expect. Claudius the villain was a very complexed character. He carefully planned out...

• Word Count: 871
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• Grade Level: High School

... . Hamlet is tormented by confusion which prevents him from acting upon his beliefs. When Hamlet first spoke with the ghost, he told him that Claudius killed him and he should seek revenge. Hamlet was not sure whether to believe the ghost or not. This leaves Hamlet confused and anxious to ... past, That youth and observation copied there" (Act I v 100 - 103). Hamlet treated his mother in a rude fashion, because he loved and trusted her, but she married Claudius less than a few months after his father's death. "O God! a beast that wants discourse of reason Would have mourn'd longer, - marri...

• Word Count: 1089
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• Grade Level: High School

... when hamlet saw his father's ghost he told hamlet to avenge his murder. By the beginning of Act III, Hamlet is almost ready to kill Claudius, but he still needs more proof that Claudius killed his father. Hamlet decides to set a trap for him in the form of a play. The subject of the play is the murder of ... wife. The plot of the play is similar to the circumstances of King Hamlet's murder, which strikes a chord in the conscience of Claudius. In the middle of the play during the murder scene, Claudius gets up and begs for the play to stop so that he can get some air. Hamlet is very ang...

• Word Count: 1027
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... tells Hamlet that he was wrongfully killed at the hands of his traitorous brother, the present King Claudius. He urges Hamlet that he must take revenge for his murder and kill Claudius, and says, "If thou didst ever thy father love/...Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" (I.v: 29, 31). With these words, the ghost puts ... he does not want to kill him while he is praying because he will go to heaven. Reed points out that " the prince could not slay Claudius in the purging of his soul without, in all likelihood, securing the salvation of his victim" (95). His sword was drawn and rea...

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• Grade Level: High School

... was about to say something. / Where did I leave it?" (1474 49-50). Throughout the play there is no evidence to suggest that Polonibus knew of Claudius's crime. In Scene IV: The Queens Closet, with Polonibus hiding behind the curtain, Hamlet, thinking he is the King, drives his sword through the curtain ... In my mind his emotion was a little late coming. And what of Hamlet's long soliloquies, where in act II scene 2 he debates a plan to kill Claudius (1490 497-557), or act III scene 1 where he debates about his sins and the afterlife (1492 1-89)? I contend they are further exhibits of h...

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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... 't even take the time to see who is in the closet; his state of mind and suspicion that it is Claudius causes him to attack without questions. If Hamlet had known it was Polonius, he would have decided on some other ... her father and now her blood is also on his hands. When Hamlet is banished to the English court by King Claudius for the murder of Polonius, the two courtiers, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, are sent with him to assure that he dies in ... their deaths. The last four deaths all occur in Act 5, scene 2 and are all caused by poison. Claudius supplies the poison, but the wea...

• Word Count: 911
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• Grade Level: High School

... with the obvious tragic components, there are other driving factors that make Hamlet such a multidimensional play. The factor that drives Hamlet's desire to murder Claudius is heavily questioned, providing a debate on whether Hamlet's eagerness to avenge his father is due to a bloodthirsty desire for revenge or because of a ... towards the justification of revenge in an obligation of righteousness. King Hamlet's ghost says to his son, "if thou didst ever thy dear father love" then he needed to "revenge his foul and most unnatural murder." (Act I, scene five) which leads Hamlet to believe...

• Word Count: 1323
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... likes to think things through thoroughly before he acts and does stuff. Hamlet does that after the play The Murder of Gonzago when Claudius leaves in an up roar, Claudius goes to pray for forgiveness and Hamlet has the chance to kill him but he thinks about it and decides it would not ... he decided not to capitalize on that opportunity and waited for the end of the play after his mother died after drinking a poisoned drink that was intended for Hamlet from Claudius. "Hamlet: The point envenom"d too! Then, venom, to thy work. [Stabs the King] All: Treason! treason! King: O, yet defend m...

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• Grade Level: High School

... one of the oldest crimes in the bible, the first murder ever committed. Hamlets love for Ophelia is another tragic point of the play. He loves her as much as any man could love a woman, but loses that for she rejects his love because of her father. This is tragic because in reality she loves him back ... play, its hard to say whether Hamlet still loves Ophelia or whether this love has turned into bitter feelings. He treats her quite badly quite often, but at her grave he expresses his love as being that of 10 000 brothers, so his love is questionable. Polonius' death is also tragic, for ...

• Word Count: 911
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• Grade Level: High School

... insane only at certain times. You are either insane or you are not insane. Hamlet is pretending to be insane so that he could later kill Claudius and get away with it by saying he was mad. There are many times in the play that Hamlet acted perfectly sane and announced his "antic ... disposition" to people. Hamlet's "antic disposition" begins when the ghost of his father tells him about how he was murdered by Claudius and to avenge his death. Hamlet firmly states to Horatio that he might begin to act odd or weird, and that when he does to not to ... had killed him there, all of Cladius'...

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• Grade Level: High School

... each other's characteristics throughout the play. Caught in the spur of the moment, Hamlet murders Polonius and causes an outbreak of emotions in Denmark. King Claudius is told by a messenger that "The rabble call [Laertes] "lord" and-as the world were now but to begin, ... order to seek an explanation and avenge his father's murder from King Claudius along with a group of supporters. When Laertes questions King Claudius about the ambiguity surrounding Hamlet's freedom from punishment, Claudius responds by pointing out "the great love the general gender bear [Hamlet]" (Act IV, Scene VII)...

• Word Count: 699
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... allied to her King than her own son. After her encounter with Hamlet which ends with Polonius' death, Gertrude does not hesitate to tell King Claudius what her son has done, yet she does keep her word by not telling him that Hamlet has just merely been faking madness. With her ... death of her father has caused her to go mad. Another possible cause for Ophelia's madness is her trust and love for Hamlet which is not returned by him. Circumstances such as Hamlets unrequited love and his exile, her fathers death and Laertes being far away, come together to drive Ophelia into loneliness and ...

• Word Count: 833
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• Grade Level: High School

... make the actors act out a play similar to the way his father was murdered to, "make mad the guilty and appall the free" (II,ii591), in order to see if Claudius was really guilty or not. A mad man would not be able to think of a plan like this. Also, when Hamlet finds ... he was confessing, the murderer's soul would go to heaven and Hamlet's father would not be revenged. He vows to kill Claudius, "when he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, or in th" incestuous pleasure of his bed" (III,iv,94-95), so that he would go to hell. A crazy person ... like he is insane only around the people he ...

• Word Count: 619
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... blatantly obvious. Both characters are guilty of taking part in an incestuous relationship. Iokaste's manipulation by the Gods and Gertrude's manipulation by the Claudius is also a related factor. However, the most significant similarity between these two Greek tragedies is that both Queens wed the culprit responsible for ... Hamlet" says, "The serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown." ("Hamlet", Pg, 258, Lines 48-49) This shows that the Claudius, the current king, was the perpetrator guilty of murdering old Hamlet. According to Maurice Charney, "Murderous rage is fea...

• Word Count: 1047
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• Grade Level: High School

... will never lose importance is because of the incestuous relationship between Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude, and uncle, King Claudius. Even in Elizabethan times, Hamlet was disturbed by his mother's quickly new found love. In scene II of the first act, Hamlet's disgust with his mother's incestuous relationship and pain over his ... of her husband, the King. There would be endless rumors and problems arising from such a relationship, so the rest of the government would never allow Claudius to become King. Since this play is staged four hundred years ago, such modern inconveniences, like...

• Word Count: 1494
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• Grade Level: High School

... characters Laertes and Fortinbras compare to Hamlet in three ways: personality, actions, and their differing emotions throughout the play. One connection of Laertes and Hamlet is their love for Ophelia. Hamlet and Ophelia both show a common affection towards one another in a state of "puppy love", and Laertes loves Ophelia as a sister. However, the main connection of Hamlet and Laertes lies in the ... love and respect of their fathers and the state of grief their deaths brings upon them. Hamlet responds to his father's death by suppressing his grief and turning it into anger towards his...

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... himself. Ophelia feels that Hamlet's dress is one of someone who has been loosed from hell to speak of horrors. Hamlet's uncharted madness leads Hamlet to tell Ophelia, his dear love, he has never loved her. Hamlet's statement, "Get thee to a nunnery" was very cruel and cold. Hamlets madness doesn't stop with words. Unknowingly he lashes out and kills Polonius hoping ... that it was King Claudius. This is an irrational action. The shedding of innocent blood with no remorse prove to be enough evidence for insanity. As Polonius lay motionless on the floor , his murderer proves ... out wa...

• Word Count: 650
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• Grade Level: High School

... thorn of Hamlet's master plan. As the reader embarks on the first act,. The apparition of Hamlet's father informs the prince of his duty, "If thou didst ever thy father love...Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder"(I. iv. 25). Hamlet's worst fears of his uncle are confirmed. The ghost also exhorts Hamlet to act quickly for his is "Doomed for ... 's thoughts and self-persuasions that get the best of him, convincing him that now is not the right time, for Claudius would have the possibility to travel to heaven. This asinine decision inhibits Hamlet from carrying out swift justice as h...

• Word Count: 810
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School