He replies, "That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty." ... "What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven?" ... He gives her a curse for a wedding gift if she does decide to become "a breeder of sinners." ... He again tells her to go to a nunnery and then snaps back again telling her that if she needs to get married, she should marry a fool since wise men know how women ruin them. ... Women dance about, walk slowly, speak softly and sweetly, give cutesy names to animals, and make their playfulness their ignorance as if they...

• Word Count: 2206
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Do you believe his tenders as you call them?" ... She becomes an ornament through which Claudius attempts to spy on Hamlet by seeing how Hamlet interacts with Ophelia. ... At first glance, Hamlet presents his mother as if she lacks intelligence. ... She does know the truth and confesses her sin. ... " She is a realist who just wants the best for people. ...

• Word Count: 1649
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Hamlet believed she has degraded herself by marrying Claudius. ... How strange or odd some'er I bear myself (/As I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on), /That you, at such times seeing me, never shall, /With arms encumbered thus, or this headshake, /Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase, As "Well, well, we know," or "There be, and if they might," /Or such ambiguous giving-out, to note That you know aught of me -- this do swear, /So grace and mercy at your most need help you. ... /What should a man do but be merry? /For look you how chee...

• Word Count: 1315
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Look to 't, I charge you. ... Ophelia demonstrates her weakness as she is convinced by her father that Hamlet does not have good intentions, leaving her devastated and unable to find the courage to fight back. ... Not being able to be with the one she loves drives Ophelia to go mad especially because she knows the advice she is receiving is taking her in the wrong direction. ... This shows as Hamlet speaks to Ophelia, "Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. ... This play is a prime example of how women have outgrown t...

• Word Count: 1097
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Hamlet is smart and he knows he is constantly being watched. ... When her father asks her if she thinks Hamlet really loves her, she responds with: "I do not know, my lord, what I should think." ... Ophelia does not fight them and she, instead, "did repel his letters and denied his access" (II.ii.1476). ... Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them." ... Hamlet can not believe that a woman who clung to his father could so quickly run to the arms of her husband's brother. ...

• Word Count: 1185
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

She is left to believe only what her father tells her, even when he questions Hamlet's affection for her she responds "I do not know, my lord, what I should think.... Because of this submission, Ophelia does not know how to communicate with others. She is oppressed by every male she encounters in the play, this is particularly evident when Hamlet verbally attacks her for seemingly no reason: "Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them" (Shakespeare, 3.1.138). ... She is not able to be honest with Hamlet or her fa...

• Word Count: 1574
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

You still have to take into consideration the fact she got married to months after the death of the King. ... If the entire relationship was not based on sex, which we do not know, than why should Polonius have said anything at all. ... I do know, when the blood burns, how prodigal the soul lends the tongue of vows......."... With all his "I love you, I cannot believe you lied to me, I loved you" I am not surprised she died. ... After Gertrude dies of the poison I guess the best way to describe Hamlet's attitude toward his mother is you don't know what you lost until it is actually g...

• Word Count: 907
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

You still have to take into consideration the fact she got married to months after the death of the King. ... If the entire relationship was not based on sex, which we do not know, than why should Polonius have said anything at all. ... I do know, when the blood burns, how prodigal the soul lends the tongue of vows......."... With all his "I love you, I cannot believe you lied to me, I loved you" I am not surprised she died. ... After Gertrude dies of the poison I guess the best way to describe Hamlet's attitude toward his mother is you don't know what you lost until it is actually g...

• Word Count: 948
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The good and bad qualities of characters in Hamlet makes it harder for the audience to know who is right or who they want to see succeed. ... Hamlet You should not have believ'd me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. ... These lies are outrageous enough, but Hamlet does not stop at telling the innocent Ophelia he doesn't love her, but later tells her to, ". . . marry a fool, for wise men know what monsters you make of them" (3.1.137-138). ... If the ghost, who was set on revenge, would tell Hamlet to ...

• Word Count: 1476
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

She is easily taken over by Claudius, doesn't even connect her husband's death to Cluadius, who she has probably been sleeping with for some time. ... Ophelia cannot answer for she doesn't know. ... When she does Hamlet is caught in surprise and becomes defensive. ... Or if though wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know enough what monsters you make of them" (act 3, scene 1, line 147). ... The first thing a person should do when they feel thoughts of suicide it to talk to someone, which ...

• Word Count: 1894
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

For example, in Othello, after convincing Roderigo that everything will work out and promising to help him win over Desdemona, Iago delivers his first soliloquy saying Thus do I ever make my fool my purse; For I mine own gained knowledge should profane If I would time expend with such snipe But for my sport and profit. ... Therefore prepare you. ... Although he intends to hurt Cassio, he gives off the impression that he is merely doing the right thing by saying, I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth Than it should do offense to Michael Cassio. ... It is unclear how much Clau...

• Word Count: 1814
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

But know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father's life Now wears his crown. (I.V.36-40) The ghost tells Hamlet how he was really slain. ... However the insanity does not stop here. ... She mourns only the bare minimum before remarrying her brother-in-law. ... She mourns only the bare minimum before remarrying her brother-in-law. ...

• Word Count: 972
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The general gist of lines 25-40 is that if a person has one fault, no matter how virtuous they may be in other ways, they are soiled by "the stamp of one defect." ... Hamlet, using his antic disposition as cover, ridicules him: Polonius: Do you know me, my lord? ... Hamlet: For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion...Have you a daughter? ... Later in the scene, when Ophelia speaks with Hamlet as Claudius and Polonius listen from a clandestine location, Hamlet repeatedly commands her to go to a nunnery, wh...

• Word Count: 1952
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

The classic tragedy, Oedipus tells the story of the King of Thebes, Oedipus who foolishly tries to challenge fate and evade prophecy, which proclaimed that he would murder his father and marry his mother. When trying to free Thebes of a plague he discovers that the prophecy had, in fact come true and he did murder his father and marry his mother. ... You shall rule it! ... Both the fall of Oedipus" shield of pride and the moment of enlightenment occur at the same time when Oedipus is questioning the hardsman at the altars before the royal palace at Thebes: Hardsman: If you are the child he sai...

• Word Count: 3952
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School

I know not "seems" (1037, line 76). ... Moreover, Hamlet recognizes the importance of his affections towards Ophelia, and in regards to Ophelia's beauty, Hamlet states "That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty" (1083, line 108). ... In this scene, while Hamlet is advising the player on how his lines should be read, he says "Suit the action to the word, the word to the action" (1086, line 15). ... If his occulted guilt Do not itself unkernnel on one speech, It is a damned ghost we have seen" (1088, line 72). ... If Claudius is a consummate acto...

• Word Count: 2118
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

By using his crazy new attitude and anger, he is trying to convince her that she should not go to Claudius. ... In this scene, you have to ask yourself - how much does Hamlet think his mother knows? ... After all, there is actually no hard evidence that she knows about the murder. ... Hamlet is wondering whether he should continue to live, or take his own life. ... "How all occasions do inform against me, and spur my dull revenge!...

• Word Count: 1900
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

It is based on the Historia Danica (1200) by Saxo Grammaticus, a Danish historian who wrote it in Latin. ... Assume a virtue if you have not Refrain and that shall lend a kind of easiness to the next abstinence," (III. iv. 180-188). ... Another negative aspect of Hamlet's personality has to do with misogyny, a hatred of women or womanhood. ... Was she an accomplice in her husband's murder? ... Does she intentionally betray Hamlet? ...

• Word Count: 1979
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School