... 215-216) In Hamlet's most famous soliloquy, "To be or not to be," (Hamlet III i 56) he questioned whether it would be worthwhile to endure life and confront "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" or to oppose by putting an end to the "sea of troubles" (Hamlet III i 58, 59). He asked himself about death beyond religious considerations. Death was to sleep, but ... this rest would last eternally; in addition, what would follow afterwards remained unknown. Hamlet wished to end his own life, but death was "the undiscoverd country, from whose bourn/ No traveler returns." (Hamlet III i ...

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• Grade Level: High School

... has such rich and varied incidents, characterization, subject matter and use of language. One of the main techniques is how Shakespeare represented characters. He manipulated audience's minds by changing the way characters behaved in certain situations. Act III Scene 4 plays a very important role in the play "Hamlet" because it reveals aspects of Hamlets" and Gertrude's characters which help us understand ... how Shakespeare manipulates the audience's feelings about these characters by changing the way the characters act and react in different situations. This is ... future lover, when i...

• Word Count: 2226
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• Grade Level: High School

... A ghost is also not visible for everybody. In the last appearance of the ghost in the Queen's closet it is only Hamlet who can see and hear him. The Queen is wondering: "Alas, he's mad!" (III.4.119), "to whom do you speak this?" (III.4.146) This changes her whole attitude towards Hamlet. She ... now thinks that he is "mad" and who would trust somebody who is out of his mind? Hamlet looked up to his father because he felt that he was a great leader and the bravest ... with. The appearance of the ghost in the first act changes the fate that has struck Denmark with the sudden death of Old ...

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... . "I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth have you so slander any moment leisure as to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. Look to't, I charge you. Come your ways." (Act I, Sc. 3, 132-35). In this phrase it becomes obvious ... "I shall obey, my lord" (Act I, Sc. 3, 136). This was the only socially acceptable way, as a woman with standards, (in the day and age of the setting) to have responded to the situation. Which begs the questions: Did ophelia obey and worship her father because she felt socially obligated to? Or ... Hamlets wife). Ophelia's heart has convinced her o...

• Word Count: 668
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... Prince Hamlet doesn't like Claudius because 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 a king by his brother who, in turn, marries the king's 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...

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• Grade Level: High School

... spying and killed by their ignorance. Both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were childhood friends of Hamlet, and attended school with him. The third act of Hamlet opens with a remark by the king, Claudius, who instructs Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to discover why Hamlet "puts on this confusion,/ Grating so harshly all his ... days of quiet/ With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?" (Shakespeare III, i.) The King and Queen called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet who ... was easily persuaded to do so by bribery of money. This act of theirs helps emphasize the fact that they are two...

• Word Count: 1310
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• Grade Level: High School

... a project, unless one wishes for the conservative completism of Branagh) or the reorganisation, it is the interest provided by the synergy of Shakespearean verse (regardless of the quality of the speaking of that verse) and the modern context, which make this version worthy of analysis. With obvious influence from the stylistically modern Richard III (1996) and the audacious Romeo + Juliet (1996), ... Almereyda creates both a media saturated world and media-obsessed prince. The influence of the ... media and of technology provide a modernised context to certain allusions in the text, su...

• Word Count: 2290
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... his father, who is wallowing in purgatory. "[Claudius] took my father grossly, full of bread, With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May- (III.iii.81-82). Hamlet doesn't see any reason in allowing the murderous king to go to heaven while his father remains in purgatory. If Hamlet were more decisive and rash and did not rationalize his every move ... quickly. "Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent: When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed, At gaming, swearing, or about some act That has no relish of salvation it't:- (III.iii.89-93) Ham...

• Word Count: 1991
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• Grade Level: High School

... with Prince Hamlet in act 1, scene 3. When Hamlet first encounters Ophelia in act 3, scene 1, he is genuinely happy to see her when he says, " The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons / Be all my sins remeber"d" (III,I,90-91). Hamlet greets her with remarks of her beauty, and refers to her as a creature more heavenly than himself who might be easily forgiven ... that he has given her, which upsets Hamlet so much he denies ever giving them to her and insults her by saying, "Get thee to a nunnery..." (III.I.94-130), which is the Elizabethan equivalent to a whorehouse. The fury Hamlet posse...

• Word Count: 1429
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• Grade Level: High School

... not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not." (III, i, 115-116) However, during Ophelia's funeral in Act V, Hamlet leaps into the grave in grief and says, "I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my ... her room. He acts violently towards her and threatens, "You go not till I set you up a glass where you may see the inmost part of you." (III, iv, 18-19) Gertrude fears for her life and believes that Hamlet has come to murder her. In this scene he seems to ... two other ev...

• Word Count: 1236
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not." (III, i, 115-116) However, during Ophelia's funeral in Act V, Hamlet leaps into the grave in grief and says, "I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my ... her room. He acts violently towards her and threatens, "You go not till I set you up a glass where you may see the inmost part of you." (III, iv, 18-19) Gertrude fears for her life and believes that Hamlet has come to murder her. In this scene he seems to ... two other ev...

• Word Count: 1236
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• Grade Level: High School

... and that your grace hath screened and stood between much heat and him. I'll silence me even here. Pray you, be round (with him."" (III, iv, 1-7) In this quote Polonius is convincing Gertrude to try and uncover the genuine motive of Hamlet's erratic behaviour. Gertrude agrees, unaware of Claudius and Polonius' actual intentions. When Hamlet enters he tries to urge his mother ... progresses, her resistance is weakened by Hamlet's condemnation of her behavior. Gertrude says, "O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain,"" she continues, "What shall I do?."" (III, iv, 177, 202) This quote s...

• Word Count: 1456
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... is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in th' incestuous pleasure of his bed, At game a-swearing, or about some act That has no relish of salvation in't- (III.iii.90-92) Hamlet poses the situation as a matter of fairness: his father was killed without cleansing his soul by praying or confessing, and he believes that Claudius should die with out having ... of Polonius's body, he turns to Polonius saying "At supper Not where he eats, but where 'a is eaten- (IV.iii.17-19) Hamlet uses bizarre humor to make fun of Polonius's death to Claudius. When he is asked once more to reveal the location o...

• Word Count: 791
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... his battles is if he should live and avenge his father's death or if he should die and get rid of all the pain and troubles: "To be, or not to be, that is the question."(III,i,63). He weighs out the good things about death and the bad things about it: "To die: to sleep;/ No more; and by a sleep to say we end ... writ in/ choice Italian. You shall see anon how the murderer/ gets the love of Gonzago's wife."(III,ii,257-260). Also in some way it is a warning to the king because after seeing this scene the king gets mad and stops the play. The king suspects that Hamlet has something planned...

• Word Count: 1897
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• Grade Level: High School

... there is a method in't" (II.ii.110). Prince Hamlet continues to carry the burden of his father's wishes and 6) "[] with a crafty madness, keeps aloof" (III.i.137). On several occasions Prince Hamlet contemplates suicide and is obsessed with death. Despite his melancholy, he considers the uncertain afterlife and chooses to live. Prince Hamlet's logical approach in questioning, " ... ;To be, or not to be?" (III.i.142), outlines his moral thoughts about life and death. Ironically, Prince ... Hamlet's long and dramatic soliloquy 7) "[w]as not like madness" (III.i.149). Comparing death wi...

• Word Count: 602
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... Ophelia!" (V, 2) At one point Hamlet was so mad and depressed he wanted to kill himself. "To be, or not to be, that is the question"" (III, 1) The worst possible thoughts that Hamlet could have ever thought, he thought incestuously about his mother and himself. He never said that he wanted to be with his mother, but he ... . Hamlet complained about Gertrude and Claudius incestuous acts, but rarely mentioned his father until towards the end of the play. Hamlet was a very selfish man. He talked to his mother like a son shouldn't talk to his mother; "Come, come, and sit you down"" (III, 4)...

• Word Count: 650
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... : "O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain." (III, IV, 156). Hamlet then replies: "O, throw away the worser part of it, / And live the purer with the other half." (III, IV, 157-158). Hamlet is simply saying that he is the "purer" part of Gertrude's heart, and Claudius is the "worser" part. As in most cases, Gertrude sides with the "worser", but more powerful man. Aside from just ... choosing the more powerful man, a woman could also marry a man ... Ophelia did listen eventually and bowed down from Hamlets love. Laertes told Ophelia: "Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister, / And ...

• Word Count: 1154
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• Grade Level: High School

... times contemplates suicide. "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 trouble" (Act III i 57 - 60). Hamlet's confusion is unstable, he constantly need to reassure that things are going the way he plans it to be which can be seen in ... to heaven: And so I am revenged. That would be scann'd: A villain kills my father; and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven" (Act III iii 75 - 80). After the ghost spoke with Hamlet about his mother running of...

• Word Count: 1089
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• Grade Level: High School

... . Being obedient to her father, Ophelia avoids Hamlet, assenting "I shall obey, my lord" (I, iii, 136). Women were constantly seen as instruments in the city of Elsinore, never defending themselves. Ophelia reflects the nature of woman in a patriarchal society, demonstrating how females are hugely influenced by the men in their lives. Ophelia does not even realize that her father and her brother destroyed ... 't feel any sexual desires, proclaiming: "You cannot call it love, for at your age The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble, And waits upon the judgment; and what judgment Would ...

• Word Count: 1649
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... to double business bound, I stand in pause where I shall first begin, And both neglect." (III, iii, 36-43) An admission of guilt appears to be a prayer for repentance. Hamlet wants to make sure that Claudius experiences the eternal purgatorial walk that his father must wander through. In order spark interest, Shakespeare added a ... kills my father, and for that I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven. Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge." (III, iii, 76-79) To murder Claudius in this state would be not only sending him to heaven, but would be condemning Hamlet to Hell....

• Word Count: 1415
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... was not like madness. There's something in his soul o"er which his melancholy sits on brood." (Act III, scene I, pg 92) The king knows that Hamlet is not in this state of mind because of love, but rather the death of his father. He later warns Polonius, " It shall be so. Madness in great ones must ... just mad, and thinks nothing of it. However, Hamlet keeps a close eye on Claudius, and in turn sees the response that he wanted so desperately, he then says to Claudius "What, frighted with false fire?" (Act III, scene ii, pg 103) In which he straight out teases him by saying it's only a p...

• Word Count: 1206
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... this plan, Horatio informs Hamlet, that if his plan does not succeed, Horatio himself will sacrifice himself, and expose The King for what he has done. " Well my lord. If" a steal aught whilst this play is playing And scape detecting, I will pay the theft." (III, ii, 86-88) Again, Horatio proves that he does care for Hamlet. He is willing to sacrifice himself ... position as King that drives him to do the immoral things that he does throughout the play. "Of those effects for which I did the murder-/ My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen." (III, iii, 54-55) Here, Claudius states the ...

• Word Count: 1781
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... piece of advice saying, "This above all: to thine own self be true, / And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." (I, iii, 78-80). Polonius wants Laertes to be honest and live with honor. The advice is sound and Laertes accepts it as he departs for France. At first glance, it is seen that ... talked to each other and the queen says, "Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended." (III, iv, 9). Hamlet responds. "Mother, you have my father much offended." (III, iv, 10). She does not understand her son's feelings. She only understands the feelings of h...

• Word Count: 1575
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... to perform the revenge. Seeing the opportunity, Hamlet says, "Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; And now I'll do't: and so he goes to heaven: And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd: A villain kills my father; and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. O, this is hire and salary, not revenge."" (III, iii, 74-80 ... . He says to his mother, "Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!/ My father, in his habit as he lived!/ Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!- (III, iv, 136-138) There is another reason for Hamlet to fake his madness in ...

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... : "A villain kills my father, and for that I sole son, do this same villain send to heaven" (III; iii; 76-78). The source of Hamlet's indecision is that he can't decide whether or not to kill Claudius. The most important part that makes a tragedy is the protagonist's tragic flaw. The most prominent one in Hamlet being that he doesn't act on his thoughts. Anytime that Hamlet has ... before he acts. "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 pitch and moment With this regard th...

• Word Count: 826
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School