... because it is a spirit. Claudius, however, and then his advisor Polonius believe that they can gain control over the "spirits" of their children by overruling them through orders, critique and humiliations. Claudius' awareness of Hamlet's agony over his dead father, results the king to believe that such level of depression is absurd; therefore, Hamlet's stepfather condemns his son's feelings striving for ... can't comprehend; therefore, Claudius demeans Hamlet's emotions to obtain his control over Hamlet's spirit of agony. The reader meets Claudius as a very unemotional and political pe...

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... because it allows comic relief to be brought to the audience, as well it sets up for the events which take place in the last scene. The principle character of this scene is the Gravedigger. It develops the character by mainly showing his incredible intellect, as it well portrays his vast knowledge of the dead. His wit is shown in lines 15-20 which state, "Give me leave ... , not that it literally is his. It shows his knowledge of the dead in line 162, "A tanner will last you nine years." This refers to the actual time the body takes to decompose. These examples show the Gravedigger is ex...

• Word Count: 647
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... affright "with his doublet all unbraced,/ no hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,/ ungartered, and down-gyved to his ankle" (II i 97-90). The reason for this was that if he was going to be able to fool people into believing that he was insane, he would have to convince Ophelia of ... better act for Ophelia if he was going to convince people that he was truly insane. Another clue was at the burial of Ophelia. He could have stayed hidden, yet when he found out that it was Ophelia that was dead, he went out to say good bye to his love one last time. Seeing Ophelia ... dead was a realit...

• Word Count: 644
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• Grade Level: High School

... suicidal ruminations and that famous soliloquy beginning with "To be or not to be?" However, like 'In The End,' nothing really matters, because Hamlet's ultimate downfall is at the hand of Laertes, a man whose situation mirrors his own. It almost is like Hamlet committed suicide, because he and ... being taken - which is what he was asking for at the beginning of the play. His time on earth was done. He had virtually no one to live for: his love, Ophelia, was dead, as was his father, mother, and all their advisors. The only one he had left was Horatio, his best friend ... . On that ...

• Word Count: 653
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... , I am in no doubt that he has full control over his mind, although sometimes he takes it too far without thinking ahead of the consequences. In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is a character who has had many misfortunes. His father has recently died, and his mother was ... all too ready to marry her dead husbands brother. Hamlet is quite upset about this, jealous, no one really knows, but indeed emotionally hurt. During all this pain and suffering, Hamlet sees his dead ... fathers ghost. Hamlet soon learns that his father was killed by his uncle, the new king. Hamlet de...

• Word Count: 1152
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... 's history with both Kings ensues. When he realizes someone is hiding in her bed chambers Hamlet 3 blindly stabs through the tapestry hoping to kill her lover: "How now? A rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!" (3.4.24) Hamlet 3 is finally seen at the slaughter of the royal family: the climax of the play. Hamlet's obsessions with exposing Claudius" scheme for ruining his immediate family and therefore life cause Hamlet 3 to ... emerge a final time during the duel. When he discovers that the King has inadvertently killed his mother and Laertes he charges him ... ...

• Word Count: 754
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... as time progresses Ophelia experiences many hurtful and confusing events that causes her to lose her mind and eventually her life. It is made clear from the beginning of the play that Ophelia has feelings for Hamlet and vice versa. Ophelia's father, Polonius, and her brother, Laertes, both advise her to forget about ... Hamlet who killed Polonius. When she found out that Hamlet killed her father she lost all coherent thought and went insane. She did not understand why the man she loved would kill her father. Ophelia began to sing to herself and others were not able to make sense of this...

• Word Count: 495
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... philosophical and indecisive, causing his revenge to be almost impossible, until the very last scene of the play. The protagonist was constantly making excuses to the detainment of his revenge on King Claudius for his father. He speculated greatly about the physical remains of the deceased and the spiritual aftermath of the dead although he knew it was inevitable. Throughout the story, Hamlet simultaneously expressed his desires to escape from ... the real world, while constantly hesitated about the nobility of his choices about death ... ...

• Word Count: 950
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... was delayed diplomatically, while Hamlet was forced to put off any action until he could find out the truth of his father's death. When first hearing that their fathers were dead, neither Hamlet nor Laertes knows the truth behind what went on. Hamlet believed that his father had been killed by a snake, and ... Laertes was under the impression that Claudius had killed his father. Both men were able to find out ... so long, however, because he cannot let his father's death go unavenged. Hamlet's actions are totally different from those of Laertes and Fortinbras. When the ghost tells him ...

• Word Count: 763
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... father's deaths. Hamlet is a revenge tragedy. Revenge causes you to act blindly through anger, rather than through reason. It is based on the principle of an eye for an eye, but this principle is not always an clever theory to live by. Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet were all ... deeply sorrowed by his father's death. He spoke to a ghost, and this ghost stated that his father's death was a murder, by the hand of his uncle, Claudius. "The serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown." Hamlet was astonished, and then swore vengeance for his father's death. He ... prove his...

• Word Count: 610
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... with guilt. Since Claudius is "[t]he serpent that did sting [King Hamlet's] life" (Madden 82) he fears what may happen if the court becomes aware of his evil doing. Anxiety is inflicted into Claudius and this apprehension causes his suffering. Hamlet speaks empirical truth of past ... of Hamlet's lunacy; [Ophelia]" (Madden 91). Hamlet is "mad of [Ophelia's] love" (Madden 89) so Polonius uses his daughter as a pawn. The conniving man is seen as "Jephthah, Judge of Israel" (Madden 99) who sacrifices his only daughter for political means. Ophelia's undoing begins here. Polonius" ... Hamlet ...

• Word Count: 906
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... Ophelias' brother, Laertes is greatly impressionable. The father of the two siblings, Polonius is always in everyone else's business and is undoubtedly nosey. The entitled character Hamlet avoids the inevitable of killing Claudius in many instances. Gertrude is greedy in that she marries her dead husbands' brother so she can become ... queen not because she loves him. We find that Gertrude is greedy in Hamlets first soliloquy. "She married. O, most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets!-(1.2.156-157). In the preceding quote Hamlet is ... for killing Hamlet senio...

• Word Count: 1038
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... and rigid format, into a chaotic and formless play. Stoppard deliberately alters the configuration of the play to create a confusing atmosphere, which creates the exact feeling of society in the 1960s- no definites or certainties to rely on. Language portrays meaning in both plays- the language of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead differs to that of Hamlet. Stoppard employs meaningless colloquial exchanges, such as ... statement about his society. In Hamlet, there is clear distinction between reality and acting but this is not the case in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. By obsc...

• Word Count: 1077
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... and rigid format, into a chaotic and formless play. Stoppard deliberately alters the configuration of the play to create a confusing atmosphere, which creates the exact feeling of society in the 1960s- no definites or certainties to rely on. Language portrays meaning in both plays- the language of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead differs to that of Hamlet. Stoppard employs meaningless colloquial exchanges, such as ... society. In Hamlet, there is clear distinction between reality and acting but this is not case in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. By obscuring the audience's pe...

• Word Count: 1076
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... play. Hamlet murdered Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Claudius, Laertes, Polonius, and may have been the reason Ophelia went mad and drowned. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: "He should the bearers"" (V, 2) Claudius: "" Then, venom, to thy work," (V, 2) Laertes: "They bleed on both sides"" (V, 2) Polonius: ""Dead for a ducat, dead," (III, 4) Ophelia: "What the fair 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 incestuous...

• Word Count: 650
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... happy person. He finds out that his uncle is trying to get him killed. When Hamlet realizes this he starts switching all the plans around, so that the people who are in charge of making sure that Hamlet gets murdered, get what they deserve. Hamlet and his Uncle Claudius don't ... and ends up stabbing and killing Ophelia's father. After Ophelia finds out that Hamlet was the one who killed her father she went crazy. Ophelia ends up dead. There is question on how she ends up dead but her death isn't defined. After Ophelia's death, Claudius makes a plan with Ophelia ... 's brother to kill H...

• Word Count: 374
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... and Horatio's persona and actions. Hamlet begins with Hamlet being 30 years old, King Hamlet dead, Claudius married to Gertuade and the estate of Norwegian in preparation for war against Denmark. Hamlet characteristics are seen at the beginning of Hamlet, we are able to tell he is indecisive, contemplative and impulsive before ... something rotten in Denmark". Horatio's persona in Hamlet illustrates Hamlet's contemplative attitude and intelligence. If it were not for Hamlet contemplating whether or not the ghost was good or evil and when to kill Claudius, Hamlet would not have been five a...

• Word Count: 857
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... harm because it is a spirit. Claudius, however, and then his advisor Polonius believe that they can gain control over the "spirits" of their children by overruling them through orders, critique and humiliations. Claudius' awareness of Hamlet's agony over his dead father, results the king to believe that such level of depression is absurd; therefore, Hamlet's stepfather condemns his son's feelings striving for ... failed to understand. Claudius demeans Hamlet's emotions to obtain his control over Hamlet's spirit of agony. The reader meets Claudius as a very unemotional and political pers...

• Word Count: 1189
• Approx Pages: 5

... orchard where he spent much of his time. All of the Kingsubjects, including Hamlet, thought his majesty died because of a snake bite. Hamlet was devastated when he learned of his fatherdeath, but what made him more uneasy was the fact that Gertrude, Hamletmother, remarried so quickly to the brother of the dead King. The brother would be the one who would betray Hamlet. Horatio, a loyal friend to ... Hamlet, was on night watch outside the castle, he told the prince of an incident when they saw an apparition who resembled King Hamlet. Hamlet ... came out the next night hoping to see the ...

• Word Count: 657
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... and forced cause,"" (Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2, Lines 381-384). So says Horatio, best friend of Prince Hamlet in the final few lines of the play. He speaks these words after the deaths of Hamlet, Claudius, King of Denmark, Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, and Laertes, son of Polonius. Also dead are Hamlet, King of Denmark, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, former friends of Hamlet, Polonius, councilor to ... father, Polonius. Polonius was murdered by Prince Hamlet while Hamlet was in his mother's chamber. Polonius had concealed himself behind the arras. When Hamlet was attacking his mother, Poloniu...

• Word Count: 944
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... with their fate, flaws and words. In "Hamlet", the leading role was young Hamlet. His dead father, the King, sought Hamlet out so that he could discover the truth about, and get revenge for his father's death. In "Oedipus Rex", Oedipus was also the character that was looked to as the savior and was asked to find the murderer of King Liaus. But in these types of ... died and everyone in Hamlet's immediate family, along with most of the people he cared about, is dead as well. Oedipus murdered his own father (not to mention the rest of the party he came across) without knowing, but then dr...

• Word Count: 1038
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... to others within his presence. People who Hamlet has friendly interactions with turn out to be dead because Hamlet's sense to kill is completely unstoppable. For instance, Polonius becomes a victim of Hamlet's wrath simply because he is in the wrong place at the wrong time, "Dead for a ducat, dead!" (Act 3, Scene 4). Hamlet is speaking to his mother Gertrude before hearing a noise from behind ... a curtain. Without hesitation, Hamlet strikes his sword through the tapestry believing that this noise comes from the "rat", King Claudius. Hamlet's mentally unstable mind contemplates that ......

• Word Count: 1006
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... dead father, a young girl has gone mad. I n the beginning of the tragedy Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Ophelia has devoted her love to the Prince of Denmark. The intelligent and kind Ophelia, however, betrays her father, and later collapses into insanity and kills herself. When Ophelia's father ask about Hamlet she tells him the ... loves her will he marry he, even though he is a Prince and is supposed to marry royalty. Ophelia is very fearful in the middle of the play when Hamlet comes in startled, he never speaks but goes up to her and shakes her, she is very afraid that he might .....

• Word Count: 955
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... and Laertes' fathers, both sons had different methods of taking out the action of revenge. Once Laertes found out the news that Hamlet killed his father, he wasted no time in thinking of killing Hamlet would send him to hell or if it is their was any other solution. He wanted Hamlet dead right away and decided to do this by planning a crooked ... for his hatred towards all women. Hamlet and Laertes are similar also because in the obvious fact that they both seek revenge towards the person who killed their father. Hamlet seeks revenge after the king for the murder of his father. An appar...

• Word Count: 1084
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... all of his anger he is viewed as being mad by society, King and Queen and his peers, Right? Okay so what makes him mad? Let's see, the definition of insanity is, it's a condition in which a person is utterly senseless; and irrational, by reason. So as we see Hamlet acted out of pure ... is talking to Rosencratz and Guildenstern about the murder of Polonius and where he put the body. Rosencratz and Guildenstern, not being to two brightest colours in the crayon box, take Hamlets advice and chase him around trying to catch him. Hamlet then tells Claudius to nose at the dead body if he wants...

• Word Count: 493
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School