A line-by-line analysis of the “To be, or not to be” soliloquy suggests that it “encapsulates the main theme of Hamlet”: “Both the play and the soliloquy are animated by the conflict between the ideal of Socratic or, more precisely Stoic, imperturbability cherished by Hamlet and ...
Framed by introductory and concluding chapters that narrate personal experience as well as insight, this monograph “is only in the slightest sense a history of productions”—“really imitating a rehearsal” (22). The first chapter focuses on the action by following the script “line by line”...
Hamlet slowly starts to regain some sense of sanity, even as he plays mad, but he loses himself so firmly in anger that he crosses the line to insanity a few times until he finally manages to pull himself together for his final soliloquy. Hamlet is completely lost in his first soliloquy....
The play crescendos to mass slaughter: the annihilation of two major families, including Denmark's royal line. But this doesn't give us a sufficient explanation of our own investment. Hamlet is one of the most famous, beloved plays of the Western Canon not because of the final bloodbath. ...
Explanation and Analysis—Poison: In Act 5, Scene 2, there is a violent altercation between Laertes and Hamlet. The final events of the play take place as the other characters gather to spectate, and these moments contain dramatic irony. ...
… In his first scene with the king since the opening court scene–when Claudius enters for the mousetrap–Hamlet plays on Claudius’ “fares,” and jabs at his own displacement, with his very first line: 3.2.58 King: How fares our cousin Hamlet? Hamlet: Excellent, i’faith, of the cha...
Hamlet was born to carry on a line of kings. Those kings were bound to Danish dirt by birth and fate. The liegemen to the Dane were friends to this ground. Claudius exhorted Hamlet to be as ourself in Denmark. The King was synonymous with the land - the majesty of buried Denmark. Ha...
the lines are set up so students can see the bard's original poetic phrases printed side-by-side and line-by-line with a modern "translation" on the facing page. Starting in the late 1580s and for several decades that followed, Shakespeare's plays were popular entertainment for London's ...
The opening line of Hamlet’s speech, “to be or not to be” could be considered Shakespeare’s most famous as often times it is easily recognized and quoted without any real understanding of its significance (3.1.1749). At this moment, this question is of the utmost importance, literally...
Hamlet’s madness blurs the line between appearance and reality. In Act I, Hamlet clearly states that he plans to feign madness. However, over the course of the play, it becomes less and less clear that he is only pretending to be mad. Perhaps the best example of this confusion takes ...