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Hamlet
Whether Hamlet should be considered a "hero" is a matter of how you define the term "hero." In literary criticism, the term originates in Aristotle's Poetics. Aristotle is trying to define what...
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Hamlet
The past permeates Arthur Miller's tragedy Death of a Salesman. It hangs over the proceedings, casting a pallor over the story of an aging traveling salesman who never finds the success he...
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Hamlet
The IB IOP is usually 10-15 minutes in length. From what I can see, it looks like you're interested in an oral expose or structured presentation. Granted that you're not given much time, here is...
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Hamlet
An Act Three, Scene One of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet delivers the iconic "To be or not to be" soliloquy. In this passage, he ponders whether he should continue to live when life is merely a...
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Hamlet
Imagery is a type of language that appeals to the audience's five senses. Throughout various scenes in the play Hamlet, Shakespeare utilizes imagery to create an atmosphere, emphasize themes, and...
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Hamlet
This seemingly simple phrase that Hamlet utters after his horrifying meeting with his father’s ghost is actually another example of Shakespeare’s genius with words. Let’s begin by unpacking...
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Hamlet
Queen Gertrude/King Claudius While the relationship between Gertrude and Claudius appears to be simply one of lust and cupidity to Hamlet, there are, however, underlying complexities to this...
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Hamlet
A thesis is the main idea or claim of an essay, usually stated in one or two sentences in the introduction. When composing a thesis statement, you want to make sure your claim is something...
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Hamlet
The concept of Hamlet's descent into madness is a major theme throughout the play, but there is no definitive answer as to whether he was actually mad or simply giving a convincing performance....
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Boys and Girls
In completing this assignment, you should start with an introduction that focuses on this theme as part of the rise of individualism. You should make the point that as a literary, philosophical,...
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Hamlet
Hamlet struggles in the play to express his individuality, or his sense of himself. He is in many ways an intellectual who is devoted to his studies, but he is forced, by dint of events beyond his...
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Hamlet
Hamlet is an idealistic character, as he believes that people should act in a moral way and is crushed when they don't. He is disappointed that his mother, Gertrude, has married Claudius shortly...
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Hamlet
Renowned Shakespearean critic Harold Bloom credits Hamlet with being "Freud's mentor." For, like Hamlet, Freud contends that people are "lived by drives we cannot command." These looming drives are...
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Hamlet
Though the armor worn by King Hamlet's ghost is a small detail, it actually serves an important role in the play. First of all, the armor worn by King Hamlet's ghost signifies that the ghost is on...
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Hamlet
Hamlet opens with an atmosphere of of gloom and foreboding. Not only has King Hamlet, Hamlet's father, died recently, the guards on duty at the castle are discussing disquieting events with...
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Literature
A foil or a foil character differs from one character (in this case, Hamlet) and those differences highlight Hamlet's traits. So, we don't have to look far until we come to Claudius who serves as a...
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Hamlet
When the troupe of actors comes to Elsinore and Hamlet begins to conceive of his plan to have them act out a play that is similar in its plot to the way his father was killed by his uncle (or so a...
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Hamlet
As a matter of fact, I do agree with this criticism. Hamlet decides to act mad, and then waits for months before taking any other "action." Then, he seems only to make a plan once the traveling...
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Hamlet
Hamlet suggests that his condition is caused by various factors in his 'To be or not to be' soliloquy in scene 1, Act III. In this dramatic monologue, he rhetorically asks who, in his right mind,...
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Hamlet
Ophelia is a young female character in Hamlet. She is the daughter of Polonius, who is an adviser to King Claudius. She is also the sister of Laertes. Prince Hamlet has told Ophelia that he loves...
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Hamlet
The main message of this soliloquy is that Hamlet feels like a total lowlife for having done nothing so far to avenge his father's murder. Hamlet has just heard an actor recite a monologue about...
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Hamlet
In Act 3, Scene 1 of Hamlet, the main character utters what would become one of the most common allusions in all of literature: "to be or not to be." This line is written by Shakespeare, but...
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Hamlet
One conflict Hamlet faces is how to deal with his uncle, Claudius, who Hamlet suspects has killed his father to usurp the throne of Denmark. Hamlet is also faced with the apparent treachery of his...
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Hamlet
The end of the play seems to signify the idea that anyone who contributed to the "something rotten" in Denmark has to be eliminated in order for the country to move on and prosper again. Gertrude...
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Hamlet
I would argue that madness in Hamlet and King Lear ironically allows characters to more clearly understand truth. In Hamlet, Hamlet's decision to feign madness (although, to be sure, it's unclear...
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Hamlet
Your question apparently refers to the exchange between Hamlet and his mother in Act III, Scene 4, right after Hamlet kills Polonius, who was hiding behind the arras. Gertrude is horrified. She...
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Hamlet
Hamlet is vastly different than the other characters in Shakespeare's play of the same name, largely due to his sensitive, tormented, tragic nature. He is a character who is constantly questioning...
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Hamlet
Claudius dies shortly after Laertes's fatal duel with Hamlet. Laertes has dipped his sword in poison and grazes Hamlet with it. Hamlet then uses this sword to kill Laertes, who, as he is dying,...
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Hamlet
Hamlet has seven soliloquies in Hamlet. Their significance lies in their characterizing of Hamlet as an introspective and anguished character. While in a typical Renaissance revenge tragedy, a...
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Hamlet
In Hamlet, the image of women is one of dependence upon male chivalry and solicitude. Through characterization, we can learn about a character directly or indirectly. Direct characterization allows...
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Hamlet
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Hamlet
These questions have been debated for centuries. They are called "The Hamlet Problem." I think the best answer was given by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who said Hamlet procrastinates because he thinks...
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Hamlet
Shakespeare’s art of characterization—his power of creating personality through diction, revealing psychology through the words his characters speak and think—is the essence of his genius,...
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Hamlet
Corruption and decay are a constant theme in Hamlet. From Horatio's assertion early in the play that something is "rotten in the state of Denmark," to Hamlet's disturbing joke that "politic worms"...
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Hamlet
Hamlet gives his first soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 2, and it's here that we learn of his depression, his suicidal tendencies, and (most importantly) his scorn for his mother's decision to remarry....
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Hamlet
In addition to the Ghost's testimony, there is what amounts to a complete confession by Claudius in Act 3, Scene 3, when he is alone and is trying to pray. His prayers begin with the following...
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Hamlet
Your first step in researching this might be reading the beginning of the play. Hamlet is initially set on his course when the ghost of his father appears and demands that Hamlet kill Claudius,...
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Hamlet
I do think the characterization of Gertrude and Ophelia as passive and dependent on the men in their lives is accurate. Gertrude is so dependent on men that she cannot bear to be alone even for...
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Hamlet
Perhaps Shakespeare gave Hamlet at least three reasons for feeling "extraordinary grief" because the playwright realized that one by itself was not sufficient reason. Hamlet is still grieving over...
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Hamlet
The best way to prepare for an essay test on a book or play is to know the book or play well. You have taken the first step in coming to eNotes. On the eNotes Hamlet page there are summaries,...
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Hamlet
There are several characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet that the author uses to target the interests of young people during the Elizabethan (English Renaissance) period. The first character is Hamlet....
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Hamlet
Hamlet is experiencing some personal conflict as a result of the information he gets from his father (the ghost) that his uncle is a murderer. His father wants to be avenged, and Hamlet wants to...
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Hamlet
For the most exciting stories, we want the juiciest material—gaps where the character is in a really different place before and after. What comes to mind for you? Here's what my mind jumped to:...
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Hamlet
Hamlet and Children of Men are similar in that both address the feminist concern of patriarchal hierarchy, which accounts for the domination and power of men over women and over society at large....
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Hamlet
Let's go step by step. Reading through and considering the situations of each scene in Act 1 slowly explains to us the relationship between Hamlet and his father. Firstly, we learn that the ghost...
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Hamlet
A good place to start looking for allusions is in Hamlet's soliloquies. Since Hamlet is characterized as a scholarly young man, his language reflects his education. In his first soliloquy, for...
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Hamlet
One rhetorical device often used in Hamlet is metaphor. When Hamlet discusses how Claudius has damaged his kingdom, he says "Tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed." This is a metaphor because...
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Hamlet
Sigmund Freud, the inventor of psychoanalysis, was born in 1856, almost two and a half centuries after the death of Shakespeare in 1616. Thus there is really no way that the play Hamlet could have...
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Hamlet
Based on this question being in the Hamlet category, I believe the question is asking, "What three Shakespeare plays might be more relevant than Hamlet is to ninth graders?" That's a good question....
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Hamlet
The main thing Laertes wants to know is who killed his father. The matter has been kept a mystery from the entire populace because Claudius, for Gertrude's sake, did not want it known that Hamlet...