Hamlet

Polonius gives his son, Laertes, lots of advice prior to Laertes leaving Denmark to return to the European continent. He says, Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought thy act...

Though the precise meaning of Hamlet's outburst is by no means clear, particularly owing to the double meaning of "nunnery," there is no denying that his words are positively dripping with...

Hamlet's soliloquy is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, he made a pledge to his father's ghost to act swiftly to avenge his father's murder. In the soliloquy, Hamlet expresses anger at...

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. (3.3.76-78) In these opening lines of his famous speech in act 3, scene 3 of...

Hamlet’s most celebrated soliloquy is particularly full of metaphors and arresting visual images. We have the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” taking arms against a sea of troubles (a...

In act 5, scene 1 of Shakespeare's Hamlet, often referred to as the "gravedigger scene" or the "Alas, poor Yorick" scene, not only does Shakespeare provide the audience with a scene of comic...

When Hamlet's father, King Hamlet, dies suddenly and unexpectedly, Hamlet comes home for the funeral. Close on the heels of the funeral—so close that Hamlet can darkly joke that Claudius uses...

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two of Hamlet's friends who agree to work for King Claudius but become the unfortunate victims of his wicked plot to kill the prince. When Rosencrantz and...

In act three, scene two, Hamlet has the players reenact his father's assassination during the play The Murder of Gonzago in order to unveil Claudius's innocence or guilt in the death of his father....

Well, let us look at the actual text. In this way, we can see the ghost's description of his death first proclaimed as "murder most foul." First, the ghost sets the scene and gets right to the...

Effectively, what Claudius is saying here is that he has not been praying in earnest, and therefore God will not hear his words. Claudius says that his "words fly up," as he offers them to heaven,...

One should understand that Ophelia, at this point, is experiencing a mental breakdown. She has been confused by Hamlet's ambiguous words and actions and has been admonished by both her father and...

As always when examining a quotation, it's important to know the precise context in which it was uttered. In the case of this particular quotation from Act 1, Scene 5 of Hamlet, the title character...

I'll just add a bit to sfwriter's excellent answer above, concerning Shakespeare's Hamlet. When Hamlet decides not to kill Claudius while the king is at prayer because he doesn't want to send the...

In act 2, scene 2 of Shakespeare's Hamlet, it's not until very near the end of this very long scene that Hamlet's intentions regarding the troupe of travelling players (actors) becomes clear. It's...

Claudius first decides to send Hamlet to England because he's afraid of what Hamlet knows about his murdered father, and because Claudius thinks that a change of scenery might help cure his...

A simple but highly effective metaphor comes in act 2, scene 2 of Hamlet when Hamlet tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern bluntly that Denmark's a prison. (II, ii, 227) This is a clear example of a...

If Hamlet pretends to be mad he is only going to attract more attention to himself. Everybody will be watching him and gossiping about him. How is this going to help him plot against Claudius?...

After Hamlet sees the ghost of his father in act 1, scene 5 of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet tells Horatio and Marcellus that he intends "To put an antic disposition on" (1.5.192). The common...

Hamlet has been, up to this point, a relatively sane individual. He seemed to do all the expected things for a young prince. I think that the clues in this passage are about his royalty and...

Hamlet impulsively stabs Polonius, who is hiding behind an arras in Gertrude's room, because he believes that Polonius is Claudius. Hamlet unintentionally kills Polonius, and the accident is...

Hamlet tells the audience in act 2, scene 2 that he will have the players, who arrive at Elsinore in this scene, "Play something like the murder of my father / Before mine uncle." He intends, in...

In act 3, scene 3, Polonius leaves Claudius by himself to pray at his altar, where Claudius admits his motivation for killing his King Hamlet. Interestingly, Claudius mentions that he will not ask...

Hamlet is utterly devastated about his father's death and is disgusted that his mother, Gertrude, has already married his uncle in less than two months after King Hamlet's death. Prince Hamlet...

Giving unsolicited advice seems to be a character trait of the people in Polonius's family. In act 1, scene 3 of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Laertes is preparing to board a ship to France, which is the...

Hamlet is being sarcastic in regards to his new relationship with Claudius. Two months ago, Claudius was his uncle, now he is Hamlet's step-father. That is kind of mind-boggling and gross to us,...

In Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Ophelia is the daughter of the king's counselor, Polonius, and the woman Hamlet loves. Whether or not Hamlet's love for Ophelia is real, it is clear that Ophelia...

In Act II, scene ii, of Hamlet, Polonius approaches Hamlet to incite a display of Hamlet's madness to be able to give confirmation and explanation of it to Queen Gertrude and King Claudius. When...

This soliloquy at the end of Act II scene ii shows Hamlet considering the way the acting he has just witnessed was able to access such powerful depths of emotion even though the performance was...

This is what Polonius has to say about that: “What was I about to say? By the mass, I was about to say something! Where did I leave?” In other words, not even Polonius really knows why he sends a...

Hamlet feels betrayed by everyone around him, and this causes great internal conflict. His greatest fear is that the Ghost's words are true and that his uncle has actually murdered his father. If...

The literal meaning of this quotation from Hamlet is that people are often hypocrites. We use an appearance of religious devotion and piety to cover the evil in ourselves. This sounds like one of...

As an audience, we tend to identify strongly with Hamlet and his anguish over his father's death. We feel even more sympathy for him when we find out that his father was murdered by his own brother...

The first of Hamlet's three attempts to kill Claudius takes place in act 3, scene 3. Claudius is kneeling down at prayer, seeking forgiveness for the murder of his brother, old King Hamlet. Hamlet...

Shakespeare's Hamlet is full of moral instructions. For example, there is Polonius' famous advice to his son Laertes in Act 1, Scene 3. Polonius is portrayed as old and rather senile. Hamlet calls...

Hamlet treats Polonius with contempt because Polonius is a sycophant and a meddler. The older man's motivations center around gaining favor in high places. He tries to present the love of Ophelia...

Hamlet accepts Laertes' challenge to a duel. Hamlet is pricked with Laertes sword, which is laced with poison. They take a break and the King urges Hamlet to drink from the poisoned cup....

In act 1, scene 5, the ghost of Hamlet's father urges the prince to seek revenge. At first, Hamlet expresses pity for the ghost's plight, but the ghost tells him not to feel bad for him. Instead,...

Hamlet is arguably one of Shakespeare's most famous plays. It is tragedy (by the end of it, nearly all the main characters are dead) that centers around the corruption of the Danish court. The old...

From early in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia's brother, Laertes, and her father, Polonius, express concern to Ophelia about her relationship with Hamlet. The first time Ophelia appears in the play,...

Hamlet's first reason for calling Polonius a fishmonger is probably to make the old man think he is insane--i.e. that he really doesn't recognize him but thinks he is a complete stranger. Hamlet...

There's dramatic irony in this encounter, meaning that we as an audience know something that neither Ophelia, nor her father Polonius, to whom she's telling the story, do: that Hamlet has run to...

Claudius is overcome by guilt in Act lll, Scene 3. Before he kneels down to pray for redemption, he utters a long-winded monologue in which he confesses his crime. Claudius states that his crime is...

The last time we see Ophelia on stage, prior to her father's murder by Hamlet, is just before the start of the play by which Hamlet hopes to get his uncle/stepfather, Claudius, to betray himself as...

Hamlet is comparing humanity to the things growing in an unweeded garden that grows to seed. Such neglected gardens are commonly seen where houses have been standing vacant for a long time. Hamlet...

Tom Stoppard wrote a play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which is a “’worm’s-eye view of Hamlet,’” presented from the perspectives of these two minor characters.” The title of the play, of...

During the course of the play, Hamlet grows and changes. Early in the play, he is filled with anguish about whether God is real (he questions whether death id oblivion or there is an afterlife). He...

Irony creates such pleasure in the reader because we like to feel smart -- like we know more than everyone else. Sometimes we know more story facts; sometimes we appreciate a particular tone of...

The character of Polonius, in Shakespeare's Hamlet, proves himself to be a questionable parent at best when he asks "his man" Reynaldo to search out Laertes in France in order to examine Laertes'...

In this scene (Act Two, scene two) of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet is extremely depressed. His father is dead—murdered by his uncle; his mother has seemingly forgotten her loving marriage to Old...