William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Ideas and Themes to Notice in Hamlet
•Deception / Appearance and Reality •Passion and Reason •Decay and Corruption •Melancholy •Madness and Sanity •Revenge (Hamlet, Fortinbras, Laertes) •Misogyny
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Summary of Events
•Hamlet sent to England and what happens on the way there •Laertes returns from France and demands justice from Claudius •Ophelia goes mad and drowns •Hamlet returns •Laertes conspires with Claudius to kill Hamlet
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Passages to Examine
•Page 33: Hamlet and Ophelia (“The fair Ophelia!”) •Page 36: Hamlet and Horatio (“Here, sweet lord, at your service”) •Page 44: Claudius’ confession (“O, my offense is rank”)
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Passages to Examine
•Page 25: Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet (“What should we say, my lord?”) •Page 31: Hamlet’s second soliloquy (“Now I am alone”) •Page 33: Hamlet’s third soliloquy (“To be, or not to be: that is the question”)
•Is Hamlet the most intelligent character in literature?
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Hamlet as a “Problem” Play
•Notice the ambiguities in the play •Why does it take Hamlet so long to try to kill Claudius? •Why does Hamlet decide to act insane? •Does Hamlet really go insane? •What does Gerspeare’s Hamlet
Passages to Examine
•Page 5: Introduction to Hamlet (“Take thy fair hour, Laertes”) •Page 6: Hamlet’s first soliloquy (“O, that this too too solid flesh would melt”) •Page 10-11: Ophelia and Polonius (“Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well”)
LIT 2001 Major English Writers 1
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Popularity of Hamlet and Hamlet
•Over twenty film versions of Hamlet have been produced just since World War II. •More has been written about Hamlet than about any other literary character.
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
• What does the literary term “foil” refer to, and who are two of the primary foils to Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet? What about these characters makes them foils? • “Foil” = “any person that enhances or underscores the distinctive characteristics of another” • The terms comes from something similar to the foil used around the bulb in a flashlight. • Who are the primary foils to Hamlet in the play, and why? • Laertres and Fortinbras: How are they similar to and different from Hamlet?
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Summary of Events
• Hamlet’s bitter argument with Ophelia • Hamlet’s cruelty • Ophelia’s mistake • Ophelia’s comments after Hamlet leaves: “O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!” (page 34) • The play within the play (“The Mouse-trap”) and what it reveals • Claudius’s confession in soliloquy • The killing of Polonius