Hamlet by William Shakespeare

1
Hamlet by William Shakespeare

• Job Distribution
• Topic Questions No.1
• By ??? 89210093
• Hamlet summary, Topic Questions No.2
• By ??? 91110858
• the background of the works
• By ??? 86210540
• Job Distribution, Author Of The Works Concerned
• By ??? 92110576
• Topic Question No.3
• By ??? 91110563 and ??? 93210254
• PowerPoint presentation
• By ??? 93210254

2
An introduction to the author of the works
concerned

• William Shakespeare was born in 1564 into a
  middle-class family, English poet and playwright,
  has a reputation as the greatest of all writers
  in the English language, as well as one of the
  world's pre-eminent dramatists.
• People analyze Shakespeare's life and works to
  understand his long-lasting and broad appeal.
  Many Shakespeare scholars credit his continued
  appeal and fame to two related characteristics
  his deep understanding of human nature and a
  broad knowledge base that encompassed varied
  interests and fields of study. Both of these
  attributes contributed to his development of
  vivid and varied characters from many walks of
  life and his creative use of language.
  Shakespeare's knowledge included music, law, the
  Bible, military science, politics, the sea,
  history, hunting, woodcraft, sports, and theater.
  In his literary works, he wrote of Kings,
  drunkards, generals, pickpockets, shepherds,
  hired killers and thugs, and philosophers. His
  understanding of people and their nature enabled
  him to create dramatic characters whose struggles
  and often failures extended beyond the setting of
  his plays.
• Shakespeare's literary achievement is not
  confined to his mastery of the poetic and
  dramatic form his ability to capture and convey
  the most profound aspects of human nature is
  considered by many scholars to be unequalled, due
  to his understanding of the range and depth of
  human emotions. A colossal figure in world
  literature, Shakespeare's legacy and influence
  continues to be felt in all parts of the globe.
  He has been translated into every major living
  language, and his plays are continually performed
  all around the world. Shakespeare was among the
  very few playwrights who have excelled in both
  tragedy and comedy.
• Shakespeare wrote his works between 1588 and
  1616, although the exact dates and chronology of
  the plays attributed to him are often uncertain.
  His prolific output is especially impressive in
  light of the fact that he lived only 52 years.
• Shakespeare's influence on the English-speaking
  world shows in the widespread use of quotations
  from Shakespearean plays, the titles of works
  based on Shakespearean phrases, and the many
  adaptations of his works.

3
the background of the works

• Hamlet was likely written in 1600, but the date
  of composition is uncertain. Hamlet was probably
  first performed in July 1602. It was first
  published in printed form in 1603. As was common
  practice during the sixteenth and seventeenth
  centuries, Shakespeare borrowed for his plays
  ideas and stories from earlier literary works.
  The narrative behind Hamlet derives from the
  legendary story of Hamlet (Amleth) recounted in
  the Danish History from the twelfth century, a
  Latin text by Saxo the Grammarian. This version
  was later adapted into French by Francois de
  Belleforest in 1570.
• Hamlet is arguably Shakespeares greatest
  tragedy. It reaches into the hearts of all people
  because we can identify with the sad hero,
  Hamlet. Hamlet is the story of a Danish prince
  whose uncle murders the princes father, marries
  his mother, and claims the throne. The prince
  although still young, decides to avenge his
  father's murder. He pretends to be a fool in
  order to avoid suspicion, a strategy which works.
  Shakespeare changed the emphasis of this story
  entirely, making his Hamlet a philosophically-mind
  ed prince who delays taking action because his
  knowledge of his uncles crime is so uncertain.
• Shakespeare takes an unremarkable revenge story
  and makes it resonate with the most fundamental
  themes and problems of the Renaissance. The
  leading figures of the Renaissance were generally
  deeply religious, but took as their main subject
  the study of man rather than that of God.   Their
  perspective became known as Humanism.   Humanists
  did not doubt the existence of God, but
  emphasized human capabilities and celebrated
  individual achievement and genius. 
• Influence of Renaissance humanisms critique of
  the inconsistencies and contradictions of
  supposed Christians living lives of ambition,
  pride, greed, envy, hate, murder, and plotting
  and scheming against others. The ideas of the
  main figures in European Humanism, Erasmus of
  Rotterdam and Sir Thomas More, influenced the
  works of Shakespeare. Hamlet describes mankind in
  terms that steeped in Humanism in Act II, What a
  piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how
  infinite in faculty, in form and moving how
  express and admirable, in action how like an
  angel, in apprehension how like a godthe beauty
  of the world, the paragon of animals!
• The sixteenth-century French humanist, Michel de
  Montaigne believed that the world of experience
  was a world of appearances, and that human beings
  could never hope to see past those appearances
  into the realities that lie behind them. This
  is the world in which Shakespeare places his
  characters. Hamlet is faced with the difficult
  task of correcting an injustice that he can never
  have sufficient knowledge ofa dilemma that is by
  no means unique, or even uncommon. And while
  Hamlet is fond of pointing out questions that
  cannot be answered because they concern
  supernatural and metaphysical matters, the play
  as a whole chiefly demonstrates the difficulty of
  knowing the truth about other peopletheir guilt
  or innocence, their motivations, their feelings,
  their relative states of sanity or insanity. The
  world of other people is a world of appearances,
  and Hamlet is, fundamentally, a play about the
  difficulty of living in that world.

4
the summary of the plot

• The play opens during the evening watch at the
  castle of Elsinore in Denmark. The last two
  nights, a ghost dressed in the dead King Hamlets
  armor has appeared as the clock strikes one.
  Three men, Horatio (Hamlets friend), Marcellus,
  and Bernardo, are talking, when the ghost appears
  once more. Horatio tries to talk to the ghost,
  but the ghost is silent and then disappears. The
  men try to figure out why the ghost has returned
  and decide that Hamlet should speak to his
  fathers ghost.
• Meanwhile, Prince Hamlet is at the castle with
  his mother, Queen Gertude, and her new husband,
  King Claudius (Hamlets uncle). Claudius tells
  Hamlet that prolonged grieving for his dead
  father is not right. When they leave the room,
  Hamlet is alone to lament and think. "O God, God!
  How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to
  me all the uses of this world!" Horatio then
  comes to greet Hamlet, who is delighted at his
  friends arrival. Horatio tells Hamlet about the
  ghost and Hamlet agrees to meet them.
• Laertes, the son of Lord Chamberlain Polonius, is
  getting ready to leave for France. He leaves his
  sister, Ophelia, with a warning not to pay much
  attention to Hamlet, who is trying to court her.
  Polonius also gives advice to Laertes.
• At night, Hamlet joins Horatio and Marcellus to
  wait for the ghost. The ghost calls Hamlet and
  Hamlet follows him, even though his friends plead
  against it. The ghost tells Hamlet the horrible
  secret--- his father did not die from a serpents
  bite but from poison. His father was murdered by
  Hamlets uncle, who has now married Hamlets
  mother! Hamlet is told to revenge his fathers
  death, but to leave his mother alone. As the
  ghost leaves, Hamlet becomes enraged at his
  uncle. From his intelligent, civilized self,
  Hamlet changes into an enraged person determined
  to kill his uncle. He decides to act insane so
  that no one will suspect him. Hamlet makes
  Horatio and Marcellus swear to tell no one what
  happened here.
• Later on, Ophelia tells her father in a fright
  that Hamlet appeared to her, his face white as if
  he had been to hell. Polonius believes that this
  madness is due to the fact that Ophelia doesnt
  love Hamlet back. He goes to tell the King this.
  The King and Queen agree that Hamlet has gone
  insane. To find out the reason for this, the King
  sends two of Hamlets friends, Rosencrantz and
  Guildenstern, to talk to Hamlet. Polonius, wordy
  as usual, relates his reason for Hamlets
  madness he is hopelessly obsessed over Ophelia.
  
• A group of players arrive, much to the interest
  of Hamlet. He asks one of them to perform The
  Murder of Gonzago the next day, with a few
  changes by Hamlet. Since this play is similar to
  the situation with King Claudius and Hamlets
  father, Hamlet can figure out if the ghost was
  truthful. If the King reacts to the play, Hamlet
  will surely know that the ghost was speaking the
  truth.
• continue

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the summary of the plot (continue)

• Since Rosencrantz and Guildenstern can not figure
  out the reason for Hamlets madness, the King
  decides to see how Hamlet acts around Ophelia.
  While Hamlet is alone, he delivers his most
  famous "To be or not to be" speech. Here he
  contemplates suicide, with the conclusion not to
  take his life because things in the afterlife may
  be even more dreadful. Ophelia appears to Hamlet,
  in an attempt to return the gifts that he gave
  her. Hamlet replies harshly that he never loved
  her and says, "Get thee to a nunnery." Ophelia is
  left in sorrow, believing that Hamlet has truly
  gone insane. The King is not so sure and wishes
  to send Hamlet to England, suspecting that Hamlet
  may be a threat to him.
• It is the night of the play. Horatio agrees to
  watch the King for a reaction. During the scene
  where poison is poured down the victims ear
  (Claudius poured poison down King Hamlets ear),
  the King is greatly disturbed. He ends the play,
  calling for the lights to be turned on. Now
  Hamlet knows that the King is guilty. Hamlet goes
  to talk with his mother, who is scared that he
  has come to murder her. As she cries for help,
  Polonius (hiding behind the tapestry) speaks and
  is killed by Hamlet, who thinks that Polonius is
  the king. Hamlet tries to get the Queen to admit
  to her wrongs, but she doesnt understand him.
• King Claudius decides that Hamlet must be put to
  death in England. Hamlet escapes this fate by
  rewriting the Kings letter, substituting his
  name with the names of Rosencrantz and
  Guildenstern. So Hamlet escapes and the two men
  are put to death. Learning that Hamlet did not
  arrive in England, Claudius brings Laertes into
  the plan. Laertes, enraged over the death of his
  father, is persuaded to kill Hamlet with a
  poisoned rapier during a duel.
• Ophelia is distressed over the death of her
  father and becomes insane, singing songs. She
  later commits suicide by drowning. At her
  funeral, grieving Laertes jumps into the grave,
  followed by Hamlet. They fight and Hamlet later
  apologizes for his behavior. When Laertes
  challenges him to a duel, Hamlet accepts. At the
  duel, the rapier is poisoned. After the first
  half where Hamlet emerges victorious, the King
  uses his backup plan. He poisons a cup of wine
  and offers it to Hamlet. Hamlet refuses the wine,
  but the Queen drinks it. Before the King can stop
  her, she dies. At this moment, both Hamlet and
  Laertes are hit by the poisoned rapier. Laertes
  tells the people that both he and Hamlet are
  injured by the poisonous weapon and that "the
  Kings to blame." Before Hamlet dies, he lunges
  at the King with the rapier and kills him. And so
  the play ends, with Horatios last farewell to
  his dear friend Hamlet.

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Topic Questions No.1

• Think about Hamlets relationship with Ophelia.
  Does he love her? Does he stop loving her? Did he
  ever love her? What evidence can you find in the
  play to support your opinion?
• Hamlet and Ophelia are like genaeral lovers and
  they have known each other since many years ago.
  Their love is royal, sweet, unselfish and sincere
  without any purpose or dark dust. We think that
  Hamlet really loves Ophelia at first, and pays
  his honest heart to her by writing her love
  letters, cards, gifts and flowers. So he ever
  loves her very much. But his love feeling has
  reduced and changed after his father's death and
  Ophelia decides to obey her father words not to
  love Hamlet again. In the fiction we can find
  that the pretend to be crazy and struggled Hamlet
  tries to overcome his deisre but often appear to
  Ophelia and say some bad or ironic funny words to
  test her heart and see her response. From this
  point we can find that Hamlet still cares her
  because if you don't love anyone, then you will
  not care his idea or thinking, or we can say that
  he depresses and controls his feeling or love to
  her. He even shows his opinions that she should
  go to a monastery(abbey) to be a nun, means a
  virgin or she will be a prostitute because she
  can stand to live with anyone without any truth
  love. The condition is like that a man who can't
  get his lover, then he will hate her and treat
  her in a high standard. (??????!) But for us,
  love can not divide right or wrong, the key point
  is that if they ever pay their truth heart to
  each other. Even you can't get love, then give a
  sincere blessing to the other is a unselfish and
  real love.

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Topic Questions No.2

• 2.Analyze the use of comedy in Hamlet, paying
  particular attention to the gravediggers, Osric,
  and Polonius. Does comedy serve merely to relieve
  the tension of the tragedy, or do the comic
  scenes serve a more serious thematic purpose as
  well?
• Comedy a work intended to interest, involve, and
  amuse the reader or audience, in which no
  terrible disaster occ2.Analyze the use of comedy
  in Hamlet, paying particular attention to the
  gravediggers, Osric, and Polonius. Does comedy
  serve merely to relieve the tension of the
  tragedy, or do the comic scenes serve a more
  serious thematic purpose as well?
• Most of Shakespeare's great tragedies contain at
  least a little comic relief. But Hamlet is full
  of comic scenes. Polonius is very often the
  source of laughter, and there are clever and
  joking scenes throughout--notably the
  gravediggers and Osric. Examine Shakespeare's use
  of comedy, the TYPE of humor he favors here, its
  placement in the play, and its function in the
  scene where we find it.
• Comic relief A humorous scene or incident that
  alleviates tension in an otherwise serious work.
  In many instances these moments enhance the
  thematic significance of the story in addition to
  providing laughter. When Hamlet jokes with the
  gravediggers we laugh, but something hauntingly
  serious about the humor also intensifies our more
  serious emotions.
• Polonius who's a figure of fun. When foolishly
  trying to analyze Hamlets madness, he delivers
  his comments into a mini tape recorder so is
  virtually everyone else. Osric, a courtier,
  invites Hamlet to participate in a fencing match
  with Laertes. Since Laertes is rumored to be the
  better swordsman, the King has wagered on Hamlet
  with a flattering handicap. Hamlet agrees to
  fight, even though Horatio warns his friend that
  it may be a trap. Hamlet decides that he will
  allow fate to rule his actions.
• urs and that ends happily for the main
  characters. High comedy refers to verbal wit,
  such as puns, whereas low comedy is generally
  associated with physical action and is less
  intellectual.

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Topic Questions No.3

• 3. Suicide is an important theme in Hamlet.
  Discuss how the play threats the idea of suicide
  morally, religiously, and aesthetically, with
  particular attention to Hamlets two important
  statements about suicide O, that this too too
  solid flesh would melt soliloquy (Act I, Scene
  ii) and the To be, or not to be soliloquy (Act
  III, Scene I). Why does Hamlet believe that,
  although capable of suicide, most human beings
  choose to live, despite the cruelty, pain, and
  injustice of the world?
• Alone, Hamlet exclaims that he wishes he could
  die, that he could evaporate and cease to exist.
  He wishes bitterly that God had not made suicide
  a sin.
• The idea of retribution haunts and goads
  characters throughout the play, functioning as an
  important motivation for action, spurring
  Claudius to guilt, Hamlet to the avoidance of
  suicide, and Laertes to murderous rage after the
  deaths of Ophelia and Polonius.
• Hamlet enters, speaking thoughtfully and
  agonizingly to himself about the question of
  whether to commit suicide to end the pain of
  experience To be, or not to be that is the
  question
• In the first place, Hamlet doesnt talk directly
  about what hes really talking about. When he
  questions whether it is better to be, or not to
  be, the obvious implication is, Should I kill
  myself? The entire soliloquy strongly suggests
  that he is toying with suicide and perhaps trying
  to work up his courage to do it. But at no point
  does he say that he is in pain or discuss why he
  wants to kill himself. In fact, he never says I
  or me in the entire speech. Hes not trying to
  express himself at all instead, he poses the
  question as a matter of philosophical debate.
  When he claims that everybody would commit
  suicide if they werent uncertain about the
  afterlife, it sounds as if hes making an
  argument to convince an imaginary listener about
  an abstract point rather than directly addressing
  how the question applies to him. Now, its
  perfectly ordinary for characters in plays to say
  something other than what they mean to other
  characters (this suggests that they are
  consciously hiding their true motives), but
  Hamlet does it when hes talking to himself. This
  creates the general impression that there are
  things going on in Hamlets mind that he cant
  think about directly.
• All the things what Hamlet said were trying to
  avoid suicide and he made it finally, but I
  noticed something that also signified Hamlet
  faced to the viewpoint of suicide as follow
• In Hamlets soliloquy,when he says,To
  sleep,perchance to dream. ----ay,theres the
  rub.
  
• He is primarily thinking about death.
• If dying is like going to sleep,he may perhaps
  have dreams,sometimes even bad dreams. That is
  still a problem.
  
• And if suicide can solve any problem, human
  beings is not necessary to exist, because once
  you were born you must live, if some said
  creature must die eventually then why does it
  need production?
• continue

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Topic Questions No.3(continue)

• Morally, Hamlets most logical and powerful
  examination of the theme of the moral legitimacy
  of suicide in an unbearably painful world is this
  soliloquy in Act III, scenei(58-90). He poses the
  problem of whether to commit suicide as a logical
  question To be , or not to be, that is, to
  live or not to live. He then weighs the moral
  ramifications of living and dying. Is it nobler
  to suffer life, the slings and arrows of
  outrageous fortune, passively or to actively
  seek to end ones suffering? He compares death to
  sleep and thinks of the end to sufferings, pain,
  and uncertainty it might bring, the heartache
  ,and the thousand natural shocks/ That flesh is
  heir to. Based on this metaphor, he decides that
  suicide is a desirable course of action, a
  consummation/ Devoutly to be wished. But, as the
  religious word devoutly signifies, there is
  more to the question, namely, what will happen in
  the afterlife. Then he reconfigures his metaphor
  of sleep to include the possibility of dreaming
  he says that the dreams that may come in the
  sleep of death are daunting, they must give us
  pause.
• Religiously, although the Everlasting had not
  fixed His canon against self-slaughter, suicide
  is forbidden by religion in general. Hamlet
  decides that the uncertainty of the afterlife,
  which is intimately related to the theme of the
  difficulty of attaining truth in a spiritually
  ambiguous world, is essentially what prevents all
  of humanity from committing suicide to end the
  pain of life . No one would choose to live,
  except that The dread of something after death
  makes people submit to the suffering of their
  lives rather than go to another state of
  existence which might be more miserable. The
  dread of the afterlife leads to excessive moral
  sensivity that makes action impossible
  conscience does make cowards of us all. He has
  turned to religion and found it inadequate to
  help him either kill himself or to kill Claudius.
  He also turns to alogical philosophical inquiry
  and finds it equally frustriating.
• Aesthetically, according to the definition of
  tragedy, it is an imitation of an action that is
  serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude in
  language embellished with each kind of artistic
  ornament, the several kinds being found in
  separate parts of the play in the form of
  action, not of narrative through pity and fear
  effecting the proper purgation of these emotions.
  In Hamlet, the death of Hamlet and Ophelia
  arouses us pity on them. And the process of
  revenge let us have fear for whether Hamlet will
  be killed.. But the death of Claudius, Getrude,
  and Polonius fills us with disgust. The feelings
  of pity, fear, and disgust reach the aesthetic
  effects.
• B. Hamlet believes that although capable of
  suicide, most human beings choose to live,
  despite the cruelty, pain, and injustice of the
  world. The uncertainty and dread of the afterlife
  makes people choose to live and submit to the
  suffering of their lives .

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the individual response to the works

• ??? 89210093
• From reading this Shakespeare's Hamlet,
  it makes me think about something important and
  interesting. The product reflects human natural
  desires that bring a lot of unavoidable
  conflicts. 1. The author created a particular and
  successful role Hamlet who lived in tragedy. He
  was a prince of Denmark. After his kindly
  father's (the old king) death, he almost became
  crazy because his virtuous mother would marry to
  his crafty uncle right in two months after king's
  death and spirit like his father told him the
  terrible fact that he had been killed by his
  brother (Hamlet's uncle). What a tragedy! If you
  were Hamlet, what should you do? Revenge at once
  or receive the bad result without prove to show
  his uncle's guilty. For Hamlet, he chose to
  pretend to be crazy for finding the real fact and
  waited for a good chance to kill the uncle. At
  last, he killed his evil uncle but he also lost
  his precious life. The unhappy ending shocked me
  very much because I believed that the protagonist
  Hamlet would be successful to revenge, disclose
  the unnatural murder and get his lover's love.
  This story gave e a big surprise and the complex
  character of Hamlet attracted me very much. His
  internal world that was full of unsettled and
  unquiet also attracted the audiences' heart. 2.
  Shakespeare's famous sentence "Frailty, the name
  is woman!" It looks like very suitable to every
  women at that time because they always live by
  depending on men and have no more strength to
  protect themselves. It just likes Hamlet's mother
  whose husband was dead and so she wanted to find
  another support immediately and Hamlet's lover
  Ophelia who obeyed her father's words and orders
  not to receive Hamlet's love, but today it's not
  suitable to everyone since women are more
  independent and confident in their own abilities.
  After finishing reading the fiction, I think that
  Shakespeare was a great and wonderful writer who
  could write such a marvellous product "Hamlet"
  and created many different roles to manifest
  their speical characters and internal thinking or
  desires. Although it is a tragedy, it is real
  impressive.

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the individual response to the works

• ??? 91110858
• I think although Hamlet is brilliance, his
  character of melancholic and unstable nature of
  mind, the result finally is only sadnesshe had
  finished the revenge and he died. Since I had
  studied the same tragedyOedipus, so I thought
  that Hamlets inability to act and tendency
  toward melancholy reflection is a representative
  of tragic flaw. By this tragic flaw, he needs
  to die at the end. This is an accurate way of
  understanding the play.
• If the end of this play is that Hamlet had
  finished his revenge and became the king of
  Denmark. It would tally with the definition of
  comedy in academic terms suggests that it begins
  in disharmony and ends in harmony. So the outcome
  of this play is a comedy. Since the best famous
  plays of Shakespeare are tragedies, so if we
  change the end from sadness to happiness, maybe
  it is not becoming a famous play. That will be
  against the original intention of Shakespeare.

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the individual response to the works

• ??? 86210540
• Shakespeare is considered by most to be the
  greatest writer of all time, and Hamlet is
  without question Shakespeare's greatest tragedy.
  Hamlet's a brilliant play and a masterpiece it
  is certainly one of the cornerstones of English
  literature. There are so many immortal phrases
  and lines in this play, the most famous being "to
  be or not to be." At any rate, Hamlet is one of
  the most famous of all of Shakespeare's works
  only Romeo Juliet really comes close.
• Hamlet is the most complex of Shakespeare's many
  plays. Many of the themes covered are love vs
  hate, action vs non-action, revenge, and
  jealousy. Hamlet discovers that "something is
  rotten in the state of Denmark" when he
  encounters the ghost of his father, the King, who
  has recently been killed in battle. From here,
  Hamlet goes on a search for the discovery of what
  happened to his father. He is deeply shocked by
  his father's murder and his mother's betrayal,
  and that he is completely disillusioned with the
  world and with life. However, Hamlet not only
  uncovers secrets of the past, but also the depths
  of his own being.
• I think this is quite true For Hamlet, the
  difficult thing is to make a decision, to act.
  And if it is the case it is because he doesn't
  feel life is really worth the effort. To be true
  to his father and to his own sense of honor he
  has to act against his own inclination. But for
  him, the choice is not so simple. He has to feign
  madness to be able to come out and do it. This is
  a way to escape responsibilities. And it is so
  difficult for him to find the strength to act
  that the first time he acts, it is on an impulse
  and it is a total fiasco as he kills the poor
  Polonius instead of his uncle. It is only after
  having gone away and come back, after Ophelia's
  death, after having meditated again and again
  that he will finally accomplished his mission.
• Moral dilemma, ethics, deceit, virtue, honor,
  revenge... these are all things that make a story
  classic, not rustic. Here is not some cheap
  revenge drama where the hero eventually triumphs
  in glory. Here is a man spider-entangled with
  puzzle, here is man truly confused by life's
  perplexity.
• Hamlet arouse our sympathy and draw us into his
  sphere, cheering for him, rooting for him,
  praying for his eventual conquest of lechers for
  we all at one time or another have experienced
  similar ideas floating in our cosmos. When he
  fails life's omnipresent hazard strikes us in
  greater preponderance thus causing us think more
  deeply on our existence.

13
the individual response to the works

• ??? 92110576
• Hamlet is one of the Shakespeare's most famous
  four tragedies. It is written from A.D. 1601 to
  A.D. 1602. Its meaning is the most penetrative
  and art is the most perfect play. Many
  litterateurs, critics, scholars think Hamlet is
  the great work of Shakespeare. The plot describes
  Denmark prince, Hamlet, revenged his father
  story.
• First, from love and incest start, Hamlets
  father (king) murdered by Hamlets uncle.
  Hamlet's mother remarries with his uncle quickly.
  Later, when the kings soul appears, Hamlet
  played the fool to revenge. Among, the third
  screen explores the meaning of life and death.
  Its monologue To be or not to be, that is the
  question . Its also known in Western
  literature.
• As Hamlet's sanity becomes a relic of the past,
  his reasoning and actions reveal a different side
  to this character and make the audience doubt his
  uprightness. For example, Hamlet's murdering of
  Polonius without even confirming that it was, in
  fact, Polonius. This deed alone seems
  uncharacteristic and spontaneous in nature, but
  it is soon followed by others of similar
  severity. Another such action was Hamlet's malice
  towards the king, and his desire to kill him.
  While the Hamlet from the previous section would
  leave Claudius to his certain fate, the new
  Hamlet hunts the king seeking revenge. Finally,
  Hamlet's thirst after Laertes' life completes the
  ambiguity of his character. Even though Hamlet
  killed Laertes' father, in his rash lack of
  inhibitions, he sought to battle Laertes. This
  action pushes him over the top and makes the
  reader truly skeptical of Hamlet's true self.
• All of the confusion over Hamlet's true nature
  and the ambiguity of his character is the result
  of Shakespeare's clever manipulation of his
  characters to implicitly articulate his ideas. He
  makes the point that because you cannot know
  someone's thoughts, there is no way for you to
  know their true self. Though somewhat cynical
  Shakespeare's views are well thought out and
  clearly illustrated through Hamlet.
• In conclusion, Shakespeare used Hamlet's
  ambiguous nature as propaganda for his opinions.
  Almost every kind, noble, or gentle act Hamlet
  commits is coupled with one lacking morality.
  This analysis of Shakespeare is a testament to
  his superb control of his characters down to the
  smallest detail. Hamlets character, his thinking
  is penetrative and his heart is full of anxiety.
  This work, Hamlet, has much charm so far. It
  influences deeply Western culture and produces
  exploration in psychology.

14
the individual response to the works

• ??? 91110563
• We all know that Hamlet is one of four great
  Shakespearean tragedies. Hamlet's delay in
  revenging his father and killing Claudius is no
  doubt a central problem of the play. It is
  Shakespeare's most complex and most difficult
  play. After reading this play, two points come
  into my mind as follows
• A. the clash between old and new politic forces
  The ghost presents a figure of antiquity that
  contrast strongly with the more modern Denmark
  ruled by Claudius. The image of Old Hamlet is
  responding as the old warrior, wearing complete
  armor and holding a truncheon. Claudius
  represents the voice of this new society he is
  the perfect new politician and stands in contrast
  to Old Hamlet. This is evidenced strongly by
  their choice of words Old Hamlet is the old
  Senecan tradition and uses repretion, Claudius
  uses prose. In true political vein, Claudius'
  words flow smothly but his meaning runs counter
  to the words. This conflict between the new world
  which has defeated the old world is made clear by
  Hamlet, who comments, "That thou, dead corpse,
  again in complete steel".
• B. the competition between classic and
  popularity Dante and Shakespeare are the center
  of the Western literature becaause they excell
  all other Western writers in cognitive acuity,
  linguistic energy, and power of invention. Just
  as Dante surpasses all other writers, before or
  since, in emphasizing an ultimate changelessness
  in each of us, a fixed position that we must
  occupy in eternity, so Shakespeare surpasses all
  others in evidencing a psychology of mutability.
  He originates the depicition of self-change on
  the basis of self-overhearing. Hamlet, the
  leading self-overhearer in all literature becomes
  this most remarkable of all literary innovations.
  We go around now talking to ourselves endlessly,
  overhearing what we say, then ponding and acting
  upon what we have learned. And the audiences find
  out that Shakespeare represents them upon the
  stage. Shakespeare has been the people'spoet,
  even as Dante has been the poets' poet., who is
  not for the common people. Then Dante alienates
  the audience. Shakespeare holds almost any
  audience, upper or lower class And Shakespeare is
  vertually unique in simultaneously manifesting
  both difficult and popular art.
• At any rate, national surges are present in all
  eras. The unity of a great era is generally an
  illusion. The clash between old and new politic
  forces inevitably goes on in the future. It
  stands for for the persuit of ideal life is the
  major object of human beings. On the other hand,
  we can realize the trend of literature or arts.
  It is how to simultaneously manifest both classic
  and popularity.

15
the individual response to the works

• ??? 93210254
• Hamlet wants the playlet to expose Claudius'
  guilt. To do that, it must be realistic, not
  stylized. It must be intensely, naturally
  affecting and dramatic, not theatrically showy or
  melodramatic. It must get to the point and push
  it home to the heart, not bandy about with
  excessive oratory. And this is all that Hamlet is
  arguing for in his injunctions to the players.
  This is what he desperately need them to do,
  especially in this performance. That it is pretty
  good advice generally for acting is more beside
  the point. Certainly none of it is a guideline
  for real life human behavior, his own or anyone
  else's.
• His own behaviour during the performance of the
  playlet is not a song and dance act. It is his
  natural human reaction to the performance and the
  circumstances. I think Hamlet is nervous from the
  start of the playlet. Obviously, its outcome
  matters so much. As he sees it, his whole future
  depends and turns on it. He may get to be
  justified in killing his uncle and king. Or he
  may not get his proof, in which case he still
  wouldn't know or he would have to settle back,
  maybe eventually forgive his mother, get back
  with Ophelia, wait and be elected king when
  Claudius dies in 20-odd years. Judging from his
  reaction after the playlet, I think he wants the
  former. Needless to say he's on edge, which
  explains the febrile sparkiness of his
  conversation with Ophelia, on whom of course he
  is hardly concentrating even when speaking to
  her. He's anxiously engrossed in watching his
  mother's and his uncle's reactions to the
  playlet.
• Then, yes, towards the crux of the issue he
  starts joining in. I doubt its that he thinks or
  feels he should. I imagine he can't help himself.
  Because while he is anxiously watching his
  uncle's reaction to a - by his own injunctions -
  very realistic enactment of the murder of his
  father, HE IS ALSO HIMSELF WATCHING A REALISTIC
  ENACTMENT OF HIS OWN FATHER'S MURDER.
  Furthermore, with 'This is one Lucianus, NEPHEW
  to the King", Hamlet is surreptitiously letting
  Claudius know he plans to kill Claudius if
  Claudius did the murder. That's a bold step.
  Hamlet adored his father. That bastard Claudius
  did to his father what that bastard Lucianus is
  doing to that poor king just there on the stage.
  Ophelia, unaware of what's going on, keeps trying
  to talk to him, distract him, even reprove him.
  His mother is getting uncomfortable, distressed
  she deserves it, but he loves her. Polonius (no
  doubt) is looking at him like he's a half-wit.
  Claudius is ... or isn't he? ... getting hot
  under the collar.
• Nervousness, anxiety, expectation, hope,
  irritation, defiance, grief, horror, love, hate
  ... . Maybe you can do the math. I find it all a
  soul-crushing equation.

16
reference (either books or websites)

• ??? 89210093
• ????SHAKESPEARE MADE EASY "HAMLET" (BARRONS)
  
  
• Modern English Version
  Side-by-side with Full Origianl Text edited and
  rendered into
  
• modern English by Alan Durband
  
  
• ??? 86210540
• http//www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/conte
  xt.html
  
• http//www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/haml
  et/about.shtml
  
• http//library.thinkquest.org/19539/hamlet.htmbac
  k
  
• http//facstaff.bloomu.edu/hickey/to20165020lect
  ure2013.htm
  
• http//fajardo-acosta.com/worldlit/shakespeare/
• ??? 92110576
• 1) books???????(??Charles Mary Lamb,
  ????????????)
  
• 2) websites http// web.cwoc.ufl.edu/
  owl/archives/2003_08_29/messages/407.html
  
• ??? 93210254
• http//www.allshakespeare.com/hamlet/