Heaven and earth! Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on: and yet, within a month, -- Let me not think on't, -- Frailty, thy name is woman! -- a little month; or ere those shoes were old With which she followed my poor father's body Like Niobe, all tears; -- why she, even she, -- O God! A beast that wants discourse of reason, Would have mourn'd longer, -- married with mine uncle, My father's brother; but no more like my father Than I to Hercules: within a month;
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She married: -- O, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not, nor it cannot come to good; but break my heart, -- for I…...
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Bibliography
"Psychosocial Evaluation in Decision Making Process." Buzzle.com. 2010. Web. 16 May 2010
Elliot, T.S. "Hamlet and His Problems." Barleby. 1922. Web. 16 May 2010
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. London: N. Trubner, 1869. Print
He questions whether he should try to clear the court of corruption or just give up and end his life now. It is this emotional doubt that drives Hamlet to act deranged at times, but he overcomes it, and almost manages to answer the difficult questions posed in his life. In Act V, when calm returns, Hamlet repents his behavior (V, ii, 75-78) (Lidz, 164).
In Lidz's book Freud is quoted as saying "that if anyone holds and expresses to others an opinion of himself such as this [Hamlet's "Use every man after his desert, and who shall escape whipping?"], he is ill, whether he is speaking the truth whether he is being more or less unfair to himself." Though Hamlet has proved his intellectual stability, he is quite obviously emotionally "ill."
This emotional illness and uncertainty is why Hamlet procrastinates in the killing of Claudius. On his way to see…...
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Works Cited
Babcock, Weston. A Tragedy of Errors. Purdue Research Foundation 1961.
Charlton, Lewis. The Genesis of Hamlet. Kenniket Press, Port Washington, NY 1907.
Elliot, T.S. "Hamlet and His Problems." Sacred Woods. 1920.
Leavenworth, Russel E. Interpreting Hamlet: Materials for analysis Chandler Publishing CO, San Francisco 1960.
Hamlet Annotated Bibliography
Cook, Patrick J. Cinematic Hamlet: the Films of Olivier, Zeffirelli, Branagh, and Almereyda.
Athens, Ohio: Ohio UP. 2011. Print. This book focuses on the many versions of Hamlet that have been made for the silver screen. The play by illiam Shakespeare is one of the most frequently filmed works and each version of the story has a unique perspective. Director, screenwriter, and of course actor each influence the overall position of the film. Each chooses which elements of the story to emphasize and which to underplay. Even films that use the complete text of Shakespeare's work still alter the original by the act of interpretation. By examining each version, focusing on the three four major ones, the author helps explain what was important to the artists and by extension to the audience who would have seen the film.
In the context of a paper, each film would be watched and…...
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Wood, William Dyson. Hamlet: From a Psychological Point-of-View. London, England:
Longmans. 1870. Print. This text was written nearly 150 years ago at the beginning stages of psychiatric and psychological medicines. Yet even from that early time period, psychologists and literary scholars alike were able to view the correlation between the characters in Hamlet and some severe psychological disorders. The author points to several of Hamlet's soliloquies, particularly the famous "To be or not to be" speech wherein Hamlet asks a myriad of hypothetical questions. These questions, Wood argues are actually the basis of all human thought. Everyone, he argues, questions the world and their place in it at some time.
Many critics have questioned Hamlet's mental state, as well as the mentalities of those around him. Of those critics, many have Hamlet not of sound mind. This does not seem to be the case in Wood's piece. Rather, he believes that Hamlet's actions are valid based upon the psychological medicine of the day.
Hamlet's Ghost has presented a problem for critics and readers since it first appeared on stage some four hundred years ago. Serving as the pivot upon which the action of the play is established -- Hamlet's father's ghost delivers him important information about his death and the throne -- one is likely to ask whether the ghost is truly the soul of King Hamlet or rather a devil appearing in disguise in order to trick (like Iago) the hero of the drama into a fatal course. This paper will examine the theology behind Hamlet's ghost and compare and contrast the Christian and unchristian, Catholic and Protestant, traits found in the play.
As Roy . Battenhouse states, "One may agree with Dover ilson that the Ghost is the 'linchpin' without which Hamlet falls to pieces, yet question ilson's judgment that the Ghost 'is Catholic,' 'comes from Purgatory,' and 'is the only non-Protestant…...
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Works Cited
Battenhouse, Roy W. "The Ghost in Hamlet: A Catholic 'Linchpin'?" Studies in Philology vol. 48, no. 2, 1951, 161-192. Print.
Miriam Joseph. "Discerning the Ghost in Hamlet." PMLA vol. 76, no. 5, 1961, 493-502.
Print.
Miriam Joseph. "Hamlet, a Christian Tragedy." Studies in Philosophy vol. 59, no. 2,
She...handles Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with skill and diplomacy...has the accent of command with her son...witty and perceptive about Polonius...she is not stupid at her job: there she gives out and reserves herself in good proportion." (Pennington 160) Gertrude's performance in the court shows Branagh makes a commitment as a director to giving the female characters of the play individualistic integrity beyond their ability to mirror different Oedipal aspects of the central protagonist's development. "There isn't an iota of sexual energy or tension in Hamlet's confrontation with his mother," unlike Oliver's version, where a bed is featured in the confrontation scene between Hamlet and his mother in Act IV, Scene 3. (Rosenberg, 1996) Julie Christie's Gertrude is morally conflicted about what she has done, and increasingly aware that she might have married a murderer after the confrontation of the closet scene. But Oliver's Gertrude is simply infatuated with her son.…...
Dissidence for Sinfield is the element in a text that seeks to contradict the dominant ideology of the text, or of the culture in which the text was produced (Sinfield agrees with Marx that these are the same thing). Subversiveness is similar, perhaps even identical in objective; the difference is that to be subversive, a text must be successful in its dissidence. For that reason, one must consult the historical impact of a text to determine whether it was subversive or merely dissident. In Othello, one could say that Othello was dissident in his challenge of racial assumptions, where Iago was subversive in overthrowing the hierarchy that supports Othello.
3.
In his article "The Breakdown of Medieval Hierarchy in King Lear," Alessandro Serpieri locates in the tension between the hierarchical system and those who are exiled or exile themselves from that system a mirror for the falling away of the traditional medieval…...
This explains the indecisiveness of Hamlet to remove Claudius and a strong barrier between Gertrude and Hamlet is made by him so as he will never express his true emotions for her. Hamlet feelings for Gertrude will be disguised by the ones for Ophelia which aren't real as long as Claudius stayed in the way. His original indecisiveness about revenge ultimately grew and he tried to defy his order after a while. hen his mother is killed, then the reason for not killing Claudius disappears and he makes the decision to kill his him and avenge his father. His indecisiveness does cost him his life and that of his mother who was the one reason for his living (Utter 137).
The tragic flaw is of Hamlet is evident in his indecisiveness to take revenge for the death of his father. Hamlet brings up several excuses for not taking action yet…...
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Works Cited
Burch, R. "I knew Hamlet." Mississippi Review. 29.3 (2001): 43-47
" This madness likely leads to Ophelia's suicide but, consistent with the entire theme of this play, the exact nature of Ophelia's demise is left to speculation.
The fascination with Hamlet is uncanny. hat provides this fascination is the fact that there is always more to what is going on in the play than what actually appears to be. Observers of the play are left with an overwhelming feeling that they do not really understand what has gone on inside the confines of the play or why. As a result, one leaves the play questioning nearly everything. Halmet, the main character, is the personification of this confusion. Throughout the entire play he is plagued by a never ending incapacity to make a decision.
This confusion continues through nearly every character in the play. Claudius is an immoral murderer but, at the same time, he is a fair and competent ruler. Polonius is…...
The centrality of the ghost to the play's metaphysics might be inferred from the fact that illiam Shakespeare acted as the ghost and the player king (Bloom), a strange chimera and bellerophon within the anatomy of the play. To cite Eliot again, Hamlet "is the 'Mona Lisa' of literature" (cf. Hoy 182). It is an exciting challenge to participate in this critical tradition in hopes of concluding it. However, the volumes of superb criticism on Hamlet and King Hamlet's ghost are vast, and this is a mere gloss of its character. If we obsess over it too much, we, like Hamlet, may become lost in its problems.
orks Cited and Consulted
Bloom, Harold. Hamlet: Poem Unlimited. Riverhead Books: New York, 2003.
Dodsworth, Martin. Hamlet Closely Observed. The Athlone Press: London, 1985.
Greenblatt, Stephen. Hamlet in Purgatory. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 2001.
How, Cyrus, ed. illiam Shakespeare Hamlet, Second Edition. .. Norton & Company: New York,…...
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Works Cited and Consulted
Bloom, Harold. Hamlet: Poem Unlimited. Riverhead Books: New York, 2003.
Dodsworth, Martin. Hamlet Closely Observed. The Athlone Press: London, 1985.
Greenblatt, Stephen. Hamlet in Purgatory. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 2001.
How, Cyrus, ed. William Shakespeare Hamlet, Second Edition. W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 1992.
Hamlet is by far one of Shakespeare's more enigmatic characters. e understand from the beginning of the play with Horatio and Marcellus that they think very highly of Hamlet as they decide to tell him first about the ghostly vision they saw whom they believe to be his father. However, when we meet Hamlet, we are confused. Is he depressed -- or is he simply cruel (Davies 30)? Or is Hamlet, a man who is overly sensitive, deeply melancholy, and armed with a reflective mind, simply mad? It is this dichotomy of characteristics that always leave us guessing about Hamlet's psychological state. Hamlet himself does not deny this. In fact, he says to his mother, the queen, that there is much more to him than people see.
'Seems', madam -- nay it is, I know not 'seems'.
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, cold mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor the windy…...
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Works Cited
Davies, Michael. Hamlet Character Studies (Continuum Character Studies). Continuum, 2008.
Paris, Bernard J. Bargains with Fate: Psychological Crises and Conflicts in Shakespeare and His
Plays. Transaction Publishers, 2009. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet (Arden Shakespeare: Third Series). Arden Shakespeare; 3rd
Of course, Hamlet would then likely assume the throne, but Hamlet seems to have little interest in ruling, as he scoffs when Guildenstern and Rosencrantz say that it is his frustrated ambition that makes him melancholic. Hamlet is a rational and philosophical individual, hence his constant self-searching about the nature of the ghost, about the possibility of an afterlife that no traveler may return (if the ghost is a devil), but he also emotionally wants to avenge his father's death, as he does believe his father has been murdered. Hamlet's emotions and intelligence are often in conflict, which makes him a less effective 'adventure hero' than the ruthless and cold Fortinbras.
In contrast to Fortinbras, Hamlet has much more sympathy with Laertes' quest to avenge a murdered father, even though he is the cause of the other young man's outrage. Hamlet accidently kills Laertes' father Polonius while Polonius is spying…...
Bradley describes this by saying that "Othello's nature is all of one piece... Love, if he loves, must be to him the heaven where either he must leave or bear no life. If such a passion as jealousy seizes him, it will swell into a well-night incontrollable flood" (Bradley 188). This shows how Othello goes to the extremes, especially relating to his emotions. Bradley also says that "He is quite free from introspection, and is not given to reflection. Emotion excites his imagination, but it confuses and dulls his intellect" (Bradley 188). This shows that like Hamlet, Othello is not able to consider the source of his emotions. This occurs as a natural part of Othello's character, while for Hamlet it is specifically linked to the particular situation and the particular emotion. However, the end result is the same with both characters unable to consider their emotions and rationalize…...
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Works Cited
Bradley, A.C. Shakespearean Tragedy. New York: Penguin, 1991.
Eliot, T.S. "Hamlet and his Problems." The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism. 1922. Bartelby.com. Retrieved October 29, 2005. URL: http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw9.html
[Bradley: 121]. According to Beck (1997) depressive symptoms include consistently low mood, pessimistic thoughts, loss of excitement and decreased energy. These symptoms are found in Hamlet as well as he calls himself melancholic (II.ii.597) and confirms his condition further by saying:
But I have that within which passes show,
These but the trappings and the suits of woe. (I.ii.85-6)
Hamlet also tells us that he has lost excitement for life and people in general as he confides in osencrantz and Guildenstern, saying nothing really excites or delights him anymore. (II.ii.295-309).
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world! (I.ii.133-4)
His negativity is also apparent on numerous occasions. For example he refers to Demark as a prison (II.ii.243) and makes bitter comments about women (III.i.111-51). He talks about death and mortality frequently and make allusions to poor sleep when he says, "were it not that I have bad dreams."(II.ii.255)…...
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References
Bradley AC. Shakespearean tragedy [2nd ed]. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1924
Beck P. Symptoms and assessment of depression. In: Paykel ES, ed. Handbook of affective disorders [2nd ed]. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1997
Samuel Johnson, On Shakespeare, Penguin, London. 1989.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Writings on Shakespeare, Capricorn, N.Y. 1959.
Dane Johnston gave a stunning performance in the title role of the play. In fitting with the modern interpretation of the classic, Johnston's rendering of Hamlet is akin to the "emo" youth subculture - just as Ophelia is meant to conform to the "gothic" subculture. At the same time, Johnston delivered Hamlet's numerous long monologues with sophistication and ease, proving to the audience that you do not have to fake a British accent in order to accurately capture the Shakespearean essence of the role.
Hamlet's best friends, Horatio (Kit Fugard) and Marcella (Vanessa Downs), were also portrayed as "scene kids," but obviously of an artistic and intelligent nature. Angela Donor's interpretation of Ophelia tended to be a bit melodramatic at some points during the play; at the same time, it can be said that such over-acting may be necessary, as it is part of Ophelia's true nature.
Hamlet decides to play at being mad in ways that seem calculated. This is evidenced in his verbal dueling with Polonius, the courtier of the play who in contrast to the blind prophet of the Greek tragedy is truly a foolish old man, rather than merely seeming so. But even Polonius admits that Hamlet's madness seems to have a verbal sense to it -- although the reason for Hamlet pretending to be mad vacillates. At first Hamlet accepts the ghost's words, then tests those words, and then uses purgatory as an excuse not to kill Claudius while the king is praying after the staged play "The Mousetrap."
Hamlet's brilliance lies mainly in his acceptance of his fate with a clear head and his recognition of moral ambiguity. Finally, he says to Horatio, in the fifth and last act of the play, to let be, and the readiness is all --…...
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