Shakespeare and Insanity
An Analysis of Insanity in Four Plays by Shakespeare
Shakespeare lived at a time when the old medieval Catholic world was splitting apart and giving rise to the new modern Protestant world. In the midst of this real conflic Continue Reading...
Shakespeare's Plays: Henry the IV Part I, Hamlet, a Midsummer Night's Dream
Henry the IV, Part I
Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 78-90.
KING HENRY IV: Yea, there thou makest me sad and makest me sin In envy that my Lord Northumberland Should be the father t Continue Reading...
Chaucer
Both Shakespeare's Hamlet and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales do offer universal truths. As Volve states about Chaucer's work in particular: "The tale is firmly anchored in one specific period of history…but it seeks as well to represen Continue Reading...
In the second transition the Hamlet could have murdered Claudius while he was pleading guilty in front of God. Had Hamlet resorted to revenge at this stage then Claudius would have reached heaven since he had admitted while the father of Hamlet was Continue Reading...
Hamlet's Insanity
Hamlet's sanity has been questioned by critics of the play for centuries: is the Dane merely acting in order to fool the spies following him around the castle? -- or does he actually lose his mind? Part of the difficulty is Continue Reading...
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 scree Continue Reading...
King Lear stands as an excellent example of one Shakespeare's tragedies, and in certain senses it is the most obviously "classical" in its sense of tragedy. The basic plot of the play involves Lear, who is the aging King, deciding to step down and d Continue Reading...
In the novel, Howard is forced to serve as an U.S. secret Agent by the Blue Fairy, a career that eventually led to his own death.
Mother Night represents the fictional memoirs of Howard W. Campbell Jr., an American who served as a secret agent for Continue Reading...
Tragic Hero begins with an examination of Oedipus Rex. But, while he is the archetype of this particular literary character, Hamlet is, perhaps, the most well developed and psychologically complex of tragic heroes. For the Greeks, all things in life Continue Reading...
Hamlet and Revenge
Hamlet -- Prince of Denmark -- is considered to be one of Shakespeare's greatest plays. (Meyer, 2002). It is also one of his most complex plays. It is about the evolution of a character within the context of a revenge drama -- tha Continue Reading...
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 questio Continue Reading...
Yet this realization comes to Don Quixote as part of his journey, which is how age and experience also presents itself to any individual -- in a gradual, subtle manner that is learned with the passing of time. Therefore, it is accurate to state that Continue Reading...
Hamlet's attitude towards the other female characters in the play, such as Ophelia is shaped by the distrust of women that is engendered by the mother's actions.
Many critics have noted the strange and extreme attitude that Hamlet has towards women Continue Reading...
"(Summary and Analysis: Act V)
CONCLUSION
It is clear that Hamlet undergoes a personal transformation as he holds the skull of the court jester of his childhood and as he has lost all of those he loves so dear. Whether his mind clears or he simply Continue Reading...
"So excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr" (Shakespeare, William) is a Shakespearian juxtaposition used to compare Old Hamlet with Claudius. Hamlet alludes to Hyperion, the God of Light who represents not only honor and virtue, but Continue Reading...
Of course, the last thing on Hamlet's mind would be marriage since he is wrestling with the tragedy of his father's death and his mother's betrayal. In light of all of these facts it is very unlikely that Polonius would be wrong, and it seems that h Continue Reading...