...Annotated Bibliography for Hamlet Thesis: In Hamlet, Ophelia faces the constant struggle to find her identity, due to male superiority and lack of mother. If Ophelia were to live in today’s world, she would most likely suffer from depression, abuse, and eating disorders due to her lack of personal identity. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York: Dover Publications, 1992. Print. Hamlet, by William Shakespeare is the main text used for relations to Ophelia and her lack of personal identity. This play provides us with first-hand information on Ophelia’s downward spiral into insanity, which results in her own personal demise. This source is very appropriate, due to the fact that it is the first-hand insight into what Shakespeare portrayed Ophelia as, in her role in Hamlet. Therefore, it is believed that all information found in it, can be trusted and used accordingly, to relate Ophelia and her insanity due to contributing factors in her social environment. I found this source, in class, as it was our primary learning source in the discussions we had about Hamlet. This source is unlike my other sources, due to the fact that it is the base text for my work. From this source, I can learn how Ophelia slowly fell into madness, and what events helped lead up to her peak of insanity in the play. This helps develop my essay, because it is the main source that I will be using in relation to my other research sources. Considering that this is my base text, it is relatable to both my...
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...stage show from aspects of technical arts, adaption and editing as well as performance of the actor and actresses and a character analysis combing with Oedipus complex, Electra complex together with the author’s personal reactions. Keywords: drama review; technical arts; performance, character analysis Contents I. Introduction………………………………………………………………………....3 II. Technical arts………………………………………………………………………4 A. Lighting &Music.……………………………………………………………..4 B. Stage Properties…………………………………………………………..........4 C. Costumes………………………………………………………………………4 III. Editing& Adaption………………………………………………………………..5 IV. Performance……………………………………………………………………….6 A. Hamlet…………………………………………………………………………...6 B. Ophelia………………………………………………………………………….6 C. Gertrude…………………………………………………………………………7 V. Character Analysis………………………………………………………………....7 A. Hamlet………………………………………………………………………….7 B. Ophelia…………………………………………………………………………8 C. Gertrude………………………………………………………………………..9 VI. Conclusion…………………………………………………………….................9 Introduction The original play of Hamlet is a masterpiece describing prince Hamlet’s revenge to his uncle—Claudius, who had killed Hamlet’s father and married his mother. The drama adapted by Wuhan University, mainly focuses on the “nunnery scene” and “closet scene”, revealing Hamlet’s conflicts between Ophelia and Queen Gertrude as well as his controversial feelings and hesitation of revenge in an impressive way....
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...When thinking about how is Ophelia driven insane and ultimately to her death in Hamlet the play. I was surprising confused as to what series of events lead to what and therefore, it was difficult to choose one or even two that I thought were 100% concrete. Because at the outset of the play when we meet Ophelia, who is a sweet young lady that appears to be pretty, intelligent, and a symbol for courtly innocence and decorum. By the end of the play she somehow manages to have drowned, which was either potentially an act of suicide, or just a symbol of the madness she had fallen in to. I think everyone on this Earth is bound to suffer some heart ache at one time or another. Losing my first love was one of the worst gut wrenching things I ever experienced. I also have some experience in seeing someone erode from stable healthy mental state to a complete and udder mess. Mental stability is a somewhat tenuous thing that I feel society’s take for granted. Here are some of the theories that I agreed with, about Ophelia taking such a tragic turn. 1) She is heart-broken over Hamlet. “The idea that Ophelia is more heart-broken over the loss of her father or more heart-broken over the loss of Hamlet tells you a great deal about her character and what she values.” (Informing Bethany Lutheran College's, 2013) 2) She is heart-broken… over Polonius. “Again, for her not to be deeply affected by the loss of her father is equally unlikely. I don’t care if she’s a lovesick teen, if her...
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...Marcellus, Horatio, and Francisco seeing the ghost king while on watch duty. The ghost appeared dressed in his armor and suddenly disappears. Because the ghost appeared, Horatio thinks it’s an omen of bad luck. He thinks the ghost king was trying to warn them that something bad would happen to Denmark soon, perhaps in the form of a military attack. The ghost then appears again and Horatio tries to talk to it. It would respond back and just disappears again. Horatio decides to tell Hamlet to try to talk to it because Hamlet was the ghost son so he can’t refuse to talk to his son. Quote Analysis: “No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm” Marcellus said this when the ghost appears. When the cock crowed at the first break of dawn, it was believed that it has the power to get rid of the evil powers. The morning light compels all evil because the light was believed to be good. Character Comment: Horatio – Horatio believed in thing s like ghost and witches. He believed in the world beyond ours. When Old King Hamlet came to visit in his ghost form, Horatio thought it was a bad omen for Denmark and the oncoming war with Fortinbras’ army. Act 1 Scene 2 Summary: Claudius and Gertrude get married and they have a feast to celebrate their new marriage and new life together. Claudius’ excuse for marrying Gertrude was to balance out the sadness toward Old King Hamlet’s death with the happiness of his marriage with Gertrude. Also, with Fortinbras coming to avenge his...
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...CRITICAL ANALYSIS In Act II Sc.1 Polonius talks to a man named Reynaldo and sends him to spy on his son. Ophelia reports to her father Polonius the strange behaviour of Hamlet. Polonius immediately concludes that Hamlet is 'madly in love' with Ophelia: “That hath made him mad." He wants to report it to the king immediately, because Ophelia says he just stood there staring at her for five minutes covered in mud and looked insane. Polonius at first thinks that Hamlets love for Ophelia is a fake act, but soon finds that his love is actual true. But he then believes he has gone mad, he believes he has gone crazy. This creates dramatic irony, Polonius cannot tell the truth, he is misreading Hamlet and it leads to his death. We the readers know that he is wrong about Hamlet. This scene creates a beginning of Polonius end. He’s actions lead to his eventual downfall. This scene shows that Polonius is not trustworthy because of him spying on his son, it shows the deception that Hamlet has and that Ophelia really does care for Hamlet. The main theme that it develops is acting, because both Polonius towards his son and Hamlet towards Ophelia trick them with false words and emotion. In this scene we learn that Polonius makes false judgements, and Hamlet can be very deceptive with his actions and emotions. We learn that the theme of acting is very present in the play. Through this acting many characters in the play don’t not know what the true intentions of other...
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...is furious about Gertrude's marriage to Claudius. Hamlet meets the ghost, which claims to be the spirit of his father, murdered by Claudius. Hamlet quickly accepts the ghost's command to seek revenge. Yet Hamlet is uncertain if what the ghost said is true. He delays his revenge and begins to act half-mad, contemplate suicide, and becomes furious at all women. The Lord Chamberlain, Polonius, concludes that Hamlet's behavior comes from lovesickness for Ophelia, Polonius's daughter. Claudius and Gertrude summon two of Hamlet's old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to find out what's wrong with him. As Polonius develops a plot to spy on a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia, Hamlet develops a plot of his own: to have a recently arrived troupe of actors put on a play that resembles Claudius's alleged murder of Old Hamlet, and watch Claudius's reaction. Polonius and Claudius spy on the meeting between Ophelia and Hamlet, during which Hamlet flies into a rage against women and marriage. Claudius concludes Hamlet neither loves Ophelia nor is mad. Seeing Hamlet as a threat, he decides to send him away. At the play that night, Claudius runs from the room during the scene of the murder, proving his guilt. Hamlet gets his chance for revenge when, on the way to see Gertrude, he comes upon Claudius, alone and praying. But Hamlet holds off—if Claudius is...
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...Imagery in Hamlet Hamlet is one of the most widely read works of literature. It's an exploration of the multifaceted world of adolescence. This world is full of confusion, thoughtfulness, intimacy, and action. It's a study in how a young person emerging into adulthood attempts to cope. In Hamlet, Shakespeare allows his hero to dream and to think through his dreams (Williams). Hamlet is a revenge tragedy and by the end, almost every character has died in some tragic or gruesome way. In this play, Shakespeare makes use of imagery, allegory, metaphor, and symbolism. In particular, the symbols of the ghost, the garden, and flowers, along with imagery and metaphors for madness are used to convey specific ideas which provide depth and complexity to this story. The ghost is a pivotal symbol and appears throughout Hamlet. Is the ghost Hamlet's father or is it Hamlet himself? Is the ghost real or is it part of Hamlet's imagination? The ghost claims he is Hamlet's father. He says he was murdered by Claudius, Hamlet's Uncle who is now wed to Hamlet's mother and who is also sitting on the throne. He also says his sins must be wiped clean before he can ascend to heaven. His soul is "doomed" to endure "sulph'rous and tormenting flames" until the "foul crimes done in [his] days of nature / Are burnt and purged away" (1.5.6; 17-18). The ghost requires revenge and this is an odd request given the religious context, yet this is what sets the revenge plot in motion. Father's Ghost. My hour...
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...Literary Analysis: Hamlet In the tragedy Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, Hamlet is this young man who experiences close relation death which was his father. He later finds out it was his uncle who murdered his father just to take heir to the throne. Hamlet constant brooding about death and humanity comes ahead. (Tennen) Hamlet is arguably the greatest dramatic character ever created from the moment we meet the crestfallen prince we are enraptured by his elegant intensity. (Mabillard) William Shakespeare hamlet follows the young prince Hamlet home to Denmark to attend his father’s funeral. (Stockton) In “Hamlet” the tragedy hamlet the prince holds a great internal conflict throughout the play. (Studymode) On a dark winter night a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore castle in Denmark. (Sparknotes)The first edition of hamlet was published in 1603 from a previous sketch composed several years earlier the second one following 1604. (Bates) Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy Bernado’s question betrays the mood of uncertainty that prevails throughout the play. (George) So speaks Shakespeare’s prince hamlet of the transient nature of all mankind throughout the play humanity and frailty is a common theme. (Mortensen) In Hamlet the tragedy, hamlet, the prince of Demark with holds a great internal conflict throughout the play. (Directessays) Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play and the play responsible for the immortal lines “to be or not to be that is the question” (Taylor) The story...
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...The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude, the old king's widow and Prince Hamlet's mother. The play vividly portrays both true and feigned madness – from overwhelming grief to seething rage – and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption. Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in the English language, with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others." The play was one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime It has inspired writers from Goethe and Dickens to Joyce and Murdoch, and has been described as "the world's most filmed story after Cinderella". Shakespeare based Hamlet on the legend of Amleth, preserved by 13th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum as subsequently retold by 16th-century scholar François de Belleforest. He may also have drawn on or perhaps written an earlier Elizabethan play known today as the Ur-Hamlet. He almost certainly created the title role for Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeare's time. In the 400 years since, the role has been performed by highly acclaimed actors and actresses from each successive age. Three...
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...Chart Outlining Incidents of Dramatic Irony Example of Dramatic Irony from Acts I & II | Characters Involved | Sympathy? Antipathy? | Reason your sympathies lean as they do | Evidence – Lines and Explanation of Effect | In Act I.v, the Ghost of King Hamlet reveals to Hamlet that the King had been poisoned to death by Claudius. Dramatic irony occurs because Hamlet, the Ghost and we know the truth that Claudius murdered Hamlet's father.Dramatic irony occurs because only the readers and his friends Marcellus and Horatio know that Hamlet is only pretending to be mad.Ophelia and Polonious thinks that Hamlet is mad in love with Ophelia but only we and his friends know that Hamlet is only pretending to be mad. | Hamlet, Ghost and Claudius | Sympathy with Hamlet and his father.Antipathy with Claudius | Claudius killed the father of Hamlet. And no one knew the reality.Antipathy for Claudius because he murdered his own brother and became the king. | | | Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus | Sympathy with Hamlet. | Sympathy with Hamlet because he knows that his father had been murdered but couldn’t reveal the truth. | | | Hamlet, Ophelia and Polonious | Sympathy with Ophelia. | Sympathy with Ophelia because she also thought that Hamlet was mad, which made her sad. | | | | | | | | | | | | Dramatic Irony Critical Analysis- For my critical analysis of dramatic irony in Hamlet I chose when Hamlet learns that his father was poisoned by Claudius...
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...Comparative analysis: Hamlet and The Lion King Hamlet is a 1990 drama film based on a tragic play with the same name, written by William Shakespeare. On the other side The Lion King is an animated musical movie. Walt Disney Pictures released the movie in 1994. As the movie Hamlet, The Lion King was also influenced by Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. Both the movies are about revenging the death of a cherished family member but in different ways. Since a long time the idea of revenge has existed in our human nature. It has been our instinct to take back for a person that has been hurt. Today we find that many literary works uses revenge as a theme for the plot but how it is shown depends from a character to another. Hamlet and The Lion King are two superb examples. In the castle of Elsinore in Denmark, prince Hamlet sees his father’s ghost. Through the ghost Hamlet learns that his own brother, Claudius, who wants the thrown to Denmark had murdered his father and married his dead brothers wife, the queen Gertrude. The spirit tells Hamlet to, “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (1.5.25 Shakespeare) and Hamlet obeys the spirit’s wishes. He then begins to seek more evidence on Claudius and his betrayal towards his brother. Hamlet enters into a deep melancholy and appears to be in madness, which makes Claudius and Gertrude worry about his erratic behavior. They employ Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to watch over him and to discover the cause of his...
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...Oatley 1 Josh Oaltey 3/30/12 Elliott Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily--how calmly I can tell you the whole story. -Edgar Allen Poe; The Tell-Tale Heart An Analysis of Hamlet's Unraveling The madness of Hamlet is prevalent within each page of the beloved play. Stemming from his acute paranoia, distrust of others, and melancholy outlook, there is a great unraveling of his psyche as the play rolls on. He can be observed as a victim of Psychotic Depression with paranoid tendencies. In Hamlet, the key character is characterized by his suicidal tendencies, grandeur delusions, and highly conflicted personality, therefore he can be classified as depressive, paranoid, and psychotic (Zimbargo, et al 580). While Hamlet's initial sadness itself brings little alarm to the audience, his eventual distressed nature becomes an apparent issue: O, that this too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world! (1.2.5) Oatley 2 Initializing Hamlet's distressed nature and suicidal thoughts; Hamlet's spoken words brings the audience up to pace with his distress over his mother's marrying of his potentially murderous uncle. With this we pick up a certain...
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...archetypes were first described just over a hundred years ago, they have persisted throughout literary and visual art for millennia. The most important archetype that Vogler describes in his Memo That Started It All is The Hero. He describes Hero characters as the central figures of stories that often make influential accomplishments on behalf of their respective civilizations...
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...Imminent Death (An analysis of the theme of death in the fifth act of Hamlet) Death, no one likes to hear the word, but none of us can escape it. The death of someone or even ourselves is all a part of the life that we live. It is impossible to avoid death when the time has come. In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet¬ there is much death throughout the play. The play itself starts out with the knowing of the death of the King, Hamlet’s father. Throughout the play more and more characters die in their own way. In act five of Hamlet death appears in three different ways: through suicide, through accidents, and through revenge. Initially, the first way death appears in act five is suicide. In the beginning of the fifth act the two grave-diggers are digging the grave of the once love of Hamlet, Ophelia. They are talking whether or not she is being buried in the right place or not. “Is she to be buried in...
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...In Shakespear´s "Hamlet", the character of Prince Hamlet pretends to be insane. For a person in his situation, having almost everyone thinking that you are crazy can be an advantage. The king, his father, had died, and just a few weeks after his tragic loss, a ghost appears to Hamlet. This ghost has the appearance of his father. The spirit tells Hamlet that he did not die peacefully, but instead his brother, Claudius, murdered him by pouring venom into his ear. Claudius usurped the throne and also married his brother´s wife, Gertrude. Hamlet swears to his father´s spirit that he is going to avenge his death, and he would commit this by acting insanity. There are actions in the play that would be almost impossible to achieve if Hamlet did not act like a mentally unstable person. The clues that we can find in this tragedy helps proving that Hamlet´s sanity is the motive behind his simulated madness. The first reason Hamlet has to make everyone think he had gone mad is to accomplish the freedom he gains because of this. Societies have taboos and social norms that people must follow to be accepted. However, there are some exceptions, like the mentally unstable or the insane, so Hamlet realizes that being crazy would...
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