Hamlet Case

act 2 scene 1

- two ways: hamlet is affected by the ghost when seeing ophelia or he is truly sent mad from the way his clothes are presented.

act 2 scene 2

- claudius using people "the need we have to use you did provoke, our hasty sending"

- rosencratz and guildenstern - small talk.

- gertrude explains hamlet lunacy by his fathers death and her quick marriage, whie claudius is looking for another explanation

- vortemand believed that his nephew is marching against the Polacks and not Denmark, and that norway owes denmark money

- Hamlet speaks of greek mythology which is similar to his situation 'Phyrrus' killing to avenge his fathers (achilles) death [on everyone] who is very bloodthirsty - foreshadowing whether hamlet will be like this in his revenge

- player: "like like neutral to his will and matter, Did nothing" like hamlet

- 2.2.426-480

- hamlet soliloquy: hecuba to his situation, feeling the pain - if hamlet had the same emotion then he would upset everyone with his story and the guilty would be destroyed by guilt. "am i a coward?" is he a coward? why is it taking so long for him to take his revenge, he doesn't understand why he hasn't done anything as of yet.

- very self-critical: he has no 'gall' and is pigeon-livered - he said he would've already killed him and hung his remains for the birds to eat. "prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, must like a whore unpack my heart with words, and fall a-cursing like a very drab"

- gets an idea: "that guilt creatures sitting at a play have y the very cunning of the scene been struck so to the soul, that presently they have proclaimed their malefactions"

- "[ghost] may be a devil - and the devil hath power t'assume a pleasing shape."

- " he play's the thing wherein ill catch the conscience of the king"

- this may show that he doesn't trust the ghost - or he's finding an excuse for not finding revenge already

act 3 scene 1

- gertude finds out what rosencratz and guilderstern have find out about hamlet "but with much forcing of his disposition" faking a smile and gentlemen mannerisms

- "lawful espials" - to spy on hamlet but doing the 'right thing'

- "and pious action we do sugar o'er the devil himself"

- "to be or not to be" > infinitive of the verb ( i am, you are, he/she/it is, we/they are) be meaning BEING. Is it noble to suffer through life or to go against his uncle "to die, to sleep - no more; and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that is heir to.." hamlet wishes not to be upset anymore "ay theres the rub" < if there is something after death, your conscience might continue. he doesn't wish to be able to think if he dies

- fear of what comes next. we're more afraid of whats after life

- The undiscovered country from whose bound no traveller returns, puzzles the will, and makes us rathe bear those ills we have.

- if you think about things, you will ultimately be a coward. action and thought

- ophelia originally played as a naive, pure women. in modern performances they use different actions to show a physical connection and then rejection is much harsher for her, she betrays hamlet and works with polonius. or she could be caught between male power. nunnery speech could suggest pregnancy; abortion? n tunnery also means brothel - go off and be a whore>hamlet "a breeder of sinner"

hamlet knowshat he's being watched; so he may be acting in lieu with being watched.

- "be thou chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny" you will make your husband a monster, you will cheat

- 3.1.137

- views women all the same, because of his mother

- ophelia "to see hamlet mad is making her CRAZYYYYZYZ"

- "i have in quick determination thus set it: he shall with speed to england" - claudius understands that hamlet is upset over him and not his uncles death or being rejected by ophelia.

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act