Hamlet Essays
Hamlet’s sanity
· Is he crazy or acting crazy. When Ophelia describes him as overacting--32
· “I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw” (44).
· Behavior with Polonius (fishmonger—some reason it)
· Contrast with behavior with Horatio
· Scene with mother where he kills Polonius and sees the ghost
· Contrast with final scene where he kills uncle
· 116—Hamlet v. Hamlet (madness killed Polonius, not Hamlet)
· What does Shakespeare convey through Hamlet’s “sanity”?
Hamlet v. Hamlet
· Speech on page 49? Paralyzed by being unable to act
· Can use this topic to do Hamlet v. Hamlet and Hamlet v. Claudius
· Hamlet should be king
· Boy v. man
· 116—Hamlet v. Hamlet (madness killed Polonius, not Hamlet)
Loyalty, love, revenge, corruption
Contrast if you do two
Love tainted by revenge (love for mother, love for Ophelia)
Corruption—lots of it: world is tainted (too, too sullied flesh)
Kills out of love for father, or out of revenge? 70-71
Oedipus
Style analysis/rhetorical strategies
Formal/informal
Ironic?
Diction/tone
Imagery
Contrast
Organization
Potential passages
Too, too sullied flesh (10-11)
O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I (49-50)
To be or not to be (53-54)
Look here on this picture and on this counterfeit presentment (73-74)