Derek Shepherd

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be...”(1.3.75) “To be or not to be; that is the question”(3.1.57) and of course the so often misquoted “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio...”(5.1.160-161). As one of William Shakespeare’s most renowned plays, even those having never seen Hamlet are able to quote it at a moments notice. It has inspired a great deal of directors to piece together their own versions of Hamlet to share with the public; the question remains which can be considered the best, and…

Unexpected Rise of a Hero? Or Downfall of a Villain? Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacobi, Julie Christie, Richard Briers, Kate Winslet, Nicholas Farrell, Michael Maloney, Rufus Sewell, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams. Hamlet is perhaps one of the most famous of Shakespeare’s play written around the 1600’s. Over time the play has varied, however I consider this version I watched this afternoon directed by Kenneth Branagh in 1996 to be one of the best by my standards. Branagh passion for the play…

Sylvia Plath has written poetry that fully explores the profound depth of the human psyche. Through her use of confessional poetry and psychic landscape, her poetry delves into the multifaceted layers of the human condition. Plath herself came across as a very complicated and perplexing individual, and in her style of writing, she conveys the inner state of her mind. To read her poetry without the context of her mental state, few readers could comprehend the intensity and compelling suffering…

 William Shakespeare William Shakespeare is best known for his tragedies. 1601-1608 is the third period that belong to Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies and somber or bitter comedies. This is the peak period characterized by the highest development of his thought and expression. He is more concerned with the darker side of the human experience and its destructive passions. This period produces many great tragedies like Hamlet, Othello, All’s well that Ends well, and the most famous is Macbeth.…

Throughout the play “Macbeth”, there is a constant struggle for satisfaction. While dealing with the internal struggle between his morals and his thirst for power, is the representation of humanity’s constant struggle for gratification, as well as my own. Though he attempts to attain his goals, he ends up losing more than he ever gains. This struggle for satisfaction eventually leads to his death, as well as the deaths of almost everyone around him. I also struggle with satisfaction, believing…

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two minor, characters in Hamlet, and friends of the young Hamlet from university in Germany. Their part in the story begins when they are summoned by King Claudius to spy and report on the “strange behavior” of the prince, and ends when they die in a counterplot set up by Hamlet himself. Their part in the play is brief and comical at best, and even their deaths are given no worthy development or climax, mentioned only at the end of the play. They play a…

Theme of Drama “Tragedy of Hamlet” is death. In the first scene, hamlet returns to Denmark for his dead father funeral, after meeting with ghost he planned his uncle death. Then the death of Ophelia, Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern all relate to the theme. In act 3 scene 1, a hopeless prince Hamlet deliberate death and suicide in his famous soliloquy “to be or not to be”. In which he asks question from himself that whether he should kill himself or let himself suffer from the pain. As…

The narrative of Hamlet tells the story of a son seeking revenge for the murder of his father, the king of Denmark. Hamlet’s uncle poisoned the king, so he could control the kingdom, he betrayed Hamlet’s father just as Hamlet’s father betrayed the father of Fortinbras, the Norwegian prince. Several themes can be traced throughout the play. Two prominent themes include the constant reinforcing of male dominance, and the question of reality vs. unreality. Women are powerless within the play…

In modern times, society considers auditory and visual hallucinations to be common symptoms of mental illness, and the same can be said at the time of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. These are seen through Prince Hamlet’s interactions with the specter of his father, and his actions thereafter. Other characters in Hamlet observe that Hamlet seems to be “going mad” in his ambitious quest to avenge his father. But, Hamlet is the only character to interact with the ghost, and the ghost advises Hamlet to kill…

It is common across many Shakespearean tragedies for at least one character to die; in Hamlet, five characters are murdered. These five (King Hamlet, Hamlet Jr., Laertes, Gertrude, and Claudius) all die as a result of being poisoned by Claudius, directly or transitively. The repeated use of poison across Shakespeare's plays is not a coincidence, and when Shakespeare uses poison in Hamlet, he sets up a strong association of poison to the corruption in man. More specifically, Shakespeare uses the…