Fortinbras

The Elizabethan era was a time of great change. This resulted in an environment of speculation and uncertainty. It is during this time that Hamlet, Shakespeare‘s most famous play was being performed. This essay will argue that the ambiguity of the Shakespeare’s Hamlet was designed, at least in part as a reflection of the uncertainty of the Elizabethan world, for as Bloom stated “the text was not created in a vacuum”(7). This essay will begin with a brief explanation of how plays can be used as…

They were first introduced in the play as Hamlet's friends, but unexpectedly betray him and surface with Claudius (2.2.225-227). Claudius orders Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to advise Hamlet to England considering he arranges for Hamlet's murder (3.3.4-7). In his arrangement, Claudius illustrates imagery, "Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage, for we will fetters put about this fear, which now goes too free-footed" (3.3.24-26). In the portrayal Claudius refers to Hamlet as a poorly treated…

An Elizabethan understanding of mental health is quite unlike our conception of mental illness in the modern era. To the Elizabethan, the most accepted theory of madness was based on the Greek conception of the ‘humours’. The Greeks eliminated supernatural understandings of madness by a secular understanding based on the imbalances of bodily humours- sanguine humour(associated with air) was responsible for optimism and irresponsibility, choleric humour was responsible for short temper and…

Originality is a concept which has changed and evolved over hundreds of years. Indeed, the definition of originality, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the “ability to think or express oneself in an independent and individual manner” , has not always been so rigid. In the Elizabethan era the concept of originality was not concerned with whose idea was whose. In fact, originality was all about how the idea was portrayed, for instance, whether it was performed on stage or by other…