Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

No matter what time and era an individual is in, society has always created a set of rules, norms and values, in which every individual must follow and portray, that will define who they are. Due to that oppression, humans created duo personalities: who they are (which they hide) versus their false identification (what society accepted), to cope with the social ideals. William Shakespeare, known for his universal themes, demonstrates the dual personalities through prince Hamlet. Therefore, by…

In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, Shakespeare depicts the indecisive and seemingly suicidal character of Hamlet who has chosen to act insane. Hamlet has previously been told that his uncle Claudius was the one who killed his father and is urged by his father’s ghost to seek revenge. Hamlet, however, is not completely convinced and plans to act mad to lower suspicion of himself, so he can investigate the truth of the matter. Shakespeare uses literary devices such as imagery, word choice,…

happening to him at once he reflects by stating, “To be, or not to be? That is the question—/Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer/The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” (3.1.56-59). Hamlet is trying to decide whether it is better to be alive or dead. Hamlet doesn’t know if it’s wrong of him to take his whole life instead of dealing with all the stuff that is going on in his life. Shakespeare is a guiness for incorporating this into his play because not only his he creating multiple…

Hamlet’s Hesitation Analysis Hamlet is a character that seems to be a victim of circumstances. The unexpected death of his father leaves him depressed, not forgetting the wedding between his mother Gertrude and his uncle Claudius that took place just three months after the funeral. His father’s ghost appears to him and asks him to take revenge on Claudius for murdering him. Though he gets convinced to take revenge at the beginning, he later becomes hesitant to do so. He drags his feet until he…

Madness is a state of wild, chaotic behaviour and loss of reality, a theme that is common amongst the characters of Shakespeare’s plays. It lends a distinctive suffering of inevitable self-destruction in tragedies, some form of downfall or breaking point reaction such as traits of madness is essentially what is used to develop the storyline and show the contrast between the many personas in the story. He adequately explores many roots that lead towards madness as well as various forms of it, two…

Hamlet is a world lacking in absolutes. Shakespeare places his characters into situations that reveal the gray areas of their moralities and force them to reevaluate what they consider right and wrong, while never providing a satisfactory answer himself. But Shakespeare always has something final to say about human nature, and in this play full of duality, one of the many binaries reveals a theme: although Shakespeare emphasizes Hamlet’s desire to uphold tradition in the face of corruption, he…

Have you ever drifted away from your own sanity in hopes of getting revenge? Does the thought of violence or chaos cross your mind when it seems like the world is out to get you? In one of William Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies, Hamlet, acts of violence seem to follow each and every character in the play. In the beginning, Hamlet was thrown into a whirlwind of change and endless emotions. With his father just being murdered by his uncle Claudius and Polonius banning the relationship between…

Shakespeare’s plays are known to display countless themes, some of which manifest through the body of the works as a whole. There is a dichotomy between appearance and reality in Shakespearean works. The idea that people or things in the world are often not what they seem, falls at the heart of all his plays. The false appearances of the characters often lead to the climax. The reality is the truth of what exists, but the appearance is merely what someone makes something look like. There are…

Shakespeare, through his characters in King Lear, offers an ambiguous study on the theme of nature. Various definitions can be applied on the term “nature,” but the three most prominent are the structure of society, the cosmic order , or faith, and the innate impulses all humans inhabit. Lear begins his monologue by announcing that, “O, reason not the need: our basest beggars / Are in the poorest thing superfluous…” (Shakespeare 2.4 264-265) Lear was recently denied housing by Goneril and…

distraught just when the twist blows from a specific heading, an announcement that altogether confounds Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Polonius comes into say that the Tragedians have arrived, and Hamlet and Polonius clear out. Timidly, Guildenstern discloses to Rosencrantz that he supposes they made some progress into making sense of why Hamlet has been acting so unusually of late. In any case, Rosencrantz furiously expresses that they have gained nothing from conversing with Hamlet, since…