William Shakespeare Hamlet Research Paper

William Shakespeare is a mystery on his own. He's a famous writer that are familiar with some of his famous works such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth. Although, his personal life is difficult to track, he can only be found by two sources. The first is through his writings of sonnets, poems, and dramas. The second source is data records. Through these sources, the life of Shakespeare can be told about his early life, middle life, and legacy.

A significant number of you knew him as Prince Hamlet, however I knew him as my closest companion.

The great William Shakespeare lived during a time of many noted and influential people such as Pocahontas, King James I, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Even though Pocahontas was born during the later years of Shakespeare’s life, interesting correlations exist between the playwright and the Indian princess. King James I of England wrote about witches, which gave some background information for Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Macbeth. As the special guest of Queen Elizabeth I, it is likely that Sir Walter Raleigh watched some of Shakespeare’s plays presented at court. The daughter of a Native American chief, the King of England, and the famous explorer, all lived and gained notoriety during the lifetime of William Shakespeare.

After Old Hamlets death in the play, the two guards on duty and Young Hamlets friend spot a ghost-like figure that resembles Old Hamlet. These two guards, Marcellus and Bernardo, and Young Hamlet’s friend, Horatio, tell Young Hamlet about the ghost-like figure they spotted. They describe the way that he was dressed in armor as if he was ready for battle. When Young Hamlet sees and speaks to the ghost he finds out information on his father’s death. Young Hamlet’s issue is that he is not sure if this ghost is real or if it is a figment of his imagination. He also begins to question that the ghost can be the devil trying to tempt him. Hamlet says, “the spirit that I have seen may be the devil: and the devil hath the power to assume a pleasing shape” because the devil can take on many forms (2.2.530-531). Throughout the play, there are many reasons for us to believe that the ghost is real and is not a figment of Young Hamlet’s imagination. The ghost in

There is major a difference between a ghost and a demon. To some, they are one in the same nut, if you were to truly take a glance at what sets them apart from one another, it would be as clear as night and day. According to a few ancient religions, such as Shinto, the Japanese system of beliefs, they feel as though spirits will remain on earth after a person dies. The term for these spirits is “Kami”, meaning “a sacred power or force” (BBC.co.uk). “Ujigami, the ancestors of the clans: in tribal times, each group believed that a particular kami was both their ancestor and their protector, and dedicated their worship to that spirit” or “The souls of dead human beings of outstanding achievement” (BBC.co.uk). King Hamlet could easily fall into either one of these categories.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England on April 23, 1564. As an infant he avoided the Black Plague that took the lives of many people during this time. His father, John Shakespeare, was a prosperous glove maker and wool dealer and was well regarded throughout Stratford, even holding the position of High Bailiff for a time. Young William saw his first play at the age of five from a traveling group of actors. Due to John’s position on the town council, he was responsible for approving the play for public performances. This gave William a chance to meet and get to know the actors who would return a few times each year for another performance.

Tragic flaw. A secret weakness about someone that comes back to haunt them in a bad way. Not every tragic hero in every plays follows the playwrights’ rules. In Shakespeare’s Othello & Hamlet the two main characters fit the mold, but also break the mold of tragic heroes. There are many different traits of a tragic hero.

The transition of royalty from King Hamlet to King Claudius seemed smooth, but the tension within the royal family created some complications. Almost all of Denmark gave their loyalty to a new king without any suspicion as to how the previous ruler died. Although Denmark’s citizens are unaware of the fratricide, this fickle faithfulness exemplifies the social and moral decay of Denmark. Most of Denmark’s subjects act upon their own selfish interests and lack any conviction. Shakespeare uses Polonius, formerly a loyal servant to King Hamlet, as a microcosm of Denmark’s oblivious and hypocritical society as a whole. The Lord Chamberlain of Claudius’s court and the father of Laertes and Ophelia, Polonius has good intentions, but he tends to

Hamlet is widely regarded as the archetypal Shakespearean tragic hero, but does that title truly befit him? A Shakespearean tragic hero is generally defined as being a good person of high stature who elicits pity or fear from the audience. He must possess a quality which would ordinarily be a virtue, but which under the circumstances of the play serves as a fatal flaw. He suffers both outwardly through ostracization and inwardly by means of a tormented conscience. Finally, a tragic hero always meets his inevitable death in the end. Although Hamlet is of noble birth and dies in the end, he does not elicit pity or fear, does not possess a hamartia that would ordinarily be a virtue, and is not ostracized and therefore does not struggle externally.

When you hear the word hero now a day you would think of superheroes like superman or batman. Though they are heros they are much different from heros 400 years ago. Even before that heroes were defined by four basic characteristics. Shakespeare used these characteristics to create his own heros for his plays. Even though Shakespeare used though characteristics as a model for his heros he did not stick to them rigidly. Not every character in his plays fit the model perfectly but had their similarity.

Norman Cousins accurately describes what true tragedy is when he states that “The tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside of us while we live”. This quote can be applied in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet as well. For instance, the common belief in William Shakespeare's Hamlet is that the play is categorized as a tragedy because many key character’s outcomes result in death. Indeed, many important characters, such as Hamlet, Ophelia, Claudius, and Gertrude help to advanced this tragic theme. However, when the text is thoroughly examined, it can be proven that Hamlet is truly a tragedy because of how characters choose to lives their lives.

Shakespeare wrote three types of plays, which were tragedies, comedies, and histories. He wrote many of these plays, and became quite famous from it, with his influence still showing in the modern world. Arguably most popular of the three were tragedies, which included Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet, and many others that are still commonly taught in schools today. One thing that tells that reader that what they read was a tragedy is the fact that in the end, everybody dies, and usually there is at least one suicide. There are a few rules of tragedies, the first one is that at least one important character dies, the death can’t be an accident, but must happen because of someone else, or by their own hand, and lastly the character

William Shakespeare - English poet, playwright actor. A man’s whose works are so well written, whose ideas were ahead of his time, whose influence has stretched over centuries, and found a place in the curriculum of many classes. A man who is now regarded by many people as one of the greatest writers in the English language, and yet others have called his works ‘tired’, ‘not relevant’ and ‘archaic’. So how can this be, why do some embrace Shakespeare when taught it and others would opt to stay far away from it?

Marxist/Economic determinist criticism, was a theory founded by Karl Marx in the nineteenth century (1818-1883). Marx based his theory on the struggle, “between segregated classes, the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’, this includes the bourgeoisie—those who control the world’s natural, economic, and human resources—and the proletariat, the majority of the global population who live in substandard conditions” (Tyson, 54). The fundamental groundings emphasize the ‘superstructure’ of ideology (religion, arts, philosophy, politics and law) expressing the concerns of the upper class.

The dramatic presentation of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead adapts the formal revenge tragedy of Hamlet to a more contemporary Absurdist black comedy. Resounding with the original through its intertextual allusion, yet maintaining integrity as a separate text, the play illustrates Stoppard’s Post-modern existentialist context. This recognises that the 20th century absurdist audience no longer hold Elizabethan beliefs. Scenes are extracted from the Shakespearean Hamlet and reproduced for the contemporary context, relevant to the 1960s – described simply as: “we do onstage the things that happen off”. In this alternative world, Hamlet’s tragic hero status is marginalised, “the exterior and inward man fails to resemble”, while his