McDougal Littell Literature Connections: Hamlet Student Edition Grade 12

by William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Father and Son, Ophelia, The Management of Grief, Tell Them Not To Kill Me, Hardcover

Genres: Plays

368 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1997

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[Maheja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hamlet's an ass

[Reagan · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were definitely words on the page

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than Cesar, worse than Romeo and Juliet

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

had to read for class lowkey boring at certain parts but pretty good towards the end.

[Isabel Villalobos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hamlet sucks!!! Maybe don’t accidentally cause the death of every fucking character and be a man.

[Jennifer M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyone has at least heard of William Shakespeare, who is argued to be one of the greatest playwrights in history, having created words we use today along with phrases such as: "Fight fire with fire" or "Love is Blind". Many have often said he was one of the most influential writers of all time. And having written 37 plays and 154 sonnets, you can see why he had such a massive effect on the modern world. Him having written such recognizable plays like; "Romeo & Juliet", "Much Ado About Noting", or "Hamlet".

"Hamlet", one of his more famous tragedies, is most quoted for it's "To be, or not to be" speech. The tragedy of the Prince of Denmark, a masterfully written full of deception and mystery that reminds one of modern Scandinavian Crime fiction.

Hamlet is set in 14th/15th century Denmark, which is in turmoil against it's self with the death of the king. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns from school in Germany to greive with the rest of his family. Only to find that his uncle had married his mother, the queen, and is now King of Denmark. Hamlet can sense not all is well in Denmark with his mother's hasty marriage, but doesn't actively seem to do anything until Horatio, a good friend of Hamlet, tells him of seeing his father's ghost.
After Hamlet talks with the ghost that night, he learns of his uncle's deception, and how he killed his father. This discovery becomes a major plot point as the rest of the play is mostly about Hamlet "subtly" investigating his father's murder and how his uncle is involved.

Another form of deception in "Hamlet" would be how Hamlet goes about investigating. He pretends to have gone mad with grief and therefore appears harmless as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of Hamlet's friends, are sent to spy on him.

In this deception, Hamlet inadvertently sends Opheilia, the assigned love interest for the evening, to kill herself after learning hamlet no longer loves her. Opheilia's plight is well written, although how she dies is a somewhat vague, it is heavily insinuated that she killed herself by jumping off a bridge.

Leartes, Ophelia's brother, absolutely adores his baby sister. So when the priest refuses to give her full rights, believing she killed herself, Leartes blames Hamlet. His love for his sister driving him to challenge Hamlet to a duel, which ends badly for all the parties involved.

The fight scene between Leartes and Hamlet towards the end is when everything gets real. Action packed and sometimes a bit all over the place. For everyone at the duel, it all ends badly. Plot twists revealed, people die, and Hamlet delivers a passionate, if surprisingly short lived, speech. I enjoyed how the finale went, and the way Shakespeare easily managed to forge a picture of how it went down.

[Ayuana Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting at parts, but the language is hard to follow (Thank God for side notes!). Its not the best Shakespeare play I've read but it was decent.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really starting to get more into classics. This was a great one to read and hopefully as I continue reading these types of books the writing will be a lot easier to understand when reading it for the first time.

[Damian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never again for school

[Saniya Ansari]

buddhu