Hamlet

by SparkNotes, William Shakespeare

This SparkNote delivers knowledge on Hamlet that you won't find in other study guides:
Summaries of every chapter with thorough Analysis.
Explanation of the key Themes, Motifs, and Symbols including:

�Incest

�Misogyny

�Ears and Hearing

�Yorick's Skull

�Certainty

�Action

�Death

�The Diseased Nation

Detailed Character Analysis of Hamlet, Claudius and Gertrude.
Identification and discussion of Important Quotations.
A summary of Key Facts, a 25-question review Quiz, and Study Questions and Essay Topics to help you prepare for papers and tests.

Genres: Classics, Shakespeare, School, Poetry, Plays, Nonfiction, Literature

Downloadable Spark Note

First published April 15, 2003

About the author

Many of the editions by this group of authors are actually guides to books rather than the works.

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Link to discussion.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This brought a deeper appreciation of the play I read last week, Hamlet. The language reads with a sense of depth, but the explanation and analyses of the play brings light to the complicated genius of Shakespeare. I plan to find a movie version on the internet and watch it tonight.

Update: I remember reading and watching Macbeth in undergrad school, and loving it. I watched Hamlet for the first time, a modernized version with abridged but exact Shakespeare text. I had chills all over with the first scene of Hamlet contemplating to himself, the famous monologue concerning melting flesh and his opinion of the frailty of humanity. I stared with intensity at the screen, mouth literally gaping. The performance overwhelmed me, although the version I watched has been criticized for weakness in modernization. I cried when Ophelia drowned, when Hamlet and Laertes wrestled in the grave, when everyone died in the end. The movie brought the gravity and reality of the story alive to me, made it more than a slick story device or manipulative tool to enhance the effectiveness of the story. The despair worked profoundly in me, the despair, yet the beauty of the message, and the heart of Shakespeare. The highest authorities have lost their way, what hope have the rest of us, especially when spiritual answers appear so muddled and convoluted one finds extreme difficulty with answers about an afterlife, and hope. I remembered Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, a line from that song; it sums up how the story effected me: "We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year, running over the same old ground, What have we found? The same old fear. Wish you were here."

[Hifza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good.

[Sarah]

waste of time. read harold bloom

[Sara Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this book due to an English literature assignment and honestly I didn’t understand a word from the book given by my tutor with the orginal text so this was very helpful in understanding the meaning behind the orginal text but also not removing the meaning keeping it authentic.
If you like shakespeare and want to understand i suggest you read this version as you get a better understanding 🙏🏼

[Grace Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a shame to think that there are people who won't read Hamlet just because they read this, because this is wonderful, but doesn't touch on EVERYTHING. Does a good job trying though.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting, but not helpful as it should have been.