In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, what plot event prompts Hamlet to become suspicious and resentful?
Read the excerpt from Act III of Hamlet.. . . To die: to sleep; No more; and, by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause.
If Shakespeare kills the character of Hamlet, what dramatic convention would he be using?
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Read the excerpt from a paper about Hamlet.The relationship between Horatio and Hamlet is crucial to understanding the play. Whereas most people would have abandoned Hamlet, Horatio instead repeatedly aids Hamlet in a variety of ways. Even when Hamlet dies, Horatio makes sure that Hamlet’s wishes are carried out and his side of the story is told.
To analyze tone, the reader should study word choice, which is also called
Which detail in Hamlet best reflects the time the play was written in?
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Read the excerpt from Act III of Hamlet.Rosencrantz:My lord, you once did love me.Hamlet:So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.Rosencrantz:Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you do surely bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend.Hamlet:Sir, I lack advancement.Rosencrantz:How can that be when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark? Hamlet: Ay, sir, but ‘While the grass grows,’—the proverb is something musty.
Read the excerpt from Act IV of Hamlet.Danes: [Within.] Let her come in.Laertes: How now! what noise is that?Re-enter OPHELIA.O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt, Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye! By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight, Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May! Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia! O heavens! is 't possible a young maid's wits Should be as mortal as an old man’s life? Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine It sends some precious instance of itself After the thing it loves.
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What should audience members ask themselves when they evaluate how an actor interprets a character? Choose three answers.
Take a look at this image from Jonathan Price’s adaptation of Hamlet.Take a look at this image from Sir Laurence Olivier’s adaptation of Hamlet.

Which question is most likely asked by a reader analyzing a text through a formalist lens?
Read the passage from Hamlet, Act I, Scene iii.Laertes: For he himself is subject to his birth; He may not, as unvalu’d persons do, Carve for himself, for on his choice dependsThe safety and the health of the whole state; And therefore must his choice be circumscrib’d Unto the voice and yielding of that body Whereof he is the head.
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