Read an excerpt from an analysis of Act III of Hamlet.Rosencrantz and Guildenstern follow orders without question throughout the play. In this scene, Claudius tells them his life is in danger from Hamlet, and they must take Hamlet away. They agree immediately.
Read the excerpt from Act IV of Hamlet.Hamlet: Rightly to be great Is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When honour’s at the stake.
Read the excerpt from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard.ROS Shouldn’t we be doing something—constructive?GUIL What did you have in mind? . . . A short, blunt human pyramid . . . ?ROS We could go.GUIL Where?ROS After him.GUIL Why? They’ve got us placed now—if we start moving around, we’ll all be chasing each other all night.Hiatus.ROS (at footlights) How very intriguing! (Turns.) I feel like a spectator—an appalling business. The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute. . . .GUIL See anyone?ROS No. You?GUIL No. (At footlights.) What a fine persecution—to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.
building suspensecharacter developmentplot eventsrising action
Read the excerpt from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard.GUIL Till events have played themselves out. There’s a logic at work—it’s all done for you, don’t worry. Enjoy it. Relax. To be taken in hand and led, like being a child again, even without the innocence, a child—it’s like being given a prize, an extra slice of childhood when you least expect it, as a prize for being good, or compensation for never having had one. . . . Do I contradict myself?
Read the excerpt from Hamlet. Hamlet: O! that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew; Or that the Everlasting had not fix’dHis canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world. Fie on ’t! O fie! ’tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in naturePossess it merely. That it should come to this!
Read the excerpt from Act I of Hamlet.Bernardo: ’Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.
adaptsdescribesevaluatesinterprets
Read the excerpt from Act V of Hamlet.Gertrude: Sweets to the sweet: farewell! [Scattering flowers.] I hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife;I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid, And not have strew'd thy grave.
Read the excerpt from Act IV of Hamlet. Claudius: He made confession of you,And gave you such a masterly report For art and exercise in your defence, And for your rapier most especially, That he cried out, ’twould be a sight indeed If one could match you; the scrimers of their nation,He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, If you oppos’d them. Sir, this report of his Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy That he could nothing do but wish and beg Your sudden coming o’er, to play with him.
Read the passage from Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii.Gertrude: Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz; And I beseech you instantly to visit My too much changed son. Go, some of you, And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
Read the passage from Hamlet, Act IV, Scene v.Laertes: How came he dead? I’ll not be juggled with. To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil! Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation. To this point I stand, That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes; only I’ll be reveng’d Most throughly for my father.
Read the excerpt from Act II of Hamlet. Hamlet: I’ll observe his looks; I’ll tent him to the quick: if he but blench I know my course. The spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy— As he is very potent with such spirits— Abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds More relative than this: the play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.
A student analyzing the appearance of the ghost in Act I of Hamlet includes this sentence in the analysis.Death conquers everyone.
Read the excerpt from Hamlet. Hamlet: Let me see.—[Takes the skull.]—Alas! poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning?
Read the excerpt from Act III of Hamlet.Hamlet: Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action.
Read the excerpt from Act II of Hamlet.Ophelia: Alas! my lord, I have been so affrighted.Polonius: With what, in the name of God?Ophelia: My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbrac'd; No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd, Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle; Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other; And with a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosed out of hell To speak of horrors, he comes before me.
Read the excerpts from Hamlet by William Shakespeare and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard.Excerpt 1[GERTRUDE] Good gentlemen, >he hath much talk’d of you,And sure I am two men there are not livingTo whom he more adheres. If it will please youTo show us so much gentry and good willAs to expend your time with us awhile,For the supply and profit of our hope,Your visitation shall receive such thanksAs fits a king’s remembrance.Excerpt 2GUIL Exactly, it’s a matter of asking the right questions and giving away as little as we can. It’s a game.ROS And then we can go?GUIL And receive such thanks as fits a king’s remembrance.ROS I like the sound of that. What do you think he means by remembrance?GUIL He doesn’t forget his friends.ROS Would you care to estimate?GUIL Difficult to say, really—some kings tend to be amnesiac, others I suppose—the opposite, whatever that is. . . .ROS Yes—but—GUIL Elephantine . . . ?ROS Not how long—how much?GUIL Retentive—he’s a very retentive king, a royal retainer . . .
Read the excerpt from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard.ROS I want to go home.GUIL Don’t let them confuse you.ROS I’m out of my step here—GUIL We’ll soon be home and high—dry and home—I’ll—ROS It’s all over my depth—GUIL —I’ll hie you home and—ROS —out of my head—GUIL —dry you high and—ROS (cracking, high) —over my step over my head body!—I tell you it’s all stopping to a death, it’s boding to a depth, stepping to a head, it’s all heading to a dead stop—GUIL (the nursemaid) There! . . . and we’ll soon be home and dry . . . and high and dry.
Which passage from Hamlet, Act II, Scene i is an example of setting?
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