21
votes
Accepted
The meaning of "The rest is silence" in "Hamlet"
There appear to be multiple ways of reading this sentence, depending on how you interpret the context of "rest" and "silence".
Hamlet has been experiencing a great deal of upset and distress during ...
- 21k
18
votes
Accepted
Why are there three different versions of the "solid/sullied/sallied flesh" line in Hamlet?
Since Hamlet was published in several editions during the Jacobethan era, it is worth looking at how these early editions rendered these lines, using the old-spelling editions published by Internet ...
- 44k
13
votes
Why would Hamlet fear suicide if he knew of life after death?
Because suicide is a mortal sin
According to the Church, suicide is a sin against God, because only God has the right to bring life and decide death. Suiciders didn't receive a Christian burial: they ...
- 2,070
12
votes
Accepted
"What a piece of work is man" - echo in The Lord of the Rings?
So...I'm going to say probably coincidence, though there is some evidence in your favor. Thus I'll present the evidence first and then my own conclusion; do with it what you will.
Tolkien on ...
- 4,742
12
votes
Accepted
Was the sealed letter ordering Hamlet's death a Biblical reference?
I don't believe it's a specific reference to that story in the Book of Samuel.
A message that instructs the recipient to execute the messenger is a well-known old trope that has appeared in many ...
- 1,730
11
votes
Accepted
Where and how did James Joyce condemn Hamlet as a failure?
TL;DR: Joyce criticized dramatic flaws in Hamlet, but never condemned the play as a “failure”.
Summary
Richard Ellman’s biography of Joyce makes it clear that Joyce thought Henrik Ibsen a better ...
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11
votes
Is Hamlet correct when he says "it is an honest ghost"?
What do you think the Ghost might be lying about? Claudius definitely murdered his brother, which we find confirmed in the play-within-a-play (act 3 scene 2), and by Claudius's own confession (act 3 ...
- 649
10
votes
Why doesn't Hamlet like improvisation?
Whether this passage reflects Shakespeare's view on improvising is hard to say. However, Sam Plumb made several interesting comments on Shakespeare's Globe blog:
Strictly speaking, improvising was ...
- 44k
8
votes
The meaning of "The rest is silence" in "Hamlet"
With Shakespeare's characters, you usually know what they're thinking. With Hamlet, you're never sure. In the second scene he goes over recent events but says, "I must hold my tongue!" He agonizes ...
- 1,217
8
votes
Do Guildenstern and Rosencrantz deserve to die?
Whether you think Rosencrantz and Guildenstern deserve to die depends to some extent on the moral framework you use. When writing Hamlet, Shakespeare was working in the tradition of the revenge ...
- 44k
7
votes
What does the line “Excellent, i' faith, of the chameleon's dish. I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed capons so.” mean, from Hamlet?
To start: what is the most basic sense here? What is the "chameleon's dish"? And what is a capon?
Well, among the folklore of Shakespeare's time, there was a belief that chameleons lived on nothing ...
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7
votes
In Early Modern English, how did 'see' semantically shift to mean 'note/record'?
Your premise is wrong here: see doesn't mean note in this passage; see means make sure, and thou character means you write it down.
So
in thy memory see thou character
means
make sure that ...
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7
votes
Why does Horatio answer "a piece of him" when asked if Horatio is there?
Interpretations of this line appear to vary.
According to Bernard Lott (New Swan Shakespeare, Advanced Series. Longman, 1968, 1990), the line may mean
that he [Horatio] has not yet woken up fully to ...
- 44k
7
votes
Accepted
Hamlet - swear on my sword part - why the sudden shift in tone?
The shift of tone from solemnity to comedy has puzzled commentators on the play. One theory is that the later part of the scene is a survival from an earlier version of Hamlet, the so-called Ur-Hamlet....
- 53.5k
6
votes
Accepted
Why didn't Hamlet's modifications to the theater troupe's play "tip off" anyone else?
Well... who says they didn't? We see the play mostly from Hamlet's point of view. He has few allies, and deliberately pushes people away. For all we know, lots of other people were suspicious of the ...
- 5,028
6
votes
Accepted
In Early Modern English, how did 'see' semantically shift to mean 'note/record'?
The question assumes that "see" is the only verb in the sentence and that "character" is a noun. This results in the following analysis:
"these few precepts": direct object,
"in thy memory": locative ...
- 44k
6
votes
Accepted
Inconsistencies in the character of Horatio in Hamlet
I have found two possible explanations for this. Unfortunately, we are unlikely to ever know which - if either - is correct.
1: It's a Punctuation Error
According to W. Edward Farrison in his essay ...
- 21k
6
votes
Accepted
"Too too sullied flesh" in Hamlet. Why twice?
I understand it as an intensifying repetition as in 'very very brave', 'long long time ago' but, apparently, there is no full agreement on this fragment even between the specialists (or, at least, in ...
- 1,140
6
votes
"Too too sullied flesh" in Hamlet. Why twice?
Since Hamlet was published in several editions during the Jacobethan era, it is worth looking at how these early editions rendered these lines.
The first quarto (Q1), published in 1603, which has ...
- 44k
5
votes
How is Hamlet different from a conventional Elizabethan revenge play?
tl;dr
It isn't.
Hamlet and its contemporaries
Hamlet is one of a cluster of similar plays that were tremendously popular on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage that are now grouped as revenge tragedies....
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5
votes
Accepted
What does Hamlet mean when he calls Claudius a "villain"?
The word "villain" is derived from the 14th-century word "villein" which means:
a free common villager or village peasant of any of the feudal classes lower in rank than the thane.
Merriam ...
- 21k
5
votes
Why doesn't Hamlet like improvisation?
Christopher Strobbe's answer is excellent, and I'll add this thought because, in my experience, the greatest literature operates on many levels. This is especially important for Dramatic literature, ...
- 4,178
5
votes
Do Guildenstern and Rosencrantz deserve to die?
Hamlet was never very close with these two, and accuses them immediately: "I know the good king and queen have sent for you." Unlike his real friend Horatio, they have no reason to come to the ...
5
votes
Accepted
How do Hamlet's thoughts and doubts about the afterlife affect him?
Hamlet wants revenge for his father's murder. If he kills Claudius at the moment he's praying, Hamlet thinks, Claudius's soul will be pure and he'll be forgiven, and can therefore get into Heaven. ...
5
votes
Accepted
How can a "desk" be considered a secret keeper?
Shakespeare uses the word "desk" in two plays: Hamlet, Act II, scene 2 (cited in the question) and The Comedy of Errors, Act IV, scene 1, where Antipholus of Ephesus says (emphasis added),
To ...
- 44k
5
votes
Why did Hamlet tell Ophelia: "Get thee to a nunnery!"?
Readers who think that Hamlet is sincerely expressing his own thoughts and feelings in this scene tend to interpret his cruelty to Ophelia as arising out of his disgust with his mother Gertrude for ...
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5
votes
Accepted
"Which dreams, indeed, are ambition" in Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2
In this specific context, "which" is a relative adjective that refers back to the dreams Hamlet spoke of. Merriam-Webster gives the following example (emphasis mine):
Our next meeting will ...
- 44k
4
votes
Why doesn't Hamlet like improvisation?
Hamlet refers to the improvisation of clowns, rather than of actors in general. His reasoning is explicit: he doesn't want the audience to laugh. The play has a point ("some necessary question of the ...
- 5,028
4
votes
Accepted
Meaning of "glimpses of the moon" in "Hamlet"
The sense of ‘glimpse’ that we need here is this one, cognate with ‘gleam’:
glimpse, n., 1.a. A momentary shining, a flash.
Oxford English Dictionary
With this sense in mind, we can imagine ...
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4
votes
Accepted
If Hamlet, being a prince, outranked Horatio, why did he address him as "sir"?
ShakespearesWords.com provides two definitions for "sir":
man, person, individual
gentleman, lord, gallant, master
The first definition can be ignored, since it is not a form of address.
The ...
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