Previously, we have offered a short introduction to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, one of his most popular tragedies. But there is plenty to explore in this, one of Shakespeare’s longest plays, so in this post we’re going to focus on the interesting side of the key characters in Hamlet, offering a mini-analysis […]
Tag: Hamlet
The Real Meaning of Hamlet’s ‘There Are More Things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio’
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle considers a famous and much-misunderstood quotation from Shakespeare ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’ These words are among the most-quoted in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, and they’re up against […]
The Meaning of Hamlet’s ‘A Little More Than Kin, and Less Than Kind’
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle explores the meaning of Hamlet’s famous quotation ‘A little more than kin …’ ‘A little more than kin, and less than kind’ is a famous quotation from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. But as ‘a little more than kin, and […]
A Short Analysis of Hamlet’s ‘Get Thee to a Nunnery’ Speech
Hamlet’s ‘Get thee to a nunnery’ speech to Ophelia is a memorable moment in a play full of memorable moments. Before we analyse his speech, here’s a reminder of the relevant section of the play, which is found in Act 3 Scene 1, not long after Hamlet’s famous ‘To be, […]
A Short Analysis of King Hamlet’s ‘I Am Thy Father’s Spirit’ Speech
‘I am thy father’s spirit’: so speaks the Ghost to Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s play. We have analysed Hamlet as a whole in more detail here, but the ‘I am thy father’s spirit’ speech calls for further close analysis to tease out the meaning of the Ghost’s words.