Throughout the first two scenes of “Hamlet”, the audience receives many different impressions of Hamlet’s personality. The complex character of Hamlet begins to unfold as Shakespeare presents his many-faceted personality.
Our first direct meeting with Hamlet is in the presence of his uncle, King Claudius. From his first line we already gain an impression of Hamlet’s [...]

In Act III of “Hamlet”, Shakespeare presents to the audience several occasions where Hamlet’s “antic disposition” is clearly present. However, is Hamlet pretending to be mad in all these situations, or do we start to see Hamlet being presented as a character with a genuinely degenerating mental state? Hamlet’s soliloquies and interactions with other characters [...]

During a soliloquy the audience knows that a character is telling the complete truth. This first soliloquy by Hamlet has been devised by Shakespeare to introduce us to the thoughts and feelings of the main character. This allows us to gain an accurate impression of Hamlet very soon after first meeting him, an impression which [...]