Hamlet is without question the most famous play in the English language. Probably written in 1601 or 1602, the tragedy is a milestone in Shakespeare's dramatic development; the playwright achieved artistic maturity in this work through his brilliant depiction of the hero's struggle with two opposing...

Context The most influential writer in all of English literature, William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to a successful middle-class glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Shakespeare attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded no further. In 1582 he married an older woman, A...

Throughout time, love has been important in many literary works. Shakespeare is one author whose works showed love's importance and influence in people's lives. Some of his plays revealed love as being a destructive force in the lives of the characters, and some did the opposite. Love c...

In Act I Scene II of Hamlet, Gertrude asks Hamlet, "Why seems it so particular with thee?" Since death is common to all, she asks, why does Hamlet seem to be making such a particular fuss about his father's death? He replies, "Seems Madam? Nay it is. I know not seems." It...

In Act I Scene II of Hamlet, Gertrude asks Hamlet, "Why seems it so particular with thee?" Since death is common to all, she asks, why does Hamlet seem to be making such a particular fuss about his father's death? He replies, "Seems Madam? Nay it is. I know not seems." It is...

The attitudes and beliefs which influence the outcome of the story 'The Withered Arm' by Thomas Hardy The Withered Arm is a novel based in a 1800s agricultural society. At the beginning we are introduced to the talk of the poor milk maids and men who gossip about the richer members o...

Cain, from the Bible, is the person who brought the evil of fratricide into the world. He opened the gates for two very evil characters in Grendel of Grendel and King Claudius of Hamlet. Throughout their respective epic poem and play, these characters portray the utmost evil within our society. &quo...