A tragedy in which Prince Hamlet of Denmark, visited by his dead father's ghost with an accusation of murder against his uncle Claudius, delays and deliberates his way toward revenge while the Danish court around him unravels. Its extended soliloquies, addressed as much to the audience as to any other character, gave the English stage a new depth of interior psychological representation, and lines from the play, including its most famous, 'To be, or not to be,' entered common English usage more thoroughly than perhaps any other single dramatic text.
Facts
Classification
Original Language Composed, From (Year) Connections
Associated With
Shakespeare wrote the play predominantly in blank verse, the form's own defining English dramatic use.
Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Authored By
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
Features Character
In Genre
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Language Atlas: English, original language there.
Sources
1. The Norton Anthology of World Literature
W. W. Norton & Company
2. Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Princeton University PressAssociated With: Blank Verse
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