Writing about Hamlet

The relevance of the Hamlet critical essays lies in the fact that this tragedy is the most popular and, in the opinion of many experts, the greatest creation of William Shakespeare. The powerfulness of this play is confirmed not only by its popularity among readers but especially by the fact that, even to this day, Hamlet occupies one of the first places in the repertoire of the world theaters.

Moreover, Hamlet is considered the most problematic play in Shakespeare’s legacy. It requires thorough research and profound philosophy knowledge. No wonder that the students are still concerned how to find and determine the essence of the philosophy that underlies the tragedy. If you are one of them, don’t worry! In this article, you will find all the needed information to write a top-notch essay.

The abundance of problems associated with the Shakespeare’s great tragedy was reflected in various pieces of literature dedicated to Hamlet. A huge amount of critical reviews and books were written about this play. The literary controversy surrounding Hamlet’s image is manifold. The number of interpretations of the whole tragedy and especially its main character is enormous. As there are so many Hamlet essay topics, high school and college students have a great opportunity to choose the topic that speaks to them.

Essays on Hamlet: The history of the play

To better understand the essence of this play, it is worth making a historical analysis of its creation in a Hamlet paper. It is worth noting that Shakespeare not only composed the unique plot but also referred to some real events. He took the stories already existing in the literature and added a dramatic background. The plot of “Hamlet” existed a long time ago and was repeatedly depicted in literature before Shakespeare.

There is an opinion that the prototype of the hero was the half-legendary Prince Amleth, whose name may be found in one of the Icelandic sagas of Snorri Sturluson (1178-1241). The first literary monument in which the saga of revenge of Amleth is narrated belongs to the medieval Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus (about 1140-1208). In Gesta Danorum (Deeds of the Danes) written around 1200, he reported that the story took place in pagan times, that is, until 827 when Christianity gained its power in Denmark.

The ancient saga contains all the basic elements Shakespeare’s tragedy. The differences concern only the minor details and the finale. However, with all the similarity of the plot, the ideological meaning of the Scandinavian story is quite different from the idea which Shakespeare conveyed.

Saxo Grammaticus depicted the predatory morality of medieval feudal chivalry. In ancient times of paganism, the ruler of Jutland was killed during a feast by his brother Fengo who then married the widow. Young Amleth, the son of the king, decided to avenge for the murder of his father. To buy some time and to seem harmless, Amleth decided to pretend to be insane. Fengo’s friend wanted to check whether it is true, but Amleth was smarter and befooled him. After Fengo’s unsuccessful attempt to kill the prince, Amleth triumphed over his enemies.

It may be emphasized in Hamlet characterization essay that the only common thing this character has with ancient Amleth is that they are both people of great intelligence. But their mentality, moral concepts, and thoughts are completely different. In an effort to avenge for his father’s murder, Amleth acts without hesitation.

If you would like to dig into the origins of the idea a bit deeper, and extend your Prince Hamlet essay, you may review other stories that have a similar plot.  For example, you may review the work of Francois de Belleforest (1530-1583) published in 1576 in French as well as a play based on the same story that existed before Shakespeare’s Hamlet on the English stage and possibly belonged to Thomas Kyd (1558-1594).

Thomas Kyd is a representative of a group of playwrights who reformed the English theater in the late 1580s and created the foundations of the English drama of the Renaissance. He was the creator of the tragedy of the revenge genre. A vivid example of this version of the drama was his The Spanish Tragedy. This work has encompassed typical features of the tragedy of revenge, which are repeated in a number of dramatic works of the era, including Hamlet.

However, it should be stressed in Hamlet revenge essay that the question of revenge in Shakespeare’s version also plays an important role in the tragedy; nevertheless, it is not the main motive. On the contrary, in the Shakespearean play, questions of a broader philosophical nature have, to some extent, muffled the theme of revenge by putting forward other motives.

As it is known, one of the most important foundations for establishing the chronology of the creations of the great playwright was a list of his works published in 1598. Hamlet is not mentioned in this list. Therefore, it can be concluded that the tragedy was written by Shakespeare after 1598.

After the death of Shakespeare, Hamlet was printed in the first collection of his works issued in 1623. By the way, Hamlet is the longest play of Shakespeare: it has 4042 lines and 29551 words. Moreover, there were three versions of play released in 1603, 1604, and 1623. Nowadays, a consolidated text is printed. Options 1604 and 1623 basically coincide, while the edition of 1603 is half the size of the second variant. Note that while this factual information is suitable for a paper on the history of the play, if you’re writing more of a literary or critical essay on Hamlet, this information would be redundant.

However, if you need to briefly cover the creation of Hamlet, there is controversial piece of information you can focus on. For example, until the beginning of the twentieth century, it was believed that the first version of the tragedy was written in 1603. Then, Shakespeare finalized and completed the work by doubling its volume. On the basis of this hypothesis, assumptions were made about the creative history of the tragedy. A fact mentioned in almost every Hamlet literary analysis essay is that the view that the play of 1603 is the first version of the tragedy is rejected by experts today.

You definitely know that Hamlet is a drama, specifically a tragedy presented in a poetic form. But the study of this play can’t be limited to the dramatic context.

First of all, it would be especially wrong to single out the main hero and discuss him outside the action of the tragedy while writing the character sketch of Hamlet essay. It is not a monodrama but a complex dramatic picture of life in which different people are shown in interaction. But it is indisputable that the plot of the tragedy is built around the personality of the prince.

Shakespeare’s artwork definitely differs from those of his contemporaries in terms of striking literary mastery. He managed to convey his thoughts brightly, sensually, passionately, and laconically, as well as create a pompous atmosphere and revive the deepest feelings in the hearts of readers. Based on this fact, you can write a play within a play Hamlet essay dedicated to Shakespeare’s unique style.

Why this very tragedy remains so important and topical until now? Shakespeare’s play considers acute moral problems. Moreover, Hamlet became one of the most beloved characters in the world literature. And you may note in “What kind of person is Hamlet?” essay that he ceased to be a character of an ancient tragedy and is perceived as a living person well-known to many people.

Writing a conflict in Hamlet essay

Conflict of characters forms a narrative in the play, becoming its main driving force. The concepts of conflict are sufficiently diverse. In the tragedy, we can talk about the conflict from different points of view: in terms of the external opposition of the characters – Hamlet and his opponents Claudius, Polonius, and Laertes. You can also write about the internal struggle of the main hero in Hamlet madness essay.

You may also add that conflict is an inalienable part of every plot. The social practice of any group of people is represented by a continuous dialectical movement from one contradiction emerging on its way to another.

Conflict of conscience: diagnosing Hamlet in an essay

The main hero is a humanist. For the sake of getting to the truth, he has to take a step backward to medieval concepts of conscience.

This conflict of conscience does not leave Hamlet, and this is his tragedy. More than once throughout the play, the main hero had the opportunity to punish Claudius. For example, why did he not attack when Claudius prayed in solitude? The researchers established that, in this case, according to ancient beliefs, the soul of the murdered man gets straight to heaven. But Hamlet wanted to send the enemy to hell. This is the problem!

Hamlet has his own ethics of revenge and he wants Claudius to find out the reasons for punishment. For Hamlet, the real revenge is not physical assassination. He seeks to arouse the consciousness of guilt and all his actions are devoted to this goal.

Conflict of human nature and behavior

According to Shakespeare, human nature is inseparable from good. The author sees the origins of the tragedy in the divergence of the nature of human and his or her behavior. The writer showed this conflict most fully and vividly in this great play.

In each era, the struggles of Hamlet were perceived in a new way. For almost four centuries, the play served as a mirror in which each generation viewed its own flaws.

Conflict of power and lack of will

Describing the female characters in Hamlet essay, it’s worth writing that, from the first appearance of Ophelia, the main conflict of her fate is indicated: father and brother force her to give up love for Hamlet. Ophelia tells Polonius that she will obey him, and here is where the lack of will and independence is immediately revealed.

Ophelia stops accepting Hamlet’s letters and does not allow him to come to her. With the same obedience, she agrees to meet with Hamlet knowing that their conversation will be eavesdropped by the king and Polonius, who knew about the relationships of the prince and his daughter.  

People around them try to destroy this feeling. Therefore, love may be considered an important problem and a basis for the conflict in Hamlet essay. Although her father is very close to the king as his minister, she is not of royal blood and, therefore, not equal to her lover.

Love, friendship, marriage, relations between children and parents, external war and rebellion within the country – this is the circle of problems reflected in the play. And next to them, there are philosophical issues on which Hamlet’s thoughts are focused: the meaning of life and the predestination of a human, death, and immortality, spiritual strength and weakness, vice and crime, as well as the right to revenge and murder.

Conflict of life and death and the theme of death in Hamlet essay

The theme of death arises in the play with a great force and is reflected in the frailty of everything. Death reins in this tragedy from the start to the end. It begins with the appearance of the ghost of the murdered king. In the course of the action, Polonius perishes, Ophelia dies, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern face the death, poisoned queen and Laertes die, and Hamlet’s blade finally reaches Claudius. Hamlet also dies as a victim of the treachery of Laertes and Claudius. By the way, this is the bloodiest of all the tragedies of Shakespeare.

Hamlet often speaks of death. Soon after the first appearance before the audience, he reveals a secret: life has become so disgusting that he would have killed himself if it was not considered a sin. You may analyze the famous monologue in Hamlet “To be or not to be?” essay.

Describing moral conflict and foils in Hamlet essay

Whether you are writing a moral conflict and foils or the “appearance vs reality” Hamlet essay, you need to focus on the controversy in the play.

Hamlet is a man of the feudal world called upon by the code of honor to avenge the death of his father. Striving to achieve wholeness of personality, he experiences the agony of a split. All this gives rise to intolerable sorrow, mental pain, and doubts. Is it better to end all the suffering and die? But Hamlet rejects the idea of ​​suicide, dying after the vengeance. This is a kind of liberation from the burden that he can neither bear nor discard. Hamlet is unable to live in this society and can’t resist it. Revenge took all his strength.

As a university student who was fully concentrated on science and reflection staying away from court life, Hamlet suddenly discovers aspects that he had never imagined before. Even before the prince was convinced of the villainous murder of his father, he experienced the horror due to the volatility of the mother who concluded second marriage before she had worn out the shoes in which buried the first husband.

In light of the moral weakness of the mother, the moral impotence of Ophelia also becomes clear to him. With all her spiritual purity and love for Hamlet, the girl is unable to understand and help him because she obeys her father, who may become the central figure in the description of oppressive surveillance in Hamlet essay.

The prince says that the whole world is a prison with a lot of dungeons, and Denmark is one of the worst places in it. He is outraged not by the murder of his father but by the fact that this murder could remain unpunished, and it took place only thanks to indifference, connivance, and servility of people around. Thus, the whole courtyard and even Denmark are involved in this crime, and Hamlet would have to fight the whole world for revenge.

Being an egoist pursuing personal goals, Hamlet could quickly deal with Claudius and regain his throne. But he is a thinker and a humanist caring about the common good and acting as a defendant for all. His era has come to an end, and what is worse, he was born to restore it. Such a goal is beyond the prince’s abilities, and this can be described in detail in a “Hamlet as a tragedy” essay.

The duty to avenge the murder of his father is not just a bloody feud. It turns into the public duty of struggling for the right ideals, which a big and difficult task. Hamlet is abandoned in this hell to change everything.

There are many different conflicts in Shakespeare’s tragedy. These are the problems of the protagonist as well as secondary characters that closely intertwine and create the unity of the general conflict of the play.

Description of inner drama for Hamlet character analysis essay

Although the death is tragic, yet the play Hamlet finds its main beginning not in the physical death but in the moral decay of a person. In this case, the true tragedy of Hamlet is that he, a man of the finest spiritual qualities, was broken when he saw the horrible aspects of life: treachery, treason, and the murder of loved ones. 

Faith in people and love withered in prince’s heart. Life lost its value for him. You can describe the following paradox in Hamlet insanity essay: pretending to be mad, he is actually on the verge of madness due to the consciousness of how monstrous people are (traitors, murderers, perjurers, flatterers, and hypocrites). He finds the courage to fight but can look at life only with sorrow.

What was the cause of Hamlet’s tragedy? His honesty, intelligence, sensitivity, and idealistic nature. If he was like Claudius, Laertes, or Polonius, he could live as they did: deceiving, pretending, and adapting to the world of evil. But he could not tolerate all these things, although he did not know how to fight and destroy the evil. The cause of the tragedy of Hamlet, therefore, is rooted in the nobility of his nature.

But suddenly, everything began to crumble. First, prince’s father died. Then Hamlet had been struck by a second blow: after less than two months, the mother who seemed to love his father married the brother of the deceased and shared the throne with him. Finally, Hamlet learned that his father was killed by Claudius in order to take possession of the crown and king’s wife.

Describing deception in Hamlet essay, it’s worth noting that the hero is deeply shocked by the events, especially the betrayal. After all, everything that made the life of the prince meaningful collapsed in front of his eyes. The shock experienced by Hamlet shook his faith in humanity and gave rise to the duality of his consciousness.

Describing the importance of Gertrude in Hamlet essay

Hamlet feels an irresistible aversion to his mother because now she lives with the murderer of his father. At the same time, he craves his mother’s love and support. Why did not Hamlet say anything to his mother before? He waited for a moment when he would be sure of the crime of Claudius. Hamlet reveals to her that she is the wife of the man who killed her husband. When Gertrude reproaches her son for committing a bloody and crazy act – killing Polonius, Hamlet says that she is no less sinful. Hamlet puts the murder of Polonius, the atrocity of Claudius, the betrayal of his mother in one criminal series.

Describing the Queen Gertrude role in Hamlet essay, you may note that, accusing her, the prince says that mother’s betrayal is a direct violation of morality.

Writing about women and misogyny in Hamlet essay

The prince sees two betrayals of people connected by family and blood ties: his mother and brother of the king. If the closest people violate the laws of kinship, then what can be expected from others? This is the root of the dramatic change in the attitude of Hamlet to Ophelia. An example of a mother leads him to a sad conclusion: women are too weak to withstand the ordeals of life. Another reason the prince rejects Ophelia is because love can distract him from the task of revenge.

Describing the role of women in Hamlet essay, it’s worth stressing that the attacks against them are not separated from Hamlet’s overall negative attitude toward society. The persistent advice to Ophelia to go to the monastery is connected with the prince’s deep conviction about the depravity of the world.

Hamlet is ready for action, but the situation turned out to be more complicated than one might imagine. For a while, a direct struggle against evil becomes an impossible task. Direct conflict with Claudius and other events unfolding in the play are inferior in their significance of the spiritual drama of Hamlet, which is brought to the fore. 

The philosophical basis for Hamlet analysis essay

At the beginning of the XVII century, there was a clash of the old world, in which feudal darkness and cruelty reigned, and a new world that was controlled by addictions and power of gold. You may include this idea in your corruption in Hamlet essay. Observing the clash of two evils, the humanists of that time gradually lost faith in goodness, justice, and friendship.

Shakespeare dedicated his tragedy to this change of eras. The main hero is a typical Renaissance humanist intellectual. He sincerely believes in humanity and does not know yet that his ideas about the world will dissipate like smoke at the first encounter with reality.

Writing a Hamlet essay on questions and problems of philosophical nature

Shakespeare shows the destructive emotional struggle between idealistic aspirations and cruel reality in Hamlet’s monologue ‘To be or not to be’? The protagonist’s mind is full of doubts: Why should he try to change the world, which is completely shattered? Does he have the right to do this? Evil lives in his soul as well. He recognizes his own pomposity, ambition, and vindictiveness. How can he overcome evil in such a situation? How to help a person to defend the truth? Hamlet is forced to suffer under the weight of inhuman tortures. At that moment, he poses the question: to be or not to be?

Description of the role of the ghost for Hamlet essay

Deciding how to start Hamlet essay, it’s worth turning to the scene which broke the previously carefree life of the protagonist - a meeting with the ghost of his father. Without it, there would be no tragedy. From the beginning and almost to the end, the image of the ghost hovers over it. Hamlet Sr. is present in the tragedy in two forms: as the ghost, which appeared from the other world, and as an image that remained in the memory of his son. Both these hypostases rise before us in the initial stages of the tragedy.

Describing ghosts and religion in Hamlet essay

It should be noted that, in the Shakespearean era, there were several opinions about ghosts, and the differences between them are reflected in the tragedy. Marcellus and Bernardo have an ancient faith in the spirits. Horatio, as an educated man, does not believe in ghosts. He still has to make sure that there are a lot of things he doesn’t know about.

Forced to recognize the existence of spirits, Horatio regards them from the standpoint of Protestantism: spirits and ghosts are the messengers from hell. Therefore, he is afraid that his friend would fall into the hands of the devil that will destroy him.

Prince has another attitude to the ghosts. If the protestant Horatio unreservedly considers the spirit evil, Hamlet believes it might not be so. Communicating with the ghost, he wants to find out which of the otherworldly powers he embodies: good or evil?

Writing a Hamlet essay on “What is the purpose of the ghost?”

Describing the role of the ghost in Hamlet essay, the author should write that the deceased king wants the son not only to avenge his death but also must purify his mother. Magnificent, but also merciful, the ghost continues to patronize his beloved wife. The enmity towards his murderer remains the same, but from the very beginning, he is more forgiving to the weakness of Gertrude than Hamlet.

The hero cherishes the image of the father in his soul, and this is more than a manifestation of filial love. For the prince, Hamlet Sr. was the embodiment of sovereignty, chivalry, and humanity. The question of human nature, central in all European humanism, deeply concerns Hamlet.

Medieval religious ideology considered human as an imperfect creature. Humanists of the Renaissance put him at the center of the universe. Describing the parental figure Hamlet essay, it’s worth stressing that the prince’s father was an earthly perfection, a godlike man. He embodied the ideal of what a human should be like. As it is known, humanists found support for the struggle with the Christian ideal of a humble and slavishly submissive human.

Horatio-Hamlet essay: The undying friendship

The relationship between prince and his friend is one of the best topics for a Hamlet essay. During the first scene of the tragedy, a young man called Horatio appears. He observes the unfolding events throughout the entire play and accompanies Hamlet as a shadow. The thing is that this man received a European education and dreamed of an enlightened monarch who would build a state relying on law and truth. Horatio would like to see Hamlet in the role of such a king in the future.

This young man is a single person who understands the prince and is a faithful guard of his innermost thoughts. There is a strong sympathy between friends.

With the death of Hamlet, Horatio loses hope for the building of a new state that would be based on the law and truth. According to the ancient (Roman) tradition, Horatio is ready to drink poison in order to die. But he stays alive by Hamlet’s request. With prince’s last words, the meaning of life is revived for Horatio. He remains alive to tell about the events that he witnessed. Therefore, when writing a “suicide in Hamlet” essay, it is crucial to focus not only on the prince and his suffering, but also on the misery he put his friend into. 

Love in Hamlet essay

Love is also one of the interesting and easy Hamlet essay topics. The topic of love constantly arises during the tragedy, but the reader realizes that relations between the main characters are not based on love.

Even if the love exists between these characters, it is only a beautiful and unreal detail depicted at the beginning of the plot and which eventually will be destroyed. Ophelia does not help Hamlet to get out of the circle of tragic loneliness. On the contrary, she gives him a sharper sense of this loneliness.

The fate of Ophelia is no less tragic than the fate of her lover and even more touching. Yet, each partner meets destiny separately and experiences their own tragedy.

Ophelia is put between two warring camps. She does not have enough strength to tear herself away from her father and brother and to be with Hamlet openly. She is a submissive and obedient daughter of Polonius.

The simple-minded and gentle Ophelia can’t understand the meaning and significance of the struggle taking place in Elsinore. She believes in Hamlet’s insanity and unwillingly agrees to become the instrument in the hands of Polonius and Claudius. But if Hamlet’s insanity is just a mask, Ophelia’s madness is real and arouses the feeling of pity. But even in her madness, she remains touching and beautiful. Did Hamlet love her? Perhaps not enough to save her from external pressure. You may use the following idea as one of the Hamlet essay assertions: none of the partners devoted own soul to pure love, each of them was carried away by the whirlpool of conflicting emotions, therefore, it’s difficult to talk about true feelings.

The Hamlet play

The first presentations of Hamlet fell on 1601-1603 when the tragedy was performed not only in Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre but also other stages of England. It is known that Shakespeare participated in the presentations of Hamlet as the performer of the role of the ghost. The main hero was played by Richard Burbage.

In the eighteenth century, the play began to be corrected and was even entirely rewritten in the framework of the five-act tragedy of classicism. In that version, Hamlet was left alive, and Laertes was crowned. Actors were allowed to improvise by shortening or adding the text.

The impact of Shakespeare’s cult on German culture was exceptional. Friedrich-Ludwig Schroeder, the German actor and director of the eighteenth century presented his own version of Hamlet on the stage in Hamburg in 1776.

Schroeder’s student, Johann-Franz Brockmann, also contributed to the popularity of the image of Hamlet. In his interpretation, the Danish prince could not resist the mysterious fate, and melancholia prevailed in him. After the presentation of the play by Goethe, the prince acquired an exaggeratedly refined appearance on the stage. But he has become completely loyal to court life. All that contradicted the Goethe’s concept (pure, noble, and highly moral) and was criticized without a shadow of a doubt.

The screen versions of the play Hamlet

If you’d like to make a Hamlet essay comparing movies to the book, there are a few things you should know about the movies. Let’s start with the oldest one. The first film presented in 1900 was the two-minute Le Duel d’Hamlet by the French director Clement Maurice. In this movie, the role of the Danish prince was played by actress Sarah Bernhardt. 

The founder of the feature film Georges Melies tried to make his own version of Shakespeare’s play in 1907, after which dozens of ‘mute’ Hamlets quickly flooded the cinemas. Among them, there are such unexpected adaptations as the movie Hamlet (1920) by the Danish actress and director Asta Nielsen. In this version of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Nielsen played Prince Hamlet. A colored version of her work was found quite recently. Until now, only a few black and white copies were known to exist. Music for the restored film was written by Michael Riessler.

Asta Nielsen significantly changed the plot of the tragedy. In the film, Queen Gertrude forced her daughter to wear male clothes, and Hamlet and Ophelia were in love with Horatio. In the end, King Claudius dies in a fire, Gertrude kills her daughter in a fencing duel and perishes by drinking poisoned wine.

For a long time, the emergence of the sound film did not affect the screen versions of the play. Being fascinated by technical innovation, directors forgot about the content of their films. Everything changed with the arrival of Orson Welles in the movie industry, which not only reformed the film language but also showed how it could be applied to Shakespeare’s legacy in film Macbeth.

The next stage in the development of the theme of Hamlet was marked by release of the film by Grigori Kozintsev presented in 1964. In 4 years since its release, the film has received 23 awards in the USSR and abroad.

A new surge of interest in Hamlet, which can be divided into 2 currents, occurred in the last few decades. The first, traditional one, is best represented by the films of Franco Zeffirelli (1990) and Kenneth Branagh (1996). Franco Zeffirelli understood what the viewer expects from the movie and invited Mel Gibson, the idol of all the women of the time, to play the role of Hamlet.

Being received quite warmly by the public, the film was not highly appreciated at the festivals. The same happened with the work of Branagh. This allows us to push forward the following Hamlet essay thesis: the interest in the classical productions of the play is not great today.

On the contrary, the second flow of films, the variations in the spirit of postmodernism, was more successful. First of all, it is worth noting in essay about Hamlet the play and the eponymous film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard (1990), where Hamlet’s friends and their strange role in the Shakespearean tragedy are placed in the center of the narrative.

If you are into more unique Hamlet essay topics, you may still compare movies to the book, but mention the films that are less popular that those listed above. You can recall the Finnish classic’s, Aki Kaurismaki, “Hamlet Goes Business” (1987), the crime drama of Michael Almereyda “Hamlet” (2000), and the postmodernist work of Kirill Serebrennikov “Playing the Victim” (2006).

Michael Almereyda set Hamlet (2000) in a New York skyscraper housing the Denmark Corporation, of which Claudius (Kyle MacLachlan) was chief executive officer, with Gertrude (Diana Venora), his wife, a svelte suburbanite well placed in a world of luxurious comforts like private swimming pools and stretch limousines. Hamlet was played by Ethan Hawke as a film geek deeply alienated from the materialistic world of his mother and stepfather. 

Why writing a Hamlet essay will benefit you?

The essay is a literary work of small volume which aims at expressing the personal opinion of the author. It does not claim to be the statement of absolute truth but presents only the subjective opinion of a person, his or her ideas and reflections on the topic of work.

The popularity of the essay as a genre is easy to understand if you look at the pros of writing it:

• In the course of work on such a paper, a person learns to express their own thoughts correctly.
• We often have all the necessary information, but can’t argue our point of view. The writing of the essay helps to overcome this problem. In time, you will learn how to present arguments in support of your opinion.
• The essay is based on a clear plan. Compliance with this rule allows us to create a really cohesive text.

Hamlet essay outline

So, which parts does the essay consist of?

1. Title page. It indicates the Hamlet essay titles, personal information about the authors of such papers, and the name of the course.
2. Introduction. Mention the thesis statement here as it is the essence of the chosen topic. 
3. Main part. Here you need to conduct a thorough analysis of the problem and to consider it from different perspectives. Provide information consistently. If necessary, you can use subheadings.
4. Conclusion. The last part of the essay is designed to consolidate the material presented and to summarize the information in the form of conclusions.

Hamlet essay prompts

If you have not yet found some interesting Hamlet essay ideas among those that were presented in this article, there are a few more options you can consider. However, note that you need to choose a topic suitable for your academic level. For example, if you are a high school student, it might be too early for you to write about disease and decay in Hamlet essay. Therefore, we have created two lists of topics – one for school and another one for college students. Review them all and choose the creative title for your Hamlet essay.

Hamlet essay titles for school students

• Hamlet’s perception of love
• Hamlet and Ophelia relationship essay
• Hamlet and Gertrude relationship essay
• The role of ghost in Hamlet
• Revenge in Hamlet
• The purpose of Polonius
• Hamlet as national hero
• Insanity of Hamlet
• Hamlet’s internal struggle
• Hamlet’s love to Ophelia
• The role of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Good Hamlet essay topics for college students

• “Prosecution of Hamlet” essay
• The leitmotiv of hatred in the play
• Was the love of Hamlet and Ophelia true?
• Hamlet essay on imagery
• The theme of madness in Hamlet
• What is the role of Polonius in the play?
• Can Hamlet be considered the most tragic character in literature?
• Hamlet’s attitude towards women
• “Downfalls of Hamlet” essay
• The issue of family ties in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
• Does Hamlet prove to be morally upright?
• Was revenge an ultimate goal of Hamlet?

Step-by-step essay writing guide

Writing an essay is not such a simple task as it might seem at first glance. Let’s consider an approximate work plan which we recommend to follow:

1. Decide on the format of your paper. To do this, you need to know the formatting requirements and your target audience.
2. Considering the list of Hamlet essay topics, it is advisable to give preference to the options you are interested and well-versed in.
3. Spend some time reflecting on the problem. Think over the arguments or refer to your own life experience.
4. When the information from the best sources for a Hamlet essay is collected and carefully comprehended by the author, you may start drawing up a plan.
5. Express your thoughts competently, follow the structure of the text, and reinforce theses with examples.
6. After the main part and the conclusion are ready, start writing the Hamlet essay introduction. It should catch the reader’s attention and arouse the desire to read the essay to the very end. It’s recommended to use Hamlet essay hooks, which are vivid and bold statements that should draw the attention of your audience.
7. At the final stage, proofread the finished paper carefully and correct possible stylistic and grammatical errors.
8. Catchy title for Hamlet essay may be chosen at the very end when all the theses are proved, and the goal of the work is achieved. Try to express everything you wanted to convey to the reader in a brief formulation.

Mistakes that should be avoided in the process of work on an essay

Finally, let’s talk about the most common mistakes and how to eliminate them:

• The presence of inaccurate and ambiguous phrases can spoil the overall impression of your paper. For example, if you’re writing a Hamlet argumentative essay, each of your arguments should be introduced in the beginning of the paragraphs.
• Do not use too many details. For example, writing about the role of the poison in Hamlet essay, it is not necessary to retell the entire final scene. If the reader wanted to revive it in his or her memory, they would read Shakespeare’s play.
• Lack of examples in the paper is a sign that the author did not pay enough attention to the task or, perhaps, did not fully comprehend the topic of the essay. If you are working on a “Hamlet is sane” essay, but do not explain why you believe the prince is not mad, it will seem like you cannot find any supporting evidence to back up your claim.
• Long sentences are by no means the key to success. So it’s a good idea to alternate long phrases with short ones. This is the best option which guarantees a positive assessment of the paper.
• Some students disregard the rules for formatting text. However, teachers pay no less attention to this nuance than to the content of the paper. In advance, learn how to quote Hamlet in an essay, make footnotes, and  create a title page and a list of references, where the numbering of pages should be located, etc. If this is one of your first times writing essays, and you are not sure you’re doing everything correctly, do not hesitate to ask your teacher for help.

In conclusion, it’s worth noting that writing a Hamlet essay on imagery or any other topic of your choice is quite a fascinating process. It allows the author to learn a lot of new information and express their own opinion. The main thing is to follow the recommendations and show your literary abilities. For a better understanding of the features of such a paper, it’s recommended to consider finding the Hamlet sample essay and checking how another author approached the writing process. We hope that this article was useful and now you can write an excellent paper.

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