Find 3 critical articles that explain to your reader a single aspect or several aspects of Hamlet.
Write a research paper on any theme, or significance in the play. Along with the 4 page paper, there should be an appendix at the beginning that includes annotation from each of the 3 articles that were chosen.

1. Do you find any evidence that Shakespeare was influenced by his audiences in how he wrote the play? In what ways are Elizabethan ideas reflected?

2. In addition to the obvious conflict with Claudius, what are the internal and external conflicts that Hamlet must resolve? How well does he do this?

3. In the classical conception of tragedy, the main character is destroyed through a “tragic flaw” in his character or through a tragic error. In your own view, what is the nature of Hamlet’s tragic flaw and how does it contribute to his demise?

4. Shakespeare is quite careful in creating a style of dialogue through which each character reveals something important about himself or herself. What can we infer, for example, about Polonius, Ophelia and Laertes?

5. Hamlet is a play strongly marked by irony. Discuss a few key episodes where irony plays an important role.

6 Throughout the play, Hamlet claims to be feigning madness, but his portrayal of a madman is so intense and so convincing that many readers believe that Hamlet actually slips into insanity at certain moments in the play. Do you think this is true, or is Hamlet merely play-acting insanity? What evidence can you cite for either claim?

7 Find two instances of images, metaphors, repeated key lines, or symbols. What meaning do these symbolic elements convey? How? Please explain in detail.

8. In his journey from naive innocence to disillusioned adulthood, Hamlet confronts many of the universal problems that plague everyone. Shakespeare uses specific soliloquies, or speeches, to suggest that Hamlet makes discoveries about himself and the world he must confront. What are some of these discoveries?

9. Hamlet has probably been translated into every written language under the sun, and continues to be staged and dramatized not only in the English-speaking world, but across the globe. What are the reasons for this popularity?