English 220
Hamlet Close Reading Essay
For this assignment, choose a speech from Hamlet of at least fourteen lines and write a three-four page
analysis of it. You may want to write about one of Hamlet’s seven soliloquies1 but you do not have
to choose a soliloquy. You may instead be interested in one of Claudius’s speeches, one of
Polonius’s speeches or one of Ophelia’s, to name just a few options. No matter what speech you
choose, it is most important that you attempt to read the speech as if it is a poem. Below are suggestions
that will help focus your analysis.
-Situate Your Reader
Spend some time (at least a couple of sentences) describing how the speech relates to the world of
the play. What has happened in the play so far? What will happen later? What larger themes of the
play does the speech bring up? If you feel inclined, you may even want to use quotes or ideas from
Maynard Mack’s essay to help situate your reader. This is not required but you might want cite a line
or two Mack if you think it would help support your analysis.
-Pay Attention to Shakespeare’s Language
-Figurative Language-Shakespeare is famous for his inventive use of figures of speech
(metaphor, simile, and so on…). Look closely at how Shakespeare manipulates language in
order to get his characters’ ideas across.
-Sound Effects-When Hamlet tells the players in 3.2 to “speak the speech…trippingly on the
tongue” he is using sound effects to help convey his meaning. Think about how the sounds
of words contribute to their meaning.
-Double-Meanings and Puns-Shakespeare often plays with the multiple meanings of words. His
double use of the word “nunnery” in the “get thee to a nunnery” speech is a case-in-point (if
Ophelia is fit for a nunnery in the religious sense, she is chaste, honest, and virtuous, but if
she is fit for a nunnery in the sense of Elizabethan English slang, she is lustful, dishonest and
impure). Be sure to look up words from your speech in the OED, which should give you
some good ammunition for your analysis (you will find many double-meanings).
-Maintain a Relatively Narrow Focus
It will be impossible for you to say everything you want to say about the speech you choose in threefour pages. Be selective in your focus. What do you think is most important about the speech? What
single line interests you the most? Do you like the speech because it seems to be offering you advice
that applies to your own life? Do you like it because it brings up your favorite theme in the play? Do
you want to write about the speech because really disagree with what the character says in the
speech? In all cases, be sure to pick a speech that really captivates your attention.
Requirements
-Creative title, an introduction with a clear thesis statement, body paragraph with
citation and analysis of your evidence, and a conclusion.
-Your name, class title, my name, and date on the upper left-hand side of the first page.
-Three-four pages long. Pages must be numbered.
-Typed, double-spaced, and in 12 point Times New Roman font.
-MLA style for all in-text citations.
DUE: By 9 AM on Thursday, November 5th
1
1.2.129-159, 1.5.92-111, 2.2.470-526, 3.1.57-91, 3.2.360-371, 3.3.72-96, 4.4.33-67.