PAPER Topics

Start of Term Paper
Some time has passed. From Ophelia's remarks in III.ii. (which happens the day after II.i), we learn that Old Hamlet has now been dead for four months. Shakespeare telescopes time. We learn (in this scene) that Ophelia has (on Polonius's orders ....

Middle of Term Paper
... describes Hamlet's barging into her bedroom, with "his doublet all unbraced" (we'd say, his shirt open in front), his dirty socks crunched down, and pale and knock-kneed, "as if he had been loosèd out of hell / to speak of horrors." Or, as might say, "as if he'd seen a ghost." Hamlet grabbed her wrist, stared at her face, sighed, let her go, and walked out the door backwards. What's happened? Hamlet, who has set about to feign mental illness, is actually just acting on his own very genuine feelings. Hamlet cares very much about Ophelia. He must have hoped for a happy life with her. Now it is painfully obvious that they are both prisoners ...