HAMLET ESSAY TOPICS
1) Conflict is essential to drama. Show that Hamlet presents both an outward and inward conflict.
2) How do Hamlet’s seven soliloquies reveal his character?
3) Is Hamlet primarily a tragedy of revenge?
4) Discuss Hamlet’s relationship with Gertrude.
5) How important is the general setting of Denmark to the overall play.
6) Of what significance is Ophelia to Hamlet? How truly was Hamlet in love with Ophelia?
7) The character Claudius has been compared to Macbeth. How similar are these two characters? In what ways are they similar?
8) Compare and contrast the characters of Hamlet and Horatio. How alike or unalike are they and why?
9) In Act V, scene 2, Hamlet remarks, “His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.” Explain Hamlet’s motivation behind this comment and examine how true is his remark.
10) How important is the Ghost in the triangular relationship of Hamlet, Gertrude, and Claudius?
11) Although Hamlet ultimately rejects it at the end of the play, suicide is an ever-present solution to the problems in the drama. Discuss the play’s suggestion of suicide and imagery of death.
12) The central feeling in a great tragedy is one of great waste.
13) Hamlet’s madness is “less than madness and more than feigned.
14) Spying and lying in Hamlet are central to the unfolding of the plot.
15) Fathers and sons.
16) Appearance and reality in Hamlet.
17) Reading and misreading in Hamlet.
18) Hamlet and women
Other Hamlet Essay Topics
1. Hamlet’s delay.
2. Fathers and Sons
3. Gertrude
4. Claudius as effective or ineffective
5. Hamlet as the cause of all problems.
6. Hamlet as the only one standing against corruption
7. Rot and decay in Denmark
8. Hamlet and the masses
9. Ophelia as innocent?
10. Love – different types – distortion
11. Sex
11. Revenge
12.Deception
13.Betrayal
15. Ignorance/confusion
16.Greed
17. Conspiracy
18. Madness
18.Hypocrisy
19.Ghost of Hamlet
Hamlet Essay Outline
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