Hamlet I.i and I.ii (E10 4B)

Shakespeare is TRICKY! But if you are lost, you are certainly not alone.

"It is yours that read him. And there we hope, to your divers capacities, you will find enough, both to draw, and hold you: for his wit can no more lie hid, then it could be lost. Read him, therefore; and again, and again: and if then you do not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger, not to understand him."

- John Heminges and Henry Condell
(From the preface to the First Folio - published in 1623)

In other words, people have faced challenges when attempting to understand Shakespeare for close to 500 years.

To make things easier for you:

Here are a handful of really helpful links to help you make sense of this challenging new text.

Click here to view our in-class presentation notes (updated daily).

Click here for a "modern English" line-by-line translation of the text.

Click here for a how-to guide on making sense of Hamlet's soliloquies.

Click here for the SparkNotes character analyses and scene summaries of the play.