Anand’s Reviews > Hamlet > Status Update

The technical writing on the texts at the back of this section is pretty solid, and arrives at a reasonable conclusion.

Completed Act 5 of Hamlet. What a powerful ending, as always. A noble, tragic ending.

The second half of Act 4 is preoccupied with the planning of the King, the unraveling of his safety. And the emotional core comes from the songs of Ophelia, and from her death.

Act 1 is as brilliant as ever. The notice of the “-st” sounds at the endings of words in the Ghost scene strengthened the haunting eloquence in that great scene. Also, noticing the words around acting, appearance, shape, etc. (per Maynard Mack) are worthwhile. The doublings are noteworthy.

Q2 by itself is a somewhat strange feeling from the “traditional” text.

The first scene is as rich and great as it has been on my readings. Thing/nothing (later shown in King is a thing of nothing), “tremble and look pale” is later picked up by Hamlet after the chaos of slaughter at Elsinore, the portentous element of the Ghost’s appearance, evocation of an “epic” and classical world in this first scene.