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Getting inside Hamlet's mind

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Actor Tom Conroy in performance of Hamlet
Getting inside Hamlet's mind

SUBJECTS:  Arts, English

YEARS:  7–8, 9–10


Hamlet 1.2 Explainer


Imagine your whole world has been turned upside down. How would you react?

Join James Evans and actor Tom Conroy from Bell Shakespeare as they explore how this soliloquy from Act 1 reveals Hamlet's fragmented state of mind following the death of his father and, as he sees it, his mother's betrayal.

Learn how the soliloquy functions to allow the audience inside Hamlet's mind.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Shakespeare's soliloquies are often regarded as poetic passages of philosophy or self-reflection. John Bell, the Artistic Director of Bell Shakespeare, offers an alternative description, suggesting that a soliloquy is something much more direct and purposeful.
  2. 2.According to actor Tom Conroy, why does Shakespeare use four words … weary, stale, flat and unprofitable … to describe the uses of this world when one might have sufficed? What role is the audience expected to adopt during this soliloquy?
  3. 3.

    John Bell says that he believes Hamlet has experienced '… a huge shock and a reversal of all he ever believed.' What evidence does he provide to support this statement? What do you think Tom means when he refers to Shakespeare's exploration of the specificity of language?

  4. 4.

    According to John Bell, the soliloquy is a literary device that allows characters to express their thoughts directly to the audience. How does the accompanying footage from the soliloquy support John's statement? What other devices are available to writers to allow the audience to know the thoughts of their characters?


Teachers

Visit Bell Shakespeare's website

Discover programs, workshops and more performances at one of Australia's great theatre companies.

Download a PDF with the full synopsis for each play.

Full plot summaries of Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, and Romeo and Juliet.


Acknowledgements

Created by ABC Splash in collaboration with Bell Shakespeare.


Production Date: 2014


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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