Publisher's Synopsis
Hamlet kills Polonius thinking he is Claudius. Yet he cannot kill Claudius. Why?
Hamlet, angry, tells Ophelia: "Take thee to a nunnery!" [nunnery: Renaissance slang for brothel]
"There [in Heaven] is no shuffling; there the action lies in his true nature, and we ourselves compelled, even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, to give in evidence." -King Claudius
"Why does Hamlet attend the German university at Wittenberg? Why study at a university at all? An incorrigible symbolist, Shakespeare must secretly import what he does not openly impart."
Contrast resolute avenger Laertes, who would "cut [Hamlet's] throat i' the church"!
Shakespeare understood the Freudian slip centuries before Dr. Freud in Vienna. Twice he employs it to give us hints.
Queen Gertrude to her son Hamlet: "What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? ... Alas, he's mad!"
"Prince Hamlet is a disillusioned idealist, a vital key to his generous, passionate, and tragically conscientious character."
Camelot-"Shakespeare specifically ties the assassination of Hamlet to the death of King Arthur and the collapse of the fellowship of the Round Table."
