LITERATURĂ

1. Wiliam Shakespeare, Hamlet

Sparknotes:
Genre
Tragedy
Hamlet is one of the most famous tragedies ever written, and in many respects it
exhibits the features traditionally associated with the tragic genre. In addition to the
play ending with the death of Hamlet and a host of others, Hamlet himself is a classic
tragic protagonist. As the Prince of Denmark, Hamlet is a figure whose actions matter
to an entire kingdom, which means the play’s events reverberate through the entire
world of the play. Like other tragic heroes, he displays many admirable traits. Hamlet
may have a reputation for moping around Elsinore Castle with a melancholy
disposition, but this is because he grieves his beloved father’s untimely death. Despite
his sadness, Hamlet is an intelligent young man of great potential, as many other
characters recognize. Fortinbras says as much in the final lines of the play: “he was
likely, had he been put on [the throne], / To have proved most royal” (V.ii.373–74).
Finally, part of the reason Hamlet sets out down the dark path to destruction is that he
succumbs to increasing isolation. His isolation amplifies his inwardness, and it also has
tragic effects on others. His rejection of Ophelia, combined with his murder of her
father, drives her to madness and, presumably, to suicide.
For all that it resembles a traditional tragedy, Hamlet also strains the usual conventions
of the genre. One notable example is in the “dark path” that Hamlet embarks on that
leads to catastrophe. In most tragedies it’s clear that the hero is choosing to pursue
something they shouldn’t—in the case of a revenge tragedy, the hero succumbs to a
desire for murderous vengeance. In Hamlet’s case, he seems to have every reason to
take vengeance, because Claudius really did murder the king and usurp his place, but
Hamlet seems ambivalent about the Ghost’s plea for vengeance, or slow to carry it out.
He seems to want to know the truth more than anything, which doesn’t seem like a
tragic choice. The choice he makes that leads to many of the tragic consequences of

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the play—such as the death of Ophelia—is his choice to isolate himself from everyone
else, behave erratically, and pretend to be mad.
Another ambiguity in Hamlet’s status as a tragic hero pertains to his tragic flaw.
Readers often identify this as his indecisiveness, which makes sense, given that
Hamlet himself repeatedly berates himself for being slow to take vengeance. Laertes
and Fortinbras function as Hamlet’s foils in this regard; each one acts with surefooted
certainty throughout the play. Indecisiveness is a strange tragic flaw, though, because
in most tragedies the flaw helps explain why the protagonist pursues the wrong
things—the flaw is more typically an urge or desire rather than a passive trait. Hamlet’s
indecisiveness does not explain why he murders Polonius, spurns Ophelia,
psychologically manipulates Gertrude, and isolates himself from his peers. In fact, his
indecisiveness is the reason he tends to avoid taking action. Read in this way, Hamlet’s
indecisiveness does not mark a tragic flaw so much as an existential condition—a
condition that today’s audiences often identify with strongly.
Hamlet also belongs to the genre of revenge tragedy in that it features a main character
seeking to avenge a wrong against himself, but Shakespeare satirizes and modifies
the genre in several ways. In traditional revenge tragedies, which Shakespeare’s
audience would have been familiar with, the hero is an active, decisive figure who
doggedly pursues a clear villain. The obstacles he faces are external, and once he
sees the opportunity to take his revenge, he seizes it. Hamlet, on the other hand,
struggles mostly with himself in his pursuit of Claudius. His obstacles are his own
indecision and hesitation, and he lets several opportunities to seize revenge pass, such
as when he sees Claudius praying and decides not to kill him. Further, Hamlet only
kills Claudius once his own death is assured, so any satisfaction he gets from his
nemesis’s death is extremely short-lived. In these ways Shakespeare provides the
traditional, bloody, action-filled revenge tragedy with a greater degree of psychological
complexity and plausibility.
Style
Style in Hamlet frequently functions as an extension of character: the way characters
speak gives us insight into how they think. This observation is especially true for
Hamlet himself, who speaks more than one-third of the play’s total lines, and whose

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linguistic style changes—often rapidly—depending on context. For example, whenever
he’s alone, or thinks he’s alone, Hamlet speaks patiently and at length, and his words
frequently take on a philosophical quality. Hamlet is at his most philosophical when he
delivers the monologue that begins with his famous question, “To be, or not to be?”
(III.i.55). This monologue continues for nearly 35 lines, in which Hamlet pontificates on
the suffering inherent in existence and considers the pros and cons of committing
suicide. The gravity of his subject matter and the philosophical weight of his diction
reveal the heavy burden of sadness he carries from the very beginning of the play.
Prose And Verse
Like all of Shakespeare’s tragedies, Hamlet is written mostly in verse, but over 30% of
the lines are in prose, which is the highest percentage of any of the tragedies. One
reason for the high amount of prose is that Hamlet has more comic scenes than any of
Shakespeare’s other tragedies. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the gravedigger and
often Hamlet himself all make jokes, while Polonius has jokes made at his expense in
almost every one of his scenes. Shakespeare preferred to use verse when he was
tackling serious themes, and prose when he was writing comedy, so in Hamlet he
switches often, sometimes in the middle of a scene. Hamlet’s frequent switching
between verse and prose is part of what makes the style of the play feel evasive.
Hamlet’s facility with both prose and verse, and tendency to alternate between the two
styles, also underscores the sense of him as a character who is of two minds, or who
is not quite sure who he is, so adopts different speaking manners trying to figure out
how to really sound like himself.
Another reason why Shakespeare switches between verse and prose is to mark the
difference between careful speech and disordered speech. In Act III, Scene 1, Hamlet
begins by speaking in verse. His famous soliloquy, “To be or not to be” (III.i.),
expresses a complex, ordered thought which Hamlet seems to have been mulling for
some time. When Ophelia enters and tries to return the presents Hamlet has given her,
he switches abruptly to prose. His switch to prose shows us that Hamlet is no longer
thinking clearly, and we understand that Ophelia has surprised and upset him. One
reason Hamlet has more prose than most of Shakespeare’s tragedies is that Hamlet
spends a large part of the play pretending to be mad. In those scenes Hamlet is

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deliberately speaking in a disordered way, so he speaks in prose. Likewise when
Ophelia actually goes mad, she too speaks in prose (when she’s not singing). The
effect of a character speaking prose when mad is also evident in Macbeth, where Lady
Macbeth speaks in nonsense prose as she loses her grip on reality at the end of the
play, and also in King Lear, where Lear speaks a disordered, unintelligible prose as he
wanders on the heath in a deranged state.
Another function of prose is to mark the speech of lower-status characters. Members
of the nobility, like Claudius, almost always speak in verse, but commoners like the
gravedigger use prose. When Hamlet speaks in prose to Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern—who are high-status enough to speak verse with the King—it suggests
he is talking down to them. He is happy to exchange jokes with Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern, but he does not trust or respect them enough to express himself
seriously, using verse. One exception is the monologue which begins “I will tell you
why…” (II.ii.). This speech expresses a complex thought and Hamlet seems to be
serious about it, but it’s in prose. It may be that Hamlet is speaking in prose because
his speech, in which he seems to be describing himself as seriously depressed, is
evidence of Hamlet’s real mental disorder. The speech may also mark the beginning
of Hamlet’s loss of control over himself, and his speech, as he loses the ability to
manipulate others with complex, misleading phrases.

full title · The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

author · William Shakespeare
type of work · Play
genre · Tragedy, revenge tragedy
language · English
time and place written · London, England, early seventeenth century (probably 1600–1602)
date of first publication · 1603, in a pirated quarto edition titled The Tragicall Historie of
Hamlet; 1604 in a superior quarto edition
protagonist · Hamlet
major conflict · Hamlet feels a responsibility to avenge his father’s murder by his
uncle Claudius, but Claudius is now the king and thus well protected. Moreover, Hamlet

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struggles with his doubts about whether he can trust the ghost and whether killing Claudius is
the appropriate thing to do.
rising action · The ghost appears to Hamlet and tells Hamlet to revenge his murder; Hamlet
feigns madness to his intentions; Hamlet stages the mousetrap play; Hamlet passes up the
opportunity to kill Claudius while he is praying.
climax · When Hamlet stabs Polonius through the arras in Act III, scene iv, he commits himself
to overtly violent action and brings himself into unavoidable conflict with the king. Another
possible climax comes at the end of Act IV, scene iv, when Hamlet resolves to commit himself
fully to violent revenge.
falling action · Hamlet is sent to England to be killed; Hamlet returns to Denmark and
confronts Laertes at Ophelia’s funeral; the fencing match; the deaths of the royal family
setting (time) · The late medieval period, though the play’s chronological setting is
notoriously imprecise
settings (place) · Denmark
foreshadowing · The ghost, which is taken to foreshadow an ominous future for Denmark
tone · Dark, ironic, melancholy, passionate, contemplative, desperate, violent
themes · The impossibility of certainty; the complexity of action; the mystery of death; the
nation as a diseased body
motifs · Incest and incestuous desire; ears and hearing; death and suicide; darkness and the
supernatural; misogyny
symbols · The ghost (the spiritual consequences of death); Yorick’s skull (the physical
consequences of death)
Plot Overview

On a dark winter night, a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore Castle in Denmark. Discovered
first by a pair of watchmen, then by the scholar Horatio, the ghost resembles the recently
deceased King Hamlet, whose brother Claudius has inherited the throne and married the king’s
widow, Queen Gertrude. When Horatio and the watchmen bring Prince Hamlet, the son of
Gertrude and the dead king, to see the ghost, it speaks to him, declaring ominously that it is
indeed his father’s spirit, and that he was murdered by none other than Claudius. Ordering
Hamlet to seek revenge on the man who usurped his throne and married his wife, the ghost
disappears with the dawn.

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Prince Hamlet devotes himself to avenging his father’s death, but, because he is contemplative
and thoughtful by nature, he delays, entering into a deep melancholy and even apparent
madness. Claudius and Gertrude worry about the prince’s erratic behavior and attempt to
discover its cause. They employ a pair of Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to
watch him. When Polonius, the pompous Lord Chamberlain, suggests that Hamlet may be mad
with love for his daughter, Ophelia, Claudius agrees to spy on Hamlet in conversation with the
girl. But though Hamlet certainly seems mad, he does not seem to love Ophelia: he orders her
to enter a nunnery and declares that he wishes to ban marriages.

A group of traveling actors comes to Elsinore, and Hamlet seizes upon an idea to test his uncle’s
guilt. He will have the players perform a scene closely resembling the sequence by which
Hamlet imagines his uncle to have murdered his father, so that if Claudius is guilty, he will
surely react. When the moment of the murder arrives in the theater, Claudius leaps up and leaves
the room. Hamlet and Horatio agree that this proves his guilt. Hamlet goes to kill Claudius but
finds him praying. Since he believes that killing Claudius while in prayer would send Claudius’s
soul to heaven, Hamlet considers that it would be an inadequate revenge and decides to wait.
Claudius, now frightened of Hamlet’s madness and fearing for his own safety, orders that
Hamlet be sent to England at once.

Hamlet goes to confront his mother, in whose bedchamber Polonius has hidden behind a
tapestry. Hearing a noise from behind the tapestry, Hamlet believes the king is hiding there. He
draws his sword and stabs through the fabric, killing Polonius. For this crime, he is immediately
dispatched to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. However, Claudius’s plan for
Hamlet includes more than banishment, as he has given Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sealed
orders for the King of England demanding that Hamlet be put to death.

In the aftermath of her father’s death, Ophelia goes mad with grief and drowns in the river.
Polonius’s son, Laertes, who has been staying in France, returns to Denmark in a rage. Claudius
convinces him that Hamlet is to blame for his father’s and sister’s deaths. When Horatio and
the king receive letters from Hamlet indicating that the prince has returned to Denmark after
pirates attacked his ship en route to England, Claudius concocts a plan to use Laertes’ desire
for revenge to secure Hamlet’s death. Laertes will fence with Hamlet in innocent sport, but
Claudius will poison Laertes’ blade so that if he draws blood, Hamlet will die. As a backup
plan, the king decides to poison a goblet, which he will give Hamlet to drink should Hamlet

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score the first or second hits of the match. Hamlet returns to the vicinity of Elsinore just as
Ophelia’s funeral is taking place. Stricken with grief, he attacks Laertes and declares that he
had in fact always loved Ophelia. Back at the castle, he tells Horatio that he believes one must
be prepared to die, since death can come at any moment. A foolish courtier named Osric arrives
on Claudius’s orders to arrange the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes.

The sword-fighting begins. Hamlet scores the first hit, but declines to drink from the king’s
proffered goblet. Instead, Gertrude takes a drink from it and is swiftly killed by the poison.
Laertes succeeds in wounding Hamlet, though Hamlet does not die of the poison immediately.
First, Laertes is cut by his own sword’s blade, and, after revealing to Hamlet that Claudius is
responsible for the queen’s death, he dies from the blade’s poison. Hamlet then stabs Claudius
through with the poisoned sword and forces him to drink down the rest of the poisoned wine.
Claudius dies, and Hamlet dies immediately after achieving his revenge.

At this moment, a Norwegian prince named Fortinbras, who has led an army to Denmark and
attacked Poland earlier in the play, enters with ambassadors from England, who report that
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Fortinbras is stunned by the gruesome sight of the
entire royal family lying sprawled on the floor dead. He moves to take power of the kingdom.
Horatio, fulfilling Hamlet’s last request, tells him Hamlet’s tragic story. Fortinbras orders that
Hamlet be carried away in a manner befitting a fallen soldier.

Revenge and Vengeance in Shakespeare's Hamlet

Ghosts, perverse family drama, and a vow of revenge: Hamlet is all geared up to be a traditional
bloody revenge play… and then it grinds abruptly to a halt. The play isn't about Hamlet's
ultimately successful vengeance for his father's murder at all—that's taken care of in about two
seconds during Act 5. Instead, most of the play is concerned with Hamlet's inner struggle to
take action. The play is a lot more interested in calling into question the validity and usefulness
of revenge than in satisfying the audience's bloodlust—although, sure, it does that too.
Shakespeare had a theater to fill, after all.
Hamlet deals with three revenge plots, all of which involve a son seeking vengeance for the
death of a father. In the end, though, the resolution of each revenge plot highlights the
inadequacy of revenge.
Hamlet's delay is what separates the play from other revenge tragedies; it's also what marks the
play as modern.
Halt - to (cause to) stop moving or doing something or happening

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Hamlet says to the Ghost, "Speak; I am bound to hear." He means that it is his duty to listen to
the spirit of his father. The Ghost replies that it is also his duty to take revenge: "So art thou to
revenge, when thou shalt hear"(1.5.7).

A moment later, the Ghost repeats the message, but more strongly. He says that if Hamlet ever
loved his father, he will "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" (1.5.25). Hamlet
promises to prove his love and do his duty. He tells the Ghost to tell the story of the murder,
and the revenge will follow: "Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift / As meditation
or the thoughts of love, / May sweep to my revenge" (1.5.29-31).

When the players come to Elsinore, Hamlet asks for a speech, and First Player delivers a
description of the killing of old, white-haired King Priam. The killer, Pyrrhus, swings his sword
at feeble Priam, and misses, but Priam falls to the ground anyway. Just at that moment a tower
crashes to the ground. For an instant, with his sword held above Priam's head, Pyrrhus listens
to the rumble of the falling tower, but "after Pyrrhus' pause, / Aroused vengeance sets him
new a-work" (2.2.487-488). Then Pyrrhus proceeds to butcher the helpless Priam.

"Vengeance" is revenge, but Pyrrhus doesn't have the same kind of personal motivation that
Hamlet has. He is a Greek and King Priam is a Trojan. The Greeks made war upon the Trojans
because the Trojan Paris stole beautiful Helen from the Greek Menelaus. The Greeks as a group
are taking vengeance for Helen's abduction, so Pyrrhus' revenge is not a personal matter at all.

By the time the players come to Elsinore, it's been a while since Hamlet promised the Ghost
that he would take revenge. Then the First Player weeps as he tells the story of Queen Hecuba's
grief for her murdered husband. This makes Hamlet ask himself (in his second soliloquy) why
he hasn't carried out his revenge. To Hamlet it seems that First Player feels more strongly about
Hecuba than Hamlet does about his father. Hamlet then calls himself a coward, and tries to
work himself up into the white heat of hatred. But as he is calling King Claudius a "bloody,
bawdy villain," Hamlet realizes that he's still talking, rather than doing:
O, vengeance!
Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,
A stallion! Fie upon't! foh! (2.2.581-587)
Despite all of this, Hamlet decides that instead of taking revenge right away, he will find out if
the Ghost is really telling the truth. This is the first time he has expressed any doubt about the
Ghost, so it looks like he feels that he ought to take revenge, but doesn't have his heart in it.

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I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious" (3.1.123-124), says Hamlet to Ophelia, when he is
trying to persuade her that she can't trust any man and should never marry. His point is that he
himself is an example of the faults of men. One of those faults is being "revengeful."

Cliché or reality? -- Impatient with the bad acting of the villain in The Murder of Gonzago,
Hamlet calls out, "Come, 'the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge'" (3.2.253-254). He is
mockingly misquoting a melodramatic line from an old play, and he seems to be implying that
revenge is a kind of horror-story cliché. However, the Ghost of Hamlet's father has demanded
revenge for exactly the kind of murder that the villain of the play is about to commit.

Standing behind the kneeling King Claudius, sword in hand, Hamlet says to himself: Now
might I do it pat, now he is praying; / And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven; / And so am
I revenged" (3.3.73-75). But, given this opportunity, Hamlet thinks rather than acts. What he
thinks is that he'll wait until he can catch Claudius in the middle of a sinful act, and take revenge
then. And then Claudius will go to hell, not heaven, so the revenge will be perfect.

Do you not come your tardy son to chide, / That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by / The
important acting of your dread command? O, say!" (3.4.106-108). Thus Hamlet cries out to the
Ghost, who has suddenly appeared as Hamlet was doing his best to make his mother ashamed
of her sexual relationship with King Claudius. The "dread command" must be the command to
take revenge described at the top of this page.

How all occasions do inform against me, / And spur my dull revenge!" (4.4.33)This is the
opening of Hamlet's last soliloquy. On his way to board the ship for England, he speaks with a
Norwegian Captain in the service of Fortinbras, who is on his way to fight for a little patch of
land held by the Poles. Hamlet compares himself unfavorably with Fortinbras, who is fighting
for next to nothing because his honor is at the stake. Fortinbras pushes on in the face of great
danger because his sense of honor is keen, but Hamlet's desire to take revenge is "dull." And to
be "dull' is to be unfeeling, less than human, as the Ghost warned Hamlet early in the play,
when he told Hamlet that if he didn't take revenge, "duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
/ That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf / Wouldst thou not stir in this" (1.5.32-34).

Upon Laertes' return from France he proclaims that "both the worlds I give to negligence, / Let
come what comes; only I'll be revenged / Most thoroughly for my father" (4.5.135-137). By
"both the worlds," Laertes means this world and the next. He is determined to have revenge
even if he dies in this world and is damned in the next.

At the moment, Laertes thinks that King Claudius is the object of his revenge, but the King
asks, "is't writ in your revenge, / That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe / Winner
and loser?" (4.5.142-144) He then starts to tell Laertes that he is innocent of wrong, but just at

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this moment mad Ophelia enters. Seeing Ophelia, Laertes exclaims, "Hadst thou thy wits, and
didst persuade revenge, / It could not move thus" (4.5.170). He means that if she were sane,
and tried to persuade Laertes to take revenge, it would be less effective than this. The sight of
his sister's madness makes him more revengeful than ever.

After King Claudius has persuaded Laertes that Hamlet is responsible for Polonius' death and
Ophelia's madness, Laertes promises that "my revenge will come" (4.7.29). However, the King
apparently thinks he needs to make sure that Laertes will go along with his plan to kill Hamlet
by underhanded means. Before he reveals the full plan, the King asks "Laertes, was your father
dear to you? / Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, / A face without a heart? (4.7.107-109).
The Ghost said something very similar to Hamlet: "If thou didst ever thy dear father love -- /
. . . Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" (1.5.23-25). Thus the King, like the Ghost,
says that taking revenge proves that a man loves his father. The King then asks Laertes what he
would do to prove his love for his father. Laertes replies that he would cut Hamlet's throat in a
church, and the King approves, saying "No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize; /
Revenge should have no bounds" (4.7.127-128). Of course the King approves because now he
can get Laertes to accept a sneaky and cowardly way of taking revenge.

After he returns from the sea voyage that was supposed to end with his death in England, Hamlet
tells Horatio about his adventures. He concludes the story by asking Horatio a rhetorical
question:
Does it not, think'st thee, stand me now upon--
He that hath kill'd my king and whored my mother,
Popp'd in between the election and my hopes,
Thrown out his angle for my proper life,
And with such cozenage--is't not perfect conscience,
To quit him with this arm? (5.2.63-68)
"Quit" means "to pay back"; in this context, it means "to take revenge." Of course, now is the
time to do it, but Hamlet doesn't do it, or make any sort of plan to do it. Instead, he agrees to a
recreational fencing match with Laertes.
Just before the fencing match, Hamlet apologizes to Laertes, saying that it was his madness that
made him kill Polonius. Laertes replies, "I am satisfied in nature, / Whose motive, in this case,
should stir me most / To my revenge: but in my terms of honour / I stand aloof" (5.2.244-247).
By saying that he is "satisfied in nature," Laertes means that Hamlet's apology has soothed his
natural anger at Hamlet for killing his father. However, Laertes adds, the damage to his honor
still gives him good reason for taking revenge. Laertes is lying about his feelings and he takes
a dishonorable revenge.

Significance of the Play within the Play

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In the first two scenes of Act III, Hamlet and Claudius both devise traps to catch one another’s
secrets: Claudius spies on Hamlet to discover the true nature of his madness, and Hamlet
attempts to “catch the conscience of the king” in the theater (III.i.582). The play-within-a-play
tells the story of Gonzago, the Duke of Vienna, and his wife, Baptista, who marries his
murdering nephew, Lucianus. Hamlet believes that the play is an opportunity to establish a
more reliable basis for Claudius’s guilt than the claims of the ghost. Since he has no way of
knowing whether to believe a member of the spirit world, he tries to determine whether
Claudius is guilty by reading his behavior for signs of a psychological state of guilt.
Hamlet has been entrusted with the duty of avenging his father's death by his father's Ghost. He
learns that his father has been murdered by Claudius. But he hesitates to execute the command
of the Ghost. He has doubts about the genuineness of the Ghost and Claudius's sin. He wishes
to have strong proof before taking revenge and allows time to lapse until the arrival of the
players. Their arrival inspires him with a sudden idea of enacting a play to catch the conscience
of Claudius.
Hamlet receives the players with enthusiasm and plans with them to stage a play called The
Murder of Gonzago with some modification in the speeches. On the day of staging the play
Hamlet prepares the players well in advance to make the play a great success. He advises them
to "suit the action to the word, the word to the action" so that they would not "overstep the
modesty of nature", for the aim of a play is to hold the mirror up to nature. He then seeks the
help of Horatio, to whom he has already revealed the secret of the Ghost's revelation, to watch
the King's feelings while the play is staged. Thus he prepares the players, Horatio and himself
to 'catch the conscience of the King'. The play is to be the mainspring for further action. The
King, the Queen and the courtier are invited to see the play.
The dumb-show is the prelude to the actual staging of the play Hamlet chooses to sit at Ophelia's
feet rather than next to the Queen, partly to encourage the idea that his madness is caused by
disappointed love, but mainly because he could not watch the King's face if he sat next to the
royal pair. Hamlet plays the part of the commentator too. The dumb-show is the first part of the
King's ordeal. The dumb-show itself represents very closely the crime of Claudius. Yet it is
surprising that he does not betray his feelings. Some critics feel that Claudius, being lost in his
conversation with the Queen, missed the dumb-show. Certain other critics feel that Claudius
does see the show, but he hopes that it is only an unlucky coincidence that The Murder of
Gonzago resembles his own crime or he naturally suspects that the choice of the play is
deliberate and knows that Hamlet is watching his reactions. As the remarks about second
marriages, which he has heard, are grossly offensive, he pretends not to have noticed them. The
dramatic importance of staging this dumb-show is that as the play is stopped before the end,
Shakespeare, in order to inform the audience of the full plot, uses the dumb show for the
purpose.
The dumb-show is followed by the actual play The Murder of Gonzago with its deliberately
artificial style, full of repetitions and indirectness enables us to concentrate on the real drama
which is being enacted, with Hamlet's eyes riveted on his uncle's face with the King trying hard
not to show by his face what he is feeling. Claudius's Guilt is confirmed. After the exit of the
Player Queen, Claudius appears to be frightened. Hamlet's assertion that the play is titled The
Mousetrap is a veiled threat of which the King is perfectly aware, especially as 'mouse' is his
term of endearment for Gertrude. When Lucianus enters, Hamlet's comment that he is 'nephew

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to the King' is taken as another threat, and Claudius suspects that Lucianus's lines are written
by Hamlet himself Claudius watches for the second time the re-enactment of his crime and is
about to reveal himself, and when Hamlet gives a last twist to the knife by explaining, 'You
shall see anon how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife,' the King rises terror with
false fire. The Ghost's story is confirmed.
By enacting the play Hamlet has confirmed the Ghost's story, but at the expense of revealing
his own knowledge to the King. His own fate is sealed unless he follows up his victory. The
victory is imperfect, in any case, because Hamlet's behavior during the performance, as well as
the apparent gross lack of the taste in his choosing a play with such a theme can allow the King
to cover up his guilt with a show of anger. On the other hand, Hamlet is extremely happy at
having discovered the truth. Now he gives more weight to the words of the Ghost. Thus, the
situation leads to the crisis or turning point of the play. Hamlet has to act now. But when he
gets the opportunity to carry out his work, he fails to act as he finds Claudius at prayer. In his
soliloquy he justifies his lack of action by saying that if he kills Claudius, who is at prayer, his
soul would enjoy the pleasures of heaven, instead of suffering the tortures of hell.
The Murder of Gonzago play puts both Claudius and the Ghost on trial, the former for
'fratricide' and the latter for its 'honesty.' Hamlet's doubts are removed. Still, he hesitates to act.
Hence this play emphasizes Hamlet's procrastinating nature. Hamlet is inspired by the play with
greater desire to act, but it fails to have the effect to make him act. It only shows him as a
'pigeon-livered' man who shrinks from action on moral grounds. It allows Hamlet and Claudius
to know exactly what the other feels. It is a climax and a crisis, and the pivot of the action in
Hamlet. Now, Hamlet has no excuse for delay, Claudius will set forth his own machinations to
destroy Hamlet, and with the unseen hand of fate, Hamlet will grow to self-realization.
This play-within-the-play further helps the dramatist to reveal his own theories of playacting.
Hamlet acts as a mouthpiece of Shakespeare, through whom he expresses his ideas of playacting
and shows his contempt for the contemporary actors. To Shakespeare, the aim of drama is to
hold the mirror up to nature, with the actors not indulging in extravagant passions. They should
"suit the action to the word, the word to the action, and should not "overstep the modesty of
nature". This piece of advice given by Shakespeare through Hamlet shows Hamlet at his best.
He is playing the part of Deputy Providence, plotting, arranging, baiting the trap, etc. His
making fun of Ophelia, his darting sarcasm at his mother and playing the part of a Chorus, his
mocking the King, all shows his versatile genius.
The play-within-the-play serves to emphasize that Hamlet is not the traditional revenge play.
The hero, after the Ghost's words have been confirmed, he yet spares Claudius' life because the
King is praying. The problem is that Hamlet sees himself as one who is to ensure the victim’s
punishment in the next world also. He is overestimating his role, and it is only towards the end
that he will truly understand that man must accept certain conditions and act within them
readily. However, it would be wrong to consider the scene the central act and the crisis of the
play. It is important as far as bringing Claudius and Hamlet to a full awareness of one another's
true nature.

To be or not to be Hamlet a tragic hero

”To be, or not to be: that is the question:”

12
Hamlet is pretty depressed. His father just died and his mom ran off to marry his uncle Claudius
the first chance she got. To make matters worse, his dear old dad's ghost showed up and told
him that his uncle killed him to steal his crown. Gasp.
But Hamlet can't go around just accusing his uncle Claudius of murder and treason without any
proof, now can he? What exactly would he say? A ghost told me? Yeah, that'll go over well.
He debates whether he should kill his uncle to avenge his dad's death, or if he should wait it out
and see what happens. So he hatches a little plan to make everyone think he's lost his marbles
while he attempts to uncover some more evidence..
Strangely enough, it kind of works. Everyone totally thinks Hamlet is actually gone mad. A
nobleman, Polonius, thinks it's because Hamlet's in love with Ophelia. Claudius isn't so sure.
So the two men set a trap for Hamlet.
They use Ophelia as bait to get Hamlet talking. The two men will hide and wait to see what
happens when Hamlet encounters Ophelia, hoping they'll be able to judge from Hamlet's
interaction with her whether he's been driven mad by love, or by something else entirely. Poor
Ophelia. She actually loves Hamlet and now has to lie to him.
Hearing Hamlet approach, everybody clears out so Hamlet can privately deliver one of the
greatest speeches of all time. What's the question? "To be, or not to be," of course.
Hamlet is the quintessential tragic hero. Not only does he begin with the noblest motivations
(to punish his father’s murderer) but by the end, his situation is do dire that the only plausible
final act should be his death. Like the classical tragic hero, Hamlet does not survive to see the
full outcome of his actions and more importantly, this is because he possesses a tragic flaw.
While there are a number of flaws inherent to his character, it is Hamlet’s intense identification
with and understanding of the power of words and language that ultimately bring about his
requisite tragic ending. Hamlet’s deep connection with language and words causes him to base
his perceptions of reality on his interpretation and understanding of words and he allows himself
to become overwrought with creating meaning. As this thesis statement for Hamlet suggests,
eventually, his own words and philosophical internal banter are his end since being a highly
verbose and introspective man, this is both one of his greatest gifts as well as his tragic flaw.
Hamlet fits several into several of the defining traits of a tragic hero in literature, particularly
in terms of how he possesses a tragic flaw. The fact that Hamlet’s best trait is also his downfall
(his tragic flaw, in other words) makes him a prime candidate for a tragic hero and in fact,
makes him one of the most tragic figures in the works of Shakespeare in general. More
specifically, what makes Hamlet even more of a tragic hero is that his actions and tragic flaw
is not his fault. He is an introspective character and in a normal situation, this might not be a
problem. However, being part of the royal family makes him prone to negative and stressful
situations and thus his engagement with words to level in which he is almost crippled is
absolutely tragic, even if it is not because of anything he had overtly done.
Overall, the power of language in Hamlet by William Shakespeare has had a direct impact on
the tragic outcome of the play. The tragic ending was simply the culmination of the “poison in
the ear” and destructive use of language and thinking that follows. For Hamlet, the immense
power of language cannot be ignored. Furthermore, it is apparent that the reality, both for the
reader and the central characters, is mutable and susceptible to the influence of manipulative
words. Words from different characters could act as daggers, both on the reader as well as the
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characters. For Hamlet, the power of words was at once his greatest downfall as well as his
most prized weapon. For this reason, language is Hamlet’s tragic flaw and he is a tragic
character, although not because of anything he has purposefully done.

2. Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Limits of Knowledge
As Ishmael tries, in the opening pages of Moby-Dick, to offer a simple collection of
literary excerpts mentioning whales, he discovers that, throughout history, the whale
has taken on an incredible multiplicity of meanings. Over the course of the novel, he
makes use of nearly every discipline known to man in his attempts to understand the
essential nature of the whale. Each of these systems of knowledge, however, including
art, taxonomy, and phrenology, fails to give an adequate account. The multiplicity of
approaches that Ishmael takes, coupled with his compulsive need to assert his
authority as a narrator and the frequent references to the limits of observation (men
cannot see the depths of the ocean, for example), suggest that human knowledge is
always limited and insufficient. When it comes to Moby Dick himself, this limitation
takes on allegorical significance. The ways of Moby Dick, like those of the Christian
God, are unknowable to man, and thus trying to interpret them, as Ahab does, is
inevitably futile and often fatal.
The Deceptiveness of Fate
In addition to highlighting many portentous or foreshadowing events, Ishmael’s
narrative contains many references to fate, creating the impression that the Pequod’s
doom is inevitable. Many of the sailors believe in prophecies, and some even claim the
ability to foretell the future. A number of things suggest, however, that characters are
actually deluding themselves when they think that they see the work of fate and that
fate either doesn’t exist or is one of the many forces about which human beings can
have no distinct knowledge. Ahab, for example, clearly exploits the sailors’ belief in
fate to manipulate them into thinking that the quest for Moby Dick is their common
destiny. Moreover, the prophesies of Fedallah and others seem to be undercut in

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Chapter 99, when various individuals interpret the doubloon in different ways,
demonstrating that humans project what they want to see when they try to interpret
signs and portents.
The Exploitative Nature of Whaling
At first glance, the Pequod seems like an island of equality and fellowship in the midst
of a racist, hierarchically structured world. The ship’s crew includes men from all
corners of the globe and all races who seem to get along harmoniously. Ishmael is
initially uneasy upon meeting Queequeg, but he quickly realizes that it is better to have
a “sober cannibal than a drunken Christian” for a shipmate. Additionally, the conditions
of work aboard the Pequod promote a certain kind of egalitarianism, since men are
promoted and paid according to their skill. However, the work of whaling parallels the
other exploitative activities—buffalo hunting, gold mining, unfair trade with indigenous
peoples—that characterize American and European territorial expansion. Each of
the Pequod’s mates, who are white, is entirely dependent on a nonwhite harpooner,
and nonwhites perform most of the dirty or dangerous jobs aboard the ship. Flask
actually stands on Daggoo, his African harpooner, in order to beat the other mates to
a prize whale. Ahab is depicted as walking over the black youth Pip, who listens to
Ahab’s pacing from below deck, and is thus reminded that his value as a slave is less
than the value of a whale.
Key Facts
Full Title · Moby-Dick; or The Whale
Author · Herman Melville
Type Of Work · Novel
Genre · Epic, adventure story, quest tale, allegory, tragedy
Language · English
Time And Place Written · Between 1850 and 1851, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and New
York City
Date Of First Publication · 1851
Publisher · Harper & Brothers in America (simultaneously published in England by Richard
Bentley as The Whale)

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Narrator · Ishmael, a junior member of the Pequod’s crew, casts himself as the author,
recounting the events of the voyage after he has acquired more experience and studied the whale
extensively.
Point Of View · Ishmael narrates in a combination of first and third person, describing events
as he saw them and providing his own thoughts. He presents the thoughts and feelings of the
other characters only as an outside observer might infer them.
Tone · Ironic, celebratory, philosophical, dramatic, hyperbolic
Tense · Past
Setting (Time) · 1830s or 1840s
Setting (Place) · Aboard the whaling ship the Pequod, in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian
Oceans
Major Conflict · Ahab dedicates his ship and crew to destroying Moby Dick, a white sperm
whale, because he sees this whale as the living embodiment of all that is evil and malignant in
the universe. By ignoring the physical dangers that this quest entails, setting himself against
other men, and presuming to understand and fight evil on a cosmic scale, Ahab arrogantly defies
the limitations imposed upon human beings.
Rising Action · Ahab announces his quest to the other sailors and nails the doubloon to the
mast; the Pequod encounters various ships with news and stories about Moby Dick.
Climax · In Chapter 132, “The Symphony,” Ahab interrogates himself and his quest in front
of Starbuck, and realizes that he does not have the will to turn aside from his purpose.
Falling Action · The death of Ahab and the destruction of the Pequod by Moby Dick; Ishmael,
the only survivor of the Pequod’s sinking, floats on a coffin and is rescued by another whaling
ship, the Rachel.
Themes · The limits of knowledge; the deceptiveness of fate; the exploitative nature of
whaling
Motifs · Whiteness; surfaces and depths
Symbols · The Pequod symbolizes doom; Moby Dick, on an objective level, symbolizes
humankind’s inability to understand the world; Queequeg’s coffin symbolizes both life and
death

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Foreshadowing · Foreshadowing in Moby-Dick is extensive and inescapable: everything from
the Pequod’s ornamentation to the behavior of schools of fish to the appearance of a giant squid
is read as an omen of the eventual catastrophic encounter with Moby Dick.

The novel Moby Dick written by Herman Melville is an epic tale of the voyage of
the whaling ship Pequod and its captain, Ahab, who pursues the great Sperm Whale
during a journey around the world. The novel can be characterized also as an
adventure story, an allegory and a tragedy.
The narrator of the novel is Ishmael, a sailor on the Pequod who undertakes the
journey out of his affection for the sea. Ishmael narrates in a combination of first and
third person, describing events as he saw them and providing his own thoughts. He
presents the thoughts and feelings of the other characters only as an outside observer
might infer them. The tone used is sometimes ironic, sometimes philosophical or even
dramatic. Ahab sees this whale as the living embodiment of all that is evil and
malignant in the universe. By ignoring the physical dangers that this quest entails,
setting himself against other men, and presuming to understand and fight evil on a
cosmic scale, Ahab arrogantly defies the limitations imposed upon human beings.
Moby Dick begins with Ishmael's arrival in New Bedford as he travels toward
Nantucket. He rests at the Spouter Inn in New Bedford, where he meets Queequeg, a
harpooner from New Zealand who will also sail on the Pequod. Although Queequeg
appears dangerous, he and Ishmael must share a bed together and the narrator quickly
grows fond of the somewhat uncivilized harpooner. Queequeg is actually the son of a
High Chief who left New Zealand because of his desire to learn among Christians. The
next day, Ishmael attends a church service and listens to a sermon by Father Mapple,
a renowned preacher who delivers a sermon considering Jonah and the whale that
concludes that the tale is a lesson to preach truth in the face of falsehood.
Moby Dick places a major importance on the religion theme. The novel shows
equal respect for a wide variety of religious traditions and, at the same time, mocks the
foolishness of religious extremism.
In this novel, tribal pagans and New England Christians seem similar in a way
and frequently the pagans seem more ethical than some of the Christians around them.
In contrast to the ecumenical attitude toward religiosity and the heavy satire that

17
accompanies some of the religious commentary, the novel also uses a great deal of
biblical symbolism, especially in the names and allegorical roles of characters.
Ishmael calls our attention to two very different kinds of danger: dangers to the
body and dangers to the soul. He thinks that risking his life on a whaling voyage is
good because even if something destroys his ship, it can’t destroy his immortal soul:
"Yes, there is death in this business of whaling – a speechlessly quick chaotic bundling
of a man into Eternity. But what then?”
It is reminded to the reader of the biblical facts about Prophet Jonah. Jonah gets
swallowed by the whale not just for his sins, but specifically because he refused to do
God’s will. Obeying God isn’t just difficult; sometimes it will actually rub us the wrong
way. We would rather find someone who chooses to obey himself instead of God: "And
if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves,
wherein the hardness of obeying God consists."
It’s hard to say whether Ishmael’s reasoning is laughable or laudable. Being
open minded is good, but he reasons himself around to doing something that’s
specifically prohibited in his religion. And he does it in just a paragraph or so. This may
be taking religious tolerance to an absurd extreme, but it might also be an example of
how every religion gets the job done in the end: "So I kindled the shavings; helped prop
up the innocent little idol; offered him burnt biscuit with Queequeg; salamed before him
twice or thrice; kissed his nose; and that done, we undressed and went to bed, at peace
with our own consciences and all the world.”
Ishmael’s attitude toward religious observances once again presents a problem.
On one hand, Ishmael seems aware of the limitations of all types of fanaticism when
he says "we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head", and he continues
„heaven have mercy on us all – Presbyterians and Pagans alike – for we are all
somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.”
He’s also very modern when he suggests that all religions should be respected.
And yet, the fact that he still refers to "pagans and what not" as "half-crazy" shows that
he can’t quite give up on his prejudices. The fact that he is as willing to respect the
beliefs of ants as he is of other people is a little bit insulting to "other people”: "I cherish
the greatest respect towards everybody’s religious obligations, never mind how
comical, and could not find it in my heart to undervalue even a congregation of ants
worshipping a toad-stool; or those other creatures in certain parts of our earth.”

18
 Ishmael’s willing to go along with any reasonable behavior based on a faith, as
long as it doesn’t become inconvenient or uncomfortable. Faithful people and devout
Christians probably think he is missing the point, although keeping peace with
everybody is highly desirable: "Now, as I before hinted, I have no objection to any
person’s religion, be it what it may, so long as that person does not kill or insult any
other person, because that other person don’t believe it also.”
Turning the missionary and evangelism around and making the pagan
tribesman into a frustrated one because the other guy doesn’t understand his religious
customs makes us see proselytizing in a whole new way: "He looked at me with a sort
of condescending concern and compassion, as though he thought it a great pity that
such a sensible young man should be so hopelessly lost to evangelical pagan piety.”
Although Ishmael is often sarcastic about religion, he also has moments in
which he seems to feel the transcendent power of God. He reaches into that feeling of
divinity in order to explain that tragedy and democracy are not incompatible, which is
an important point for an American author of a tragic novel. To Ishmael, God and
democracy can coexist: "The great God absolute! The centre and circumference of all
democracy! His omnipresence, our divine equality!”
The final statement from Melville about God's supremacy is Ahab's death and
Ishmael's survival.

3. Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Genre
Great Expectations is a classic example of a bildungsroman, a category of literature that
focuses on the progression of a central character as he or she matures into an adult
and experiences significant psychological growth along the way. The novel begins
with Pip’s earliest recollection of naming himself, due to his “infant tongue.” By the
end, Pip is established as a mature professional. Not only does Pip physically grow
and change over the course of the book, he also dramatically alters his
understanding of what he thinks is important in life. Much of the plot is driven by his
ambitions and hopes to rise to a higher station in life since he is “restlessly aspiring
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[and] discontented,” but by the end of the novel, Pip has been humbled and has a
deeper understanding of true happiness. The close focus on Pip’s journey to
psychological and emotional maturity, made evident through a first-person narration,
is a trademark characteristic of the bildungsroman genre.
Key Facts
Full Title · Great Expectations
Author · Charles Dickens
Type Of Work · Novel
Genres · Bildungsroman, social criticism, autobiographical fiction
Language · English
Time And Place Written · London, 1860-1861
Date Of First Publication · Published serially in England from December 1860 to
August 1861; published in book form in England and America in 1861
Publisher · Serialized in All the Year Round; published in England by Chapman & Hall;
published in America by Harper & Brothers
Narrator · Pip
Climax · A sequence of climactic events occurs from Chapter 51 to Chapter 56: Miss
Havisham’s burning in the fire, Orlick’s attempt to murder Pip, and Pip’s attempt to
help Magwitch escape London.
Protagonist · Pip
Antagonist · Great Expectations does not contain a traditional single antagonist.
Various characters serve as figures against whom Pip must struggle at various times:
Magwitch, Mrs. Joe, Miss Havisham, Estella, Orlick, Bentley Drummle, and
Compeyson. With the exception of the last three, each of the novel’s antagonists is
redeemed before the end of the book.
Setting (Time) · Mid-nineteenth century
Settings (Place) · Kent and London, England
Point Of View · First person
Falling Action · The period following Magwitch’s capture in Chapter 54, including
Magwitch’s death, Pip’s reconciliation with Joe, and Pip’s reunion with Estella eleven
years later

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Tense · Past
Foreshadowing · Great Expectations contains a great deal of foreshadowing. The
repeated references to the convict (the man with the file in the pub, the attack on Mrs.
Joe) foreshadow his return; the second convict on the marsh foreshadows the
revelation of Magwitch’s conflict with Compeyson; the man in the pub who gives Pip
money foreshadows the revelation that Pip’s fortune comes from Magwitch; Miss
Havisham’s wedding dress and her bizarre surroundings foreshadow the revelation of
her past and her relationship with Estella; Pip’s feeling that Estella reminds him of
someone he knows foreshadows his discovery of the truth of her parentage; the fact
that Jaggers is a criminal lawyer foreshadows his involvement in Magwitch’s life; and
so on. Moreover, the weather often foreshadows dramatic events: a storm brewing
generally means there will be trouble ahead, as on the night of Magwitch’s return.
Tone · Comic, cheerful, satirical, wry, critical, sentimental, dark, dramatic,
foreboding, Gothic, sympathetic
Themes · Ambition and the desire for self-improvement (social, economic,
educational, and moral); guilt, criminality, and innocence; maturation and the growth
from childhood to adulthood; the importance of affection, loyalty, and sympathy over
social advancement and class superiority; social class; the difficulty of maintaining
superficial moral and social categories in a constantly changing world
Motifs · Crime and criminality; disappointed expectations; the connection between
weather or atmosphere and dramatic events; doubles (two convicts, two secret
benefactors, two invalids, etc.)
Symbols · The stopped clocks at Satis House symbolize Miss Havisham’s attempt to
stop time; the many objects relating to crime and guilt (gallows, prisons, handcuffs,
policemen, lawyers, courts, convicts, chains, files) symbolize the theme of guilt and
innocence; Satis House represents the upper-class world to which Pip longs to
belong; Bentley Drummle represents the grotesque caprice of the upper class; Joe
represents conscience, affection, loyalty, and simple good nature; the marsh mists
represent danger and ambiguity.

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Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

Ambition and Self-Improvement

The moral theme of Great Expectations is quite simple: affection, loyalty, and
conscience are more important than social advancement, wealth, and class. Dickens
establishes the theme and shows Pip learning this lesson, largely by exploring ideas
of ambition and self-improvement—ideas that quickly become both the thematic
center of the novel and the psychological mechanism that encourages much of Pip’s
development. At heart, Pip is an idealist; whenever he can conceive of something
that is better than what he already has, he immediately desires to obtain the
improvement. When he sees Satis House, he longs to be a wealthy gentleman; when
he thinks of his moral shortcomings, he longs to be good; when he realizes that he
cannot read, he longs to learn how. Pip’s desire for self-improvement is the main
source of the novel’s title: because he believes in the possibility of advancement in
life, he has “great expectations” about his future.
Ambition and self-improvement take three forms in Great Expectations—moral, social,
and educational; these motivate Pip’s best and his worst behavior throughout the
novel. First, Pip desires moral self-improvement. He is extremely hard on himself
when he acts immorally and feels powerful guilt that spurs him to act better in the
future. When he leaves for London, for instance, he torments himself about having
behaved so wretchedly toward Joe and Biddy. Second, Pip desires social self-
improvement. In love with Estella, he longs to become a member of her social class,
and, encouraged by Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook, he entertains fantasies of becoming
a gentleman. The working out of this fantasy forms the basic plot of the novel; it
provides Dickens the opportunity to gently satirize the class system of his era and to
make a point about its capricious nature. Significantly, Pip’s life as a gentleman is no
more satisfying—and certainly no more moral—than his previous life as a
blacksmith’s apprentice. Third, Pip desires educational improvement. This desire is
deeply connected to his social ambition and longing to marry Estella: a full education
is a requirement of being a gentleman. As long as he is an ignorant country boy, he

22
has no hope of social advancement. Pip understands this fact as a child, when he
learns to read at Mr. Wopsle’s aunt’s school, and as a young man, when he takes
lessons from Matthew Pocket. Ultimately, through the examples of Joe, Biddy, and
Magwitch, Pip learns that social and educational improvement are irrelevant to one’s
real worth and that conscience and affection are to be valued above erudition and
social standing.
Social Class
Throughout Great Expectations, Dickens explores the class system of Victorian
England, ranging from the most wretched criminals (Magwitch) to the poor peasants
of the marsh country (Joe and Biddy) to the middle class (Pumblechook) to the very
rich (Miss Havisham). The theme of social class is central to the novel’s plot and to
the ultimate moral theme of the book—Pip’s realization that wealth and class are less
important than affection, loyalty, and inner worth. Pip achieves this realization when
he is finally able to understand that, despite the esteem in which he holds Estella,
one’s social status is in no way connected to one’s real character. Drummle, for
instance, is an upper-class lout, while Magwitch, a persecuted convict, has a deep
inner worth.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember about the novel’s treatment of social
class is that the class system it portrays is based on the post-Industrial Revolution
model of Victorian England. Dickens generally ignores the nobility and the hereditary
aristocracy in favor of characters whose fortunes have been earned through
commerce. Even Miss Havisham’s family fortune was made through the brewery that
is still connected to her manor. In this way, by connecting the theme of social class to
the idea of work and self-advancement, Dickens subtly reinforces the novel’s
overarching theme of ambition and self-improvement.
Crime, Guilt, and Innocence
The theme of crime, guilt, and innocence is explored throughout the novel largely
through the characters of the convicts and the criminal lawyer Jaggers. From the
handcuffs Joe mends at the smithy to the gallows at the prison in London, the
imagery of crime and criminal justice pervades the book, becoming an important
symbol of Pip’s inner struggle to reconcile his own inner moral conscience with the

23
institutional justice system. In general, just as social class becomes a superficial
standard of value that Pip must learn to look beyond in finding a better way to live his
life, the external trappings of the criminal justice system (police, courts, jails, etc.)
become a superficial standard of morality that Pip must learn to look beyond to trust
his inner conscience. Magwitch, for instance, frightens Pip at first simply because he
is a convict, and Pip feels guilty for helping him because he is afraid of the police. By
the end of the book, however, Pip has discovered Magwitch’s inner nobility, and is
able to disregard his external status as a criminal. Prompted by his conscience, he
helps Magwitch to evade the law and the police. As Pip has learned to trust his
conscience and to value Magwitch’s inner character, he has replaced an external
standard of value with an internal one.
Sophistication
In Great Expectations, Pip becomes obsessed with a desire to be sophisticated and
takes damaging risks in order to do so. After his first encounter with Estella, Pip
becomes acutely self-conscious that “I was a common labouring-boy; that my hands
were coarse, that my boots were thick.” (pg. 59). Once he moves to London, Pip is
exposed to a glamourous urban world “so crowded with people and so brilliantly
lighted,” and he quickly begins to “contract expensive habits.” As a result of spending
money on things like a personal servant and fancy clothes, Pip quickly falls into debt,
and damages Herbert’s finances as well as his own. Even more troubling, Pip tries to
avoid anyone who might undermine his reputation as a sophisticated young
gentleman. In the end, sophistication is revealed as a shallow and superficial value
because it does not lead to Pip achieving anything, and only makes him lonely and
miserable.
Education
Education functions as a force for social mobility and personal growth in the novel.
Joe and Biddy both use their education to pursue new opportunities, showing how
education can be a good thing. Pip receives an education that allows him to advance
into a new social position, but Pip’s education improves his mind without supporting
the growth of his character. Biddy takes advantage to gather as much learning as she
can, with Pip observing that she “learns everything I learn,” and eventually becomes

24
a schoolteacher. Biddy also teaches Joe to read and write. Pip’s education does not
actually provide him with practical skills or common sense, as revealed when Pip and
Herbert completely fail at managing their personal finances. Pip’s emotional
transformation once he learns the identity of his benefactor is what ultimately makes
him into the man he wants to be, not anything he has learned in a classroom.
Family
Although Pip and Estella both grow up as orphans, family is an important theme in
the novel. Pip grows up with love and support from Joe, but fails to see the value of
the unconditional love Joes gives him. He eventually reconciles with Joe after
understanding his errors. Estella is exposed to damaging values from her adopted
mother, Miss Havisham, and gradually learns from experience what it actually means
to care about someone. For both characters, learning who to trust and how to have a
loving relationship with family members is a major part of the growing-up process. As
Estella explains at the end of the novel, “suffering has been stronger than all other
teaching.” Both Estella and Pip make mistakes and live with the consequences of
their family histories, but their difficult family experiences also helps to give them
perspective on what is truly important in life.

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