Riassunto esame Cultura e Letteratura Inglese 1

AMLET

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

5. And by opposing end them. To die- to sleep-

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die- to sleep.

10. To sleep- perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub!

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

15. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,

20. When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death-

The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn

25. No traveller returns- puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

30. Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry 1780

And lose the name of action.- Soft you now!

The fair Ophelia!- Nymph, in thy orisons

35. Be all my sins rememb'red.

O Good my lord,

PHELIA

How does your honour for this many a day?

40. H I humbly thank you; well, well, well.

AMLET

O My lord, I have remembrances of yours

PHELIA

That I have longed long to re-deliver.

I pray you, now receive them.

H No, not I!

AMLET

I never gave you aught.

RIASSUNTO DI CHIARA C. VENUTO – VIETATA LA RIPRODUZIONE – ACQUISTATO SU SKUOLA.NET

O My honour'd lord, you know right well you did,

PHELIA

And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd

As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost,

45. Take these again; for to the noble mind

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

There, my lord.

H Ha, ha! Are you honest?

AMLET

Ophelia My lord?

Hamlet Are you fair?

50. Ophelia What means your lordship?

H That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no

AMLET

discourse to your beauty.

O Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?

PHELIA

55. H Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform

AMLET

honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can

translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox,

but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.

O Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

PHELIA

60. H You should not have believ'd me; for virtue cannot so

AMLET

inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you

not.

O I was the more deceived.

PHELIA

H Get thee to a nunnery! Why wouldst thou be a breeder of

AMLET

sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse

65. me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me.

I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my

beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give

them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I

do, crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves all;

70. believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your

father?

O At home, my lord.

PHELIA

H Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool

AMLET

nowhere but in's own house. Farewell.

O O, help him, you sweet heavens!

PHELIA

75. H If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry:

AMLET

be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape

calumny. Get thee to a nunnery. Go, farewell. Or if thou wilt

needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what 1830

monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too.

Farewell.

80. O O heavenly powers, restore him!

PHELIA

H . I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath

AMLET

given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig, you 1835

amble, and you lisp; you nickname God's creatures and make your

wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't! it hath made

85. me mad. I say, we will have no moe marriages. Those that are

married already- all but one- shall live; the rest shall keep as

they are. To a nunnery, go. Exit.

O O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!

PHELIA

The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's, eye, tongue, sword,

RIASSUNTO DI CHIARA C. VENUTO – VIETATA LA RIPRODUZIONE – ACQUISTATO SU SKUOLA.NET

90. Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state,

The glass of fashion and the mould of form,

Th' observ'd of all observers- quite, quite down! 1845

And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,

That suck'd the honey of his music vows,

95. Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,

Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;

That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth 1850

Blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me

T' have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

Hamlet’s monologue

About the text: sums up the conflict that apparently seems to be

tearing Hamlet apart. These words are ambiguous because they are open to various

interpretations: they can be interpreted as whether be a man or not, whether to continue

living or to die, whether to act and kill or to give up. Yet, Hamlet’s words do not refer to any

particular event or circumstance because these words assume a general, even universal

meaning. We can say that these words stand for all conflicts, not just for Hamlet’s one, and

– –

also for natural shock. The first line with all its philosophical implications is repeated

throughout the monologue. We can say that the meaning of the entire monologue refers to

human conflicts. It seems that the exemplification of these problems leads to a logical

–

question: why not to commit suicide the impossibility to find a solution seems to invite

–

Hamlet and the reader to the idea of suicide. But the idea of suicide involves fear fear and

death (but also the theme of fear of death) are closely connected and linked in the

monologue. Hamlet tries to soften his fears by comparing his fear to sleep (lines 8, 9). In

he uses metaphors such as ‘this mortal coil’ (line 12), ‘weary life’

order to describe his fears,

(line 22), ‘the dread of something after death’ (line 23) – all these words are symbols of his

conflict. Hamlet looks for suicide as an escape: on the one hand, he seems to refuse death,

but on the other hand he seems to become an ambassador of death. Even stronger than

his refusal to death is his refusal to love: apparently, he seems to refuse it even though we

her he doesn’t). Indeed, when –

know that he loved Ophelia (although he tells after the

– Ophelia appears, Hamlet pretends to be mad: Ophelia is shocked by Hamlet’s

monologue

– she doesn’t understand the truth behind his words. Line 47: Hamlet tells Ophelia

words

‘are you honest?’ – he doesn’t understand whether Ophelia is honest or not, and then attacks

women in general. Hamlet’s words against Ophelia have been interpreted by some critics

(according to psychoanalysis) as related to Oedipus’ complex: Hamlet considers sex as a

his mother’s incest, and this is why he can’t live his own love for

dirty thing because of –

Ophelia. Line 22 (?): he considers women as prostitutes who make up their faces this is

why he invites Ophelia to go to a convent. Hamlet’s words and his way of speaking are

–

illogical or, at least, apparently illogical, made up of contradictions, double meanings,

unpredictable questions. This is due to the fact that he plays the fool, he pretends to be mad.

RIASSUNTO DI CHIARA C. VENUTO – VIETATA LA RIPRODUZIONE – ACQUISTATO SU SKUOLA.NET

Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

About the text: The theme of the sonnet Shall I Compare Thee is the power of poetry, which

gives immortality because it is capable of going beyond time. The first quatrain revolves

around the comparison between his beloved young friend and a summer’s day – indeed, in

the first lines Shakespeare asks himself whether he can compare him to a summer’s day,

but he immediately realises that his patron is more lovely and more temperate (= constant,

making reference to a person who is not overwhelmed by passions) than a summer’s day

is. In fact, a summer’s day can be shaken by rough winds (line 3) or sudden –

storms it can

–

be moody. Moreover, summer leads to an all too short a day on the contrary, the

sweetness of his friend lasts longer than a summer’s day. Darling buds of May (line 3) =

undeveloped flowers. friend to a summer’s day, and this time the poet

In the second quatrain he still compares his

realises that his temper is not burnt by a temperature too high. Sometime too hot the eye of

(line 5) = the sun. But the beautiful face of his friend doesn’t lack in brightness

heaven shines

– and it doesn’t decline: on the contrary, a summer’s day (or, broadly speaking, the beauty

of summer) quickly declines into autumn. Moreover, every beautiful thing in nature is

–

destined to die, to disappear by chance or by the changing course of nature but thy eternal

(line 9): his friend’s summer, his friend’s brightness and beauty shall

summer shall not fade

Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade

never die. (line 12): poetry will make him

be immortal. We can also say that the comparison between the human and natural beauty

– the new thing is that he makes his friend’s life longer and more lasting

is a classical theme

than the course of the seasons: he wants to save his f