Campaign Against Illiteracy: Hamlet Essay Topics

No one in literature suffered or cause suffering like Hamlet. Additionally, Shakespeare was the master of tragedy. You will find a list of possible topics concerning Hamlet. You will be assigned an essay on some component of Hamlet at some point in your academic career. Keep in mind that you do not have to use these exacts topics; they may be a springboard for you to come up with a different topic.

Topic Ideas for a Hamlet Essay

1. Write about opposites in the play such as light and dark. Shakespeare loves foils and foil symbolism.
2. What does the play say about ambition and the lengths people will go to obtain a goal? Who is ambitious and who is not?
3. Describe one day in the life of Hamlet.
4. What does this play say or imply about friends, friendships, old friends, new friends, and the complexities of friendship? Who are true friends and who are true enemies? Give names and examples of support for this friendship.
5. How is the dramatic tool of aside used in the play? Discuss four examples.
6. What does this play tell or imply about enemies and the complex nature of the relationship with an enemy? Who are the enemies and how did they get to this point?
7. Discuss several ways that Hamlet is trapped, be it by his own doings or the scheming of others.
8. Choose any one of the major characters and discuss his or her personalities, motivations, actions, or goals.
9. Discuss Denmark as an unhealthy garden and Hamlet as a man
living and existing in this sick and decaying world. Who planted the sick plants, how can they be removed, and how does the blight move within the garden?
10. Explain and discuss Hamlet as a tragic hero. Is he a hero at all? Is he responsible for his own downfall as well as the downfall of others?
11. Choose any soliloquy or monologue and discuss its function and purpose in the play.
12. Discuss what is foul and rotten in the state of Denmark? Why is it rotten, how did it get to this state, and whose fault is it?

Feel free to use these topics the next time you are assigned an essay on Hamlet! Each will provide sufficient details for an interesting and in-depth essay.