Hamlet: The Historical Context

Hamlet, one of Shakespeare's most famous works , and the source of the world renowned quote, "To be or not to be," is estimated to have been written at the beginning of the 17th century, as early as 1601. Historians have assumed that this date is correct, as the play alludes to Shakespeare's other play "Julius Caesar" which is known to be written in 1599. Tragedies were very popular in Elizabethan England, and so it is no surprise that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet as such. The story is most likely based on a certain Amleth, who was also the Prince of Denmark, and lived around the 12th century. The story of Amleth, whose name is even just a rearranged version of Hamlet, is almost identical to Shakespeare's play, which means that the basic story is now over 900 years old.

Hamlet is not as brutal as some of Shakespeare's other works, because around the end of the 1500's the demand for violent plays decreased. Therefore, although like most Shakespearean plays, murder and revenge are very big themes, the manner in which they are presented is less bloody. The play was instantly seen as a great work, and was very popular in when it was first performed. It is also among Shakespeare's most performed plays, and has seen countless reiterations.

John Donne and Andrew Marvell

In the two metaphysical poems, John Donne's "The Sun Rising" and Andrew Marvell's "To My Coy Mistress" there are many notable similarities that involve the typical characteristics associated with this specific style of poetry. As is usual in metaphysical poetry, the poems compare romantic ideas, such as love and dreams, with unworldly entities such as the Sun or space. The differences however, arises when one looks more closely at the happenings in the poems. In "To my Coy Mistress" the speaker is not close to the woman that the poem is addressed to, however in "The Sun Rising" the speaker is in a relationship with the woman already. Therefore in Donne's work, the speaker not only directs his romantic verses at his lover, but also at the Sun, once again demonstrating typical metaphysical form. In a parallel sense, Marvell also mentions the Sun in his poem, although it is not addressed directly.

Black and Blue

Both the narrator of "Black and Blue" by Louis Armstrong and the "Invisible Man"by Ralph Ellison share similar feelings towards the discrimination of people due to their skin color. While in the novel, the narrator questions why his skin color makes him "invisible" to all the other people, Louis Armstrong asks why his skin color makes him so "black and blue." Both narrators are in very similar positions, which is brought out even more as the son is quoted and alluded to in the novel.