Spark Notes on HAMLET Literary studies on a book are often called Notes, and some publishers and websites have collections on them that are used by students and literature lovers. Some of the best known are:
Cliff’s Notes www.cliffsnotes.com
York Notes www.yorknotes.com
Barron’s Notes barronsbooknotes.com
Macmillan Classic Guides http://us.macmillan.com/MacmillanSite/categories/ General/Guides/Guides
For our 2011 work on MOBY DICK we used the website BOOK RAGS: www.bookrags.com
For this year’s work on William Shakespeare’s HAMLET we are going to get acquainted with a new website: SPARK NOTES.
www.sparknotes.com
Clicking on the following link, (or copying and pasting it on your internet browser’s address bar), http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/ you get to a page like this:
Now we are going to analyze its main features.
Main menu
The main menu directs you to other pages in the website. SPARKNOTES: Notes on other books NO FEAR: Text written originally in ancient English, rewritten in nowadays language. This is VERY INTERESTING; for instance, you can read passages in Hamlet (such as the ‘To be or not to be’ monologue) in a modern style that you will understand much better. TEST PREP: Helps you prepare exams on different subjects (not interesting for non-English students). VIDEO: Summaries of books in animated cartoons. Hamlet’s video is VERY INTERESTING too. SPARKLIFE and THE MINDHUT: Links and interactive projects. Some of this links are available in this page, on the right pannel.
Hamlet’s Video
VERY INTERESTING. You can watch a summary of the play clicking on the link. The story is told in about 8 minutes in a very clear and simple language.
General info
Context: Shakespeare’s era (Elizabethan England), life, style, etc. Plot Overview: Summary of the play, complete but not too long. Character List: Very short descriptions, with some links to the individual in-depth analysis of some of the characters in the next section. Analysis of Major Characters: In-depth analysis of Hamlet, Claudius and Gertrude. Themes, Motifs & Symbols: Explanation of these words and main examples in the play: Themes: The Impossibility of Certainty / The Complexity of Action / The Mystery of Death / The Nation as a Diseased Body. Motifs: Incest / Misogyny / Ears and Hearing. Symbols: Yorick’s Skull.
ADDITIONAL LINKS The remaining sections are very complete and rather excessive for our purposes, but if your English is good and you are very interested, you may want to visit them.
Summary & Analysis
Summaries and commentaries of each scene of the play, with quotations and tracking of themes, motifs and symbols. You can use them for punctual revision of details.
Study Tools
Complete toolbox for a literary study of the play.