Why on earth shouldn't you tell him that? I mean, other than the fact that he/she should figure it out him/herself?

I don't remember much of the speech, but I do remember the bit about "To die, to sleep; to sleep perchance to dream. And in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause." pretty much said "Hey, he's contemplating suicide" to me, even if I didn't get the "be" versus "not be" existential beginning.

Can I just add, Debet, that when I learned "wherefore" meant "why," it made that speech SO much more understandable? Only knowledge I remember from studying that play (which I hated, ever so much. Hamlet's a rather different story, though neither of them are Macbeth or Lear in my mind.)

Don't encourage me. I took two Shakespeare classes my first time around in college, and everytime I see an "inspirational" Shakespeare mug, or the like, I want to tell people, you know that was said by a fool or a villian or whatever the case is. I'm in a bad moood, I don't feel like doing school work, and Tara was right, the lack of good spelling on the internet is depressing.

sj, yes, yes you should. /peer pressure

And "wherefore" means "why", not "where"

t sits next to Debet

Well, to be fair, just because it's said by a fool doesn't make it a line that's being mocked.

Polonius, on the other hand, well...

Well, to be fair, just because it's said by a fool doesn't make it a line that's being mocked.

This is true, but those quotes often aren't meant to be the deep wisdom that people use them for.

Shakespeare did often write wise fools.

Gris, you left out a bit. I'm pretty sure that between "perchance to dream" and "for in that sleep of death", there "Aye, there's the rub", which makes it much more interesting.

That and it's supposed to be a mixed metaphor. Taking up arms against a sea is that futile.

I never studied Hamlet, and, really, I'm kind of glad for it. My teachers in HS had a habit of wrecking things I'd otherwise like.

R&J are annoying, though. And Hamlet needs to not be played by anyone over, say, 28.

My high school English teacher didn't believe in teaching the classics. Not Shakespeare, Milton, Homer, Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, none of 'em. We read Upton Sinclair. And a lot of Dickens. She liked Dickens.

Too much homework. Not enough brains. Oh, and I had forgotten a paper that is also due today. NOT COOL.

One of our English teachers in my freshman high (I didn't have him for any classes) used to dress up as Shakespeare and stay in character on Shakespeare's birthday.

I got him to come to an Elizabethan dinner party I threw as a project in my Shakespeare class when I was a junior. I got an A.