# Hamlet **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 31, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamlet/750775 "2016-03-31T19:50:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Notafan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/48db29/32.png) [@Notafan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Notafan)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamlet/750775/1 "2016-03-31T19:50:02Z")
I’m looking for some examples of gossip and rumors in Hamlet. One come to mind when Polonius instructs Reynaldo to go to France and spread rumors about Laertes but I could use some help with other examples. Thank You ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamlet/750775/2 "2016-03-31T19:51:18Z")
How long do you have until the paper is due? ---
**Author:** ![Notafan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/48db29/32.png) [@Notafan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Notafan)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamlet/750775/3 "2016-03-31T19:58:59Z")
About a week. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamlet/750775/4 "2016-03-31T20:02:16Z")
Something tells me you’re not entirely enamored with the Bard. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamlet/750775/5 "2016-03-31T20:09:36Z")
I suppose this is a wildly unrealistic, old world, old fogey sort of a suggestion, but… have you tried, you know, actually _reading_ the play? It hardly takes a week. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamlet/750775/6 "2016-03-31T20:20:28Z")
> [@Notafan](#): > > About a week. We don’t really do homework for folks here. If you’ve got some specific passages that you’d like to discuss, you’ll probably find lots of pedants willing to help you out. ---
**Author:** ![Notafan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/48db29/32.png) [@Notafan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Notafan)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamlet/750775/7 "2016-03-31T20:26:22Z")
Not looking for anyone to do the work for me, just looking for a few suggestions. I have read the play, guess I just don’t understand it as well as others. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamlet/750775/8 "2016-03-31T20:43:39Z")
I heard a rumour that Ophilia was a [stupid bitch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnvgq8STMGM). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamlet/750775/9 "2016-03-31T20:58:37Z")
The play is full of rumors and gossip. Everyone spends the whole thing talking shit about everybody else. Go to literally any scene, find a bit where somebody is talking about somebody else, and odds are pretty good that it’s gossip. Your teacher has lobbed a real softball at you. Just now I pulled up the text of Hamlet, went to a scene entirely at random and, sure enough, Polonious (that asshole) is talking shit about Hamlet to Gertrude. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamlet/750775/10 "2016-03-31T21:21:48Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > I suppose this is a wildly unrealistic, old world, old fogey sort of a suggestion, but… > > have you tried, you know, actually _reading_ the play? It hardly takes a week. The OP could also watch a video of the play. I’d recommend [Kenneth Brangh’s production](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet_%281996_film%29), which lasts just 4 hours and includes essentially all the text of the play. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamlet/750775/11 "2016-03-31T21:25:40Z")
Even the ghost of his dad comes back from the dead just to talk shit about Hamlet’s mom and uncle. None of that Long Island Medium/John Edward “He wants you to know he loves you and he forgives everyone” crap for King Ham. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamlet/750775/12 "2016-03-31T22:16:10Z")
Hey, OP, head on over to my neck of the woods! You’re in luck - I’m in a production of Hamlet that opens tomorrow night. You could check it out for all the gossip and hearsay you can stand! To be on point, actually, I find many people can get a lot more from a competently performed production of Shakespeare than they can from reading it. That usually works for me, anyway. I would second the recommendation to see a filmed version. Me? Why, I’m playing Claudius. No gossip there, everything I say is the absolute truth, yessiree. The ghost, on the other hand, lies like a Danish rug. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamlet/750775/13 "2016-04-01T00:16:29Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > The OP could also watch a video of the play. I’d recommend [Kenneth Brangh’s production](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet_%281996_film%29), which lasts just 4 hours and includes essentially all the text of the play. This is a great film with a helluva cast: Kenneth Branagh Julie Christie Billy Crystal Gérard Depardieu Charlton Heston Derek Jacobi Jack Lemmon Rufus Sewell Robin Williams Kate Winslet Branagh said he would never again film anything in a hall of mirrors. :smack: Suggest the OP watch this with the captioning on, take a few notes, and that paper will be a piece of cake. It will probably be the only one in class that is wholly original. Your teacher might faint.