PART 2

教师进入正文5-27行讲解：

5 To die, to sleep;

  No more; and by a sleep to say we end

  The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

  That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation

  Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep.

10 To sleep, perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;

  For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

  When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

  Must give us pause. There’s the respect

  That makes calamity of so long life;

15 For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

  Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,

  The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,

  The insolence of office, and the spurns

  That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes,

20 When he himself might his quietus make

  With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

  To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

  But that the dread of something after death,

  The undiscovered country from whose bourn

25 No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

  And makes us rather bear those ills we have

  Than fly to others that we know not of?

Q1: What’s Hamlet’s think of death?

A1: Hamlet thought that death is a kind of sleep, during which sufferings, strikes, and misfortunes can disappear in a dream and make the people feel better.

Q2: Why does Hamlet think people lull their will in dreams?

A2: Because when people finally give up fighting and becoming numb. They still think what kind of “dream” they will want. Though people suffer from pains, losses in reality, they don’t know how to deal with them mentally. After getting rid of the real body, their spirits still struggle: they want to cheer up but don’t know how. So they just hide and lost in the dreams; do nothing.

Q3: According to Hamlet, why do people want to suicide?

A3: Because the world was in chaos. The contradictions among different classes, the rich, the poor and those with power were sharp. The weak ones, the vulnerable ones, were living in hell. They couldn’t see hope of humanism that was supposed to prevail in the society. They assumed that life was a misery, and death could help to rescue them out of this.

Q4: Why do you think Hamlet have this thought?

A4: Because what he saw and experienced was a shock to him and it broke his beautiful illusions towards the society. He felt disappointed and would like to change. However, he doubted himself for actually having the ability to accomplish it.

Q5: What can we conclude from the text about Hamlet’s characteristic?

A5: To some extend, Hamlet is weak in character. Though he was filled with hatred and anger, he held back and missed great opportunities for revenge. He always hesitated. This shows that Hamlet lacks the power of action.

Q6: From the text, what can we conclude about the social reality at that time?

A6: We can see that it was a society full of hidden problems and dangers. Hamlet symbolizes the new bourgeois, who fight against reactionary feudal monarchy. It reflects the conflicts between the humanism and feudalism.

Q7: What’s Shakespeare’s attitude towards the social reality?

A7: Shakespeare uses his plays and characters to express his ideas. Hamlet is a play aims at revealing the darkness of the society. The conflict between feudalism and humanism is the theme of this play. In the end, Hamlet killed Claudius, which implies that in Shakespeare’s mind, the humanists will beat the evil and feudalism eventually, even though it risks their own lives.