Good evening and welcome back once again to brush up your Shakespeare where we make

Shakespeare fun and interesting.

We are into episode 8 now and in the play Hamlet, we are in Act 2, Scene 2. The line for today is,

brevity is the soul of wit. Say it with me now. brevity is the soul of wit. One more time for good luck.

brevity is the soul of wit. As we enter into Act 2, scene 2,

Hamlet has a big problem on his hands. He has just learned that his father, the king of Denmark, whom everyone thought died in his orchard by being bitten by a snake, was actually murdered by the king's brother, Claudius.

Worse than that, Claudius then became King himself.

Worse than that, Claudius married Hamlet's mother, the Queen, and all within two months time.

Now the big problem that Hamlet has is not acting in such a way that Claudius might suspect he knows.

As a general principle, if you murder someone, even if you think you got away with it, you

will constantly be worried somebody will find out.

And if Claudius sees Hamlet acting strangely, that would likely be his first suspicion that Hamlet knows. But Hamlet has to do something. He is

stuck in Denmark where he will come into constant contact with his uncle, the new king, which raises the question, how do you

act normal around a guy who killed your dad?

For some reason, Hamlet thinks pretending he is mad will do the trick.

It is as if Hamlet knows he will not be able to act normally around the king, his uncle.

And so he will pretend to be mad to excuse his abnormal conduct.

But Hamlet just got a stroke of luck.

Ophelia, his girlfriend, cut off all communication with him at the

direction of her father Polonius. And in the last scene, Act 2, Scene 1, Polonius is

convinced that the reason Hamlet is acting oddly and everybody can

see it by now. It's because of his love for Ophelia, not because the King is a killer.

...