Today we will consider what are perhaps the most famous lines in the history of literature. Well, at the very least, the most famous lines in English literature. First, let’s listen to those lines in Korean.
Beautiful, huh? I convinced my friend to record this version for this class. He read the Korean script from the photo above, which I took while visiting the Globe Theater in London, England.
We will take a close look at these lines today. To simplify things, we will examine the English version, not the Korean. This soliloquy is book-ended on one side by Claudius’ plotting and on the other by a confrontation between Ophelia and Hamlet. Note that, in the version we will watch, Hamlet knows this is a setup. Note, too, how this production emphasizes Ophelia’s role as the bait.
