Key vocabulary for studying this play at KS3 and GCSE.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| soliloquy | A speech delivered when alone, revealing inner thoughts. Hamlet has seven major soliloquies. |
| feign | To pretend to feel or be affected by something. Hamlet feigns madness. |
| mortality | The state of being subject to death. "To be, or not to be — that is the question." |
| corruption | The process of decay; moral or physical rottenness. Denmark is described as rotten. "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." |
| equivocate | To use ambiguous language. The gravediggers equivocate; the ghost's message is equivocal. |