Annotated Bibliography

Downing, Crystal. “Reading Hamlet.”  Hamlet: with Contemporary Essays. Ed. Joseph Pearce. San Francisco: Ignatius Pr, 2008. Print
           Through the eyes of Downing, Hamlet is a play based on the interpretation of the text. She uses various in text examples to enforce her argument. She states that the often use of the "that" in Hamlet's "to be or not be" soliloquy is usually misinterpreted.  According to her, when the "that" in the soliloquy is emphasized readers or audiences interpret the line as if Hamlet is debating whether he should commit suicide or not. The article also points out that interpretation is tricky because of "the reliability of the audience/reader and the reliability of the speaker/ writer"( pg.188). By stating this, the author ultimately re-enforces her main argument.
           The article is a good source for information if people want to learn more about interpretation and its affect on the audience experiencing the play, movie, novel or poem. The goal it's putting forward is that the author wants to have the reader gain a deeper understanding of the Elizabethan era language in Hamlet.The article gave me a lot of insight into the word of Shakespearian language. I learned that maybe my point of view while reading Hamlet can be seen differently by other people, and their interpretation can be completely different to mine. If i had to write a paper on how Shakespeare worded Hamlet, I would definitely use this article as a source to re-enforce my argument when I want to discuss that Hamlet is a play based mostly on what people perceive from it.