Tuesday, April 8, 2014

In "Home Burial," what is the significance of the grave?

In this dramatic poem, the child's grave symbolizes how a man and a woman deal differently with the tragic loss of their child. For the father, the grave is something practical, something he must dig in order to have a proper burial. For the woman, however, the grave signifies not only her baby's death, but the fact that her husband does not seem to care about what has happened. She believes that since he is able to "make the gravel leap and leap in air" and then come inside and "talk about your everyday concerns" means that he "couldn't care" about what has happened. They have shared a tragic experience together, but, because they grieve in different ways, they grieve alone.

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In Act III, scene 2, why may the establishment of Claudius's guilt be considered the crisis of the revenge plot?

The crisis of a drama usually proceeds and leads to the climax.  In Shakespeare's Hamlet , the proof that Claudius is guilty...