SARAH: Hamlet's broad comments about how the world appears to him are now followed by a more specific cause of his depression — his father's death, just less than two months ago.

RALPH: Hamlet clearly idolizes his father, he compares him to a Greek god, and he opposes him directly to his uncle Claudius, whom he compares to a satyr, which is a half-man, half-goat creature from classical mythology.

SARAH: From the way Hamlet describes them, his parents had been completely devoted to each other. His father was so loving and protecting of Gertrude that he didn't even want winds from heaven to blow in her face and disturb her.

RALPH: And she clearly adored King Hamlet as well. Hamlet says, "she should hang on him, as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on." In other words, the more time she spent with the King, the more she loved him, as if your appetite grew stronger as you ate, instead of diminishing.