RALPH: Hamlet calls the relation between Gertrude and Claudius incestuous, but what really appalls him is how quickly Gertrude remarried.

SARAH: We of course know that this play is a tragedy, and that things won't end well, but notice how, even this early in the play, Shakespeare starts mounting the tension, as Hamlet predicts ominously, "It is not, nor it cannot, come to good".

RALPH: And finally, the last line of the soliloquy ends by confirming Hamlet's loneliness and grief: "But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue." This line is a paraphrase of an Elizabethan proverb, "Grief, pent up, will break the heart;" it brings together Hamlet's sorrow with his inability, or unwillingness, to share that sorrow with others.

SARAH: Is Hamlet unwilling to share his troubles? Or is there simply no one in this royal court that he can trust? Perhaps it's too early in the play to say for certain.