Many guides dictate the meanings of Shakespeare's scenes and translate his rich language into more ordinary speech. But A Guide to Reading Shakespeare's Hamlet gives readers the tools to understand the play for themselves. A sequence of carefully designed questions for each scene helps readers grasp the play's individual lines and larger ideas; an introduction to figurative language offers techniques to comprehend Shakespeare's abundant imagery; an introduction to meter provides the essentials needed to hear the meanings rhythm adds to speeches; and a description of the earliest texts of the play, printed in 1603, 1604, and 1623, illustrates how a modern edition of Hamlet is produced. A Guide to Reading Shakespeare's Hamlet gives readers the methods and the confidence to arrive at their own interpretations of Shakespeare's great tragedy.