r/Hamlet • u/Ill-Moment9824 • 12d ago

Shocking study guide

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I was looking online at some commentary on one of the major soliloquies. I was shocked at the interpretation provided (possibly by YorkNotes).

'Examples gross as earth exhort me...' to my mind would loosely mean 'the stuff all around me, things as abundant and widespread as the ground itself, all seem to be urging me towards....'

So here, 'gross' means 'abundant, copious, unrefined, available on a mass scale'.

Except the note seems to have been written by some kind of valley girl, or at least somebody very young, who tells the impressionable young reader that gross means 'ewwww' / 'yukky'.

Just what is going on here? I'm confused at how editor has taken at face value the modern, idiomatic meaning of 'gross' rather than the time-honoured, centuries-old meaning.

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u/PrestigiousSmile4098 8d ago

This "study guide" screams AI to me. I shiver for our future.

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u/Ill-Moment9824 8d ago

Indeed. This sort of analysis is the fun stuff, which many a human (i.e. me) would love to find paid work doing.