“It began the moment we sat down to dinner. Mr. Wopsle said grace with theatrical declamation—as it now appears to me, something like a religious cross of the Ghost in Hamlet with Richard the Third—and ended with the very proper aspiration that we might be truly grateful.” (26-27).
Hamlet and Richard the Third are two plays written by Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s plays have appeared in many other pieces of literature since their publishing. Dickens references several of Shakespeare’s plays throughout Great Expectations to appeal to his readers who are familiar with Shakespeare’s plays, and to help his readers understand what is transpiring in the novel.
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So why does he choose these two plays in particular to reference here?
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