dreadful summit of the cliff
‘THE DREADFUL SUMMIT OF THE CLIFF’1 The theme of appearance and reality is present throughout Shakespeare’s work, but in ‘Hamlet, prince of Denmark’ it becomes the very mould of a fictional world in which characters and the life they lead are dual in their nature. ... We see his struggle to remain on that ‘dreadful summit of the cliff’ where he can contemplate a ‘roaring sea’ of painful yet vital truths while he is continually thwarted by those who he desperately tries to force into seeing the light.