Question

Read the excerpt from Act II of Hamlet.

Guildenstern: Which dreams, indeed, are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

Hamlet: A dream itself is but a shadow.

Rosencrantz: Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow.

In this excerpt, the characters describe the nature of

dreams and ambition by using metaphors.
shadows and dreams by using similes.
ambition and substance by using apostrophes.
substance and dreams by using personification.

Answer 1

dreams and ambition by using metaphors.

They directly equate ambition and dreams with "shadows" (no "like" or "as"), which makes these comparisons metaphors.