HAMLET
About Hamlet
The story of the play originates within the legend of Hamlet
(Amleth) as recounted within the twelfth-century Danish History, a Latin text
by Saxo the Grammarian. This version was later adapted into French by Francois
de Belleforest in 1570. In it, the unscrupulous Feng kills his brother
Horwendil and marries his brother's wife Gerutha. Horwendil's and Gerutha's son
Amleth, although still young, decides to avenge his father's murder. He acts
the fool so as to avoid suspicion, a technique which succeeds in making the
others think him harmless. together with his mother's active support, Amleth
succeeds in killing Feng.
He's then proclaimed King of Denmark. This story is on
the entire more straightforward than Shakespeare’s adaptation. Shakespeare was
likely conscious of Saxo's version, along side another play performed in 1589
during which a ghost apparently calls out, "Hamlet, revenge!" The
1589 play is lost, resulting in much scholarly speculation on who may need
authored it. Most scholars attribute it to Kyd , author of The
Spanish Tragedy of 1587. The Spanish Tragedy shares many elements with Hamlet,
like a ghost seeking revenge, a secret crime, a play-within-a-play, a tortured
hero who feigns madness, and a heroine who goes mad and commits suicide.
The Spanish Tragedy
The Spanish Tragedy was one among the primary and hottest
Elizabethan "revenge tragedies," a genre that Hamlet both epitomizes
and complicates. Revenge tragedies typically share a couple of plot points.
altogether of them, some grievous insult or wrong requires vengeance. Often in
these plays the traditional means of retribution (the courts of law, generally
speaking) are unavailable due to the facility of the guilty person or persons,
who is usually noble if not royal. Revenge tragedies also emphasize the
subjective struggle of the avenger, who often fights (or feigns) madness and
usually wallows within the moral difficulties of his situation. Finally,
revenge tragedies find yourself with a dramatic bloodbath during which the
culprit is horribly and sometimes ritualistically killed.
Hamlet isn't
Shakespeare's first revenge tragedy - that distinction belongs to Titus Andronicus, a Marlovian
horror-show containing all of the weather just mentioned. But Hamlet is usually
considered the best revenge tragedy, if not the best tragedy, if not the best
play, ever written.
The central reason for the play's eminence is that the
character of Hamlet. His brooding, erratic nature has been analyzed by many of
the foremost famous thinkers and artists of the past four centuries. Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe described him as a poet - a sensitive man who is just too
weak to affect the political pressures of Denmark. Austrian psychoanalyst Freud
viewed Hamlet in terms of an “Oedipus complex,” an awesome concupiscence for
his mother. This complex is typically related to the wish to kill one’s father
and roll in the hay one’s mother. Freud points out that Hamlet's uncle has
usurped his father's rightful place, and thus has replaced his father because
the man who must die. However, Freud is careful to notice that Hamlet
represents Homo sapiens sapiens precisely because he doesn't kill Claudius so
as to roll in the hay his mother, but rather kills him to revenge his father’s
death.
Political interpretations of Hamlet also abound, during which
Hamlet stands for the spirit of political resistance, or represents a challenge
to a corrupt regime. Stephen Greenblatt, the editor of the Norton Edition of
Shakespeare, views these interpretive attempts of Hamlet as mirrors for the
interpretation within the play itself - many of the characters who need to
affect Hamlet, including Polonius, Claudius, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,
also develop theories to elucidate his behavior, none of which really succeeds
in doing so. Indeed, nothing sure are often said about Hamlet except that it's
been a perennial occasion for brilliant minds to explore a number of the
unanswerable questions of human existence.
Hamlet Characters
Hamlet
The son of Old Hamlet and Gertrude, thus Prince of Denmark.
The ghost of Old Hamlet charges him with the task of killing his uncle,
Claudius, for killing him and usurping the throne of Denmark. Hamlet may be a
moody, theatrical, witty, brilliant young man, perpetually fascinated and suffering
from doubts and introspection. it's famously difficult to pin down his true
thoughts and feelings -- does he love Ophelia, and does he really shall kill
Claudius? actually , it often seems as if Hamlet pursues lines of thought and
emotion merely for his or her experimental value, testing this or that concept
with none interest in applying his resolutions within the practical world. the
variability of his moods, from manic to somber, seems to hide much of the range
of human possibility.
Old
Hamlet
The former King of Denmark. Old Hamlet appears as a ghost and
exhorts his son to kill Claudius, whom he claims has killed him so as to secure
the throne and therefore the queen of Denmark.
Hamlet fears (or a minimum of says he fears) that the ghost
is an imposter, an spirit sent to lure him to hell. Old Hamlet's ghost
reappears in Act Three of the play when Hamlet goes too far in berating his
mother. After this second appearance, we hear and see no more of him.
Claudius
Old Hamlet's brother, Hamlet's uncle, and Gertrude's newlywed
husband. He murdered his brother so as to seize the throne and subsequently
married Gertrude, his erstwhile sister-in-law. Claudius appears to be a rather
dull man who is keen on the pleasures of the flesh, sex and drinking. Only
because the play goes on can we become certain that he's indeed guilty of
murder and usurpation.
Claudius is that the only character apart from Hamlet to
possess a soliloquy within the play. When he's convinced that Hamlet has found
him out, Claudius eventually schemes to possess his nephew-cum-son murdered.
Gertrude
Old Hamlet's widow and Claudius' wife. She seems unaware that
Claudius killed her former husband. Gertrude loves Hamlet tremendously, while
Hamlet has very mixed feelings about her for marrying the (in his eyes)
inferior Claudius after her first husband's death. Hamlet attributes this need
for a husband to her lustiness. Gertrude figures prominently in many of the
main scenes within the play, including the killing of Polonius and therefore
the death of Ophelia.
Horatio
Hamlet's closest friend. They know one another from the
University of Wittenberg, where they're both students. Horatio is presented as
a studious, skeptical young man, perhaps more serious and fewer ingenious than
Hamlet but quite capable of trading witticisms together with his good friend.
During a moving tribute just before the play-within-the-play
begins, in Act Two scene two, Hamlet praises Horatio as his soul's choice and
declares that he loves Horatio because he's "not passion's slave" but
is quite good-humored and philosophical through all of life's buffets. At the
top of the play, Hamlet charges Horatio with the task of explaining the pile of
bodies to the confused onlookers in court.
Polonius
The father of Ophelia and Laertes and therefore the chief
adviser to the throne of Denmark. Polonius may be a windy, pedantic,
interfering, suspicious, silly old man, a "rash, intruding fool," in
Hamlet's phrase. Polonius is forever fomenting intrigue and hiding behind
tapestries to spy. He hatches the idea that Ophelia caused Hamlet to travel mad
by rejecting him. Polonius' demise is fitting to his flaws. Hamlet accidentally
kills the old man while he eavesdrops behind an arras in Gertrude's bedroom.
Polonius' death causes his daughter to travel mad.
Ophelia
The daughter of Polonius and sister of Laertes. Ophelia has
received several tributes of affection from Hamlet but rejects him after her
father orders her to try to to so. generally , Ophelia is controlled by the
lads in her life, moved around sort of a pawn in their scheme to get Hamlet's
distemper. Moreover, Ophelia is often mocked by Hamlet and lectured by her
father and brother about her sexuality. She goes mad after Hamlet murders
Polonius. She later drowns.
Laertes
Polonius' son and Ophelia's brother. Laertes is an impetuous
young man who lives primarily in Paris, France. We see him at the start of the
play at the celebration of Claudius and Gertrude's wedding. He then returns to
Paris, only to return in Act Four with an angry entourage after his father's
death at Hamlet's hands. He and Claudius conspire to kill Hamlet within the
course of a duel between Laertes and therefore the prince.
Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern
Friends of Hamlet's from the University of Wittenberg.
Claudius invites them to court so as to spy on Hamlet. Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are often treated as comic relief; they're sycophantic, vaguely
absurd fellows. After Hamlet kills Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are
assigned to accompany Hamlet to England. They carry a letter from Claudius
asking English king to kill Hamlet upon his arrival. Hamlet discovers this plot
and alters the letter in order that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are put to
death instead. We learn that they need indeed been executed at the very close
of the play.
Fortinbras
The Prince of Norway. In some ways his story is parallel to
Hamlet's: he too has lost his father by violence (Old Hamlet killed Old
Fortinbras in single combat); he too is impeded from ascending the throne by an
interfering uncle. But despite their biographical similarities, Fortinbras and
Hamlet are constitutional opposites. Where Hamlet is pensive and mercurial,
Fortinbras is all action. He leads a military through Denmark so as to attack
disputed territory in Poland. At the top of the play, and with Hamlet's dying
assent, Fortinbras assumes the crown of Denmark.
Osric
The ludicrous, flowery, stupid courtier who invites Hamlet to
fence with Laertes, then is referee during the competition .
The
gravediggers
Two "clowns" (roles played by comic actors), a
principal gravedigger and his assistant. They figure only in one scene -- Act
Five scene one -- yet never fail to form an enormous impression on readers and
audience members. the first gravedigger may be a very witty man, macabre and
intelligent, who is that the only character within the play capable of trading
barbs with Hamlet. they're the sole speaking representatives of the lower
classes within the play and their perspective may be a remarkable contrast
thereto of the nobles.
The
players
A group of (presumably English) actors who arrive in Denmark.
Hamlet knows this company well and listens, enraptured, while the chief player
recites an extended speech about the death of Priam and therefore the wrath of
Hecuba. Hamlet uses the players to stage an adaptation of "The Death of
Gonzago" which he calls "The Mousetrap" -- a play that reprises
almost perfectly the account of Old Hamlet's death as told by the ghost -- so
as to make certain of Claudius' guilt.
A
Priest
Charged with performing the rites at Ophelia's funeral. due
to the doubtful circumstances of Ophelia's death, the priest refuses to try to
to quite the bare minimum as she is interred.
Reynaldo
Polonius' servant, sent to see on Laertes in Paris. He
receives absurdly detailed instructions in espionage from his master.
Bernardo
A soldier who is among the primary to ascertain the ghost of
Old Hamlet.
Hamlet Summary
Something is amiss in Denmark -- for 2 successive nights, the
midnight guard has witnessed the looks of the ghost of Old Hamlet, the previous
King of Denmark who has recently died. The guards bring Horatio, a learned
scholar and friend of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, to witness this apparition.
Though skeptical initially , Horatio sees the ghost and decides to report its
appearance to Hamlet.
A replacement king
of Denmark has
been crowned: Claudius, Old Hamlet's brother. Claudius has taken Old Hamlet's
widow, Gertrude, as his wife. We watch their marriage celebration and listen to
a few threat from the Prince of Norway, Fortinbras, which Claudius manages to
avoid by diplomacy. Hamlet is attending at this wedding celebration; he's
hardly in joyous spirits, however. he's disgusted by his mother's decision to
marry Claudius so soon after his father's demise. Horatio tells Hamlet of the
looks of the ghost and Hamlet determines to go to the spirit himself.
The court adviser, Polonius, sends his son, Laertes, back to
Paris, where he's living. Laertes and Polonius both question Ophelia (sister
and daughter, respectively) about her relationship with Hamlet. Ophelia admits
that Hamlet has been wooing her. They tell her to avoid Hamlet and reject his
amorous advances, emphasizing the importance of protecting her chastity.
Ophelia agrees to chop off contact.
That night, Hamlet accompanies the watch. The ghost appears
another time . Hamlet questions the ghost, who beckons Hamlet faraway from the
others. once they are alone, the ghost reveals that Claudius murdered him so as
to steal his crown and his wife. The ghost makes Hamlet promise to require
revenge on Claudius. Hamlet appears to concur excitedly. He has Horatio and
therefore the guards swear to not reveal what they need seen.
Act Two finds us some indefinite time within the future.
Hamlet has been behaving during a most erratic and alarming way. Claudius
summons two of Hamlet's school friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, so as to
get the meaning of this strange behavior. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's
attempts to get the rationale for Hamlet's madness are met with evasion and witticism.
Meanwhile, Polonius hatches a theory of his own: he thinks that Hamlet is
insane thanks to Ophelia's rejection of his love. He arranges to check his
theory by setting Ophelia on Hamlet once they are apparently alone then
observing the proceedings with Claudius.
Hamlet's only consolation appears to be the approaching of a
troupe of players from England. Hamlet asks the player's whether or not they
could play a rather modified version of a tragedy. We realize that Hamlet plans
to place on a play that depicts the death of his father, to ascertain whether
Claudius is basically guilty, and therefore the ghost is basically to be
trusted.
In Act Three, Ophelia approaches Hamlet once they are
apparently alone; Claudius and Polonius hide behind a tapestry and observe.
Hamlet behaves extremely cruelly toward Ophelia. The king decides that Hamlet
isn't mad for love of her except for another hidden reason.
Hamlet prepares to place on his play, which he calls
"The Mouse Trap." After instructing the players in their parts,
Hamlet retires to the audience, where Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, and Polonius
have gathered, along side many others. within the course of the play, both
Gertrude and Claudius become extremely upset, though for various reasons.
Gertrude is flustered by Hamlet's unspoken accusation that she was inconstant
and hypocritical for remarrying after Old Hamlet's death; Claudius is shaken
because he's indeed guilty of his brother's murder. Claudius decides that he
must get obviate Hamlet by sending him to England.
Following the play, Gertrude calls Hamlet to her room,
meaning to berate him for his horrible insinuations. Hamlet turns the tables on
her, accusing her of a most grotesque lust and claiming that she has insulted
her father and herself by stooping to marry Claudius. within the course of
their interview, Polonius hides behind a tapestry; at one point, he thinks that
Hamlet goes to attack Gertrude and cries for help. Hamlet stabs Polonius
through the tapestry, thinking he has killed Claudius. When he finds that he
has merely killed a "rash, intruding fool," Hamlet returns to the
business of "speaking daggers" to his mother. even as Gertrude
appears convinced by Hamlet's excoriation, the ghost of Old Hamlet reappears
and tells Hamlet to not behave so cruelly to his mother, and to recollect to
hold out revenge on Claudius. Gertrude perceives her son discoursing with
nothing but air and is totally convinced of his madness. Hamlet exits her room,
dragging the body of Polonius behind him.
After much questioning, Claudius convinces Hamlet to reveal
the topographic point of Polonius' body. He then makes arrangements for Hamlet
to travel to England immediately, amid Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Claudius
writes a letter to English court asking them to kill Hamlet immediately upon
his arrival and places the letter together with his two cronies. On their
thanks to the ship, Hamlet and his entourage pass Fortinbras' Norwegian army on
the way to a Polish campaign.
Back at Elsinore (the Danish palace), Ophelia has gone mad
following her father's death. She sings childish and bawdy songs and speaks
nonsensically. Laertes soon returns to Denmark with a mob in tow, demanding an
evidence of Polonius' death. Claudius gingerly calms the young man and
convinces him that Hamlet was the culprit .
Letters arrive attesting to a wierd turn of fortunes on the
ocean . Hamlet's ship to England was attacked by pirates, who captured Hamlet
and arranged to return him to Denmark for a ransom. Hamlet sends Claudius an
aggravating letter announcing his imminent return. Claudius and Laertes decide
that Hamlet must be killed. They plan to arrange a duel between Laertes and
Hamlet during which Laertes' sword is secretly poisoned so on guarantee
Hamlet's immediate death. As backup, Claudius decides to poison a cup of wine
and offer it to Hamlet during the competition .
Just as Act Four involves an in depth , more tragic news
arrives. Gertrude says that Ophelia has drowned while playing during a willow
by the river.
Act Five begins at a graveyard. Two gravediggers joke about
their morbid occupation. Hamlet and Horatio arrive and converse with them.
Soon, Ophelia's funeral begins. Because there are doubts about whether Ophelia
died accidentally or committed suicide, her funeral lacks many of the customary
religious rites. Laertes bombastically dramatizes his grief, prompting Hamlet
to reveal himself and declare his equal grief at the loss of his erstwhile
beloved. After a brief tussle, Hamlet and Laertes part.
Later, Hamlet explains to Horatio that he discovered
Claudius' plot to possess him killed in England and forged a replacement letter
arranging for the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. While they're
conversing, Osric, a ridiculous courtier, approaches and proposes the duel between
Laertes and Hamlet. Hamlet eventually accepts this challenge.
The duel begins with
Osric as referee.
Hamlet wins the primary two passes, prompting Claudius to resort to the
poisoned drink. Hamlet refuses the drink. In his stead, Gertrude drinks a toast
to her son from the poisoned cup. After a 3rd pass also goes to Hamlet, Laertes
sneak-attacks the prince and wounds him. A scuffle ensues during which Hamlet
finishes up with Laertes' sword. He injures Laertes. Just then Gertrude
collapses. She declares that she has been poisoned. Laertes, also dying,
confesses the entire plot to Hamlet, who finally attacks Claudius, stabbing him
with the poisoned sword then forcing the poisoned toss off his throat. Hamlet
too is dying. He asks Horatio to elucidate the carnage to all or any onlookers
and tell his story. Hamlet dies.
Just then, Fortinbras arrives at the court, accompanying some
English ambassadors who bring word of the death of Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern. With all the immediate royalty of Denmark dead, Fortinbras
asserts his right to the crown. He arranges for Hamlet to receive a soldier's
burial.
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