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Brief Summary of Hamlet Hamlet was written in 1601 by William Shakespeare. Hamlet is the story about the prince of Denmark who begins the play by arriving home for his fathers funeral. Hamlet is grief stricken wearing black (the color of mourning) until he is confronted by a ghost which appears to be the ghost of his father. The ghost reveals that he was murdered by Hamlets uncle. Throughout the play Hamlet tries to unravel the depth of his fathers death/murder. Hamlet wants to enact revenge against his uncle for killing his father but because Hamlet is thoughtful and contemplative by nature he is hesitant to act. Hamlet puts his uncle as well as others around him at court through several tests to determine innocence. Due to all of Hamlets internal struggles he is eventually driven towards madness. Eventually he discovers his uncles guilt about murdering his father and enacts revenge upon him.
Main Characters in Hamlet • Hamlet- Prince of Denmark, protagonist, main character. Goes through many changes throughout the play emotionally and mentally. • Claudius- the current King and also Hamlets uncle who married the queen (Hamlets mother) • Gertrude- Hamlets mother the Queen. • Polonius- Claudius’s main man and father to Laertes and Ophelia. • Horatio- is Hamlet’s best friend helps Hamlet throughout the play and is incredibly loyal. • Ophelia- the object of Hamlets love. Is used by the king and her father to try and manipulate Hamlet. • The ghost- he is seen to be the ghost of Hamlet’s father the former king. • Fortinbras- Prince of Norway who is trying to seek revenge against his own fathers murder who was killed by Hamlet’s father.
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most known play. Almost everyone has heard of, read, or seen Hamlet performed. It deals with many complex emotions, themes, and symbols. Nearly everyone can relate to Hamlet in at least one aspect. Hamlet has to deal with inner grief and how to deal with grief as well as revenge, anger, violence, love, inner conflict and turmoil. All of these things people are able to relate to. There have been a hand full of movies made about this play as well as it is frequently performed by actors on stage.
Kenneth Branagh has directed and been in several Shakespeare plays and Hamlet is one of his most successful.
This version of Hamlet has many famous actors in it and is more popular than the Branagh version. Both take very different angles toward approaching the play.
The directors of South Park Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, co-directed another version of Hamlet 2. There are even many “spoofs” or comedies made based roughly around the idea of Hamlet or featuring Hamlet.
Plot Line for Hamlet Introduction: The play begins with the death of the king and Hamlet has returned home to find out that his mother is going to marry his uncle, which upsets Hamlet greatly. Rising Action: The ghost appears to Hamlet and reveals the truth behind the kings death. Hamlet plays at madness at first which he is finally driven mad. Hamlet stages the play to determine his uncles guilt. He battles within himself over many issues of murder, betrayal and deceit. Climax: There are two possible points that could be considered the climax of the play. When Hamlet stabs Polonius and commits himself to having to confront the king. Or it could possibly been when Hamlet commits himself fully to revenge. Falling Action: Hamlet is sent away to England to be killed and returns. He confronts Alerts, the fencing match occurs when the king is killed along with many others.
The most significant and most notable of Hamlet’s soliloquys is: To be or not to be. It is one of the most important parts of the play which shows Hamlets inner struggles. Below there are three different clips of the speech and each actors interpretations. To be or not to be that is the question—// Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer// the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune // Or to take arms against a sea of troubles// And opposing end them. To die, to sleep—// No more– and by a sleep to say we end// The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks // That flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation// Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep—// To sleep– perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub,// For in that sleep what dreams may come// When we have shuffled of this mortal coil,// Must give up pause. There’s the respect// That makes calamity of so long life.// For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,// Th’ oppressors’ wrong, the proud mans contumely// The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,// This insolence of office, and the spurns// That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes,// When he himself might his quietus make// With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,// To grunt and sweat under a weary life,// But that the dread of something after death,// The undiscovered country, from whose bourn// No traveller returns, puzzles the will,// And makes us rather bear those ills we have// Than fly to others that we know not of?// Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,// And thus the native hue of resolution// Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,// And enterprise of great pitch and moment// With this regard their currents turn awry// And lose the name of action – Soft you now,// The fair Ophelia! – Nymph, in thy orisons// Be all my sins remembered.
Hamlet debates with himself over existence. Shakespeare boils the idea of existence down to its very core, he uses imagery to make ‘To be or not to be’ more powerful. Hamlet races through a rush of images to explain how he is feeling about the idea of existence and what exactly it means, he is unable to get a hold on exactly its meaning. What exactly will death bring to him.
Shakespeare’s main characters in tragedies are always flawed, including Hamlet, which ultimately lead to their demise. Hamlet’s biggest flaw is his inability to act on his own thoughts, emotions, desires ECT. Which prolongs the play he plays games with all the members of the court delaying the outcome. He constantly plays games with Claudius throughout the play trying to decide if he should act against his uncle or not to. This is his ultimate failure in the play. He is also ruled by his emotions heavily through the play and this also contributes to his actions.
Hamlets relationships are constantly being tested throughout the play. His relationship with his father, mother, girlfriend, best friend, uncle, peers are all issues Hamlet must face. Horatio is his one constant in life, through the play Horatio is the only person that Hamlet trusts and Horatio is there for Hamlet through everything that he goes through. There are many foils to Hamlets character in the play however Horatio is the biggest and the most important foil to Hamlet. Hamlet is able to gain credibility through Horatio because Horatio believes in Hamlet and has seen the ghost therefore Hamlet is not fully insane. Horatio is Hamlets exact opposite in many ways in characteristics alone he is clam, resolute, level headed and rational all things that Hamlet is not. Horatio in the end is among the only people left alive.
There are not many physical objects that are used as representation in Hamlet, language is mostly used to represent the main ideas in the play. The one exception is the scene where Hamlet finds Yoricks skull. Hamlet has to face the idea of death and inevitability in many different moments in the play. This is one where Hamlet knows full well that no one can avoid death that we all must meet it when it comes. It seems that Hamlet is obsessed with what happens to one’s body after you have died during and after decay. He talks of kings being eaten by worms and that even Alexander the Great’s decayed body might be used to stop up a beer barrel.
The relationship of Hamlet and Ophelia is a strange one that we are not entirely sure of through out the play. Is it love or is it lust? Is Hamlet faking emotions towards Ophelia? As an audience and reader we are never quite sure of there relationship. Because the play begins with Hamlet in a whirl of emotions already and when the revenge factor comes into play their romance is seen as utterly hopeless due to circumstance. Hamlet feels alone in his charge for revenge and therefore pushes Ophelia away from himself. There relationship is the end of poor Ophelia because Hamlet can no longer embrace any love he may have had for her causing her to dive into madness.
Alas the importance of a play within a play in Hamlet as well as many other Shakespeare plays. Hamlet chooses this play because it closely resembles his fathers murder. It is Hamlets hope that Claudius will see the play and either confess to the murder of the king or show some sign to Hamlet that he is indeed guilty of murder. Shakespeare uses this a lot in his plays to illustrate the aspects of the actual play. Most of the play within a plays are very similar to the actual play themselves that it is sometimes hard to tell the differences. They are used to tell the audience something or give something away in the play as well as to make sure you understand what is going on by seeing it again in smaller version in the play.
“Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth, the serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown”
Helena Bonham Carter played one of the strongest Ophelia roles in any Hamlet movie. “There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies. that's for thoughts.”
I have heard, That guilty creatures sitting at a play Have by the very cunning of the scene Been struck so to the soul that presently they have proclaimed their malefactions; for murder, though it have no tongue, will speak with most miraculous organ.”
Hamlet and Claudius. “You cannot call it love, for at your agethe hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble, and waits upon the judgment.”
“No mother you have my father much offended” “A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king, and marry with his brother.”
“If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,Absent thee from felicity awhile,And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,To tell my story.”
