William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare Hamlet

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 by 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 of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The 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 is the prince of Denmark…

… when he comes back to Elsinore’s castle from university,…

…he finds out that his father, the king, is dead. His uncle, Claudius, has married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, and declared himself king of Denmark…

…soon, the princemeets the ghostofhisfatherthatasks Hamlet to take revengeofhisdeath. Claudiushaskilledhim in ordertobecomeking!

The prince is depressed and he pretends to be mad. He mistreats Ophelia, his beloved…

…and wonders about what is better: suffering or death? “To be or not to be… ..That is the question..”

The king and the queen, worried, ask some friends of Hamlet to come to Elsinore and find the reason of his disease…

… meanwhile, Hamlet decides to demonstrate the guilt of Claudius. He asks some players to perform a play that reminds the circumstances of his father’s death…

…Claudius’ reactions to the play reveal his guilt. Hamlet is called to talk to his mother, but, during the talk, he kills Polonius, Ophelia’s father...

…Ophelia goes mad because of his father’s murder. She drowns into a river. Hamlet desperates: he loved her…

…Laertes, Ophelia’s brother, challenges Hamlet to a duel. To make sure that the prince is killed, he (with Claudius’ help), poisons his sword and Hamlet’s cup…

…Hamlet and Laertes are both injured with the poisoned sword. Gertrude, by mistake,drinks from Hamlet’s cup and dies. Before dying, Hamlet forces Claudius to drink from the poisoned cup too, and so they all die, while the prince leaves the country to his most attached and wise friend, Horatio.

We chose these pictures because we wanted to reconstruct the story of Hamlet, with the most important events. … created by: Russo Ludovica (Director) Toso Martina (Designer) End

Sources of the images

William Shakespeare