Hamlet - The Story, The Tragedy
Hamlet just might be Shakespeare's most famous play ever. It's also his longest; it has 4,042 lines. He wrote it in 1600. It tells the story of Prince Hamlet of Denmark seeking revenge on his uncle Claudius for murdering his father. But as we've learned from all of Shakespeare's tragedies, revenge can sometimes make you as evil as the person you're seeking revenge against.
The Plot
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns to his father's castle to find that his father, the King, has died. Taking his place is his uncle Claudius, who has now married Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. Hamlet is outraged and disgusted; he should have been king! He thinks that Claudious murdered his father.
Hamlet turns out to be right. One fateful night on the castle's balcony, the ghost of Hamlet's father (originally played by William Shakespeare himself!) appears before Hamlet and his best friend, Horatio. The ghost of the eder Hamlet tells his son that Claudius murdered him by putting poison in his ear, and that Hamlet must avenge him. Hamlet agrees.
Meanwhile, Polonius, Claudius' advisor, is trying to convince his daughter Ophelia to cancel her engangement to Hamlet. Ophelia refuses, but becomes concerned when she see Hamlet's strange, erratic behaviour. To prove Claudius' guilt, Hamlet decides to put on a play before Claudius, a play in which the main character, a king, is murdered by his brother by poison in his ear.
The play is performed before Claudius and Hamlet's mother. Upon the assassination scene, Claudius leaves the room in outrage, proving Hamlet right. Later that night, Hamlet angrily explains his predicament to his bewildered mother. Polonius, meanwhile, was hiding behind the curtains in the room. As Hamlet gets angrier, Polonius fears that Hamlet will kill Gertrude, and panics. Hamlet thinks that it is actually Claudius hiding behind the curtains, and kills Polonius with his sword.
Gertrude is terrified, and her fear only increases when she thinks Hamlet has started to talk to himself. He really isn't, but s actually talking to the elder Hamlet, who had appeared in front of him and could only be seen by him. The eder Hamlet again urges Hamlet to kill Claudius.
Claudius now fears for his life, and sends Hamlet away from the castle on a little "walk" with a couple of his friends. He is too go across the sea on a diplomatic mission, and is meant not to return! In the mean time, Ophelia has gone insane with grief that her lover killed her father. Laertes, her brother, returns to the castle from a war to find his father dead and his sister mad. Claudius says it is Hamlet's fault.
Later, there is news that Hamlet was not killed on his "walk" as planned, but was captured by pirates. He then escapes, and news arrives that he's coming home. Claudis tells Laertes that he should challenge Hamlet to a duel to the death as soon as he arrives, and Laertes agrees. Meanwhile, Ophelia has killed herself by drowning.
At Ophelia's funeral later, Laertes grieves over his dead sister. Hamlet, who was hiding among the people comes out to say that he loved her as much as Laertes did. Laertes then jumps on Hamlet, ordering him to duel. Hamlet and Laertes later duel in the court, Laertes with a poisoned sword. Gertrude doesn't realize that it's a fight to the death and makes a toast to Hamlet - with poisoned wine! It was to be given to Hamlet should he have survived the duel.
Gertrude dies of poison, and Hamlet is stabbed by Laertes' poisoned sword. Quickly, he stabs Laertes as well, and with his dying breath, Laertes announces King Claudius' plot. Furiously, Hamlet stabs Claudius with the poisoned sword, then forces him to drink the rest of the poisoned wine. With everyone else dead, Hamlet stumbles over to his friend, Horatio, and tells him to always pass on this tragic tale. He dies in Horatio's arms.
Analysis of Hamlet
The vast storyline has a lot to do with hesitance, insanity, family, and betrayal. No theater work by Shakespeare has so many themes and morals scrunched up into it than Hamlet. Each character has their own quests and desires, although sometimes not for the better.
Prince Hamlet is probably the most intelligent person in the play. He is revealed to be a university student trained in rhetoric, and often unleashes long soliloquies explaining his current predicaments. The most famous of these is "To be or not to be," recited in Act Three, Scene One of the play. Shakespeare wrote being and not being as complete opposites, with extremely open interpretation. What should he be? What should he not be? Scholars still debate it. Perhaps when he says that, he asks whether he should be strong and avenge his father, or ignore the ghost and slowly go insane.
Hamlet also acts like a remotely similar character in another Shakespeare play, Macbeth. In that play, Macbeth is at first struggling with the choice of whether or not he should take the steps to make sure he gets what he wants. He does, but his slew of murdering eventually leads to the death of him. Hamlet is simlar; by Act Three, the play has come to its climax, "The Point of No Return." However, unlike Macbeth, Prince Hamlet is more dedicated, and has more rational reasons for doing the things he does. Still, nothing could sway him from finally killing his uncle. Unfortunately, he met a similar fate as well.
Shakespeare's Greatest Play?
Many people would disagree that Hamlet be labeled as the greatest play Shakespeare ever wrote. However, it still stands to be one of the best, holding dark themes and telling a story of revenge and human nature. Hamlet plays with your mind; it makes you think. What would you have done in the Prince's place?
Hamlet was always one of the more popular plays during the Renaissance. However, in the more Victorian era, it lost popularity, mainly because of its extremely long time (nearly five hours). The only reproductions of it were very shortened and heavily modified. However, Hamlet made a comeback in 2004, when Sir Trevor Nunn won an award for "best Revival of a Play in Theater." Now, people are recognizing Hamlet more and more often.
And just think about screen adaptions of Hamlet. They may not seem as popular as, say, Romeo and Juliet in theaters, but think about this: the highest-grossing animated film is "The Lion King," and think about how similar it is to Hamlet. An envious brother kills the king, and the troubled son goes into exile. When the son returns, he kills the king. Sounds a lot like Hamlet to me.
You can also download the pdf for the Hamlet script below!
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hamlet.pdf Size : 247.789 Kb Type : pdf |
Above: The scene where Hamlet kills Polonius in front of his startled mother, and the King's ghost appears before him again.
