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1 On a dark winter night, a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore Castle in Denmark.

Discovered first by a pair of watchmen, then by the scholar Horatio, the ghost resembles the recently deceased King Hamlet, whose brother Claudius has inherited the throne and married the kings widow, Queen Gertrude. When Horatio and the watchmen bring Prince Hamlet, the son of Gertrude and the dead king, to see the ghost, it speaks to him, declaring ominously that it is indeed his fathers spirit, and that he was murdered by none other than Claudius. Ordering Hamlet to seek revenge on the man who usurped his throne and married his wife, the ghost disappears with the dawn. Prince Hamlet devotes himself to avenging his fathers death, but, because he is contemplative and thoughtful by nature, he delays, entering into a deep melancholy and even apparent madness. Claudius and Gertrude worry about the princes erratic behavior and attempt to discover its cause. They employ a pair of Hamlets friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to watch him. When Polonius, the pompous Lord Chamberlain, suggests that Hamlet may be mad with love for his daughter, Ophelia, Claudius agrees to spy on Hamlet in conversation with the girl. But though Hamlet certainly seems mad, he does not seem to love Ophelia: he orders her to enter a nunnery and declares that he wishes to ban marriages. A group of traveling actors comes to Elsinore, and Hamlet seizes upon an idea to test his uncles guilt. He will have the players perform a scene closely resembling the sequence by which Hamlet imagines his uncle to have murdered his father, so that if Claudius is guilty, he will surely react. When the moment of the murder arrives in the theater, Claudius leaps up and leaves the room. Hamlet and Horatio agree that this proves his guilt. Hamlet goes to kill Claudius but finds him praying. Since he believes that killing Claudius while in prayer would send Claudiuss soul to heaven, Hamlet considers that it would be an inadequate revenge and decides to wait. Claudius, now frightened of Hamlets madness and fearing for his own safety, orders that Hamlet be sent to England at once. Hamlet goes to confront his mother, in whose bedchamber Polonius has hidden behind a tapestry. Hearing a noise from behind the tapestry, Hamlet believes the king is hiding there. He draws his sword and stabs through the fabric, killing Polonius. For this crime, he is immediately dispatched to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. However, Claudiuss plan for Hamlet includes more than banishment, as he has given Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sealed orders for the King of England demanding that Hamlet be put to death. In the aftermath of her fathers death, Ophelia goes mad with grief and drowns in the river. Poloniuss son, Laertes, who has been staying in France, returns to Denmark in a rage. Claudius convinces him that Hamlet is to blame for his fathers and sisters deaths. When Horatio and the king receive letters from Hamlet indicating that the prince has returned to Denmark after pirates attacked his ship en route to England, Claudius concocts a plan to use Laertes desire for revenge to secure Hamlets death. Laertes will fence with Hamlet in innocent sport, but Claudius will poison Laertes blade so that if he draws blood, Hamlet will die. As a backup plan, the king decides to poison a goblet, which he will give Hamlet to drink should Hamlet score the first or second hits of the match. Hamlet returns to the vicinity of Elsinore just as Ophelias funeral is taking place. Stricken with grief, he attacks Laertes and declares that he had in fact always loved Ophelia. Back at the castle, he tells Horatio that he believes one must be prepared to die, since death can come at any moment. A foolish courtier named Osric arrives on Claudiuss orders to arrange the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes. The sword-fighting begins. Hamlet scores the first hit, but declines to drink from the kings proffered goblet. Instead, Gertrude takes a drink from it and is swiftly killed by the poison. Laertes succeeds in wounding Hamlet, though Hamlet does not die of the poison immediately. First, Laertes is cut by his own swords blade, and, after revealing to Hamlet that Claudius is responsible for the queens death, he dies from the blades poison. Hamlet then stabs Claudius through with the poisoned sword and forces him to drink down the rest of the poisoned wine. Claudius dies, and Hamlet dies immediately after achieving his revenge. At this moment, a Norwegian prince named Fortinbras, who has led an army to Denmark and attacked Poland earlier in the play, enters with ambassadors from England, who report that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Fortinbras is stunned by the gruesome sight of the entire royal family lying sprawled on the floor dead. He moves to take power of the kingdom. Horatio, fulfilling Hamlets last request, tells him Hamlets tragic story. Fortinbras orders that Hamlet be carried away in a manner befitting a fallen soldier. Hamlet - The Prince of Denmark, the title character, and the protagonist. About thirty years old at the start of the play, Hamlet is the son of Queen Gertrude and the late King Hamlet, and the nephew of the present king, Claudius. Hamlet is melancholy, bitter, and cynical, full of hatred for his uncles scheming and disgust for his mothers sexuality. A reflective

2 and thoughtful young man who has studied at the University of Wittenberg, Hamlet is often indecisive and hesitant, but at other times prone to rash and impulsive acts. Claudius - The King of Denmark, Hamlets uncle, and the plays antagonist. The villain of the play, Claudius is a calculating, ambitious politician, driven by his sexual appetites and his lust for power, but he occasionally shows signs of guilt and human feelinghis love for Gertrude, for instance, seems sincere. Gertrude - The Queen of Denmark, Hamlets mother, recently married to Claudius. Gertrude loves Hamlet deeply, but she is a shallow, weak woman who seeks affection and status more urgently than moral rectitude or truth. Polonius - The Lord Chamberlain of Claudiuss court, a pompous, conniving old man. Polonius is the father of Laertes and Ophelia. Horatio - Hamlets close friend, who studied with the prince at the university in Wittenberg. Horatio is loyal and helpful to Hamlet throughout the play. After Hamlets death, Horatio remains alive to tell Hamlets story. Ophelia - Poloniuss daughter, a beautiful young woman with whom Hamlet has been in love. Ophelia is a sweet and innocent young girl, who obeys her father and her brother, Laertes. Dependent on men to tell her how to behave, she gives in to Poloniuss schemes to spy on Hamlet. Even in her lapse into madness and death, she remains maidenly, singing songs about flowers and finally drowning in the river amid the flower garlands she had gathered. Laertes - Poloniuss son and Ophelias brother, a young man who spends much of the play in France. Passionate and quick to action, Laertes is clearly a foil for the reflective Hamlet. Fortinbras - The young Prince of Norway, whose father the king (also named Fortinbras) was killed by Hamlets father (also named Hamlet). Now Fortinbras wishes to attack Denmark to avenge his fathers honor, making him another foil for Prince Hamlet. The Ghost - The specter of Hamlets recently deceased father. The ghost, who claims to have been murdered by Claudius, calls upon Hamlet to avenge him. However, it is not entirely certain whether the ghost is what it appears to be, or whether it is something else. Hamlet speculates that the ghost might be a devil sent to deceive him and tempt him into murder, and the question of what the ghost is or where it comes from is never definitively resolved. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - Two slightly bumbling courtiers, former friends of Hamlet from Wittenberg, who are summoned by Claudius and Gertrude to discover the cause of Hamlets strange behavior. Osric - The foolish courtier who summons Hamlet to his duel with Laertes. Voltimand and Cornelius - Courtiers whom Claudius sends to Norway to persuade the king to prevent Fortinbras from attacking. Marcellus and Bernardo - The officers who first see the ghost walking the ramparts of Elsinore and who summon Horatio to witness it. Marcellus is present when Hamlet first encounters the ghost. Francisco - A soldier and guardsman at Elsinore. Reynaldo - Poloniuss servant, who is sent to France by Polonius to check up on and spy on Laertes. Act III, scene i Claudius and Gertrude discuss Hamlets behavior with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who say they have been unable to learn the cause of his melancholy. They tell the king and queen about Hamlets enthusiasm for the players. Encouraged, Gertrude and Claudius agree that they will see the play that evening. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern leave, and Claudius orders Gertrude to leave as well, saying that he and Polonius intend to spy on Hamlets confrontation with Ophelia. Gertrude exits, and Polonius directs Ophelia to walk around the lobby. Polonius hears Hamlet coming, and he and the king hide.

3 Hamlet enters, speaking thoughtfully and agonizingly to himself about the question of whether to commit suicide to end the pain of experience: To be, or not to be: that is the question (III.i.58). He says that the miseries of life are such th at no one would willingly bear them, except that they are afraid of something after death (III.i.80). Because we do not know what to expect in the afterlife, we would rather bear those ills we have, Hamlet says, than fly to others that we know not of (III.i.8384). In mid-thought, Hamlet sees Ophelia approaching. Having received her orders from Polonius, she tells him that she wishes to return the tokens of love he has given her. Angrily, Hamlet denies having given her anything; he laments the dishonesty of beauty, and claims both to have loved Ophelia once and never to have loved her at all. Bitterly commenting on the wretchedness of humankind, he urges Ophelia to enter a nunnery rather than become a breeder of sinners (III.i.122123). He criticizes women for making men behave like monsters and for contributing to the worlds dishonesty by painting their faces to appear more beautiful than they are. Working himself into a rage, Hamlet denounces Ophelia, women, and humankind in general, saying that he wishes to end all marriages. As he storms out, Ophelia mourns the noble mind that has now lapsed into apparent madness (III.i.149). The king and Polonius emerge from behind the tapestry. Claudius says that Hamlets strange behavior has clearly not been caused by love for Ophelia and that his speech does not seem like the speech of insanity. He says that he fears that melancholy sits on something dangerous in Hamlets soul like a bird sits on her egg, and that he fears what will happen when it hatches. He declares that he will send Hamlet to England, in the hope that a change of scenery might help him get over his troubles. Polonius agrees that this is a good idea, but he still believes that Hamlets agitation comes from loving Ophelia. He asks Claudius to send Hamlet to Gertrudes chamber after the play, where Polonius can hide again and watch unseen; he hopes to learn whether Hamlet is really mad with love. Claudius agrees, saying that [m]adness in great ones must be carefully watched (III.i.187). Analysis To be, or not to be is the most famous line in English literature. What does it mean? Why are these words and what follows special? One reason is that they are a stunning example of Shakespeares ability to make his characters seem three -dimensional. The audience senses that there is more to Hamlets words than meets the earthat there is something behind his words that is never spoken. Or, to put it another way, the audience witnesses signs of something within Hamlets mind that even he isnt aware of. Hamlet is a fictional character who seems to possess a subconscious mind. How does Shakespeare manage to accomplish this? In the first place, Hamlet doesnt talk directly about what hes really talking about. When he questions whether it is better to be, or not to be, the obvious implication is, Should I kill myself? The entire soliloquy strongly suggests that he is toying with suicide and perhaps trying to work up his courage to do it. But at no point does he say that he is in pain or discuss why he wants to kill himself. In fact, he never says I or me in the entire speech. Hes not trying to express himself at all; instead, he poses the question as a matter of philosophical debate. When he claims that everybody would commit suicide if they werent uncertain about the afterlife, it sounds as if hes making an argument to convince an imaginary listener about an abstract point rather than directly addressing how the question applies to him. Now, its perfectly ordinary for characters in plays to say something other than what they mean to other characters (this suggests that they are consciously hiding their true motives), but Hamlet does it when hes talking to himself. This creates the general impression that there are things going on in Hamlets mind that he cant think about directly. While were on the subject of whats going on inside Hamlets mind, consider his encounter with Ophelia. This conversation, closely watched by Claudius and Polonius, is, in fact, a test. Its supposed to establish whether Hamlets madness stems from his lovesickness over Ophelia. Before we, the audience, see this encounter, we already think we know more than Claudius does: we know that Hamlet is only acting crazy, and that hes doing it to hide the fact that hes plotting against (or at least investigating) his uncle. Therefore, it cant be true that hes acting mad because of his love for Ophelia. But witnessing Hamlets encounter with her throws everything we think we know into question. Does Hamlet mean what he says to Ophelia? He says that he did love her once but that he doesnt love her now. There are several problems with concluding that Hamlet says the opposite of what he means in order to appear crazy. For one thing, if he really does love her, this is unnecessarily self-destructive behavior. Its unnecessary because it doesnt accomplish very much; that is, it doesnt make Claudius suspect him less. His professions of former love make him appear fickle, or emotionally withdrawn, rather than crazy.

4 Is Hamlet really crazy or just pretending? He announced ahead of time that he was going to act crazy, so its hard to conclude that he (coincidentally) really went mad right after saying so. But his behavior toward Ophelia is both selfdestructive and fraught with emotional intensity. It doesnt obviously further his plans. Moreover, his bitterness against Ophelia, and against women in general, resonates with his general discontentedness about the state of the world, the same discontentedness that he expresses when he thinks no one is watching. There is a passionate intensity to his unstable behavior that keeps us from viewing it as fake. Perhaps it is worthwhile to ask this question: if a person in a rational state of mind decides to act as if he is crazy, to abuse the people around him regardless of whether he loves those people or hates them, and to give free expression to all of his most antisocial thoughts, when he starts to carry those actions out, will it even be possible to say at what point he stops pretending to be crazy and starts actually being crazy? Act V, scene i In the churchyard, two gravediggers shovel out a grave for Ophelia. They argue whether Ophelia should be buried in the churchyard, since her death looks like a suicide. According to religious doctrine, suicides may not receive Christian burial. The first gravedigger, who speaks cleverly and mischievously, asks the second gravedigger a riddle: What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? (V.i.4647). The second gravedigger answers that it must be the gallows-maker, for his frame outlasts a thousand tenants. The first gravedigger corrects him, saying that it is the gravedigger, for his houses will last until Doomsday. Hamlet and Horatio enter at a distance and watch the gravediggers work. Hamlet looks with wonder at the skulls they excavate to make room for the fresh grave and speculates darkly about what occupations the owners of these skulls served in life: Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now . . . ? (V.i.9091). Hamlet asks the gravedigger whose grave he digs, and the gravedigger spars with him verbally, first claiming that the grave is his own, since he is digging it, then that the grave belongs to no man and no woman, because men and women are living things and the occupant of the grave will be dead. At last he admits that it belongs to one that was a woman sir; but, rest her soul, shes dead (V.i.146). The gravedigger, who does not recognize Hamlet as the prince, tells him that he has been a gravedigger since King Hamlet defeated the elder Fortinbras in battle, the very day on which young Prince Hamlet was born. Hamlet picks up a skull, and the gravedigger tells him that the skull belonged to Yorick, King Hamlets jester. Hamlet tells Horatio that as a child he knew Yorick and is appalled at the sight of the skull. He realizes forcefully that all men will eventually become dust, even great men like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. Hamlet imagines that Julius Caesar has disintegrated and is now part of the dust used to patch up a wall. Suddenly, the funeral procession for Ophelia enters the churchyard, including Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes, and many mourning courtiers. Hamlet, wondering who has died, notices that the funeral rites seem maimed, indicating that the dead man or woman took his or her own life (V.i.242). He and Horatio hide as the procession approaches the grave. As Ophelia is laid in the earth, Hamlet realizes it is she who has died. At the same moment, Laertes becomes infuriated with the priest, who says that to give Ophelia a proper Christian burial would profane the dead. Laertes leaps into Ophelias grave to hold her once again in his arms. Grief-stricken and outraged, Hamlet bursts upon the company, declaring in agonized fury his own love for Ophelia. He leaps into the grave and fights with Laertes, saying that forty thousand brothers / Could not, with all their quantity of love, / make up my sum (V.i.254256). Hamlet cries that he would do things for Ophelia that Laertes could not dream ofhe would eat a crocodile for her, he would be buried alive with her. The combatants are pulled apart by the funeral company. Gertrude and Claudius declare that Hamlet is mad. Hamlet storms off, and Horatio follows. The king urges Laertes to be patient, and to remember their plan for revenge. Analysis The gravediggers are designated as clowns in the stage directions and prompts, and it is important to note that in Shakespeares time the word clown referred to a rustic or peasant, and did not mean that the person in question was funny or wore a costume. The gravediggers represent a humorous type commonly found in Shakespeares plays: the clever commoner who gets the better of his social superior through wit. At the Globe Theater, this type of character may have particularly appealed to the groundlings, the members of the audience who could not afford seats and thus stood on the ground. Though they are usually figures of merriment, in this scene the gravediggers assume a rather macabre tone, since their jests and jibes are all made in a cemetery, among bones of the dead. Their conversation about Ophelia, however, furthers an important

5 theme in the play: the question of the moral legitimacy of suicide under theological law. By giving this serious subject a darkly comic interpretation, Shakespeare essentially makes a grotesque parody of Hamlets earlier To be, or not to be soliloquy (III.i), indicating the collapse of every lasting value in the play into uncertainty and absurdity. Hamlets confrontation with death, manifested primarily in his discovery of Yoricks skull, is, like Ophelias drowning, an enduring image from the play. However, his solemn theorizing explodes in grief and rage when he sees Ophelias funeral procession, and his assault on Laertes offers a glimpse of what his true feelings for Ophelia might once have been. Laertes passionate embrace of the dead Ophelia again advances the subtle motif of incest that hangs over their brother-sister relationship. Interestingly, Hamlet never expresses a sense of guilt over Ophelias death, which he indirectly caused through his murder of Polonius. In fact, the only time he even comes close to taking responsibility for Poloniuss death at all comes in the next and last scene, when he apologizes to Laertes before the duel, blaming his madness for Poloniuss death. This seems wholly inadequate, given that Hamlet has previously claimed repeatedly only to be feigning madness. But by the same token, to expect moral completeness from a character as troubled as Hamlet might be unrealistic. After all, Hamlets defining characteristics are his pain, his fear, and his self -conflict. Were he to take full responsibility for the consequences of Poloniuss death, he would probably not be able to withstand t he psychological torment of the resulting guilt. A notable minor motif that is developed in this scene is Hamlets obsession with the physicality of death. Though many of his thoughts about death concern the spiritual consequences of dyingfor instance, torment in the afterlifehe is nearly as fascinated by the physical decomposition of the body. This is nowhere more evident than in his preoccupation with Yoricks skull, when he envisions physical features such as lips and skin that have decomposed from the bone. Recall that Hamlet previously commented to Claudius that Poloniuss body was at supper, because it was being eaten by worms (IV.iii). He is also fascinated by the equalizing effect of death and decomposition: great men and beggars both end as dust. In this scene, he imagines dust from the decomposed corpse of Julius Caesar being used to patch a wall; earlier, in Act IV, he noted, A man may fish with the worm that have eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm, a metaphor by which he illustrates how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar (IV.iii.26 31). Act 3, Scene 1 Rozencrantz and Guildenstern report to the King that, while Hamlet seems distracted and sad, they do not have a concrete reason for his strange behaviour. The King is now forced to rely upon Ophelia for information about his nephew. Polonius arranges for Ophelia to be in a place where she will surely meet Hamlet, and then he and the King hide in wait for the Prince to arrive. Hamlet enters talking to himself, in a state of desperation, contemplating suicide: 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...(3.1.56-61) [Soliloquy annotations and analysis] Ophelia greets him, holding some trinkets he has given her in happier times. Hamlet, enraged at all women because of his mother's betrayal, can show Ophelia not a drop of affection. He lashes out at the poor girl, rudely suggesting that she quickly get to a nunnery. "Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?" (3.1.121). Hamlet charges from the room and Ophelia is left to believe that Hamlet has gone utterly mad. But the hiding King knows better than to blame Hamlet's behaviour on unrequited love. Fearing for his own safety, Claudius decides to send Hamlet away to England, accompanied by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Polonius, who continues to meddle in the whole affair, suggests that the Queen will surely be able to discover what troubles her son, and that she should meet in private with Hamlet after the play, with himself eavesdropping behind the chamber-curtains. The King agrees: It shall be so: Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go (3.1.189-90). Act 5, Scene 1 Ophelia is to be buried in the churchyard and the two gravediggers preparing her grave find it unusual that someone who has committed suicide be buried on sacred ground. They agree that Ophelia is receiving a Christian burial because she is a gentlewoman, belonging to "great folk." They banter back and forth, trying to alleviate the boredom of digging. Horatio and Hamlet come upon the scene just as the second gravedigger is leaving to fetch some liquor from a nearby tavern.

6 Hamlet is disturbed that the first gravedigger, who has begun to sing a love song, can be so happy on such a solemn occasion. Horatio replies that habit has made the gravedigger indifferent to the gravity of his work. The gravedigger produces a skull that belonged to the King's jester and Hamlet takes the skull, sparking his thoughts on death and its power to ravage even the most wealthy and powerful of people. A funeral procession approaches, and Hamlet sees the King and Queen and Laertes and asks who has died. Laertes, hysterical with grief, leaps into the grave, crying "Hold off the earth a while/Till I have caught her once more in mine arms" (5.1.250-51). When Hamlet realizes who is being buried, grief overcomes him too, and he leaps into the grave with Laertes, and they begin to grapple. The King's attendants pull them out of the grave, and Hamlet exclaims: "I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers/Could not, with all their quantity of love/Make up my sum" (5.1.270-72). Hamlet is restrained and leaves the funeral, sorrowful and bewildered at Laertes' behaviour and hostility towards him: "What is the reason that you use me thus?/I lov'd you ever" (5.1.290). Hamlet did not intend to murder Polonius; it was an accident brought on by the old man himself. And Hamlet was en-route to England when Ophelia fell ill, so he really does not understand Laertes's rage. The King asks Horatio to go with Hamlet, and reminds Laertes of their plan for revenge.

Act III Scene 1 The Castle. King discusses his strategy with R&G to use them to find out what is at the root of Hamlet's behavior. Guild. says H. "with a crafty madness keeps aloof." P. tells the King that H. wants King to see the play, and King agrees happily. King and P. remain as the others are sent away, and hide to hear H. as he confronts O. [She has explicitly agreed to obey the wish of the King and Queen in being used as bait in this manner.] H. enters and soliloquizes: "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?" He is wondering about suicide but fears what is on the other side of dying: "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,/When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,/Must give us pause." and "Who would fardels [burdens] bear,/To grunt and sweat under a weary life,/But that the dread of something after death,/The undiscovered country from whose bourn [frontier]/No traveler 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 enterprises of great pith and moment/With this regard their currents turn awry/And lose the name of action." He greets O. She who wants to return his love tokens, since he has cruelly spurned her ("Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.") H. speaks cruelly and harshly to her: "Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness" and "I did love you once" and "I loved you not." He says "Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me ... What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven?" He asks O. where her father is [perhaps he already suspects P. is spying on him?] He says "If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny" and "I say we will have no more marriage. Those that are married already--all but one--shall live; the rest shall keep as they are." O. says "what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!" [is he truly mad at this point?] After H. leaves, King emerges and says it is not love or madness that H. suffers from but something fearful: "...Though it lacked form a little,/Was not like madness. There's something in his soul,/O'er which his melancholy sits on brood,/And I do doubt [fear] the hatch and the disclose/Will be some danger." He resolves to send H. to England ostensibly to demand tribute owed to Denmark. But P. still thinks it is love, and suggests the Queen talk further with H. and he will listen in. The king warns "Madness in great ones must not unwatched go." The King and Queen enter with Rosencrantz, Guildenstern,Polonius, Ophelia, and members of the court. Claudius questions Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about Hamlet's madness, asking if they have found a reason for Hamlet's behavior. Rosencrantz answers that the Prince has admitted to being distracted but will not say from what. Guildenstern says that Hamlet has been crafty in disguising his motivations. The two report that Hamlet is very excited about the play to be presented, and Claudius asks them to encourage him in this regard. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern leave.

7 Claudius orders Gertrude to leave so that he and Polonius can spy on Hamlet, who has an imminent meeting with Ophelia. Ophelia enters, and the Queen, in a moment of maternal affection, tells Ophelia that she hopes that Hamlet and Ophelia will patch up their broken romance so that Hamlet can get on with his life. Gertrude exits. Polonius greets Ophelia and instructs her to pretend to read a book so that her being alone will not seem unusual to Hamlet. Ophelia complies and waits with a book while the two men hide. Hamlet enters, speaking his "To be or not to be" soliloquy. He ponders the nature of being and nothingness, and then notices Ophelia reading. Hamlet, assuming that she is reading prayers, asks her to pray for him. She tells him she wishes to return to him gifts he has given her. He responds that he has given her no gifts. She insists that he did give her gifts, and she claims that he gave the gifts to her with words that made them seem symbols of great love. Again he denies having given her the gifts at all and further denies having ever loved her. He questions her honesty and, in response to her bewilderment, tells her that all men are untrustworthy knaves and that she would be better off in a nunnery. To Ophelia's further consternation, Hamlet then abruptly demands that she disclose the current whereabouts of her father. She lies and says that he is at home. Enraged, Hamlet curses her, predicting a disaster for her dowry. He tells her again to go to a nunnery. As Ophelia frets over his apparently fled sanity, he says that he knows that women are two faced and cannot be trusted; they all deserve to be cast aside. Then he leaves. Left alone, Ophelia bemoans what she considers to be Hamlet's descent into complete insanity. Claudius and Polonius join her and assess what they have overheard and seen. The King doubts that love has ruined Hamlet's mind; he tells Polonius that he will send Hamlet to England. Polonius, still convinced that love afflicts Hamlet, urges Claudius to make one more attempt to ferret out a satisfying reason for Hamlet's behavior. He tells the King to send Hamlet to Gertrude's quarters later that evening. There, while Polonius hides behind the arras, Gertrude should attempt to cajole Hamlet into revealing his innermost thoughts with Polonius as witness. Claudius agrees. Analysis Claudius' entrance speech reveals two very significant aspects of his character: (1) that he is aware of the growing threat Hamlet poses for him, and (2) that he is absolutely in control and capable of decisive action. He provides a stark contrast to Hamlet, who becomes entirely incapacitated by the very idea of action. The more Claudius knows, the more he calculates and acts; the more Hamlet knows, the more he thinks and bandies words. Hamlet's "turbulent lunacy" places them both in danger. The characters enact two more premeditated entrapments. First, Claudius sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to continue their spying. Second, Polonius and Claudius hatch their plot to have Ophelia stage a confrontation in which Hamlet will reveal himself to Ophelia while Claudius and Polonius spy. Act V Scene 1 A churchyard. First and Second clowns are digging a grave for Ophelia. They debate whether she is entitled to a Christian burial--one argues she might have drowned herself in her own defense, and concludes only because she was a gentlewoman is she being allowed this privilege. They joke about gallows makers and grave makers. As one goes to fetch liquor, Hamlet arrives with Horatio and comments on their irreverence as they go about digging the grave, tossing out skulls and joking. Hamlet reflects on the skulls and the abuse they receive now despite their potentially noble former existences, perhaps a singer, politician, courtier, lawyer, buyer of land, etc. He asks the clown who the grave is for and clown jokes and puns further. H. refers to "this three years I have took note of it." [What does he refer to in 3 years, the time he has been away?] He asks how long the man has been a grave digger, and he replies that he came when old Hamlet defeated Fortinbras and young Hamlet was born, thirty years ago [thus Hamlet is now 30 y/o]. Clown identifies a skull that has lain there in the ground for 23 years, that of the King's jester, Yorick. Hamlet recalls the man: "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorred in my imagination it is!..." He thus reflects on the horrors of death and decay, an end even his lady [?mother] will come to: "Now get you to my lady's chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come." He wonders if Alexander the Great came to such an ignominious fate and comments: "To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole?" He continues his reflection on Julius Caesar's fate: "Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to

8 clay,/Might stop a hole to keep the wind away. /O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe/Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw!" King, Queen, Laertes, and a Priest enter with others, along with the corpse of Ophelia. Hamlet is not yet seen. H. notes how incomplete the ceremony appears to be and suspects the deceased is a suicide. Laertes is distraught with the priest, who states "Her obsequies have been as far enlarged/As we have warranty. Her death was doubtful" and refuses to do more ceremony for her. L. angrily proclaims "Lay her i' th' earth,/And from her fair and unpolluted flesh/May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest, A ministering angel shall my sister be/When thou liest howling." H. realizes it is Ophelia. Queen says "Sweets to the sweet! Farewell. I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife./I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid,/And not have strewed thy grave." Laertes leaps into the grave and tearfully embraces his sister. H. comes forward and announces himself as Hamlet the Dane [i.e., as if he were king.] L. attacks him, but H. declines to fight and warns him off. He claims he loved Ophelia and that his grief is as great as theirs. Queen says he is still mad. H. dismisses L.'s unstoppable abuse toward him: "Let Hercules himself do what he may,/The cat will mew, and dog will have his day" and departs. King privately tells Laertes they will put their plan for murder in action and says to Queen that the grave will soon have a living monument guards or Hamlet's death]. Two gravediggers (called clowns) discuss the burial for which they are digging. An inquest has declared the corpse fit for Christian burial. The First Gravedigger argues that the dead woman deserves no such indulgence, because she drowned herself and is not worthy of salvation. The other gravedigger explains, using misplaced words (malapropisms) and incorrect syntax, that she deserves defending. He reasons that her gentlewoman's rank should earn her a Christian burial. Their dialogue, played for humor, invokes references to the Bible and to the art of gallows-making, where builders build a frame that outlives its tenants. While the Second Gravedigger goes to fetch some liquor, ">Hamlet and ">Horatio enter and question the First Gravedigger. The gravedigger and Hamlet engage in a witty game of "chop-logic" reparte composed of a series of questions and answers. The gravedigger tells Hamlet that he has been digging graves since the day Old King Hamlet defeated Old King Fortinbras, the very birthday of Prince Hamlet "he that's mad, and sent to England" thirty years ago. Hamlet drives the comic dialectic (a dialectic is a method of examining an idea in which every question posed poses a new question). He mulls again over the nature of life and death, and the great chasm between the two states. He tosses skulls and parries with the possibilities of what each may have been in life. He asks the gravedigger whose grave he is in, and the gravedigger plays with puns, finally asserting that the grave is one who was a woman. Hamlet has no idea to whom the grave belongs. When Hamlet finds a particular skull, he asks the gravedigger whose it might be. The gravedigger tells him the skull belonged to Yorick, the King's jester. "I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy." He dwells on the subject of death and the fact that all men are worm's meat, that all that lives will one day die, and that no rank or money can change the equality of death. Death transforms even great kings like Alexander into trivial objects. Hamlet and Horatio then observe that the Queen, King, and ">Laertes arrive among a group of mourners escorting a coffin. He asks whose coffin they're following, and hides with Horatio to listen in to what's happening. He notes that the funeral is not a full Christian rite but that the body is being interred in sacred ground. Laertes argues with the priest over Ophelia's burial. Claudius' command at inquest, he argues, should grant her all the rites of a Christian burial. The priest refuses, saying that, because she committed suicide, he must deny Ophelia the requiem mass and other trappings of a Christian burial, even though Ophelia will be buried on sacred ground. Laertes insults the priest. When Ophelia's body is placed into the grave, Hamlet watches the Queen strew the coffin with flowers. "Sweets to the sweet," she says; "I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife." Hamlet now realizes that it is Ophelia who lies dead in the casket, and he attacks Laertes, who has just cursed Hamlet and thrown himself into the grave. Hamlet and Laertes argue over who loved Ophelia best. Laertes tries to strangle Hamlet, but attendants separate them. Gertrude decries her son's madness. Claudius asks Horatio to look after Hamlet and promises Laertes immediate satisfaction. He instructs Gertrude to have her son watched, implying that another death will serve as Ophelia's memorial.

9 The Summary of Hamlet This drama is one of the great tragedy themed plays by William Shakespeare. The themes of the plot cover indecision, revenge and retribution, deception, ambition, loyalty and fate. Prince Hamlet mourns both his father's death and his mother, Queen Gertrude's remarriage to Claudius. The ghost of Hamlet's father appears to him and tells him that Claudius has poisoned him. Hamlet swears revenge. He kills the eavesdropping Polonius, the court chamberlain. Polonius's son Laertes returns to Denmark to avenge his father's death. Polonius's daughter Ophelia loves the Prince but his behaviour drives her to madness. Ophelia dies by drowning. A duel takes place and ends with the death of Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, and Hamlet. THEMES Action and Inaction Hamlet fits in a literary tradition called the revenge play, in which a man must take revenge against those who have in some way wronged him. YetHamlet turns the revenge play on its head in an ingenious way: Hamlet, the man seeking revenge, can't actually bring himself to take revenge. For reason after reason, some clear to the audience, some not, he delays. Hamlet's delay has been a subject of debate from the day the play was first performed, and he is often held up as an example of the classic "indecisive" person, who thinks to much and acts too little. But Hamlet is more complicated and interesting than such simplistic analysis would indicate. Because while it's true that Hamlet fails to act while many other people do act, it's not as if the actions of the other characters in the play work out.Claudius's plots backfire, Gertrude marries her husband's murderer and dies for it, Laertes is manipulated and killed by his own treachery, and on, and on, and on. In the end, Hamlet does not provide a conclusion about the merits of action versus inaction. Instead, the play makes the deeply cynical suggestion that there is only one result of both action and inactiondeath. Appearance vs. Reality In Act 1, scene 2 of Hamlet, Gertrude asks why Hamlet is still in mourning two months after his father died: "Why seems it so particular with thee?" Hamlet responds: "Seems, madam? Nay, it is, I know not 'seems.'" (1.2.75-76). The difference between "seems" (appearance) and "is" (reality) is crucial in Hamlet. Every character is constantly trying to figure out what the other characters think, as opposed to what those characters are pretending to think. The characters try to figure each other out by using deception of their own, such as spying and plotting. But Hamlet takes it a step further. He not only investigates other people, he also peers into his own soul and asks philosophical and religious questions about life and death. Hamlet's obsession with what's real has three main effects: 1) he becomes so caught up in the search for reality that he ceases to be able to act; 2) in order to prove what's real and what isn't Hamlet himself must hide his "reality" behind an "appearance" of madness; 3) the more closely Hamlet looks, the less real and coherent everything seems to be. Many analyses of Hamlet focus only on the first effect, Hamlet's indecisiveness. But the second two effects are just as important. The second shows that the relationship between appearance and reality is indistinct. The third suggests that the world is founded on fundamental inconsistencies that most people overlook, and that it is this failure to recognize inconsistencies that allows them to act. Hamlet's fatal flaw isn't that he's wrong to see uncertainty in everything, but that he's right.

10 THEMES Women There are two important issues regarding women in Hamlet: how Hamletsees women and women's social position. Hamlet's view of women is decidedly dark. In fact, the few times that Hamlet's pretend madness seems to veer into actual madness occur when he gets furious at women.Gertrude's marriage to Claudius has convinced Hamlet that women are untrustworthy, that their beauty is a cover for deceit and sexual desire. For Hamlet, women are living embodiments of appearance's corrupt effort to eclipse reality. As for women's social position, its defining characteristic is powerlessness. Gertrude's quick marriage to Claudius, though immoral, is also her only way to maintain her status. Ophelia has even fewer options. While Hamlet waitsto seek revenge for his father's death, Ophelia, as a woman, can't actall she can do is wait for Laertes to return and take his revenge. Ophelia's predicament is symbolic of women's position in general in Hamlet: they are completely dependent on men. Religion, Honor, and Revenge Every society is defined by its codes of conductits rules about how to act and behave. There are many scenes in Hamlet when one person tells another how to act: Claudius lectures Hamlet on the proper show of grief; Poloniusadvises Laertes on practical rules for getting by at university in France; Hamlet constantly lectures himself on what he should be doing. In Hamlet, the codes of conduct are largely defined by religion and an aristocratic code that demands honor and revenge if honor has been soiled. But as Hamlet actually begins to pursue revenge against Claudius, he discovers that the codes of conduct themselves don't fit together. Religion actually opposes revenge, which would mean that taking revenge could endanger Hamlet's own soul. In other words, Hamlet discovers that the codes of conduct on which society is founded are contradictory. In such a world, Hamlet suggests, the reasons for revenge become muddy, and the idea of justice confused. Poison, Corruption, Death In medieval times people believed that the health of a nation was connected to the legitimacy of its king. In Hamlet, Denmark is often described as poisoned, diseased, or corrupt under Claudius's leadership. As visible in the nervous soldiers on the ramparts in the first scene and the commoners outside the castle who Claudius fears might rise up in rebellion, even those who don't know that Claudius murdered Old Hamlet sense the corruption of Denmark and are disturbed. It is as if the poison Claudius poured into Old Hamlet's ear has spread through Denmark itself. Hamlet also speaks in terms of rot and corruption, describing the world as an "unweeded garden" and constantly referring to decomposing bodies. But Hamlet does not limit himself to Denmark; he talks about all of life in these disgusting images. In fact, Hamlet only seems comfortable with things thatare dead: he reveres his father, claims to love Ophelia once she's dead, and handles Yorick's skull with tender care. No, what disgusts him is life: his mother's sexuality, women wearing makeup to hide their age, worms feeding on a corpse, people lying to get their way. By the end of the play, Hamlet argues that death is the one true reality, and he seems to view all of life as "appearance" doing

11 THEMES everything it canfrom seeking power, to lying, to committing murder, to engaging in passionate and illegitimate sexto hide from that reality.

SYMBOLS Yorick's Skull Hamlet is not a very symbolic play. In fact, the only object that one can easily pick out as a symbol in the play is the skull of Yorick, a former court jester, which Hamlet finds with Horatio in the graveyard near Elsinore in Act 5, scene 1. As Hamlet picks up the skull and both talks to the deceased Yorick and to Horatio about the skull, it becomes clear that the skull represents the inevitability of death. But what is perhaps most interesting about the skull as a symbol is that, while in most plays, a symbol means one thing to the audience and another to the characters in the novel or play, in Hamlet it is Hamlet himself who recognizes and explains the symbolism of Yorick's skull. Even this symbol serves to emphasize Hamlet's power as a character: he is as sophisticated as his audience.

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