SEMINAR 2 - HAMLET

It is the best known play in English culture. It is a tragedy, written by Shakespeare, who wrote comedies,
historical dramas, romances and tragedies ( Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Ophelo, Mcbeth, Kingerley).

The main characters are organised in three families, whose destinies are related one eachother.

1. Old Hamlet, Gertrude (Hamlet’s parents), Hamlet

2. Polonius (the father), Ophelia (the daughter) and Laertes (the son)
3. Old Fortinbras and Fortinbras

We have also several characters that are not organised in families: Horatio (Hamlet’s best friend),
Rosencrantz and Guildestern. We can say that we have a family play.

The play begins at night, during a cold winter night. We are in Elsinore (a castle in Denmark). The first
line belongs to a soldier, a guardian, who says : „who’s there?” meaning that is an atmosphere of
tension. From the beginning we have a gradual tension. Several guardians have seen a ghost, walking at
night on the platform of the castle. Horatio is called to see the ghost. They believed that the ghost must
be the spirit of the dead Danish king, Old Hamlet. Genarally speaking, the ghosts come when they have
unfinished businesses, pending on the earth, when they died before their time, when they were
murdered and want revenge. Old Hamlet has something to do in order to have peace and rest in order
in the other world. He did not speak to anyone.Old Hamlet was the former king and the actual king is
Claudius, his brother, who had politically married his brother’s wife, Gertrude, in a short period of time.
Hamlet should have been the king, but Claudius came and usurped the throne. So, in order to have the
crown, Claudius had killed Old Hamlet but we don’t see the murder during the play, we can only see the
effects of the murder which transform this play into a tragedy.

When his father was killed, Hamlet was studying in Wittenberg ( a direct link with the Reformation) and
when he came back, he came with a very stricy education (every human has to pay for his mistakes-
another Reformation idea). He became intelectual, he developped himself ( this idea is a link with the
Renaissance). When he heard that his father is dead, he became very sad, was dressed only in black, was
always melancolic and disaproved his mother’s marriage. Claudius asked him why he is so sad and he
said that he is too munch in the sun (meaning that the others were paying him a lot of attention but he
did not want this thing, he eanted not to be bothered). Everybody believed that the old king died
naturally, but Hamlet had his suspicions. Horatio told him about the ghost and the fact that it might be
his dead father, but Hamlet was very sceptic and didn’t believe him, he wanted to see the thruth with
his own eyes, this is why he accepted to go that night on the platform of the castle.

We have another family scene: Polonius was a court man, but he had a higher position than the other
men working at the court. He gave advice to his son, Laertes, who went to Paris in order to learn (an
idea of the Renaissance). Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius, Hamlet’s girlfirend.

Hamlet went in that night on the platform and saw his father. First of all he did not believe him, and
when his father said come to me he refused because he thought that the ghost might be the devil and
he would fall and die without confession (which was a sin). Hamlet’s father died without confession and
this is why he did not have peace and returned. After receiving a confirmation, Hamlet told that he had
suspicions that Claudius might have killed his father. He swore on his sword ( which was a mistake
because the sword has the form of a cross and was forbidden to swear on the cross) to take the revenge
for his father. He swore to kill the king ans spare the queen (which was a trap, another mistake of
Hamlet).

When a king dies, the chaos, the disequilibrium appears and now, beside of revenging his father, Hamlet
has to rebring the equilibrium. The last phrase of the father was „remeber me, remember me”.

Hamlet could not have gone and simply killed Claudius because he would become a murderer and he
would die in hell. So he decided to act in a distinct way, he decided to behave as if he were mad, he
started this but he needed a reason to explain this thing. When Ophelia’s father heard about this, he did
not let his daughter to see Hamlet anymore, and she returned him all the love letters that he gave (in
order to express your love you needed love letters), meaning that she rejected him. Hamlet took
advantage of this reject and used it as a reason to justify his madness. Thanks to this „mask”, Hamlet
could act in the way he wanted, observe things and even create a plan to kill Claudius.

We have several scenes reffering to his madness but only 2 are the most important:

1. Polonius spoke to Hamlet and he observed that „there is a purpose in his madness” , meaning
that Hamlet wasn’t a good actor and Polonius noticed that he was healthy.
2. Ophelia came to find out things about Hamlet’s madness, but he behaved in a violent way, he
rejected her and was very hostile. He says her to go to a nunnery and he was left alone.

Hamlet had several interior feelings, meaning that he had an interior conflict. He did not know how to
act in order to kill Claudius, this is why he asked the question : to be or not to be, meaning that he had
two optinons and did not know what to choose: to be a man of action and to kill the king or to be a man
of intelect and continue with his plan.

There was a group of actors coming to Elsinore and Hamlet decided to take advantage of them, to stage
his father’s crime scene (still he is a man of intelect). During the play, he commented on it , expalining
and trying to make the world see that Claudius was ma murderer. Claudius felt strange, tensioned he
recognised that he had done a mistake. Hamlet wanted him to see the thruth, his mistake, his crime and
even to confess himself. Claudius couldn’ t stand out and run away shouting „light, light, give me some
light”, meaning that he realised the darkness of his soul and needed light in order to chase it. Gerturde
herself noticed the thruth and called Hamlet in the closet of the castle. Hamlet has the proof and could
kill Claudius but he saw him parying and killing him would send him in the heaven (thing that Hamlet did
not want and abandoned the idea)Hamlet hoped that Claudius would suicide but he did not think like
that, he did not pary, he said to himself that he would do this hundred times in order to receive a
kingdom. In the closet were Gertrude and Polonius (who came there to assure that nothing would
happen). Hamlet became angry on his mother, Polonoius asked for help and Hamlet killed him because
he thought that he was Claudius. The ghost was also in the closet.
C;AUDFUFGYFYGHG

Claudius wanted to kill Hamlet and sent him with a ship in England with Rosencrantz and Guildestern
(two of the men of Claudius) and with some letters, telling to the consignee to kill Hamlet. Hamlet
changed the content of the letters, eascaped with a ship. Rosencrantz and Guiledestern went to
England, and were killed thanks to the content of the letters. Claudius was very surprised to see Hamlet
coming back. Meanwhile, Ophelia had sucided because it was a shame not to marry with your love (
everybody knew that Hamlet and Ophelia were meant to marry but they did not do this).

Laertes challenged Hamlet at the duel. Laertes was very upset because Hamlet had destroyed his family.
They fought with two unsharpened swords, one of them was poisoned and they were changing them
during the contest. Hamlet killed Laertes but he was injured with the poisoned sword. His mother,
Gertrude, drinks the poisoned cup made by Claudius for Hamlet and Hamlet, seeing this, immediately
kills Claudius (so he had revenged his mother, not his father).

Two men were coming to the kingdom, Old Fortinbras and his son, Fortinbras. With his last power,
Hamlet names Young Fortinbras his successor. Thanks to the fact that the kingdom belongs now to a
new king, the equilibrium is rebrought.