William
Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon,
England. From roughly 1594 onward he was an important member of the Lord
Chamberlain’s Men company of theatrical players. Written records give
little indication of the way in which Shakespeare’s professional life
molded his artistry. All that can be deduced is that over the course of
20 years, Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of
human emotion and conflict.
Theme of the play:
1) The Impossibility ofcertainity 2)The complexity of action 3)The mystery of death
About the Play:
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 king’s 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 father’s 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 father’s
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 prince’s erratic behavior and attempt
to discover its cause. They employ a pair of Hamlet’s 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 uncle’s 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 Claudius’s soul to heaven,
Hamlet considers that it would be an inadequate revenge and decides
to wait. Claudius, now frightened of Hamlet’s 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, Claudius’s 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 father’s death, Ophelia goes mad
with grief and drowns in the river. Polonius’s son, Laertes, who
has been staying in France, returns to Denmark in a rage. Claudius
convinces him that Hamlet is to blame for his father’s and sister’s
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 Hamlet’s 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 Ophelia’s 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 Claudius’s 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 king’s 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 sword’s
blade, and, after revealing to Hamlet that Claudius is responsible
for the queen’s death, he dies from the blade’s 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 Hamlet’s last
request, tells him Hamlet’s tragic story. Fortinbras orders that
Hamlet be carried away in a manner befitting a fallen soldier.
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