Hamlet - William Shakespeare
This play talks about revenge, hate but also about
love and sorrow.
Hamlet, Denmark's king, was killed by the brother, Claudius, seduced his wife, Queen
Gertrude. Hamlet, son of the dead king, knew this facts meeting father's ghost,
and to revenge him he pretended to be crazy. Polonius, the chamberlain,
believed that it was for the refusing of Ophelia's love, so king and queen
organized a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia to see the truth. Some actors
arrived at court and Hamlet thought to make them represent his father's murder
to see Claudius' reaction. After the play Gertrude met Hamlet alone and the
king sent Polonius to listen to their discussion. Hamlet realized there was somebody
behind a curtain and killed him thinking he was the king. Ophelia, for this
fact's sorrow and for the refused love, killed herself. Claudius held with
Laertes, son of Polonius, to have a match with Hamlet. During the duel, Hamlet
kills Laertes, but he is in his turn mortally wounded. Mean while Gertrude
drinks from a poisoned cup prepared from Hamlet and dies. Soon after stabbing
the king and making him, drink off the rest of the poisoned cup, dies in the
arms of his only friend, Horatius.
Hamlet focuses on the complications arising from love and death and betrayal,
without offering the audience a decisive and positive resolution to these
complications. This is due, in part, to the simple fact that, for Hamlet, there
can be no definitive answers to life's most daunting questions. Indeed,
Hamlet's world is one of perpetual ambiguity. Although those around him can and
do act upon their thoughts, Hamlet is stifled by his consuming insecurities.
From the moment Hamlet confronts the spirit of his father, and consistently
throughout the play from that point on, what he is sure of one minute he doubts
the next. Hamlet knows that it is the spirit of his father on the castle wall,
and he fully understands its unmistakable cry for revenge. But, when he is
alone, Hamlet rejects what he has witnessed in a maelstrom of doubt and fear.
Mystery is the main trait of Hamlet's behaviour and it's shown at first
in his madness' ambiguity. At court Hamlet behaves and talks as a madman, but
he reveals to behave in that way voluntarily. The marriage between his mother
and his uncle, only two months after father's death, makes Hamlet very sad and
gloomy, as when he knows about the murder talking with his father's ghost. His
aim is the revenge, even if he never makes concrete deeds; rather he pretends
to be crazy.
This play is a demonstration of how many problems men have got. Most of
them don't have concrete reactions because of their thoughts. I didn't like so
much this kind of story; I can't identify myself into this particular
situation.