HAMLET

PLOT: Hamlet's father, the king of Denmark, has been dead only two months, but his mother, Queen Gertrude, has married her brother-in-law, Claudius, who is now become king. A Ghost, that looks like the late king of Denmark, appeared to the sentries of the castle of Elsinore. They inform Horatio, and he inform Hamlet, his friend, who resolves immediately to watch that very night and speak to the spirit, if it appears again. And so it happens. The spirit tells the prince he is really the dead king's ghost, reveals that he was killed by Claudius who poured poison in his hear while he was sleeping and asked to be revenged. Hamlet is shocked: he is inclined to believe the ghost's tale, but he is tormented by the doubts and wants some evidence of Claudius's guilt. Hamlet pretends that he is mad so that he can carry out his plans more easily. Many people at court suspect he has lost his reason due to his love for Ophelia, Polonius's daughter, the Lord Chamberlain. She has sent him back his letter and refuse to see him because her father and her brother opposed her relationship with Hamlet because they are convinced that he does not really love her. The king and the queen summon two young Hamlet's friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on him. Claudius and Polonius plan a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia, and hide behind an arras to listen and find out if his madness has been caused by rejected love. At first he does not see Ophelia but when he notices her presence tells her he has never loved her and suggestes she should go to a convent. A travelling company of players arrive at the castle and Hamlet asks them to act a play called "The Murder of Gonzago" the day after, inserting a short passage that he himself will write. The passage will show the scene of his father's murder according to the ghost's tale. The play is present and the king rushes away. Claudius feels remorse for the crime and he has committed and pray, Hamlet doesn't kill Claudius because he is in a state of grace. During an argument with his mother, Hamlet kills Polonius who is hiding behind a curtain to overhear their conversation. The ghost appears and reminds Hamlet his purpose but he is visible to the prince only and the queen believes that her son have a hallucination. The king decides to send Hamlet in England to get rid of him and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, following the king's instruction, will kill him. But pirates attack the ship and Hamlet can return to Denmark. Meanwhile Ophelia become mad and drowns herself. Her brother Laertes wants revenge and the king plots Hamlet's death in a duel with Laertes. The king prepares a poisoned wine for Hamlet but the queen drinks it and she dies. Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned tip of his sword, then Hamlet exchanges the swords and he wounds Laertes who dies with the king. Hamlet asks Horatio to tell his story, recommending that Fortinbras, prince of Norway, be elected king and then he dies. Hamlet has military honours and Fortinbras become king of Denmark.

themes: Hamlet is a tragedy of revenge and a play of life and death, of man's ambiguous relation and also about melancholy and doubt. It is through Hamlet's struggle to act wisely, that the concept of MAN'S COMPLEX NATURE is illustrated. A major question for man is the relation between APPEARANCE AND REALITY and the EXISTENTIAL IDEA all that individual man knows is that he exist. Another important theme is HONOUR and honourable action. Any action to correct a wrong should be reasoned and not emotional. Justice is accomplished through the various deaths and the ascent of Fortinbras to the throne. Even Hamlet's death is ennobled by his final honourable actions tending to destroy the sources of corruption within the state. The theme of LOVE is only the brotherly love.

A PLAY WHITHIN THE PLAY: Hamlet is the first great tragedy conceived in a modern way. In the third act there is a play within the play and Hamlet expose his father's murderer. It turns the actors into audience.

A PAUSE OF REFLECTION: the soliloquy is made particularly effective by the apparent lack of connection with what precedes and follows it. Hamlet is not actually talking to himself.

THE SHAPE OF THOUGHTS: his thoughts take shape slowly, according to a process of seeking, reflecting and associating. The weighing and balancing of one alternative against another is continued in all the soliloquy.

THE CHOICE EF EXISTENCE: The militaristic images from the battle in which the choice of existence is expressed gives an immediate impression of how violent the struggle within Hamlet's mind is. It might be possible to endure and survive a sea of troubles but it is highly impractical to take up arms against it. It might be possibly to reply effectively to an assault with arrows. Where both passive and active resistance is a failure, death is seen as a relief.

TO DIE, TO SLEEP,TO DREAM: but then death itself is divided into sleep, wich is desirable, and dreams, and it is the obstacle with the after death.

THE CALAMITY OF LIFE: Hamlet lists the injustices and miseries inflicted at all man.

A problem of coscience: The conclusion of this argument is a clear relationship between conscience and consciousness or the power of thought. The thought prevents men from committing suicide is not far from a moral conscience.

COURAGE AND COWARDICE: If it is brave to kill oneself, and cowardly to remain alive, then conscience makes cowards of us all. Hamlet's intellect makes him prefer the courage of death at the same time that his actions proclaim him the coward of conscience.

CRITIC: The soliloquy is a poetic rendering of a character's complete mental and emotional state at a critical point in his development. Hamlet is both the ideal Renaissance prince and the conventional malcontent, the traditional avenger and the sensitive idealist in a brutal world.