HAMLET
Written by William Shakespeare
THE PLOT
The king of Denmark is dead. The queen, Gertrude , has married the
dead king’s brother, Claudius. The dead king’s son Hamlet, prince of
Denmark, meets his father’s ghost on the tower of the castle. The ghost
tells him that Claudius is guilty of his murder and asks Hamlet to take
revenge. Hamlet pretends to be mad to have more time and observe the
behaviour of the king and queen. His brilliant and sensitive mind is
undecided about what to do and he even contemplates suicide. Hamlet
then asks actors in a Court play to show a scene like that of his father’
s murder, to observe the king’s reaction. The king’ s confusion confirms
the ghost’s revelation. Claudius is guilty of Hamlet’s father’s death.
Hamlet kills Polonius, father of Ophelia whom Hamlet loves. Ophelia
becomes mad and kills herself. Polonius ‘ son, Laertes swears revenge.
The king organizes a duel between Hamlet and Laertes to murder
Hamlet. Laertes uses a poisoned foil. Hamlet is killed but before that
he mortally hurts Laertes and the king. The queen by mistake drinks a
poisoned cup made for Hamlet and dies. After these tragic events,
Fortinbras, Norwegian prince ,becomes the king of Denmark.
HAMLET
CHARACTERS
Hamlet is the protagonist of the
tragedy.
He manifests radical contradictions,
his actions are instinctive, uncivil and
ferocious but sometimes becomes
cautious, courteous and tender.
Contrary to the ideal hero he appears
with negative qualities :
indecisiveness, hastiness, hate,
brutality, and obsession, so he seems
a common man marked by pain. In
particular he tortures himself with
memories of his father and he is
shocked by the behaviour of his
mother. He asks himself about human
kind condition and psychological
problems.
Gertrude:
is the queen of Denmark, Hamlet's mother and
wife of Claudius
Gertrude is the antithesis of her son. Hamlet
thinks that she is a disloyal woman without moral
principles because she has married her brother-inlaw almost immediately after the death of her
husband. Gertrude is shallow, and thinks only
about her body and external pleasures.
Claudius
He is the brother of the dead
king, and his murderer and
successor to the throne of
Denmark. His primary role in the
play is to create Hamlet's
confusion and anger. He is an
intelligent and capable ruler

Polonius: is the father of Ophelia and Laertes,
courtier and minister of the usurper king. He is
killed by Hamlet.

Ophelia: daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes,
she loves Hamlet and at the news of the death
of his father, she drowns.

Laertes: Son of Polonius and brother of Ophelia,
accuses Hamlet for the death of Ophelia

Fortinbras: prince of Norway
THEMES
Shakespeare analyzes the meaning of life,and
especially the ideas of love and death.
Ambiguity and indecisions are the key-note of the
tragedy.
REVENGE
AMBIGUITY
DOUBTS AND INDECISIONS
REVENGE


“Hamlet” is considered the tragedy of revenge, a
theatrical genre much in vogue at the time of
Shakespeare.
The play within the play is the moment in which
Hamlet gets the proof of the guilt of Claudius so he
can begin to prepare his plan against him.

In this way revenge can happen only after the
research on the name of the guilty: it is necessary to
verify the statements of the ghost.

Hamlet hated Claudius also before he knows the
truth about the murder of his father, but his anger
increased after her mother’s marriage and after the
usurpation of the throne.

He wants revenge for his honour and for father’s.
AMBIGUITY



He pretends to be crazy to achieve its purpose
more easily, to confuse his mother and his uncle
and to hide his plan. In order to seem harmless
and mocks the king, staging the representation of
the true death of his father
Appearance is in contrast with reality that disgusts
him and he would escape from it through suicide
A false madness can turn into real madness
DOUBTS AND INDECISIONS




It’s also the play of doubts and indecisions which
are familiar to a modern condition of the life
tormented by a lack of certainties and an inability
to communicate.
Hamlet torments himself with his thougths . In
fact we find a lot of his philosophical reasonings
about death and the deep essence of soul.
Hamlet thinks that all the pains,after his father's
death, can be overcome through death. He
doesn’t only refer to himself but to all men ,their
injuries,and their insolence.
The soliloquy of Hamlet “ to be or not to be”
represents those doubts: he asks himself if is
better to die, not knowing the future, or to suffer
in all the time of the life, knowing the expected
events. Man prefers to suffer instead of dealing
with the unexpected.
TO BE OR NOT TO BE
« 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, and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural
shocks
That flesh is heir to: ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep.
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s
the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams
may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal
coil
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life,
For who would bear the whips and
scorns of time,
Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s
contumely,
The pangs of despis’d love, the law’s
delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th’unworthy takes
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels
bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after
death,
The undiscovered country from whose
bourn
No traveller 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 pitch and
moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. »
HAMLET(1990) TRAILER
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