Hamlet Summary/Analysis

HAMLET

Author: William Shakespeare, one of the most highly regarded English playwrights in history.  Lived from 1564 to 1616.

Characters:

• Hamlet - The main character of the play, son of the last king of Denmark.  A jack of all trades, Hamlet is good at everything he does and uses his intelligence to his advantage in the play.  Is depressed and cynical because of his father's death, and often uses his words to hurt people.  His biggest flaw is his indecisiveness, spending more time thinking about doing things than actually doing them.  Throughout the play, spends a lot of time thinking about death and existence.  
• Horatio - Hamlet's best friend that he trusts most in the play.  He is of the lower class but is widely regarded as very intelligent.
• Claudius (the King) - King of Denmark, brother to Hamlet's father, married to Hamlet's mother.  Shrewd and conniving, only interested in keeping his power.  
• Gertrude (the Queen) - Mother of Hamlet.  Seems to genuinely care about Hamlet, but it is unknown if she was involved with Claudius before the death of Hamlet's father.
• Fortinbras - Prince of Norway, foil to Hamlet.  His uncle is also the King after his father is killed.  Unlike Hamlet, is decisive, but ultimately decides to not try and avenge his father's death.  Is rewarded with the kingdom when he walks in on a completely murdered Danish court.
• Polonius - Claudius' right hand man, that only is there to agree with the King.  Father to Laertes and Ophelia.  He tries to use his words to get what he wants and is very conniving.  
• Laertes - Brother to Ophelia, son of Polonius.  Deeply passionate and loving of his sister, is struck with feelings of revenge when his father and sister die.  Foil to Hamlet, as he is quick to act upon his thoughts as shown by the army he raises to kill Claudius, and his plan to kill Hamlet later on.
• Ophelia - Hamlet's girlfriend, sister Laertes, daughter to Polonius.  Supposedly innocent, she actually is pregnant by Hamlet.  Later kills herself by drowning which was customary of unwed pregnant women.    
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - Childhood friends of Hamlet, end up betraying him by working for the King to extract information from him.  

Setting:

• Medieval Denmark, in the castle of Elsinore.  

Plot Summary:

• The play begins with some guards and Horatio encountering a ghost on the night patrol.  They decide this is Hamlet's father and go to tell Hamlet.  Meanwhile, Hamlet is bitter about the hasty marriage of his uncle to his mother so quickly after his father's death and Laertes goes back to France for school.  It is also discussed of a planned attack by Fortinbras on Denmark to reclaim lands lost by his father, killed by the elder Hamlet.  This plan is ultimately abandoned because Fortinbras' uncle tells him not to. When Hamlet goes to see the ghost, it speaks to him and says that Claudius poisoned him.  He orders Hamlet to avenge his death by killing Claudius.  Hamlet decides to act crazy in order to manipulate the court and orders Horatio and the guards not to tell anyone.  The King and Queen begin to worry about him and so they employ the help of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to try and make Hamlet tell them what is bothering him.  Hamlet realizes they have been sent by the King so he tells them nothing.  Polonius believes he is mad because he loved Ophelia and she was ordered to no longer talk to him.  He goes to spy on them while they are talking but Hamlet says he never loved her.  In order to be sure about his father's murder, Hamlet employs the help of travelling actors to act out a play that has a plot almost identical to his father's murder, a king is poisoned through the ear by his brother and his brother marries his wife.  If Claudius is guilty, he would surely show a sign of guilt while watching the play.  Sure enough, he gets up and leaves during the play.  Hamlet goes to go kill him but finds him praying, then deciding to hold off on killing him because if he killed him while he was praying he would go to heaven.  Claudius, fearing Hamlet's madness or intentions, orders him to go to England where he could clear his head.  Polonius decides to set up an interaction between Hamlet and the Queen because he thinks he will tell her what's on his mind because she is his mother.  He hides behind a tapestry to listen.  During their conversation, Hamlet hears something behind a curtain, and thinking it was the King, stabs it.  Polonius  falls out and dies.  Seeing that Hamlet has become violent, the King immediately sends him to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with orders to the English King to kill Hamlet.  Ophelia goes crazy with grief because of the loss of her father and Hamlet, singing to the King and Queen, subtly revealing her pregnancy.  Laertes busts into the palace, back from France, ready to kill the King.  The King instead convinces him it wasn't his fault and Laertes doesn't kill him.  In the next scene, Horatio gets a letter from Hamlet saying that he was kidnapped by pirates and is coming back to Denmark.  The King learns of this too by letter, and so Laertes and the King hatch a plan to kill Hamlet.  Laertes and Hamlet would get in a fencing match but Laertes' foil would be sharp with poison.  The backup plan would to have a cup of poisoned wine ready for Hamlet in case the sword didn't work.  Gertrude then comes with news of Ophelia's death by drowning.  The next act opens with Hamlet and Horatio coming upon a gravedigger and then the funeral of Ophelia.  Hamlet reveals himself and him and Laertes begin to fight.  Claudius and Gertrude declare Hamlet mad as he storms off. In the next scene, Hamlet reveals to Horatio that he found out of the plan to kill him in England so he changes the death forms to be for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.  Horatio doesn't think this is right even if they betrayed Hamlet.  Osric, a courtier, enters and tells Hamlet that the king bet on him in a fencing match between him and Laertes.  Hamlet agrees to the match but is struck by Laertes with the poisoned sword that was planned.  Gertrude accidentally drinks the poisoned cup meant for him and dies.  Hamlet ends up trading swords with Laertes and strikes him too and he dies.  Laertes reveals everything was the work of the king, so Hamlet stabs the King and forces him to drink the poison.  Hamlet, about to die as well, tells Horatio to stay alive and tell the story.  Fortinbras then walks in and sees the bloodbath, reclaiming the lands his father lost to Hamlet's father.  A king's funeral is held for Hamlet.

Narrative Tone/Voice/Style:

• Tone: It's difficult to identify a specific tone for the entire play, but Shakespeare wrote a lot of the scenes ambiguously so that certain interpretations would have certain tones.  For instance, in certain scenes the King could seem genuinely afraid or he could seem like he is scheming depending on the way you interpret it.
• Voice: Like the tone, it is also difficult to identify with limited stage direction and specificity.  Part of the timelessness of the play comes from the many different interpretations that can be made.  Shakespeare's voice will never truly be known.
• Style: Shakespeare writes in elevated speech, sometimes creating complex structures in contrast to how one would actually speak.  He also makes extensive use of metaphors, similes, and allusions to classical works.  In some scenes, to create comic relief, he uses paronomasia or word play.  Finally, he occasionally uses end rhyme in the characters' dialog.

 Imagery:

• The piece is a play, so the actual imagery is through the set.  However, the stage directions are not that precise or not present at all.  In certain productions, the set would be dark and stormy to create a foreboding feel.  The characters' dialog is very rich with imagery in contrast.  Hamlet's soliloquies specifically contain a lot of imagery to convey his emotions.  

Symbolism/Motifs:

• Incest - A major motif within Hamlet is the "incest" between Claudius and Gertrude.  When the old King married Gertrude, the belief was that the bodies became one.  So, when Cladius married Gertrude and had sex with her, he was technically having sex with his brother.
• Corruption - The corruption within the state of Denmark is represented by the assassination of the King, and the plot to assassinate Hamlet.  Nobody trusts anyone and everyone is constantly lying to each other.
• Indecision - A major theme within Hamlet, much of the play is a result of Hamlet's contemplating and thinking on things instead of just doing them.  Fortinbras is rewarded with the kingdom of Denmark by actually making decisions.
• Flowers - Opehila is often represented as a flower, and in her madness scene she distributes symbolic flowers that represent faithfulness and adultery.
• Fate - One of the most prevalent motifs within the play, is the fact fate is predetermined by God.  When people try to go against the path, like Claudius stealing the throne from the true heir Hamlet, they are punished.
• Death - Hamlet constantly is thinking about what it means to be alive, and the purpose of living.  Yorick's Skull goes hand in hand with this motif as it represents the inevitability of death.  Hamlet concludes that all men die, even the great, and are equal as they return to the ground.  

Quotes:

• "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." - Marcellus ~~ At the beginning of the play, this quote foreshadows the corruption that is revealed within the royal court.  A major motif in the play is corruption and from the very beginning the characters can sense it, thus making the quote very significant.
• "To be, or not to be: that is the question." - Hamlet ~~ This quote is significant because it effectively represents two major motifs in the play, existentialism/death and indecision. During the play, Hamlet is constantly thinking about death and his existence.  In the quote, he questions whether it's worth it to be alive because in death there is no suffering.  The fact that he has to think so much on the decision represents his constant indecision and obsessive thinking, not acting.  

Theme:

• A theme in Hamlet is the mystery of death.  ~~ From the beginning Hamlet wonders about his father's ghost, why he is neither in heaven nor hell.  During the most famous soliloquy, he contemplates suicide but is afraid of the unknown frontier after death. The entire plot supports this theme because it revolves around his indecision to kill Claudius, and his uncertainty of what shall happen. Yorick's skull clearly supports this theme as one of the only physical symbols.  Hamlet writes many soliloquies about this theme, and the metaphors add weight to their emotions in these.