Summaries and Analyses of Literature: Hamlet

Hamlet
by Shakespeare
It's set in Elsinore, a castle in Denmark, during turbulent political times.


Hamlet is the son of King Hamlet. He was studying in England, and has to come back to the castle both for the funeral and the wedding. He's in his thirties.
Ophelia was seeing Hamlet, but stopped once Polonius ordered her to. She's generally played as a weak, obedient character.
Laertes is Ophelia's brother. The two were close. 
Horatio went to Hamlet's college. He's intellectual, and somewhat divided from the values of the castle.
Gertrude is the queen. It's strongly hinted that she was sleeping with Claudius before King Hamlet died.
Polonius is Ophelia's father. He's good at getting power.
Fortinbras the King helps to show how warlike the kingdoms. He, and his son, are enemies of Denmark.
Fortinbras is one of Hamlet's many foils. He, also, is prince, but he is much more action oriented.


The play starts out with guards and Horatio spotting the ghost of the late Hamlet. The next night, Hamlet's with them, and the ghost reveals that he was killed by Claudius for his throne and Gertrude, who has since married Claudius. Hamlet acts distressed at the court, and the king and queen try to figure out what's bothering him, as well as if he's truly mad or just acting it. They send Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The players arrive, and Hamlet asks them to perform a play that mimics his father's murder to see Claudius' reaction. He's testing the ghost was really his father, or a darker being. Ophelia's father has ordered her to reject communication with Hamlet, thinking that it'll look like he set them up to gain power. This is painful for both Ophelia and Hamlet, and it's implied that the two were practically engaged. After Claudius' dramatic response to the play, the queen, at the order of the king and with Polonius hiding behind a curtain, calls Hamlet to her closet. Hamlet stabs Polonius, killing him, then lectures his mother on her incest and betrayal of the old king. Claudius sends Hamlet with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to die in England. On the way there, Hamlet sees Fortinbras' army, and is ashamed of his inaction. Ophelia goes mad with all the death and betrayal around her, and Laertes wants revenge (though mostly for his father). Once Hamlet returns after an unlikely pirate attack, the king arranges a duel, planning with Laertes to both poison Hamlet's wine and Laertes' sword. Gertrude drinks the poison and dies. Hamlet and Laertes, after switching swords, are dying. Hamlet kills Claudius. All main characters but Horatio are dead.


Though play's don't have typical point of view, it's not a stretch to say the play follows Hamlet's side of the story. He gives the most soliloquies, and is the central character.
The tone of the play is dark. The little humor there is connects to theme.
The imagery, the play's setting, is usually for atmosphere. The coldness, darkness, and uncertainty of the first scene is an example.


closet- the intimacy that Hamlet has with his mother and Ophelia
rue- "you must wear your rue with a difference" though all of Ophelia's flowers had symbolic meaning, the rue was the most significant. it implies that Ophelia is pregnant.
Yorick's skull- Hamlet's confrontation with the anonymity, and inevitability, of death
biblical allusions- the cock crew three times, and Hamlet is around Jesus' age


"My tables- meet it is I set it down/ That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;/ At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark."
Deception is a big part of the politics of Hamlet. Hamlet is spied on twice, both times at the order of Claudius, and is right to feel outraged. Many characters have an identity removed from the one they show: Claudius, obviously, is capable of murder; Ophelia wouldn't act so harshly toward Hamlet; and Rosencrantz and Guildenstren wouldn't even be talking to him.
"My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth."
After seeing Fortinbras in action, Hamlet's guilty about being so slow to act. He's re-motivated to get his proper revenge.


Indecision merely prolongs the inevitable; once events are set in motion, consequences must be played out.

• Hamlet alludes to the bible's "special providence in the fall of a sparrow" before facing Laertes. He's finally come to believe that everything happens for a purpose.
• "something's rotten in the state of Denmark" even in the beginning. That shapes how the whole play will play out.
• ^incest and betrayal in the state, so it can't survive
• the theme of uncertainty in identity has also been there since the beginning, so it's one of the things that must be addressed in the play- it's set in motion by the first words, "who's there?"
• ^both Fortinbrases and both Hamlets have the same name- they don't have their own separate identity, but are tied to their larger role in things
• Hamlet's double checking, the play, and not killing Claudius in the church are a flaw- it all would have ended faster, probably with fewer casualties
• he's contrasted with Fortinbras who acts quite a bit and is successful at the end