Hamlet Summary and Analysis

Author: William Shakespeare. Around the time he wrote Hamlet, his son, Hamnet died. This death transferred into one of his best tragedies.

Setting: Denmark (kingdom); Elsinore castle

Characters:

Hamlet- Prince of Denmark; at the beginning of the story he comes back from school in Wittenberg because his father, Old Hamlet, the king, has died. He is in his thirties, but he still takes orders from his Uncle (new king) and mother for the sake of the kingdom. Throughout the play he considers suicide and killing his Uncle to get revenge for his father. He also has a relationship with Ophelia in the beginning of the play with her insinuating that they are engaged. By the end of the play, he has killed Polonius, Claudius, Laertes (accidentally), and ordered the death of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He also pretends to be crazy at points in the play, but the possibility that he is actually crazy has been considered and discussed as well.

Claudius- King of Denmark (elected by Denmark council); uncle (and father) to Hamlet and husband (and brother) to Gertrude. He is portrayed as a good king, ending issues with a neighboring nation (Fortinbras) as well as within his own nation (Laertes). In order to become King and marry Gertrude, he poisons Old Hamlet, his brother. By the end of the play, he decides to kill Hamlet, because he believes he is a threat to his throne. For his actions, he is killed and his wife dies.

Gertrude- Queen of Denmark; Wife (and sister) to Claudius; Mother to Hamlet. She is married to Old Hamlet before she marries Claudius when Old Hamlet dies. It is suspected she was sith Claudius before Old Hamlet died (incest). There is a hinted Oedipal issue between her and Hamlet, depending on the interpretation. At the end of the play, she dies, drinking a poison drink meant for Hamlet.

Ophelia- Daughter to Polonius; Sister to Laertes. She is engaged to Hamlet at the beginning of the play, though their relationship is a secret. Later, Hamlet breaks up with her, and becomes even more angry when he catches her helping her father and the king spy on him. She goes crazy after the death of her father, though many suspect she also finds out that she is pregnant, throwing her over the edge. She eventually drowns herself, but is still buried in sacred ground.

Polonius- Chief Counselor to the King; father of Laertes and Ophelia. At times he seems to be a blubbering fool, but he also shows that he understands his place, and wants Laertes to follow in his footsteps. He dies at the hand of Hamlet, because he is hiding behind curtains spying on the conversation between Hamlet and his mother.

Laertes- Son to Polonius; brother to Laertes; foil to Hamlet. At the beginning of the play, he wants to go back to school, and he does. Later, he returns upon hearing of his father’s death, and finds his sister crazy. He wants revenge for the death of his father, so he helps the King with a plan to kill Hamlet. At the end of the play, he succeeds in killing Hamlet, but also gets himself killed by his own sword.

Horatio- Friend to Hamlet. He is the most trusted character and one of the only characters that survives the play.

Fortinbras- Prince of Norway; foil to Hamlet. He wants revenge on Hamlet’s father in the beginning of the play, so he starts to march towards Elsinore, but his uncle stops him. At the end of the play, he is given Denmark by Hamlet.

Summary:

The play starts in Elsinore about two months after the death of the King of Denmark. A few guards, including Horatio, see the ghost of Old Hamlet, but he disappears before they can get any answers from him. The next scene holds a speech by Claudius about his marriage, the death of Old Hamlet, and how they are going to stop Fortinbras’ attacks. After his speech, Laertes asks to return to school, and Claudius agrees. Hamlet then asks to return to school as well, but Claudius claims he is needed in Elsinore. He also insults Hamlet, and tells him to get over his father’s death. Horatio then tells Hamlet of the sightings of the King’s ghost.

Laertes warns his sister to be wary of Hamlet before leaving. Polonius also tells her not to see Hamlet, and gives Laertes some not so fatherly advice about his actions, showing his political side. Later, Hamlet meets the ghost and talks to him alone. He tells Hamlet that Claudius killed him, while he also had a relationship with Hamlet’s mother. He orders Hamlet to get revenge against Claudius by killing him, but to leave his mother alone. Hamlet then makes all the guards swear to keep the whole interaction a secret.

Polonius spies on Laertes and then finds out that Ophelia had a weird interaction with Hamlet where he broke up with her. Polonius thinks Hamlet is crazy and goes to tell the King. The King sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Hamlet’s childhood friends) to spy on Hamlet, but Hamlet knows they are spying. He then decides to organize a play to see if Claudius really did kill his father.

Ophelia helps Polonius and Claudius spy on Hamlet. She tries to give back gifts he gave her, but he claims he did not give them to her, knowing that someone is spying on them. He tells her he never loved her, showing his anger. Claudius sees that Hamlet is actually planning something against him.

Hamlet puts on the play, with a scene where a someone kills their brother by putting poison in his ear. Claudius is upset afterward, showing Hamlet he did kill the King. Hamlet decides not to kill Claudius because he is praying and he wants to make sure that he goes to Hell.

Hamlet then has a conversation with his mother, but he kills Polonius because he is spying behind the curtains. He is very upset with his mother, claiming she is incestuous and betrayed his father. Hamlet sees his father’s ghost, telling him that he needs to focus on his revenge against Claudius, not his mother. Gertrude tells Hamlet she will not tell Claudius about their conversation.

Hamlet teases Claudius with the whereabouts of Polonius’ body, but will not give him a clear answer. Claudius decides to send Hamlet to England, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to be killed.

Ophelia appears to have gone crazy, though there is some sense to her babble. She is very lewd and references both her father’s death and her relationship with Hamlet. She eventually leaves, only to have Laertes show up. He is very upset, but Claudius convinces him that Hamlet is responsible for Polonius’ death. Ophelia comes back, and hands people flowers with different meanings. She also threatens to kill herself.

Two gravediggers discuss Ophelia’s burial on sacred ground despite the fact she drowned herself. Hamlet shows up and chastises the gravedigger for acting so crass with the dead. He finds out the body the gravedigger is digging up is Yorick, the real father figure to Hamlet. Hamlet then discusses how everyone dies.

Laertes, the King, and the Queen show up. Both Laertes and Hamlet jump in Ophelia’s grave and get in a fight. Hamlet claims he does not know why Laertes is upset with him. Hamlet and Horatio are alone and Hamlet tells him that he is ready to let things fall as they will. He then agrees to a duel with Laertes, though he does tease the servant Osric maliciously.

At the dual, Laertes has a sword with poison. There is a cup for Hamlet that the King puts a poisoned pearl in every time Hamlet gets a hit. Both Laertes and Hamlet begin to fight. Hamlet gets two hits on Laertes. After the second hit, Gertrude drinks from the poisoned drink. Hamlet and Laertes trade swords on accident after Hamlet is hit with the poisoned sword. Laertes also get hits by the sword. Claudius is forced to drink from the poisoned cup by Hamlet. Hamlet gives the kingdom to Fortinbras before he dies.

Theme: Shakespeare’s Hamlet warns that you should be careful what you let influence your identity, because a lack of identity can lead to immoral acts.

Throughout the play, Hamlet struggles to clearly define his own identity, or who influences his identity. This leads to several pulls. He is influenced by his father’s ghost, his uncle, his mother, etc. Because he lets so many people influence him, and he lets certain people influence him, he ends up doing immoral things, like killing Claudius, Polonius, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Others, like Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, and Laertes, also go down this path. They let many things influence them, allowing for immoral decisions in the form of murder, suicide, and incest.

POV:

Shakespeare uses Horatio as a device to show that the characters are being honest, especially Hamlet. Otherwise the point of view makes it hard to know when the characters are acting for other characters, and the audience of Elsinore.

Tone:

The play is a tragedy so it is dark, and makes the actions of the characters seem more immoral. All the characters are seen as immoral at one point (except Horatio). Still there are comedic moments and individual characters have different tones towards different situations. Hamlet is often angst and feels anger towards many situations and characters.

Imagery:

The play is filled with imagery of pestilence and rotting, to mirror the rotting of Denmark and the characters. There is also imagery of surveillance and spying, with the use of ears several times, and actual spying by the characters. This reinforces the issues within the kingdom and shows why all the characters are so paranoid. Both Hamlet and Claudius always have to watch how they act around others and alone, because they could be spied on.

Symbolism:

Yorick’s skull- Yorick’s skull allows Hamlet to recognize his real father figure and for him to recognize death without fear. When Hamlet sees Yorick’s skull he has a turning point where is less afraid of death because it happens to everyone. Then he is able to move on from his issues with revenge against Claudius.

Quotes:

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (1.4.90)

This quote displays a common issue throughout the play. Denmark is tainted by Hamlet’s family, as well as Polonius’. There are common motifs of pestilence, for the kingdom and characters, and spying. All the characters are so worried about being spied on, that the kingdom takes a back seat. Claudius does appear to be a great king, but by the end of the play, he is so focused on killing Hamlet, he does not think what that could mean for the kingdom. Hamlet is the same way. All he can think about is killing Claudius, causing him to lose Ophelia, and himself along the way.

The only way for Denmark to be clean again is for everyone to die, which is exactly what happens. Everyone dies, the kingdom is purged, and Fortinbras, a true ruler, takes over Denmark.

“To thine own self be true” (1.3.78)

This is said by Polonius to Laertes. At the time, Polonius is giving advice that appears to be fatherly, but is really political. Polonius is telling Laertes to keep his thoughts to himself, but it appears that he is telling him that he should act according to his identity. Every character has issues acting within their own identity, but they have no problem keeping secrets and hiding themselves from others.

Every character has an act they put on for others. Hamlet makes himself look crazy for his own benefit, but when he is alone, he is planning to kill Claudius. Still, killing Claudius does not really follow closely with Hamlet’s identity, but he wants to do it for his father.

The acts and true identities of the characters all battle for dominance throughout the play.

Response to Course Material (1/19)

The last of our Hamlet discussion resulted in a single sentence thesis statement that everyone in the class completely agreed upon for the first time. When we were discussing the main ideas of the piece we all agreed, but the wording was a different story. One of the words we used originally was “determined”. We decided it was too final and constricting and instead went with “influenced”. This change reminded me of true/false questions. Sometimes there is just one word that makes the entire statement false, like “always” instead of “sometimes”. This is probably the reason I am so bad at true/false questions. I never trust myself enough to say the entire statement is true or false, which is the point of the question.

We have also been studying for the final using Ms. Holmes very new age approach. I had Ms. Holmes in freshman year and I remember this method working very well for studying and discussion purposes.  When all the information was finally put on the page, I was surprised to see we learned so much. With so much discussion and self driven learning, it is hard to notice all the information being obtained. When we started making the multiple choice questions, I noticed the section I did the information on (existentialism and "theatre of the absurd") became ingrained in my mind. Part of making the questions is synthesizing the information. It’s kind of similar to the idea that teaching a lesson to someone can help you remember it.

Open Prompt 2 (1/12)

2004. Critic Roland Barthes has said, “Literature is the
question minus the answer.” Choose a novel, or play, and, considering Barthes’ observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to
which it offers answers. Explain how the author’s treatment of this question
affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

Throughout literature, many pieces of work answer their own central question in different ways and with different degrees of clarity. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the central question in the play, “Will Hamlet relinquish control?” is clearly answered.

Throughout Hamlet, Hamlet struggles with his decision to kill Claudius, his uncle, to avenge his father. With this struggle comes Hamlet’s own struggle with morality and religion. He wonders if he should be the one to kill Claudius, knowing that he may go against God’s plan, or providence. Because of the constant pull between religion and filial obligation, Hamlet struggles with his decision to kill his father, and his level of control. Hamlet has many people in the play controlling his actions. In his first appearance, he must ask Claudius, the king, if he can go back to Wittenberg for school. He is quickly shot down. This exchange displays Hamlet’s lack of control within the kingdom. From this point, Hamlet strives to have control over his own decisions and actions, though he does not always achieve control. After meeting his father’s ghost and learning of his uncle’s foul play against his father, he begins to act to avenge his father. His actions are for his father and not himself, causing him to lose control. Shakespeare explores the question with the greatest clarity when Hamlet considers suicide. This happens both before and after Hamlet meets the ghost, but his most serious consideration in his “To be or not to be” soliloquy comes after he meets the ghost. Suicide, though treated with great disgust in the Catholicism of the time, is the greatest control one can take. With hamlet exhibiting this need to take control of his life, he displays his own problem throughout the play. Ophelia also kills herself, showing her own issues with control, after being controlled so closely by her father, Polonius.

With so much need for control, Hamlet even begins to control his image, as many others also do in the play, by pretending to be crazy. By this point, Hamlet is again losing control of himself and those around him, as shown when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern side with Claudius. With Hamlet’s performance so real, the reader is unsure where Hamlet really stands. There is an uncertainty in Hamlet’s control over his mind and his actions by the reader. This creates more tension with the central question, because Hamlet may be giving up control unwillingly. His actions may not be his own, because his mind is not his own. By bringing in other issues with Hamlet as a character, Shakespeare works to make the central question more complicated for the reader, offering the reader a chance to make his or her own conclusion and ask more questions of Hamlet. This questioning nature makes the reader suspicious of all characters true intentions and makes control a much more difficult state to achieve. By act 5, both the reader and Hamlet are unsure of what control will mean for Hamlet. Will it mean his kills Claudius or he spares him? Will it mean he takes action of his own life and kills himself? Will it mean he will leave Elsinore? All these questions are raised in the readers minds.

In the end, Hamlet answers the question of control himself. He tells Horatio, the most trusted  character by the reader and characters, that he will let God have his own plan and he will no longer try to gain control over him. Still, Hamlet letting go of control  does not mean other characters, like Claudius, let go too. In the end, Hamlet does kill Claudius, but only because Claudius kills him and his mother first. Because Hamlet and Claudius die, despite Hamlet’s need to control everything, the deaths seem to act as a cleansing for Elsinore and Denmark. Even with control given up, the corruption Hamlet and his family cause is too great for them to survive the play. Shakespeare’s development of the major question of control allows the reader to see the many issues within Elsinore and Hamlet.