Hamlet

Key Facts
 Full title: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

 Genre: Tragedy, revenge tragedy

 Time and place written:  London, England, early

seventeenth century (probably 1600–1602)

 Date of first publication:1603, in a pirated quarto

edition titled The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet; 1604 in

a superior quarto edition
 Protagonist: Hamlet
 Hamlet
Key Facts
Major conflict: Hamlet feels a responsibility to avenge his father’s

murder by his uncle Claudius, but Claudius is now the king and thus
well protected. Moreover, Hamlet struggles with his doubts about
whether he can trust the ghost and whether killing Claudius is the
appropriate thing to do.
Rising action: The ghost appears to Hamlet and tells Hamlet to

revenge his murder; Hamlet feigns madness to his intentions; Hamlet

stages the mousetrap play; Hamlet passes up the opportunity to kill
Claudius while he is praying.
Climax: When Hamlet stabs Polonius through Act III, scene iv, he

commits himself to overtly violent action and brings himself into

unavoidable conflict with the king. Another possible climax comes at
the end of Act IV, scene iv, when Hamlet resolves to commit himself
fully to violent revenge.
 Hamlet

 Setting (time and place): The late medieval period, though the

play’s chronological setting is notoriously imprecise, Denmark
 Foreshadowing: The ghost, which is taken to foreshadow an
ominous future for Denmark
 Tone: Dark, ironic, passionate, desperate, violent
 Themes: The impossibility of certainty; the complexity of
action; the mystery of death; the nation as a diseased body
 Motifs: Incest and incestuous desire; ears and hearing; death
and suicide; darkness and the supernatural; misogyny
 Symbols: The ghost (the spiritual consequences of death);
Yorick’s skull (the physical consequences of death)
 Main characters
 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark -The crown prince of Denmark who returns from the
university in Wittenberg, Germany, to find his father dead, his mother married to the
king's brother Claudius, and Claudius newly self-crowned King.
 Claudius, King of Denmark Dead King Hamlet's brother who has usurped the throne

and married his sister-in-law.

 Gertrude, Queen of Denmark Prince Hamlet's mother, King Hamlet's widow, King

Claudius' wife.
 The Ghost Spirit of the late King Hamlet, condemned to walk the earth until his soul is

cleansed of its sins.

 Polonius, The elderly Lord Chamberlain, chief counselor to Claudius.

 Horatio, A commoner, Horatio went to school with Hamlet and remains his loyal best

friend.
 Laertes, A student in Paris, Laertes is Polonius' son and Ophelia's brother; he returns from

school because of King Hamlet's death, leaves to go back to Paris, and then returns again
after his own father's murder.
 Ophelia, Daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes, Ophelia is beloved of Hamlet.
 Main characters

 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Classmates of Hamlet's in

Wittenberg. Claudius summons them to Elsinore to spy on
Prince Hamlet.
 Fortinbras King of Norway, bound to avenge his father's
death by the Danes' hands.
 Osric Affected courtier who plays a minor role as the King's
messenger and as umpire of the fencing match between
Hamlet and Laertes.
 Marcellus and Barnardo Danish officers on guard at the
castle of Elsinore.
 Two Clowns (the Gravediggers) Two rustics (identified as
clowns) who dig Ophelia's grave.
Character map
 Themes
 Mortality
The weight of one's mortality and the complexities of life
and death are introduced from the beginning of Hamlet. In
the wake of his father's death, Hamlet  can't stop pondering
and considering the meaning of life — and its eventual
ending. Many questions emerge as the text progresses. What
happens when you die? If you're murdered, then will you go
to heaven? Do kings truly have a free pass to heaven?
In Hamlet's mind the idea of dying isn't so bad. It's the
uncertainty of the afterlife that frightens Hamlet away from
suicide, even though he's obsessed with the notion.
 Themes
 Madness
Hamlet's originally acts mad (crazy, not angry) to fool people into think he is
harmless while probing his father's death and Claudius's involvement. Early
on, the bumbling Polonius says "[t]hough this be madness, yet there is
method in't" (Act II, Scene II). Polonius's assertion is ironic because he is
right and wrong. Polonius falsely believes Hamlet's madness stems from
Hamlet's love of Ophelia. To notice a method behind the crazy talk was
impressive of Polonius.
But as the play progresses, Hamlet's behavior become more erratic. His
acting mad seems to cause Hamlet to lose his grip on reality. The
circumstances he has to manage emotionally are difficult, to say the least.
Succumbing to physical violence when under extreme stress shows that
Hamlet has deeper-set issues than merely acting mad. In reflection, Hamlet's
choices and impulses beg the question, what gives him the right to act as
such without consequences?
 Themes
 Women
The presence of only two named female characters says something about the role of
women within Hamlet. The death of both women also indicates a social commentary.
Hamlet is at his most agitated state when talking to either female character.
Although he cares for both, he's suspicious, as well. In the case of his
mother, Gertrude, Hamlet feels she remarried too quickly and that her remarriage
means she didn't love her first husband all that much. The idea freaks Hamlet out.
Then there's Ophelia. From the way the characters talk, we know Hamlet has been
wooing Ophelia for some time. But after Hamlet starts to act mad, it doesn't take long
for him to assume that Ophelia is in cahoots with Gertrude, Claudius, and Polonius.
In reality, Ophelia obeyed her father and her monarch.
In both cases, Hamlet feels as if each woman has let him down, respectively. He's
critical and quick to point out flaws though puns and backhanded comments. Ophelia
is usually viewed as a true victim, while Gertrude's role is interpreted with more
flexibility. In either case, the role and treatment of women in Hamlet is essential to
discuss with an open mind.
Motifs
Incest and incestuous desire
The motif of incest runs throughout the play and is frequently
alluded to by Hamlet and the ghost, most obviously in
conversations about Gertrude and Claudius, the former brother-
in-law and sister-in-law who are now married. A subtle motif of
incestuous desire can be found in the relationship of Laertes and
Ophelia, as Laertes sometimes speaks to his sister in
suggestively sexual terms and, at her funeral, leaps into her
grave to hold her in his arms. However, the strongest overtones
of incestuous desire arise in the relationship of Hamlet and
Gertrude, in Hamlet’s fixation on Gertrude’s sex life with
Claudius and his preoccupation with her in general.
Motifs
Misogyny
Shattered by his mother’s decision to marry Claudius so soon
after her husband’s death, Hamlet becomes cynical about
women in general, showing a particular obsession with what
he perceives to be a connection between female sexuality and
moral corruption. This motif of misogyny, or hatred of
women, occurs sporadically throughout the play, but it is an
important inhibiting factor in Hamlet’s relationships with
Ophelia and Gertrude. He urges Ophelia to go to a nunnery
rather than experience the corruptions of sexuality and
exclaims of Gertrude, “Frailty, thy name is woman” (I.ii.146).
Symbols
Yorick's skull as a major symbol
Throughout the play, Hamlet muses on and toys with the
idea of death. His famous fourth soliloquy's opening lines,
"To be, or not to be" shows Hamlet thinking about suicide.
His turning point of realization comes in the graveyard
scene. Hamlet looks at the skull and remembers the man
he was fond of, the court jester Yorick. In his musings,
Hamlet realizes that death eliminates the differences
between people. The hierarchical structure of society is
illusory and ultimately crumbles into dust, just like the
bones of those long gone.
Free will and fate
Hamlet remains painfully aware of himself, his shortcomings, and his
powerlessness to right what he perceives to be great wrongs. Poetic,
thoughtful, and philosophical, he seeks to thwart his fate through
intellectual maneuvering. Hamlet sees all too clearly the varying shades of
gray that muddy his vision and blur his choices. He resembles the modern
tragic hero — the common man tossed in a turbulent sea of social ills who
loses his battle to correct them. He is bound inside himself, imprisoned by
the words in his head that allow him no sleep, and no rest. " . . . There is
nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so," he says, surrendering
to his obsessive thoughts. Hamlet is the quintessential Shakespearean hero,
born of stature but not necessarily powerful, and undone by external forces
as much as by internal ones. The struggle to live between opposing
expectations and to assuage a throbbing conscience constitutes the battle
Hamlet cannot win. No one force determines the outcome for Hamlet. God
asks of him one thing, and man demands another.
Ophelia's dilemma
Is Ophelia driven mad by her love for Hamlet, or is
she the victim of a society that has created
impossible expectations for its women? Had she the
license to think for herself, Ophelia might have
reasoned through her dilemma, but, caught as she is
between her father's and brother's restrictive
instructions and Hamlet's crushing demands,
trapped as she is in a choice-less existence, Ophelia
has no alternative but to throw herself into the river
to drown.
Important Quotations
"That it should come to this!" (Act I, Scene II)
 Just after speaking to his mother Gertrude and uncle (and step-father)
King Claudius, Hamlet has his first of five soliloquies. When Hamlet
exclaims, "[t]hat it should come to this," he'd just finished describing
how the world has gone to fodder. Then Hamlet goes on to say how
he cannot believe his mother would marry his father's brother (i.e.,
Hamlet's uncle). This quote shows Hamlet's fury and shock at his
mother's remarriage. In Hamlet's mind, the world is in chaos and the
remarriage is the apex of things spiraling out of control. Soliloquies
allow the audience to see into a character's inner thoughts. The
soliloquy as a whole belays the reasons for Hamlet's initial deep
melancholy and confusion that persists for much of the play.
Important Quotations
"Frailty, thy name is woman!" (Act I, Scene II)
 Hamlet is still speaking in his first of five soliloquies. The "woman"
he specifically refers to is his mother. Hamlet felt she was weak, or not
strong enough to mourn his father longer. Hamlet goes on further to say
that not even an animal or beast, who has no reasoning skills, would
have abandoned the mourning so quickly. All in all, this shows how
angry and confused Hamlet is by his mother's remarriage.
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." (Act I, Scene IV)
 At the end of Scene IV, a guard, Marcellus, says these famous words
to Horatio. After Hamlet follows the ghost, Marcellus and Horatio
know they have to follow as well, because Hamlet is acting so
impulsively. Marcellus's words are remarking on how something evil
and vile is afoot. This moment could be interpreted as foreshadowing
of the impending deaths of most of the principle characters.
 Important Quotations
"To be, or not to be: that is the question." (Act III, Scene I)
 As one of Shakespeare's all-time famous quotes, Hamlet's words have
stood the test of time and are often quoted even today in both
academia and pop culture. In the beginning of his fourth, and best
known, soliloquy Hamlet muses about the conundrum of suicide. He
wonders if one route is "nobler" than the next. At this point in the play,
Hamlet has been unable to act upon his motives for personal revenge,
and this frustrates him. Which is better, suffering as he has been or
ending it all? The tone of Hamlet's soliloquy is more meditative than
angry, but he does seriously consider suicide. He relates his personal
struggle to the struggles that all of mankind shares. Given that you
don't know what happens after you die, Hamlet realizes that death
wouldn't be the ideal escape he craves.
 Important Quotations
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks." (Act III, Scene II)
Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude, says this famous line while
watching The Mousetrap. Gertrude is talking about the queen
in the play. She feels that the play-queen seems insincere
because she repeats so dramatically that she'll never remarry
due to her undying love of her husband. The play-queen, in
fact, does remarry. It is unclear whether Gertrude recognizes
the parallel between herself and the play-queen; Hamlet
certainly feels that way. This moment has an irony that is
shown throughout the play.