Hamlet (1601)

• There were earlier versions of Hamlet, as a revenge story, in

the Middle Ages. There was also a Renaissance play with the
same name, probably written by Thomas Kyd.
THE PLOT
• It is set in Denmark
Act 1: the protagonist, Hamlet prince of Denmark, is sad
because his father, the King, died and only after two months
his mother, Queen Gertrude, has married his uncle Claudius.
The ghost of Hamlet’s father appears to the sentries. Hamlet
decides to wait for the ghost one night, and the ghost
appears, telling him that he was murdered by his brother
Claudius and asking him for revenge. (Tragedy of revenge?)
Act 2: Hamlet pretends to be mad to carry out his plans
more easily. (Appearance vs reality) Polonius, the King’s
counsellor, thinks Hamlet is mad because he is in love with
his daughter Ophelia. Polonius and the king secretly
observe a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia, but
Hamlet badly rejects her. Hamlet calls at court a group of
actors and asks them to play “The Murder of Gonzago”, to
find out the truth about his father’s death. (Theatre as a
way to discover the truth!)

Act 3: When the king sees the play, he reacts and he runs
away. Now he knows that King Claudius is guilty and he
should take revenge. However, he is too undecided: he
has the opportunity to kill Claudius but he doesn’t
because he’s praying. (Doubt and uncertainty, typical of a
modern hero, or an anti-hero)
Later, while he’s talking with his mother, he sees
somebody hiding behind a curtain. He kills him with
his sword, thinking that it’s Claudius, but it’s Polonius.
(Hamlet is not able to make a decision, and when he
decides impulsively, without thinking, he makes a
mistake!).
Act 4: King Claudius sends Hamlet to England to be
killed. In the meantime, Ophelia goes mad and drowns
herself. Her brother Laertes comes back home and
finds that both his father and his sister have died
because of Hamlet. Hamlet manages to come back to
Denmark and Laertes wants to have a duel with him to
take revenge.
Act 5: King Claudius plots against Hamlet in the duel:
he poisons Laerte’s sword and he prepares some
poisoned wine to offer Hamlet. But during the duel
Hamlet and Laerte exchange swords and they both
wound each other with the poisoned sword.
Gertrude drinks the poisoned wine by mistake. When
Hamlet realizes he’s going to die he finally stabs the
king. Before dying, Hamlet tells his friend Horatio to
offer the country to Fortinbras, king of Norway.
• Typical themes of revenge tragedies present
in Hamlet:
A violent crime has been committed against a
family member of the hero, but law and
justice cannot punish it.
Period of doubt
Appearance of a ghost
Close relationship with the audience through
soliloquies and asides.
Isolation and madness of the hero
Shakespeare’s originality:
• Shakespeare improves the story: it becomes more than a
tragedy of revenge: it is a tragedy of will. In fact, he doesn’t
take revenge immediately. He’s full of doubts and hesitations
(Is Claudius really guilty? Was his father’s ghost real or was it
just the product of his imagination?). These thoughts kill his
action.

• Deep psychological penetration

• Emphasis on doubt and uncertainty (he was a precursor of

20th century drama; Hamlet is a modern hero)

• Hamlet only pretends to be mad in order to carry out his

plans.
 Other important themes in Hamlet
• Relationship between father and son; mother and son; love
relationship (Ophelia), friendship.

• The power of the theatre: “the play within the play”, a mere
fiction, shows the truth.

• Appearance vs reality: what appears to be true doesn’t correspond

to reality, appearance doesn’t often correspond to the real feelings
of people. (This theme is also connected to the sense of doubt and
ambiguity typical of the 16th century, when the certainties of the
past were disproved or modified).

• Madness vs sanity: Hamlet pretends to be mad to carry out his

plans more easily (“there’s reason in his madness”, Polonius says
after talking to him).
• Honour: any action to correct a wrong should be reasoned, not
emotional (many actions taken impulsively by Hamlet cause great
trouble to other people: Polonius, Ophelia)

• Action vs inaction (see the monologue): thinking too much

prevents Hamlet from taking action.

• Hamlet as the first modern hero: like Hamlet, modern man is

tormented by doubt, by a lack of religious or moral
certainties (which takes him to inaction) and by an inability to
communicate.

• Ambiguity of Hamlet’s language: he uses metaphors, similies

and wordplay. His words often have a hidden meaning that
goes beyond their apparent meaning.
 Hamlet’s mourning (Act I, scene II)

CLAUDIUS CLAUDIUS
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son— And now, Hamlet, my nephew and my son—
HAMLET (aside) A little more than kin and HAMLET
less than kind. (speaking so no one else can hear) I little more than
CLAUDIUS How is it that the clouds still a relative, but not loving
hang on you? CLAUDIUS
Why are you still so gloomy, with a cloud hanging
HAMLET Not so, my lord. I am too much i'
over you?
the sun.
HAMLET
GERTRUDE Good Hamlet, cast thy It’s not true, sir. Your son is out in the sun.
nighted color off, and let thine eye look GERTRUDE
like a friend on Denmark. My dear Hamlet, stop wearing these black clothes,
Do not forever with thy vailèd lids and be friendly to the king. You can’t spend your
Seek for thy noble father in the dust. whole life with your eyes to the ground remembering
Thou know’st ’tis common. All that lives your noble father. It happens all the time, what lives
must die, must die eventually, passing to eternity.
HAMLET
Passing through nature to eternity.
Yes, mother, it happens all the time.
HAMLET Ay, madam, it is common. (“common” = vulgar)
GERTRUDE GERTRUDE
If it be, So why does it seem so particular to you?
Why seems it so particular with thee?
HAMLET
HAMLET
“Seems,” madam? Nay, it is. I know
“Seem,” mother? No, it is. I don’t
not “seems.”
know what you mean by “seem.”
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good
Neither my black clothes, my dear
mother,
mother, nor my heavy sighs, nor
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
my weeping, nor my downcast
Nor windy suspiration of forced
eyes, nor any other display of
breath,
grief can show what I really feel.
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
It’s true that all these things
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
“seem” like grief, since a person
Together with all forms, moods,
could use them to fake grief if he
shapes of grief,
wanted to. But I’ve got more real
That can denote me truly. These
grief inside me that you could ever
indeed “seem,”
see on the surface. These clothes
For they are actions that a man might
are just a hint of it.
play.
But I have that within which passeth
show,
These but the trappings and the suits
of woe.
• Explain the puns (= plays with words) and metaphors present in the text.

• What does Hamlet want to express about his relationship with his uncle
Claudius?

• Where and how does Hamlet express the contrast between appearance
and reality? What world does he refer to when he speaks of “appearance”?
Hamlet’s soliloquy (act 3, scene1)
The soliloquy is a pause in the action of the play. Hamlet has just decided to call a
company of actors at court to prove the king guilty.
Claudius and Polonius hide and spy on him.

To be, or not to be? That is the question—

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer Life vs death
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Action vs inaction
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, Words related to war
And, by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep— Death as a possible liberation
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, We are afraid NOT of death, but of
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come what there might be after death!
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life. This fear is the reason why we go on
living
For who would bear the whips and scorns List of human sufferings:
of time,
life’s humiliations, the abuse from
Th' oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s
contumely, superiors, the insults of arrogant men,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s the pangs of not corresponded love,
delay, the inefficiency of the legal system, the
The insolence of office, and the spurns rudeness of people in power, and the
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes, mistreatment good people have to take
When he himself might his quietus make from bad.
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels
bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after It’s the fear of what there might be
death, after death
The undiscovered country from whose
bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will This fear stops our will and makes us
And makes us rather bear those ills we accept all the sufferings of this life.
have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of
us all,
Important metaphor: sickness vs
And thus the native hue of resolution health
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of RESOLUTION is healthy
thought, THOUGHT is an illness
Thought infects our ability to make
And enterprises of great pith and
decisions and so important actions
moment lose their direction.
With this regard their currents turn
awry, Thought kills action (tragedy of will!)
And lose the name of action.
HAMLET To be, or not to be? That is the question— The question is: is it better to be alive or dead? Is it
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer nobler to put up with all the nasty things that luck
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, throws your way, or to fight against all those troubles
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, by simply putting an end to them once and for all?
And, by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep— Dying, sleeping—that’s all dying is—a sleep that ends
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
all the heartache and shocks that life on earth gives
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation us—that’s an achievement to wish for. To die, to
Devoutly to be wished! To die, to sleep. sleep—to sleep, maybe to dream. Ah, but there’s the
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub, problem: in death’s sleep who knows what kind of
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come dreams might come, after we’ve put the noise and
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, commotion of life behind us. That’s certainly
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
something to worry about. That’s the consideration
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, that makes us bear our sufferings for so long.
Th' oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, After all, who would put up with all life’s
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, humiliations—the abuse from superiors, the insults of
The insolence of office, and the spurns arrogant men, the pangs of unrequited love, the
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes, inefficiency of the legal system, the rudeness of
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
people in office, and the mistreatment good people
To grunt and sweat under a weary life, have to take from bad—when you could simply take
But that the dread of something after death, out your knife and put an end to that? Who would
The undiscovered country from whose bourn choose to grunt and sweat through an exhausting life,
No traveler returns, puzzles the will unless they were afraid of something dreadful after
And makes us rather bear those ills we have death, the undiscovered country from which no
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
visitor returns, which we wonder about without
And thus the native hue of resolution getting any answers from and which makes us stick to
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, the evils we know rather than rush off to seek the
And enterprises of great pith and moment ones we don’t? Fear of death makes us all cowards,
With this regard their currents turn awry, and our natural boldness becomes weak with too
And lose the name of action. much thinking. Actions that should be carried out at
once get misdirected, and stop being actions at all.
 Important themes in the soliloquy:
• The first lines of the soliloquy (“to be or not to be”, lines 1-5)
can be interpreted in two ways and present two important
themes:
life vs death (or stoic attitude vs suicide): is it better to go on
living (and suffering) or to commit suicide and put an end to
our suffering?
action vs inaction: is it better to remain indifferent and leave
things as they are or to fully realize one’s potential and take
important decisions?
• We choose life because we are afraid of death. The fear of
what there is after death is an obstacle to action.
(Monologue: lines 9-13:“To die, to sleep. To sleep, perchance
to dream. Ay, there’s the rub….”. “…the undiscovered
country…..puzzles the will….” lines 23-33)
• In lines 15-19 Hamlet makes a list of all the causes of
mankind’s suffering, which are still very true today: the cruel
passing of time, the aggressive attitude of proud people,
unreturned love, the inefficiency of law, political oppression,
merit given inappropriately to people who don’t deserve it.

• Consciousness makes us afraid to take action (according to

Hamlet it is brave to kill oneself and cowardly to remain alive).
• So thinking too much makes us unable to act (lines 29-33
explain how thought kills action, through a metaphor which
opposes sickness – “the pale cast of thought”- to health –
“the native hue of resolution”).

• In this soliloquy the personal problem of Hamlet becomes a

universal meditation on life and death.