Hamlet Summary Context (sparknotes) (sparknotes) The most influential writer in all of English literature, William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to a successful middle-class glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Shakespeare attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded no further. In 1582 he married an older woman, Anne Hathaway, and had three children with her. Around 1590 he left his family behind and traveled to London to work as an actor and playwright. Public and critical success quickly followed, and Shakespeare eventually became the most popular playwright in England and partowner of the Globe Theater. His career bridged the reigns of Elizabeth I (ruled 1558 – 1558 –1603) 1603) and James I (ruled 1603 – –1625), 1625), and he was a favorite of both monarchs. Indeed, James granted Shakespeare‘s company the t he greatest possible compliment by bestowing upon its members the title of King‘s Men. Wealthy and renowned, Shakespeare retired to Stratford and died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two. fifty- two. At the time of Shakespeare‘s death, literary luminaries such as Ben Jons on hailed his works as timeless. Shakespeare‘s works were collected and printed in various editions in the century following his death, and by the early eighteenth century his reputation as the greatest poet ever to write in English was well established. The unprecedented admiration garnered by his works led to a fierce curiosity about Shakespeare‘s life, but the dearth of biographical information has left many details of Shakespeare‘s personal history shrouded in mystery. Some people have concluded from this th is fact that Shakespeare‘s plays were really written by someone else— Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford are the two most popular candidates —but the support for this claim is overwhelmingly circumstantial, and the theory is not taken seriously by many scholars. In the absence of credible evidence to the contrary, Shakespeare must be viewed as the author of the thirty-seven plays and 154 sonnets that bear his name. The legacy of this body of work is immense. A number of Shakespeare‘s plays seem to have tran scended even the category of brilliance, becoming so influential as to profoundly affect the course of Western literature and culture ever after. Written during the first part of the seventeenth century (probably in 1600 or 1601), Hamlet was was probably first performed in July 1602. It was first published in printed form in 1603 and appeared in an enlarged edition in 1604. As was common practice during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Shakespeare borrowed for his plays ideas and stories from earlier literary works. He could have taken the story of Hamlet from several possible sources, including a twelfth-century Latin history of Denmark compiled by Saxo Grammaticus and a prose work by the French writer François de Belleforest, entitled Histoires Tragiques. The raw material that Shakespeare appropriated in writing Hamlet is the story of a Danish prince whose uncle murders the prince‘s father, marries his mother, and claims the throne. The prince pretends to be feeble-minded to throw his uncle off guard, then manages to kill his uncle in revenge. Shakespeare changed the emphasis of this story entirely, making his Hamlet a philosophically minded prince who delays taking action because his knowledge of his uncle‘s crime is so uncertain. Shakespeare went far beyond making uncertainty a personal quirk of
Hamlet‘s, introducing a number of important ambiguities into the play that even the audience cannot resolve with certainty. For instance, whether Hamlet‘s mother, Gertrude, shares in Claudius‘s guilt; whether Hamlet continues to love Ophelia even as he spurns her, in Act III; whether Ophelia‘s death is suicide or accident; whether the ghost offers reliable knowledge, or seeks to deceive and tempt Hamlet; and, perhaps most importantly, whether Hamlet would be morally justified in taking revenge on his uncle. Shakespeare makes it clear that the stakes riding on some of these questions are enormous —the actions of these characters bring disaster upon an entire kingdom. At the play‘s end it is not even clear whether ju stice has been achieved. By modifying his source materials in this way, Shakespeare was able to take an unremarkable revenge story and make it resonate with the most fundamental themes and problems of the Renaissance. The Renaissance is a vast cultural phenomenon that began in fifteenth-century Italy with the recovery of classical Greek and Latin texts that had been lost to the Middle Ages. The scholars who enthusiastically rediscovered these classical texts were motivated by an educational and political ideal called (in Latin) humanitas —the idea that all of the capabilities and virtues peculiar to human beings should be studied and developed to their furthest extent. Renaissance humanism, as this movement is now called, generated a new interest in human experience, and also an enormous optimism about the potential scope of human understanding. Hamlet‘s famous speech in Act II, ―What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god —the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!‖ (II.ii.293– 297) is directly based upon one of the major texts of the Italian humanists, Pico della Mirandola‘sOration on the Dignity of Man. For the humanists, the purpose of cultivating reason was to lead to a better understanding of how to act, and their fondest hope was that the coordination of action and understanding would lead to great benefits for society as a whole. As the Renaissance spread to other countries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, however, a more skeptical strain of humanism developed, stressing the limitations of human understanding. For example, the sixteenth-century French humanist, Michel de Montaigne, was no less interested in studying human experiences than the earlier humanists were, but he maintained that the world of experience was a world of appearances, and that human beings could never hope to see past those appearances into the ―realities‖ that lie behind them. This is the world in which Shakespeare places his characters. Hamlet is faced with the difficult task of correcting an injustice that he can never have sufficient knowledge of —a dilemma that is by no means unique, or even uncommon. And while Hamlet is fond of pointing out questions that cannot be answered because they concern supernatural and metaphysical matters, the play as a whole chiefly demonstrates the difficulty of knowing the truth about other people —their guilt or innocence, their motivations, their feelings, their relative states of sanity or insanity. The world of other people is a world of appearances, and Hamlet is, fundamentally, a play about the difficulty of living in that world
Summary of the play
On a dark winter night, a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore Castle in Denmark. Discovered first by a pair of watchmen, then by the scholar Horatio, the ghost resembles the recently deceased King Hamlet, whose brother Claudius has inherited the throne and married the king‘s widow, Queen Gertrude. When Horatio and the watchmen bring Prince Hamlet, the son of Gertrude and the dead king, to see the ghost, it speaks to him, declaring ominously that it is indeed his father‘s spirit, and that he was murdered by none other than Claudius. Ordering Hamlet to seek revenge on the man who usurped his throne and married his wife, the ghost disappears with the dawn. Prince Hamlet devotes himself to avenging his father‘s death, but, because he is contemplative and thoughtful by nature, he delays, entering into a deep melancholy and even apparent madness. Claudius and Gertrude worry about the prince‘s erratic behavior and attempt to discover its cause. They employ a pair of Hamlet‘s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to watch him. When Polonius, the pompous Lord Chamberlain, suggests that Hamlet may be mad with love for his daughter, Ophelia, Claudius agrees to spy on Hamlet in conversation with the girl. But though Hamlet certainly seems mad, he does not seem to love Ophelia: he orders her to enter a nunnery and declares that he wishes to ban marriages. A group of traveling actors comes to Elsinore, and Hamlet seizes upon an idea to test his uncle‘s guilt. He will have the players perform a scene closely resembling the sequence by which Hamlet imagines his uncle to have murdered his father, so that if Claudius is guilty, he will surely react. When the moment of the murder arrives in the theater, Claudius leaps up and leaves the room. Hamlet and Horatio agree that this proves his guilt. Hamlet goes to kill Claudius but finds him praying. Since he believes that killing Claudius while in prayer would send Claudius‘s soul to heaven, Hamlet considers that it would be an inadequate revenge and decides to wait. Claudius, now frightened of Hamlet‘s madness and fearing for his own safety, orders that Hamlet be sent to England at once. Hamlet goes to confront his mother, in whose bedchamber Polonius has hidden behind a tapestry. Hearing a noise from behind the tapestry, Hamlet believes the king is hiding there. He draws his sword and stabs through the fabric, killing Polonius. For this crime, he is immediately dispatched to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. However, Claudius‘s plan for Hamlet includes more than banishment, as he has given Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sealed orders for the King of England demanding that Hamlet be put to death. In the aftermath of her father‘s death, Ophelia goes mad with grief and drowns in the river. Polonius‘s son, Laertes, who has been staying in France, returns to Denmark in a rage. Claudius convinces him that Hamlet is to blame for his father‘s and sister‘s deaths. When Horatio and the king receive letters from Hamlet indicating that the prince has returned to Denmark after pirates attacked his ship en route to England, Claudius concocts a plan to use Laertes‘ desire for revenge to secure Hamlet‘s death. Laertes will fence with Hamlet in innocent sport, but Claudius will poison Laertes‘ blade so that if he draws blood, Hamlet will die. As a backup plan, the king decides to poison a goblet, which he will give Hamlet to drink should Hamlet score the first or second hits of the match. Hamlet returns to the vicinity of Elsinore just
as Ophelia‘s funeral is taking place. Stricken with grief, he attacks Laertes and declares that he had in fact always loved Ophelia. Back at the castle, he tells Horatio that he believes one must be prepared to die, since death can come at any moment. A foolish courtier named Osric arrives on Claudius‘s orders to arrange the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes . The sword-fighting begins. Hamlet scores the first hit, but declines to drink from the king‘s proffered goblet. Instead, Gertrude takes a drink from it and is swiftly killed by the poison. Laertes succeeds in wounding Hamlet, though Hamlet does not die of the poison immediately. First, Laertes is cut by his own sword‘s blade, and, after revealing to Hamlet that Claudius is responsible for the queen‘s death, he dies from the blade‘s poison. Hamlet then stabs Claudius through with the poisoned sword and forces him to drink down the rest of the poisoned wine. Claudius dies, and Hamlet dies immediately after achieving his revenge. At this moment, a Norwegian prince named Fortinbras, who has led an army to Denmark and attacked Poland earlier in the play, enters with ambassadors from England, who report that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Fortinbras is stunned by the gruesome sight of the entire royal family lying sprawled on the floor dead. He moves to take power of the kingdom. Horatio, fulfilling Hamlet‘s last request, tells him Hamlet‘s tragic story. Fortinbras orders that Hamlet be carried away in a manner befitting a fallen soldier.
Act I Scene 1 - Francisco, Bernardo, Marcellus and Horatio are on the gun platform at Elsinore. Its midnight and cold - Ghost of Hamlet‘s father appears - Horatio claims that young Fortinbras intends to regain the lands his father lost when killed by King Hamlet - They agree to tell Hamlet about the ghost Scene 2 - Claudius gives speech in the Great Hall of Elsinore castle. He talks about the death of his brother, his marriage to gertrude, and the threat of Fortinbras to Denmark (sends messengers to prevent war) - Hamlet is depressed - Hamlet is named heir to the throne but is not allowed to return to Wittenberg University (where as Laertes is allowed to leave back for France) - Hamlet contemplates suicide but his religion is opposed to it - Hamlet is angry at Gertrude that she married so quickly and that there hasn ‘t been enough time to mourn the death of his father - Horatio tells Hamlet about the ghost. Hamlet agrees he will join watch that night. Scene 3 - Laertes warns Ophelia against Hamlet‘s love (youthful infatuation, he cannot choose his own wife, she is prone to danger) - Polonius forbid Ophelia from seeing Hamlet anymore
Scene 4 - Hamlet Horatio and Marcellus are on the gun platform. The ghost appears. - Horatio and Marcellus urge Hamlet not to follow the ghost. He follows ghost anyways and threaten them with death if they try to restrain him. Scene 5 - The ghost commands Hamlet to revenge - Hamlet eager to take immediate revenge - Ghost reveals he was killed by Claudius, and expresses disgust that Gertrude now sleeps with his brother. Claudius murder King Hamlet by pouring poison in his ear and died with no chance to confess his sins - The ghost urges Hamlet to revenge, but without harming gertrude. (ghost leaves) - He avoid telling Marcellus and Horatio what he knows - Hamlet then tells them put asks them to keep it a secret (swear an oath of silence on his sword) - They must also promise not to put on a show of knowing the true nature of any future stange behaviour by Hamlet Act II Scene 1 - Polonius orders Reynaldo to spy on Laertes and use indirect methods to find the truth about Laertes behavior in Paris. - Ophelia goes to Polonius telling him about Hamlet‘s strange behavior . Polonius suspects that Hamlet has been driven mad by Ophelia‘s rejection of his love and tells Claudius of his suspicions. Scene 2 - Claudius calls for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and informs them of Hamlet‘s weird behavior. - Voltemand reports that Fortinbras will no longer invade Denmark, but rather Poland. - Polonius reveals to Claudius that Ophelia‘s rejection of Hamlet‘s love has caused his madness and devises a plan to spy on a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia. - Hamlet questions why Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have come to Elsinore; by their own will, or were they sent for? Guildenstern admits to being sent for and Hamlet reflects upon his melancholy. - Hamlet welcomes the players and after seeing a speech given by the principal actor asks him to perform a play the next night, including a specially written speech. - Hamlet wonders at the player‘s ability to weep over a fictional character. This causes him to berate himself for doing nothing even considering his real reasons for revenge. - Hamlet stages a play showing a murder similar to King Hamlet‘s. He will watch Claudius and if he shows guilt it will prove his actions. Act III Scene 1 - Hamlet rejects Ophelia. - Claudius wants to send Hamlet to England
- Hamlet gets mad at all females Scene 2 - Claudius suspects Hamlet knows the truth - Mousetrap play is acted out. Hamlet gets proof that Claudius is guilty. - Hamlet gets angry at Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and understands that they are being used by Claudius Scene 3 - Claudius prays for divine mercy but he does not give up his crown or wife (hamlet doesn‘t kill him because he thinks he has been pardoned and therefore if he dies now he will go to heaven. Hamlet will wait until he has committed a sin to send him to hell.) Scene 4 - Hamlet gets angry at his mother, and kills Polonius - Hamlet tells Gertrude not to tell Claudius of his feigned madness - Hamlet plans to kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (who are involved in a plot against him) Act IV Scene 1 - Gertrude tells Claudius that Hamlet has killed Polonius - Claudius is fearful of his life (fears he might have been victim and that he will be blamed for Polonius‘s death) Scene 2 - Claudius decides to send hamlet away from Denmark - Hamlet does not reveal where he has hidden Polonius‘s body - Claudius cannot punish Hamlet as he is popular in Denmark Scene 3 - Hamlet taunts claudius with images of the corruption of dead bodies, then reveals where Polonius's body is hidden - Claudius realise he must use desperate measures - Claudius sends Hamlet away to England for execution Scene 4 - Fortinbras asks Claudius permission to pass through Danish territory in order to fight for a tiny, unprofitable part of Poland. Hamlet reflects on a sick society. Hamlet sees how men will give their lives for their country even if its just to conquer a scrap of land yet he cannot bring himself to avenge his father how was murdered horribly. - Hamlet criticises his delay in revenging his father‘s death. Is it forgetfulness or too much thought that stops him? Promoted by his encounter with Fortinbras‘s army, he resolves to speed to his revenge. (straight from the book) Scene 5 - Gertrude refuses to see Ophelia but is told that Ophelia is mad and needs pity. Gertrude agrees to admit Ophelia, but expresses guilt and misgivings about the future. Ophelia‘s first song recalls the death of her father. She replies enigmatically to Claudius, declares that the future is uncertain, then sings a song about the loss of virginity
- Ophelia sings of betrayed love. She talks distractedly. Claudius reflects that sorrows never come alone: Polonius killed, the citizens restless, Ophelia mad and Laertes a prey to rumour among the people. - Laertes burst in demanding what happened to his father followed by an angry mob demanding he be King -Claudius claims innocent to Polonius‘s death - Laertes is appalled by Ophelia's madness. It moves moves him even more strongly to revenge. Ophelia sings again of death. She distributes herbs and flowers - Ophelia again sings about her father‘s death. Claudius sympathises with Laertes‘s grief, and makes an offer: if Claudius proves to blame, Laertes can be king. If not, Claudius will help Laertes find justice and revenge. Scene 6 - Hamlet‘s letter reveals that he has been captured in a sea battle. By doing a deal with the pirates, he has returned to Denmark. He has sent letter to the king, and urgently wishes to meet Horatio. Scene 7 - Claudius claims that Hamlet not only killed Polonius, but was intent on killing him, too. He explains that he did not punish Hamlet for love of Gertrude, and Hamlet‘s popularity with the people. Claudius assures Letters that he will not let Hamlet‘s actions go unpunished. A Messenger brings letter from Hamlet, telling of his return to Denmark. Laertes welcomes the chance to be revenged on Hamlet - Claudius begins to hatch a new plot to kill Hamlet. He says that Hamlet envies Laertes, but delays naming the reason for that envy. - Claudius praises Laertes's swordsmanship. Laertes asks what the point of Claudius‘s work is. Claudius talks of how love fades with time. His words prompt Laertes to seek bloody revenge. - Claudius plans a duel in which one of the swords will not be blunted. Laertes offers to poison the sharpened foil. TO make Hamlet‘s death certain, Claudius proposes to poison Hamlet‘s drink. - Gertrude tells how Ophelia drowned: she fell from a willow as she tried to hand flowers on it, and was pulled under by her clothes. Laertes unsuccessfully fights back tears. Claudius lies about calming Laertes Act V Scene 1 - Hamlet comes face to face with the skull of the jester Yorick and is overwhelmed with the fact that Yorick, once so full of tricks and laughter is now merely a skull. He continues to reason that death turns kings into trivial objects. - At Ophelia‘s funeral Laertes jumps into her grave in grief and Hamlet follows, they have a scuffle which is quickly stopped. Hamlet pronounces that his love for Ophelia was greater than that of Laertes. Scene 2 - Hamlet tells Horatio how he found on the ship the letter from Claudius ordering his execution on arrival to England. Then tells of how he reversed the plan and ordered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern‘s executions but tha t he feels no remorse.
- Hamlet justifies his mission to kill Claudius and regrets his actions towards Laertes whom he sees as a fellow revenger. - Hamlet agrees to a duel with Laertes even against the advice of Horatio as he feels the time is right. He asks Laertes to pardon him. - Hamlet strikes Laertes twice and is offered the poison cup (in celebration) but he declines it - Gertrude drinks from the cup. - Laertes wounds Hamlet, they change rapiers and Hamlet wounds Laertes - Gertrude dies - Gertrude has left the game - Laertes reveals the treacherous plot - Hamlet wounds Claudius and forces him to drink from the poisoned cup - Claudius dies - Claudius has left the game - Laertes forgives Hamlet - Laertes dies - Laertes has left the game - Hamlet prevents Horatio from suicide, and asks him to report his (Hamlet‘s story) - Hamlet declares Fortinbras as his choice for King of Denmark - Hamlet dies - Hamlet has left the game - Fortinbras wonders at the sight of so many dead bodies - English ambassador reports that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. - Rosencrantz has left the game - Guildenstern has left the game - Horatio ask asks for the bodies to be placed on view and says he will tell how carnage came about. Fortinbras claims the throne of Denmark. He command that Hamlet be carried with due ceremony to the platform. - Da ENDz Themes Melancholy and Madness Appearance vs. Reality - How it is represented in the text The theme is echoed throughout the entire play but specifically by Hamlet, Claudius and Polonius. Everyone from Hamlet through to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern resonate with this theme (except for Horatio) even Ophelia is suspected of some feigned madness. Each character is only concerned about their own interests and will manipulate and deceive others in order to achieve their own goals . This is why Horatio has an important role in the text, Horatio‘s role in the play is to reflect only reality and not appearance and is evident at the end of the play shown in the lin e ―all this I can truly deliver ―, the use of the personal pronoun ‗I‘ and the word ‗truly‘ makes the line sound sincere and genuine showing his truthful nature. Shakespeare shows how the main character manipulate, deceive and even kill each other in order to achieve their own goals. It questions how far a person will go in order to reach their goals or obtain their desires.
The text reflects the morals and context of Shakespeare‘s time and its textual integrity ahs ensure that the play will resonate with many readers throughout time giving Shakespeare literary immortality. Horatio is used by Shakespeare as a direct allusion to Horace (the Roman poet) to give Hamlet literary immortality or as Jacob Sider Jost saud ― a medium of posthumous literary survival‖ . - Quotes Hamlet (Act 2 Scene 2) [Soliloquy] ―May be the Devil…As he is potent with such spirits , abuses me to damn me‖. In the passage, Hamlet questions the appearance of the ghost and claims that it could just be the devil telling him lies in order to commit a sin and therefore damn him. Showing how in the state of Denmark everything is questions as everyone has hidden intentions and each action should not be over look or be taken on face value as there may be a more sinister and hidden plot at hand. Hamlet (Act 2 Scene 2) [Soliloquy] ―I‘ll have these players/ Play something like the murder of my father/ Before mine uncle‖. Shows how Hamlet will deceive Claudius in order to get a reaction from him to prove his guilt highlighting the theme of appearance vs. reality. Hamlet (Act 2 Scene 2) [Soliloquy] ―Must like a whore unpack my heart with words‖ The simile in the line shows how Hamlet is ashamed at revealing his true feelings and that he cannot cope with the reality for the situation, hinting to the audience that the antic disposition (feigned madness) is not only to make him appear harmless to his enemies but in a way needed by him in order not to go completely insane (as he can say anything he wants and get away with it). Hamlet (Act 2 Scene 2) [Soliloquy] ―The play is the thing/Wherein I‘ll catch t he conscience of the King‖ Hamlet uses a rhyme at the end of his soliloquy to announce to the audience that ironically he will use false appearance in order to prove that Claudius‘s appearance and intentions are false and expose the truth. He speaks in prose throughout this passage to to his rage and extreme emotions, reflecting the seriousness of his speech. (the soliloquy in act 2 scene 2) (Lacks quote) At the beginning of the scene Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Polonius appear at the beginning each with the hidden intention of furthering their position with the King by spying on and betraying Hamlet Claudius‘s (Act 1 Scene 2) [Monologue] Another fine example of how the theme of Appearance vs. Reality is persistent and enduring throughout the play. In this passage, Claudius appears to be genuinely concerned about Denmark, Gertrude and Hamlet and sorrowful due to the death of his brother, saying ―Through yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death the memory be green.. and our whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe‖. However the audience later finds out that the reality of his character is immoral and powerhungry as shown in Act 3 Scene 3 ―I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder, My Crown mine own ambition and my queen‖. This is definite proof to the audience that Claudius is guilty and immoral whereas before in Act 1 Scene 2 he seemed to be virtuous showing how is appearance is not the same as his reality He uses emotive language such as the quote ―to our most valiant brother‖ and ―think of us as father‖. Claudius speaks in prose poetry throughout this passage because gus sentence structure is like that of prose however he uses colourful language like that in poetry in order to glatter the Danish court, however in reality he is only pretending on account of having learnt that
his father had been murdered by Claudius. It can bee seen that this passage, through the use of prose poetry and language techniques that Appearance vs. Reality is a vibrant theme underlying how the main characters especially Hamlet and Claudius act to give the impersonation of one thing but have different intentions. Human Condition - How it is represented in the text This theme concerns what it means to die and the very purpose of one‘s existence. Ham let is especially captivated by death when it stands before him, in the form of Yorick‘s skull. Furthermore, he continually addresses it in his soliloquies where he contemplates suicide. - Quotes Hamlet (Act 1 Scene 2) [Soliloquy] "O that this too too solid flesh would melt, | Thaw and resolve itself into a dew" This line, along with the entire soliloquy introduce Hamlet as depressed and melancholic. It also sheds light on the severe pain his fathers death has caused him. Hamlet (Act 1 Scene 2) [Soliloquy] ―Tis an unweeded garden‖ Metaphor where Hamlet compares his life to an ‗unweeded garden‘ as he believes his life is full of nothing but misfortune and calamity. This shows Hamlet‘s depressed nature and the grief the death of his father has caused him. Hamlet (Act 4 Scene 2) [Soliloquy] "There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow." Supports the notion that Hamlet is fascinated with death - he sees what would seem to be a meaningless death of a sparrow as something of great importance. Revenge - How it is represented in the text Revenge is show mainly by the characters Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras Hamlet seeks revenge on Claudius for killing his father. To a degree he wants revenge upon Gertrude for remarrying and forgetting his father so quickly. Laertes seeks revenge on Hamlet for the murder of his own father Polonius and after seeing the state that his sister was in (Ophelia). Fortinbras seeks revenge upon Denmark and its current rules for taking Norways land and killing his father (Old king Hamlet killed old Fortinbras). Each character seeks revenge due to the death of their father. - Quotes Hamlet (Act 2 Scene 2) [Soliloquy] ―Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell‖ Hamlet is driven to avenge his father by his belief that everything is predetermined and thus it is inevitable that he will murder Claudius in revenge. -Hamlet (Act 2 Scene 2) [Soliloquy] ―I have heard/ That guilty creatures sitting at a play/ Have been struck so to the soul, that presently/ They have pr oclaimed their malefactions;‖ Hamlet plans through deception and trickery to uncover Claudius‘ sin of murdering King Hamlet and in doing so, sins himself. In uncoverin Hamlet (Act 1 Scene 5) [Soliloquy] ―I have sworn‘t‖ shows Hamlet‘s dedication and decision towards the ghosts commandment. His fathers ghost has enforced this idea into him and now Hamlet must bear it. Hamlet has promised to enact his father's revenge.
Hamlet (Act 1 Scene 5) [Soliloquy] "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder". Hamlet promises to prove his love and do his duty. He tells the Ghost to tell the story of the murder, and the revenge will follow Sin and Salvation - Claudius sins by killing old king Hamlet - Hamlet sins by killing Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - Gertrude sins by marrying Claudius so soon and not mourning king Hamlet's death - Hamlet finds salvation by avenging his father and leaving the throne to 4Sn[Cu + Zn] The theme of sin and salvation is an essential component explored in Shakespeare's Hamlet. He ponders both the spiritual aftermath of death, embodied in the ghost, and the physical remains of the dead, such as Yorick‘s skull and the decaying corpses in the cemetery. Hamlet‘s beliefs in regards to sin and salvation reflect the beliefs of the Elizabethan era, which Shakespeare lived in (Heaven, Hell and Purgatory). Quotes g the sin of Claudius he believes he will find salvation in his revenge. Hamlet (Act Scene ) [Soliloquy] ―O that this too too solid flesh would melt…‖. In Hamlets first speech he ponders the consequences of creating his own demise. He concludes by realizing that suicide is not allowed by God an idea that is explored by Ophelia‘s death. Hamlet ( Act 3 Scene 3) [Soliloquy] ―To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and season‘d for his passage? No.‖ Hamlet‘s approach to the vengeance of his fathers death with trepidation (A feeling of fear or agitation about something that may happen). He believes he cannot kill Claudius in a moment of prayer, he wishes to kill him in a moment of sin. In a moment of irony it is revealed that Claudius‘ prayers are not true. Hamlet (Act 2 Scene 2) [Soliloquy] ―May be the Devil…As he is potent with such spirits , abuses me to damn me‖. Hamlet The Ghost of Hamlet‘s father is an important aspect of the investigation of this motif Hamlet is unsure whether or not to trust the apparition, this is a reflection on a common belief held in the Elizabethan time. Throughout the play Hamlet concerns himself with the idea of death and over the course of the play he considers death from many perspectives Hamlet ponders both the spiritual aftermath of death, embodied in the ghost, Ophelia‘s death and the physical reminders of the dead - the decaying corpses in the cemetery. Death is both the cause and consequence of revenge, and as a cause of this Hamlet reflects upon sin and salvation. Procrastination - How it is represented in the text - Hamlet takes a whole play to kill Claudius - Hamlet takes a whole play to do anything - can argue that is is delay and not procrastination - ―To be or not to be...‖ - dominant theme is seen in Hamlet Soliloquy 4 (Act 3 Scene 1) {refer to next section} Corruption
- Corruption is strongly represented through the characters of Claudius and Polonius. It is also represented in the characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to a lesser extent. Furthermore it is represented in Denmark as a whole. The lone exception to corruption is Horatio. This is why Horatio has an important role in the text, Horatio‘s role in the play is to reflect only truth and justice and is evident at the end of the play shown in the line ―all this I can truly deliver‖, the use of the personal pronoun ‗I‘ and word ‗truly‘ makes the line sound sincere and genuine, showing his truthful nature. Horatio is used by Shakespeare as a direct allusion to Horace ( the Roman poet) to give Hamlet (and also Shakespeare) literary immortality or as Jacob Sider Jost said ―a medium of posthumous literary survival‖. - Quotes Marcellus (Act 1 Scene 4) ―Something is rotten in the state of Denmark‖ Foreshadows the the corruption and sin contained within the rest of the play Claudius (Act 3 Scene 3) [Soliloquy] ―My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent‖ Claudius (Act 3 Scene 3) [Soliloquy] ―What if this cursed hand were thicker than itself with brother‘s blood, is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens to wash it white as snow?‖ (shows his guilt) Claudius (Act 3 Scene 3) [Soliloquy] ―Forgive me for my foul murder‘?‖ Claudius (Act 3 Scene 3) [Soliloquy] ―I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder my crown, mine own ambition, and my queen‖ Claudius (Act 3 Scene 3) [Soliloquy] ―corrupted currents of this world‖ Critic Comments G. Wilson Knight, for instance, writes at length about death in the play: "Death is over the whole play. Polonius and Ophelia die during the action, and Ophelia is buried before our eyes. Hamlet arranges the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The plot is set in motion by the murder of Hamlet's father, and the play opens with the apparition of the Ghost." And so on and so forth. Jacob Sider Jost said Horatio is ―a medium of posthumous literary survival‖ F Richmond fraught with ―painful sensitivity, tortured by the crudities of the action demanded of him‖, Kenneth Muir describe hamlet as being ―corrupted by the evil with which he is asked to deal‖ ―Hamlet could not escape the actions of his morality‖ according to AC Bradley. Analysis of Soliloquies Hamlet Soliloquy 1 Act 1 Scene 2: O that this too too solid flesh would melt (Spoken by Hamlet)
His soliloquy about suicide (―O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, / Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!‖ [I.ii.129–130]) ushers in what will be a central idea in the play. The world is painful to live in, but, within the Christian framework of the play, if one commits suicide to end that pain, one damns oneself to eternal suffering in hell. The question of the moral validity of suicide in an unbearably painful world will haunt the rest of the play; it reaches the height of its urgency in the most famous line in all of English literature: ―To be, or not to be: that is the question‖ (III.i.58). In this scene Hamlet mainly focuses on the a ppalling conditions of life, railing against Claudius‘s court as ―an unweeded garden, / That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature / Possess it merely‖ (I.ii.135–137). Throughout the play, we watch the gradual crumbling of the beliefs on which Hamlet‘s worldview has been based. Already, in this first soliloquy, religion has failed him, and his warped family situation can offer him no solace. In this soliloquy Hamlet is contemplating suicide. He cannot bear to live in this cruel world anymore and wishes to end it by killing himself. However he knows that he cannot do it as iit a sin against god and if he tries to escape this world by suicide he will damn himself (suffering in hell) for eternity (not a worthy trade-off). He is sad due to his fathers death and annoyed at his mothers quick marriage to his uncle. He remembers how deeply in love his parents seemed, and he curses the thought that now, not yet two month after his father‘s death, his mother has married his father‘s far inferior brother. Quotes ―‗gainst self -slaughter‖ - links to sin and salvation + suicide ―frailty thy name is women‖ - he thinks they always deceive him and are weak (always liars and cheat on you) ―She married. Oh most wicked speed, to post/With such dexterity to incestuous sheets‖ (similar, use men for their own need) + quote ― In this scene Hamlet mainly focuses on the appalling conditions of life, railing against Claud ius‘s court as ―an unweeded garden, / That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature / Possess it merely‖ Throughout the play, we watch the gradual crumbling of the beliefs on which Hamlet‘s worldview has been based. Already, in this first soliloquy, religion has failed him, and his warped family situation can offer him no solace. Hamlet Soliloquy 2 Act 1 Scene 5: O all you host of heaven! O earth! what else? (Spoken by Hamlet) Hamlet determines to remember only the Ghost‘s commandment to revenge. H e says will forget everything and not concern himself with it anymore and will only remember the commandment of the Ghost; to kill Claudius (Ghost: ―Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother‘s hand, Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatched:‖). Hamlet is ve ry angry at his uncle. Quote ―And thy commandment all alone shall live/Within the book and volume of my brain‖ Shows how Hamlet is only concerned about revenge now. He will not concern himself with anything else
infact he will forget about it in order to focus on the task of avenging his father and killing his uncle. Shows how is anger and rage are making him act abruptly and irrationally. ―I have sworn‘t‖ shows Hamlet‘s dedication and decision towards the ghosts commandment. His fathers ghost has enforced this idea into him and now Hamlet must bear it. Hamlet Soliloquy 3 Act 2 Scene 2: O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I (Spoken by Hamlet) He immediately begins cursing himself, bitterly commenting that the player who gave the speech was able to summon a depth of feeling and expression for long-dead figures who mean nothing to him, while Hamlet is unable to take action even with his far more powerful motives (murder of his father). He resolves to devise a trap for Claudius, forcing the king to watch a play whose plot closely resembles the murder of Hamlet‘s father; if the king is guilty, he thinks, he will surely show some visible sign of guilt when he sees his sin re-enacted on stage. Then, Hamlet reasons, he will obtain definitive proof of Claudius‘s guilt. ―The play‘s the thing,‖ he declares, ―wherein I‘ll catch the conscience of the king‖. Hamlet speaks in prose throughout this passage due to his rage and extreme emotions reflecting the seriousness of his speech. Quotes ―What would he do, had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have?‖ This quote shows how Hamlet is angry that the player can show his feelings and cry over nothing a fake situation in a play yet Hamlet who has a valid reason cannot, his father has been murdered and his mother taken by his murder yet he shows less emotion than the player. ―But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall‖ (gale = courage) Showing how Ham let is showing that the lacks the courage to take action against his uncle. Shows that he is finding it difficult to follow his father‘s command of vengeance. ―Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell‖ ―Must like a whore unpack my heart with words‖ Hamlet rebukes ( Express sharp disapproval or criticism of (someone) because of their behavior or actions.) himself for his emotional outburst. The whore part also references woman, and becomes a metaphor as he is comparing himself to women who, in his eyes, are weak and manipulative. ―very drab,/ A scullion!‖ (low-ranking servants (or prostitutes) ―‖I have heard/ That guilty creatures sitting at a play/ Have been struck so to the soul, that presently/ They have proclaimed their malefactions;‖ ―Play something like the murder of my father before mine uncle‖
Show how Hamlet thinks that if he reenacts the murder of his father before Claudius, he will get a reaction from him if he is guilty and therefore prove him guilty. Relates also to appearance vs. reality. ―The spirit that I have seen may be a devil...and perhaps out of my weakness and melancholy...abuses me to damn him‖ Hamlet is saying that the ghost he saw might not actually be his father but the devil who has taken on his father form. Therefore the ghost may be trying to get Hamlet to commit murder and experience eternal damnation in the afterlife. This relates to appearance vs. reality and Hamlet is going to use the play in order to get proof of his uncle ‘s sin and disprove the idea that the ghost is the devil trying to trick him. ―The play‘s the thing wherein I‘ll catch the conscience of the King‖ announce to the audience that he will use false appearance in order to prove Claudius‘s appearance and inten tions are false and show the true reality of events. Hamlet Soliloquy 4 Act 3 Scene 1: To be, or not to be (Spoken by Hamlet) Hamlet enters, speaking thoughtfully and agonizingly to himself about the question of whether to commit suicide to end the pai n of experience: ―To be, or not to be: that is the question‖ (III.i.58). He says that the miseries of life are such that no one would willingly bear them, except that they are afraid of ―something after death‖ (III.i.80). Because we do not know what to expect in the afterlife, we would rather ―bear those ills we have,‖ Hamlet says, ―than fly to others that we know not of‖ (III.i.83– 84). In mid-thought, Hamlet sees Ophelia approaching. Having received her orders from Polonius, she tells him that she wishes to return the tokens of love he has given her. Angrily, Hamlet denies having given her anything; he laments the dishonesty of beauty, and claims both to have loved Ophelia once and never to have loved her at all. Bitterly commenting on the wretchedness of humankind, he urges Ophelia to enter a nunnery rather than become a ―breeder of sinners‖ (III.i.122– 123). He criticizes women for making men behave like monsters and for contributing to the world‘s dishonesty by painting their faces to appear more beautiful than they are. Working himself into a rage, Hamlet denounces Ophelia, women, and humankind in general, saying that he wishes to end all marriages. As he storms out, Ophelia mourns the ―noble mind‖ that has now lapsed into apparent madness (III.i.149). Quotes ―To be, or not to be, that is the question‖ ―To sleep, perchance to dream‖ need a quote showing pain and suffering (whip one) ―For that sleep of death what dreams may come‖
―thus conscience does make cowards of us all ―and lose the name of action‖ ―Be all my sins remembered‖
Hamlet Soliloquy 5 Act 3 Scene 3 : Oh my offence is rank, it smells to heaven (Spoken by Claudius) Hamlet slips quietly into the room and steels himself to kill the unseeing Claudius. But suddenly it occurs to him that if he kills Claudius while he is praying, he will end the king‘s life at the moment when he was seeking forgiveness for his sins, sending Claudius‘s soul to heaven. This is hardly an adequate revenge, Hamlet thinks, especially si nce Claudius, by killing Hamlet‘s father before he had time to make his last confession, ensured that his brother would not go to heaven. Hamlet decides to wait, resolving to kill Claudius when the king is sinning —when he is either drunk, angry, or lustful. He leaves. Claudius rises and declares that he has been unable to pray sincerely: ―My words fly up, my thoughts remain below‖ (III.iii.96). When Claudius prays, the audience is given real certainty that Claudius murdered his brother: a full, spontaneous confession, even though nobody else hears it. This only heightens our sense that the climax of the play is due to arrive. Quotes ―My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent‖ ―What if this cursed hand were thicker than itself with brother‘s blood, is th ere not rain enough in the sweet heavens to wash it white as snow?‖ (shows his guilt) ―‗Forgive me for my foul murder‘?‖ ―I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder my crown, mine own ambition, and my queen‖ ―corrupted currents of this world‖ ―Buys out the law. But ‗tis not so above‖ ―My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go. Hamlet Soliloquy 6 Act 3 Scene 3 : Now might I do it pat (Spoken by Hamlet) Take summary and analysis from previous part. Basically Hamlet sees Claudius praying and get ready to kill him however he shocks the audience saying that if he kills Claudius now he will go
to heaven (as Claudiu is praying and confessing his sins) and he thinks this is not just. Hamlet then decides to wait until Claudius has committed a sin in order to kill him so that he may go to hell. This shows either Hamlets ‗dark side or his procrastination and his mind playing tricks on him to delay the act of murder (which is inevitable) Quotes ―And now I‘ll do‘t...And so am I revenged. That would be scanned‖ I will do it not and enact revenge, but i need to think it over. This translation of the line shows his delaying and procrastinating nature. He cannot bring himself to do it, as he is not blinded by rage (unlike the final scene) the following part is a build up on this procrastination. In my opinion is not really evil his brain is just tricking him because he know he cannot do the act in fact he is harmless but his subconscious is giving him reason not to believe it and make it appear as he has something more sinister planned. Again this is just my opinion. ―Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge‖ This is legal payment not punishment ―When hi is fit and seasoned for his passage? No.‖ He wil l not kill him now as he will go to heaven. ―his soul may be as damned and black as hell whereto it goes. Shows he will wait for Claudiu to commit a crime before he kills him and sends him to hell. ―
Hamlet Soliloquy 7 Act 4 Scene 4 : How all occasions do inform against me (Spoken by Hamlet) On a nearby plain in Denmark, young Prince Fortinbras marches at the head of his army, traveling through Denmark on the way to attack Poland. Fortinbras orders his captain to go and ask the King of Denmark for permission to travel through his lands. On his way, the captain encounters Hamlet, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern on their way to the ship bound for England. The captain informs them that the Norwegian army rides to fight the Poles. Hamlet asks about the basis of the conflict, and the man tells him that the armies will fight over ―a little patch of land / That hath in it no profit but the name‖ (IV.iv.98– 99). Astonished by the thought that a bloody war could be fought over something so insignificant, Hamlet marvels that human beings are able to act so violently and purposefully for so little gain. By comparison, Hamlet has a great deal to gain from seeking his own bloody revenge on Claudius, and yet he still delays and fails to act toward his purpose. Disgusted with himself for having failed to gain his revenge on Claudius, Hamlet declares that from this moment on, his thoughts will be bloody. Hamlet criticise his delay in revenging his father‘s death. Is it forgetfulness or too much thought that stops him? Prompted by his encounter with Fortinbras‘s army, he resolves to speed to his revenge Quotes
―To all that fortune, death and danger dare, even for an egg -shell‖ Shows how the Norwegians will fight and die for nothing yet he (Hamlet) cannot fight or kill Claudius even though he has a good reason to. ―When honour‘s at the stake‖ ―How stand I then, that have a father killed, a mother stained, excitements of my reason and my blood, and let all sleep while to my shame i see the imminent death of twenty thousand men, that for a fantasy and a trick of fame go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot‖ ―Oh from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth‖
