Hamlet
The most performed, most analyzed, and most debated play in the world — Hamlet confronts its protagonist with an impossible situation: avenge his father's murder, but the command comes from a ghost, the murderer is the king, and the prince's own consciousness paralyzes action. The result is a meditation on mortality, action, madness, and the limits of thought.
At a Glance
- Genre: Tragedy (Revenge Tragedy)
- Approximate date: c. 1600–1601
- Setting: Elsinore, Denmark
- Source: Saxo Grammaticus's Historia Danica; François Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques; a lost earlier Hamlet play
- Acts: 5
Dramatis Personæ
| Character | Description |
|---|---|
| HAMLET | Prince of Denmark; philosopher-prince; son of the murdered king |
| CLAUDIUS | King of Denmark; Hamlet's uncle; the murderer |
| THE GHOST | Of the late King Hamlet; Claudius's brother |
| GERTRUDE | The Queen; Hamlet's mother; now Claudius's wife |
| POLONIUS | Lord Chamberlain; adviser; father of Laertes and Ophelia |
| LAERTES | Polonius's son; impetuous avenger; instrument of Claudius |
| OPHELIA | Polonius's daughter; Hamlet's beloved; goes mad; drowns |
| HORATIO | Hamlet's loyal university friend; survives to tell the story |
| FORTINBRAS | Prince of Norway; action where Hamlet is delay |
| VOLTEMAND and CORNELIUS | Courtiers; sent to Norway |
| ROSENCRANTZ | Courtier; Hamlet's school-fellow; Claudius's spy |
| GUILDENSTERN | Courtier; Hamlet's school-fellow; Claudius's spy |
| MARCELLUS | Officer; sees the Ghost first |
| BARNARDO | Officer |
| FRANCISCO | A soldier; first speaker of the play |
| OSRIC | Affected courtier; manages the final duel |
| REYNALDO | Polonius's servant; sent to spy on Laertes |
| PLAYERS | Who perform "The Mousetrap" |
| A PRIEST | Officiates at Ophelia's burial |
| TWO CLOWNS (GRAVE-DIGGERS) | Provide comic-philosophical commentary |
| A CAPTAIN | Fortinbras's officer |
Plot Summary
Act I: Sentinels see the Ghost of King Hamlet. Horatio brings Hamlet to see it; the Ghost tells him he was murdered by Claudius (who poured poison in his ear), and demands revenge. Hamlet vows to act but immediately adopts an "antic disposition" (pretended madness) to investigate further. Polonius forbids Ophelia to see Hamlet.
Act II: Claudius and Polonius spy on Hamlet. Hamlet greets old school-friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with suspicion. A troupe of players arrives; Hamlet plans to stage a play ("The Murder of Gonzago," or "The Mousetrap") reproducing his father's murder to "catch the conscience of the king." His great soliloquy: "O what a rogue and peasant slave am I!"
Act III: "To be, or not to be" — Hamlet's meditation on existence, death, and the failure of action. He treats Ophelia harshly (the "nunnery scene"). The play-within-a-play: Claudius rises and leaves — proof of his guilt to Hamlet. Hamlet is called to his mother's chambers; on the way, he finds Claudius praying and does not kill him (killing him in prayer would send him to heaven). In Gertrude's closet, Hamlet kills Polonius (hidden behind the arras) thinking him Claudius. The Ghost reappears. Gertrude cannot see it.
Act IV: Claudius, alarmed, sends Hamlet to England with letters ordering his execution. Ophelia, mad with grief for her father, distributes flowers and drowns. Laertes returns, furious, to avenge Polonius. Claudius devises a plot: Laertes will fight Hamlet with a poisoned sword; a poisoned cup is prepared as backup. Horatio receives Hamlet's letter: he has escaped, returned to Denmark.
Act V: In the churchyard, Hamlet and Horatio watch Ophelia's burial. Hamlet and Laertes grapple in her grave. The duel: Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned sword; they exchange weapons; Hamlet wounds Laertes. Gertrude drinks from the poisoned cup accidentally. Laertes confesses the plot; Hamlet kills Claudius with the poisoned sword and forces the poisoned drink on him. Hamlet, dying, asks Horatio to tell his story. Fortinbras arrives and claims the throne.
Key Themes
- Indecision and the limits of thought — Hamlet is the supreme instance of the overmeditative mind that cannot act
- Mortality — "To be or not to be"; the skull of Yorick; every character meditates on death
- Appearance vs. reality — Denmark is rotten; nothing is what it seems
- Madness — real and feigned — Hamlet's "antic disposition" is partly performed, partly real; Ophelia's is fully real
- Revenge and justice — can private revenge satisfy the demands of justice?
Notable Quotations
"To be, or not to be, that is the question." *(III.i)*
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks." *(Gertrude, III.ii)*
"Get thee to a nunnery." *(Hamlet to Ophelia, III.i)*
"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio." *(V.i)*
"The rest is silence." *(Hamlet, dying, V.ii)*
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." *(I.v)*
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." *(Marcellus, I.iv)*
LibriVox Recording
Hamlet audiobook on LibriVox — Free public domain recording. (Multiple versions available)
Cross-references
- Tragedies — genre context; one of the four "great tragedies"
- Othello — another revenge-driven tragedy of deception
- King Lear — parent-child relationships in tragedy
- Macbeth — ambition, guilt, and the consequences of murder
- Julius Caesar — Brutus's dilemma prefigures Hamlet's