MAIN MESSAGE: Indecision leads to p

MAIN MESSAGE: Indecision leads to personal tragedy, as Hamlet's inability to take decisive action ultimately results in many of the characters dying,including himself.
SIGNIFICANCE: Shakespeare achieved artistic maturity in this work through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder.
SYMBOL: Yorick’s Skull
FORESHADOWING: The ghost, which appears at the beginning of the play is to foreshadow an ominous future for Denmark.
Plot Overview
Prince Hamlet has been summoned home to Denmark from university of Wittenberg in Germany to attend his father’s funeral. Then he is depressed to find that his mother Queen Gertrude weds Hamlet’s Uncle Claudius, the dead king’s brother. To Hamlet, the marriage is “foul incest”. Worse still, Claudius has himself crowned King despite the fact that Hamlet is his father’s heir to the throne. Hamlet suspects foul play.
When his father’s ghost visits the castle, Hamlet’s suspicions are confirmed. The Ghost complains that he is unable to rest in peace because he was murdered. Claudius, says the Ghost, poured poison in King Hamlet’s ear while the old king napped. He entreats Hamlet to avenge his death, but to spare Gertrude, to let Heaven decide her fate.
Hamlet vows to affect madness — puts “an antic disposition on” —to disguise his feelings and to enable him to observe the interactions in the castle, but finds himself more confused than ever. In his persistent confusion, he questions the Ghost’s trustworthiness. What if the Ghost is not a true spirit, but rather an agent of the devil sent to tempt him? Hamlet agonizes over what he perceives as his cowardice because he cannot stop himself from thinking.
To satisfy his growing questions about whether Hamlet is feign ingmadness, Claudius makes three attempts to verify Hamlet’s sanity. In his endeavour he makes use of Ophelia, the daughter of the lord chamberlain, Polonius; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, university friends of Hamlet; and finally Polonius himself. Polonius, sure that Hamlet’s madness is the result of disappointed love for Ophelia – for Polonius has instructed her to keep aloof from the prince –, arranges a chance encounter between the lovers that he and the king can overhear. Hamlet is not deceived. He bitterly rejects Ophelia and uses the ocassion to utter what Claudius alone will recognize as a warning.
In order to test the Ghost’s sincerity, Hamlet enlists the help of a troupe of players who perform a play called The Murder of Gonzago to which Hamlet has added scenes that recreate the murder the Ghost described. Hamlet calls the revised play The Mousetrap, and the ploy proves a success. As Hamlet hopes, Claudius’ reaction to the staged murder reveals the King to be conscience-stricken: Claudius leaves the room in the midst of the performance.
On his way to Queen Gertrude ‘s chamber Hamlet comes upon Claudius kneeling in prayer. He overhears the king’s plea for forgiveness for the act that procured him his crown and his queen. Convinced now that Claudius is a villain, Hamlet resolves to kill him. But, as Hamlet observes, “conscience doth make cowards of us all.” He reasons that the present circumstance seems too much like absolution and that he should reserve his revenge for some occasion when Claudius would be certain to be followed by damnation. While Hamlet is having a talk to the queen, Polonius has concealed himself behind a tapestry in the hope that Hamlet will reveal the cause of his odd behaviour. Hamlet’s response is so violent that Gertrude screams, causing Polonius to cry out for help. Thinking it is the king, Hamlet thrusts his sword through the tapestry and kills Polonius.
Claudius then sends Hamlet to England, escorted by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, obstensibly for the prince’s safety but in fact to have him executed on his arrival.During Hamlet’s absence Laertes, the son of Polonius returns to Denmark from France to avenge his father’s death. Laertes finds that his sister Ophelia, grief striken by his father’s death at the hands of the man she loves, has gone mad. Her suicide by drowning increases Laertes’s desire for revenge.
Meanwhile, Hamlet is attacked by the sea pirates and persuades them to return him to Denmark. Rosencrantz and Guildendtern, however, continue on their way to England; Hamlet has replaced their written order for his execution with another naming them as victims. When Hamlet returns unexpectedly to witness the funeral of Ophelia, the king suggests to the vengeful Laertes that he challenge Hamlet to a fencing match in which Laertes will use an unprotected foil tipped with poison.
As a backup, should Laertes’s skill or nerve fail, the king prepares a poisoned cup of wine to offer Hamlet. In a scuffle in the midst of the sword fight, however, Hamlet retrieves the sword from Laertes and cuts him. The lethal poison kills Laertes. Before he dies, Laertes tells Hamlet that because Hamlet has already been cut with the same sword, he too will shortly die.
Gertrude, believing that Hamlet’s hitting Laertes means her son is winning the fencing match, has drunk a toast to her son from the poisoned cup Claudius had intended for Hamlet. The Queen dies.
As Laertes lies dying, he confesses to Hamlet his part in the plot and points to the king as the chief instigator. Finally enraged, Hamlet stabs Claudius with the poisoned sword and then pours the last of the poisoned wine down the King’s throat. Before he dies, Hamlet declares that the throne should now pass to Prince Fortinbras of Norway, and he implores his true friend Horatio to accurately explain the events to the world that have led to the bloodbath at Elsinore.
The play ends as Prince Fortinbras, in his first act as King of Denmark, orders a funeral with full military honors for slain Prince Hamlet.
Guiding Questions
1. Why does Hamlet pretend to be mad?
2. How is Hamlet sure that Claudius killed his father?
3. Why does Hamlet hesitate to kill the murderer of his father?
4. How does Claudius attempt to get rid of Hamlet?
5. How do the principal characters (Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia,
Laertes, Polonius) of the play die?
13
Hamlet ‘s Soliloquys
Soliloquy is a monologue in which a character reveals inner thoughts,
motivations, and feelings. Shakespeare used the technique often, and his soliloquys
are poetic and rich in imagery.
Soliloquy One (Act One, Scene Five)
O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?
And shall I couple hell? O, fie! Hold, hold my heart,
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!
Ay, thou poor ghost while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I'' ll wipe away all trivial fond records
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain
Unmix'd with baser matter; yes, by heaven!
O most pernicious woman!
O villain, smiling damned villain!
My tables , meet it is I set it down
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain!
At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark (writing)
So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word;
It is "Adieu! Remember me".
I have sworn't.
Guiding Questions
1. What is the background of the soliloquy?
2. What are Hamlet’s feelings at the beginning of the soliloquy?Why?
3. What does Hamlet promise to himself to do?
4. What does Hamlet discover about his mother and his uncle?
5. What does Hamlet swear to do?