Hamlet: Key Facts

Al Qalam University College
English Department - Third stage- Drama

Assistant . Lecturer: Azhin Khalil Mahmoud
Hamlet
Key Facts
Full Title The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Author William Shakespeare
Type of Work Play
Genre Tragedy, revenge tragedy
Language English
Time And Place Written London, England, early seventeenth century (probably
1600–1602)
Protagonist Hamlet
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 the arras in 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.
Falling Action Hamlet is sent to England to be killed; Hamlet returns to Denmark and
confronts Laertes at Ophelia‘s funeral; the fencing match; the deaths of the royal
family
Setting (Time) The late medieval period, though the play‘s chronological setting is
notoriously imprecise.
Settings (Place) Denmark
Foreshadowing The ghost, which is taken to foreshadow an ominous future for

Denmark.
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Tone Dark, ironic, melancholy, passionate, contemplative, 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)
Shakespeare and Hamlet Background
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet , is

a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is
Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark,
the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has
murdered Hamlet's father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet's mother.
Hamlet is considered among the most powerful and influential works of world
literature. It was one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime. 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.
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 part-
owner of the Globe Theater. His career bridged the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I ,
and he was a favorite of both monarchs. Indeed, James granted Shakespeare‘s
company the 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. At the time of Shakespeare‘s death, literary luminaries such as
Ben Jonson 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
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eighteenth century his reputation as the greatest poet ever to write in English was well
established. 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 are becoming so influential as to profoundly affect the
course of Western literature and culture ever after.
The Background of Hamlet's drama
The story of the play originates in the legend of Hamlet (Amleth) as recounted in the
twelfth-century Danish History, a Latin text by Saxo the Grammarian. This version
was later adapted into French by Francois de Belleforest in 1570. In it, the
unscrupulous Feng kills his brother Horwendil and marries his brother's wife Gerutha.
Horwendil's and Gerutha's son Amleth, although still young, decides to avenge his
father's murder. He acts the fool in order to avoid suspicion, a strategy which succeeds
in making the others think him harmless. With his mother's active support, Amleth
succeeds in killing Feng. He is then proclaimed King of Denmark. This story is on the
whole more straightforward than Shakespeare‘s adaptation. Shakespeare was likely
aware of Saxon's version, along with another play performed in 1589 in which a ghost
apparently calls out, "Hamlet, revenge!" The 1589 play is lost, leading to much
scholarly speculation as to who might have authored it. Most scholars attribute it to
Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish Tragedy of 1587. The Spanish Tragedy shares
many elements with Hamlet, such as a ghost seeking revenge, a secret crime, a play-
within-a-play, a tortured hero who feigns madness, and a heroine who goes mad and
commits suicide.
The Spanish Tragedy was one of the first and most popular Elizabethan "revenge
tragedies," a genre that Hamlet both epitomizes and complicates. Revenge tragedies
typically share a few plot points. In all of them, some grievous insult or wrong requires
vengeance. Often in these plays the conventional means of retribution (the courts of
law, generally speaking) are unavailable because of the power of the guilty person or
persons, who is often noble if not royal. Revenge tragedies also emphasize the
subjective struggle of the avenger, who often fights (or feigns) madness and generally
wallows in the moral difficulties of his situation. Finally, revenge tragedies end up
with a dramatic bloodbath in which the guilty party is horribly and often ritualistically
killed. Hamlet is not Shakespeare's first revenge tragedy - that distinction belongs
to Titus Andronicus, a Marlovian horror-show containing all of the elements just
mentioned. But Hamlet is generally considered the greatest revenge tragedy, if not the
greatest tragedy, if not the greatest play, ever written.
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The central reason for the play's eminence is the character of Hamlet. His brooding,
erratic nature has been analyzed by many of the most famous thinkers and artists of the
past four centuries. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described him as a poet - a sensitive
man who is too weak to deal with the political pressures of Denmark. Austrian
psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud viewed Hamlet in terms of an ―Oedipus complex,‖ an
overwhelming sexual desire for his mother. This complex is usually associated with
the wish to kill one‘s father and sleep with one‘s mother. Freud points out that
Hamlet's uncle has usurped his father's rightful place, and therefore has replaced his
father as the man who must die. However, Freud is careful to note that Hamlet
represents modern man precisely because he does not kill Claudius in order to sleep
with his mother, but rather kills him to revenge his father‘s death. Political
interpretations of Hamlet also abound, in which Hamlet stands for the spirit of political
resistance, or represents a challenge to a corrupt regime. Stephen Greenblatt, the editor
of the Norton Edition of Shakespeare, views these interpretive attempts of Hamlet as
mirrors for the interpretation within the play itself - many of the characters who have
to deal with Hamlet, including Polonius, Claudius, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,
also develop theories to explain his behavior, none of which really succeeds in doing
so. Indeed, nothing sure can be said about Hamlet except that it has been a perennial
occasion for brilliant minds to explore some of the unanswerable questions of human
existence.
Hamlet Character List
Hamlet
The son of Old Hamlet and Gertrude, thus Prince of Denmark. The ghost of Old
Hamlet charges him with the task of killing his uncle, Claudius, for killing him and
usurping the throne of Denmark. Hamlet is a moody, theatrical, witty, brilliant young
man, perpetually fascinated and tormented by doubts and introspection. It is famously
difficult to pin down his true thoughts and feelings -- does he love Ophelia, and does
he really intend to kill Claudius? In fact, it often seems as though Hamlet pursues lines
of thought and emotion merely for their experimental value, testing this or that idea
without any interest in applying his resolutions in the practical world. The variety of
his moods, from manic to somber, seems to cover much of the range of human
possibility.
Old Hamlet
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The former King of Denmark. Old Hamlet appears as a ghost and exhorts his son to
kill Claudius, whom he claims has killed him in order to secure the throne and the
queen of Denmark. Hamlet fears (or at least says he fears) that the ghost is an
imposter, an evil spirit sent to lure him to hell. Old Hamlet's ghost reappears in Act
Three of the play when Hamlet goes too far in berating his mother. After this second
appearance, we hear and see no more of him.
Claudius
Old Hamlet's brother, Hamlet's uncle, and Gertrude's newlywed husband. He murdered
his brother in order to seize the throne and subsequently married Gertrude, his
erstwhile sister-in-law. Claudius appears to be a rather dull man who is fond of the
pleasures of the flesh, sex and drinking. Only as the play goes on do we become
certain that he is indeed guilty of murder and usurpation. Claudius is the only character
aside from Hamlet to have a soliloquy in the play. When he is convinced that Hamlet
has found him out, Claudius eventually schemes to have his nephew-cum-son
murdered.
Gertrude
Old Hamlet's widow and Claudius' wife. She seems unaware that Claudius killed her
former husband. Gertrude loves Hamlet tremendously, while Hamlet has very mixed
feelings about her for marrying the (in his eyes) inferior Claudius after her first
husband's death. Hamlet attributes this need for a husband to her lustiness. Gertrude
figures prominently in many of the major scenes in the play, including the killing of
Polonius and the death of Ophelia.
Horatio
Hamlet's closest friend. They know each other from the University of Wittenberg,
where they are both students. Horatio is presented as a studious, skeptical young man,
perhaps more serious and less ingenious than Hamlet but more than capable of trading
witticisms with his good friend. In a moving tribute just before the play-within-the-
play begins, in Act Two scene two, Hamlet praises Horatio as his soul's choice and
declares that he loves Horatio because he is "not passion's slave" but is rather good-
humored and philosophical through all of life's buffets. At the end of the play, Hamlet
charges Horatio with the task of explaining the pile of bodies to the confused
onlookers in court.
Polonius
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The father of Ophelia and Laertes and the chief adviser to the throne of Denmark.
Polonius is a windy, pedantic, interfering, suspicious, silly old man, a "rash, intruding
fool," in Hamlet's phrase. Polonius is forever fomenting intrigue and hiding behind
tapestries to spy. He hatches the theory that Ophelia caused Hamlet to go mad by
rejecting him. Polonius' demise is fitting to his flaws. Hamlet accidentally kills the old
man while he eavesdrops behind an arras in Gertrude's bedroom. Polonius' death
causes his daughter to go mad.
Ophelia
The daughter of Polonius and sister of Laertes. Ophelia has received several tributes of
love from Hamlet but rejects him after her father orders her to do so. In general,
Ophelia is controlled by the men in her life, moved around like a pawn in their scheme
to discover Hamlet's distemper. Moreover, Ophelia is regularly mocked by Hamlet and
lectured by her father and brother about her sexuality. She goes mad after Hamlet
murders Polonius. She later drowns.
Laertes
Polonius' son and Ophelia's brother. Laertes is an impetuous young man who lives
primarily in Paris, France. We see him at the beginning of the play at the celebration of
Claudius and Gertrude's wedding. He then returns to Paris, only to return in Act Four
with an angry entourage after his father's death at Hamlet's hands. He and Claudius
conspire to kill Hamlet in the course of a duel between Laertes and the prince.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Friends of Hamlet's from the University of Wittenberg. Claudius invites them to court
in order to spy on Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are often treated as comic
relief; they are sycophantic, vaguely absurd fellows. After Hamlet kills Polonius,
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are assigned to accompany Hamlet to England. They
carry a letter from Claudius asking the English king to kill Hamlet upon his arrival.
Hamlet discovers this plot and alters the letter so that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
are put to death instead. We learn that they have indeed been executed at the very close
of the play.
Fortinbras
The Prince of Norway. In many ways his story is parallel to Hamlet's: he too has lost
his father by violence (Old Hamlet killed Old Fortinbras in single combat); he too is
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impeded from ascending the throne by an interfering uncle. But despite their
biographical similarities, Fortinbras and Hamlet are constitutional opposites. Where
Hamlet is pensive and mercurial, Fortinbras is all action. He leads an army through
Denmark in order to attack disputed territory in Poland. At the end of the play, and
with Hamlet's dying assent, Fortinbras assumes the crown of Denmark.
Osric
The ludicrous, flowery, stupid courtier who invites Hamlet to fence with Laertes, then
serves as referee during the contest.
The gravediggers
Two "clowns" (roles played by comic actors), a principal gravedigger and his assistant.
They figure only in one scene -- Act Five scene one -- yet never fail to make a big
impression on readers and audience members. The primary gravedigger is a very witty
man, macabre and intelligent, who is the only character in the play capable of trading
barbs with Hamlet. They are the only speaking representatives of the lower classes in
the play and their perspective is a remarkable contrast to that of the nobles.
The players
A group of (presumably English) actors who arrive in Denmark. Hamlet knows this
company well and listens, enraptured, while the chief player recites a long speech
about the death of Priam and the wrath of Hecuba. Hamlet uses the players to stage an
adaptation of "The Death of Gonzago" which he calls "The Mousetrap" -- a play that
reprises almost perfectly the account of Old Hamlet's death as told by the ghost -- in
order to be sure of Claudius' guilt.
A Pries
Charged with performing the rites at Ophelia's funeral. Because of the doubtful
circumstances of Ophelia's death, the priest refuses to do more than the bare minimum
as she is interred.
Reynaldo
Polonius' servant, sent to check on Laertes in Paris. He receives absurdly detailed

instructions in espionage from his master.
Bernardo
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A soldier who is among the first to see the ghost of Old Hamlet.
Marcellus
A soldier who is among the first to see the ghost of Old Hamlet.
Francisco
A soldier.
Voltemand
A courtier.
Cornelius
A courtier.
A Captain
A captain in Fortinbras' army who speaks briefly with Hamlet.
Ambassadors
Ambassadors from England who arrive at the play's close to announce that
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead
Hamlet Summary and Analysis of Act 1
Scene1
The play opens during a bitterly cold night watch outside of the royal Danish palace.
There is a changing of the guards: Bernardo replaces Francisco. Soon two more
characters arrive, Horatio and Marcellus. We learn that Bernardo and Marcellus, two
soldiers, have witnessed an extraordinary sight on both of the previous nights‘
watches: the ghost of the former King of Denmark, Old Hamlet, has appeared before
them in full armor. On this third night, they‘ve welcomed Horatio, a scholar and a
skeptic who has just arrived in Denmark, to verify their ghost sighting. Horatio
initially expresses doubt that the ghost will appear. Suddenly, it does. The two soldiers
charge Horatio to speak to the ghost but he does not. The ghost disappears just as
suddenly as it arrived.
Soon after the ghost‘s disappearance, Marcellus asks the other two why there has been
such a massive mobilization of Danish war forces recently. Horatio answers, saying
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that the Danish army is preparing for a possible invasion by Fortinbras, Prince of
Norway. We learn that Fortinbras‘ father (also named Fortinbras), was killed many
years before in single combat with Old Hamlet, the now-deceased king whose ghost
we have just seen. Now that Old Hamlet has died, presumably weakening the Danes,
there is a rumor that Fortinbras plans to invade Denmark and claim that lands that were
forfeit after his father‘s death.
After Horatio has finished explaining this political backstory, the ghost of Old Hamlet
appears once more. This time Horatio does try to speak to the ghost. When the ghost
remains silent, Horatio tells Marcellus and Bernardo to try to detain it; they strike at
the ghost with their spears but jab only air. A rooster crows just as the ghost appears
ready to reply to Horatio at last. This sound startles the ghost away. Horatio decides to
tell Prince Hamlet, Old Hamlet‘s son, about the apparition, and the others agree.
Scene 2
This scene begins at the court of Claudius and Gertrude, the King and Queen of
Denmark. They have just been married. This marriage has followed quickly after the
death of the former King of Denmark, Old Hamlet, Claudius‘ brother. Claudius
addresses the quickness of the marriage, representing himself as in mourning for a lost
brother even as he is joyful for a new wife, his one-time sister. Claudius also addresses
the question of the young Fortinbras‘ proposed invasion. He says that he has spoken to
Fortinbras‘ uncle, the King of Norway, who has made Fortinbras promise to halt any
plans to invade Denmark. Claudius sends Cornelius and Voltemand , two courtiers, to
Norway to settle this business. Finally, Claudius turns to Laertes, the son of his trusted
counselor, Polonius. Laertes expresses a wish to return to France and Claudius grants
permission.
At this point, Prince Hamlet, who has been standing apart from the king‘s audience
this whole time, speaks the first of his many lines. Claudius asks Hamlet why he is still
so gloomy. Hamlet‘s replies are evasive, cynical, and punning. He declares that his
grief upon losing his father still deeply affects him. Claudius goes into a speech about
the unnaturalness of prolonged grief; to lose one‘s father is painful but common, he
says, and Hamlet should accept this as nature‘s course. He expresses a wish that
Hamlet remain with them in Denmark instead of returning to Wittenberg, where he is a
student, and when Gertrude seconds this wish, Hamlet agrees. The king, queen, and all
their retinue then exit the stage, leaving Hamlet alone.
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In his first soliloquy, Hamlet expresses the depths of his melancholy and his disgust at
his mother‘s hastily marrying Claudius after the death of his father. He declares his
father to be many times Claudius‘ superior as a man. After this soliloquy, Horatio,
Marcellus and Bernardo enter. At first, Hamlet is too aggrieved to recognize Horatio,
his old school friend, but finally he welcomes Horatio warmly. After chatting about the
state, Horatio tells Hamlet that he has seen his dead father recently – the night before.
Hamlet asks him to explain, and Horatio tells the story of the appearance of the ghost.
Hamlet decides to attend the watch that very night in hopes of seeing the ghost
himself.
Scene 3
As the scene opens, Laertes is taking his leave of his sister, Ophelia. In the course of
their farewells, Laertes advises her about her relationship with Hamlet, with whom she
has been spending much of her time lately. He tells her to forget him because he, as
Prince of Denmark, is too much to hope for as a husband. He adds that she should
vigilantly guard her chastity, her most prized treasure as a woman. Ophelia agrees to
attend to his lesson. As Laertes is about to leave, his father, Polonius, arrives. Polonius
gives Laertes a blessing and a battery of advice before sending his son on his way.
With Laertes gone, Polonius asks Ophelia what they had been talking about as he
arrived. Ophelia confesses that they had been talking about her relationship with
Hamlet. She tells Polonius that Hamlet has made many honorable declarations of love
to her. Polonius pooh-poohs these declarations, saying, much as Laertes did, that
Hamlet wants nothing more than to assail her chastity and then leave her. He makes
his daughter promise that she will spend no more time alone with Hamlet. Ophelia
says that she will obey.
Scene 4
At the night watch, Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus await the reappearance of the
ghost. They hear cannons from the castle and Hamlet tells them that this is a sign that
Claudius is drinking pledges. Hamlet goes on a short tirade against the Danish custom
of drinking heavily. His speech is no sooner over than the ghost appears again. Hamlet
immediately addresses the ghost, imploring it to speak. The ghost beckons for Hamlet
to come away, apart from the others. Horatio and Marcellus attempt to keep Hamlet
from following the ghost, warning him of the many evils that might befall him. Hamlet
doesn‘t listen. He threatens to kill Horatio or Marcellus if they detain him, and when
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they stay back he follows the ghost offstage. Horatio and Marcellus determine to
follow at a distance to make sure that no harm comes to their friend.
Scene 5
Alone with Hamlet, the ghost finally speaks. He tells Hamlet that he has come on a
nightly walk from Purgatory, where his soul is under continual torment for the sins of
his life. The ghost then reveals that he was not killed by a viper, as officially
announced, but was murdered. Moreover, he reveals that his own brother, Claudius,
who now wears his crown and sleeps with his wife, was the murderer. The ghost tells
of how Claudius snuck into his garden while he was taking his accustomed afternoon
nap and poured poison into his ear, killing him most painfully and sending his soul
unpurified into the afterlife. The ghost demands vengeance, telling Hamlet not to plot
against his mother, whom he describes as merely weak and lustful, but to focus the
whole of his revenge on Claudius. The ghost then disappears.
Hamlet, overwhelmed and half-raving, swears that he will kill Claudius. After he has
made this vow, Horatio and Marcellus arrive. Hamlet does not tell them what the ghost
has revealed, but nevertheless insists that they swear not to speak of the apparition to
anyone. They agree. Hamlet then insists that they swear again on his sword. They
agree again, confused at these demands. The ghost of Old Hamlet, meanwhile, can be
heard under the stage, insisting along with his son that they swear themselves to
secrecy. Hamlet leads his friends to several different points on stage, insisting that they
swear over and over again. He then reveals, parenthetically, that they might find his
behavior in the next while to be strange – he might pretend to be mad and act
otherwise unusually – but that they must still keep secret what they have seen. After
this final agreement, Hamlet leads the others offstage, uneasily determined to revenge
his father‘s murder.
Analysis
Even if this is your first time reading Hamlet, it must already seem very familiar.
Countless characters, ideas, and quotations introduced in this play have become part of
the cultural (and literal) vocabulary of the western world – and, indeed, the whole
world. Many of the most famous critical minds of western history, from Samuel
Johnson to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from Eliot to Empson, from Voltaire to Goethe
to Freud, have taken a crack at the play, and together they have left very few stones
unturned. Nevertheless, there is still much to be gained from an intelligent appreciation
of Hamlet. While one should not expect to resolve any of the famous and bizarre
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conundrums of the play – ―Is Hamlet really insane or faking insanity?‖ ―Did Ophelia
commit suicide or not?‖ ―Is Hamlet in love with his mother?‖ – there is still great
value in knowing what these conundrums are, how they are presented, and why they
are important. Sensitively and cleverly acknowledging a puzzle to be a puzzle is where
much Hamlet scholarship begins – and ends.
The first scene of the play, like most every scene of the play, is very well known, and
very puzzling. Without explaining his reasons in detail, T.S. Eliot once declared the
first lines of the play to be the best lines in English. He and many other critics have
found this scene to be a microcosm of the whole play, as it were. Shakespeare uses
many deceptively simple rhetorical tricks to introduce some of the major themes and
concerns that he follows through to the play‘s end.
For example, in a play that contains many of the most famous, most unanswerable
questions ever expressed, whether literal questions (―To be or not to be‖) or
interpretive questions of motivation (―Why doesn‘t Hamlet just kill Claudius straight
away?‖), it is remarkable that Shakespeare begins Hamlet with a question, ―Who‘s
there?‖ Who‘s there, indeed.... On one level, this is a simple question, one that is asked
every day in the most innocuous contexts. But on a deeper level (and everything in this
play is richly rewarding on a deeper level) it is one of the basic questions of
philosophy. Who is there? Who are we? What is man? Who is Hamlet? What
is Hamlet? In this most philosophical of plays, we begin with a moment of covert
philosophy, a question simple on the surface, but profound when pressed; and the first
scene continues this focus on questioning, giving us question after question. Horatio,
the quintessential scholar, skeptical and empirical, begins by questioning the reality of
the ghost; eventually, he is exhorted to ―question‖ the ghost in a more literal way – to
ask the ghost questions. In general, then, the first scene takes us from the no-nonsense
world outside the theater, the world of Horatio and his doubts, to the magical,
metaphysical, ultra-theatrical world of Hamlet. We may bring certainties to the play,
but we are encouraged almost immediately to abandon them.
Thus before we have even seen Hamlet (the younger Hamlet, that is) we are deeply
mired in the play‘s dubious, spectral atmosphere. In the second scene, after several
long speeches by Claudius giving us political background, we come to Hamlet‘s first
soliloquy. A ―soliloquy‖ is a speech given by a speaker alone on stage, exploring his or
her own thoughts and feelings. Both Hamlet and Hamlet are practically synonymous
with such speeches; in this play, Shakespeare exhausts the possibilities of such on-
stage introspection. Hamlet‘s soliloquies are not to be thought of as ―actually
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happening‖ in any realistic way. Rather, they are moments of suspended time, in
which the overwhelming pressure of a single thought, or group of thoughts, forces its
way out of a speaker‘s mind by way of his mouth. They are moments where we, as
audience members, can enter intimately into Hamlet‘s mind, exploring the patterns of
his thought even as he does so himself.
We might notice right away, in this first soliloquy, how difficult Hamlet can be to
follow – how much his speech jumps and roils around, allowing interjections, playing
with allusions and puns, becoming frequently side-tracked by this or that image. This
tendency of Hamlet‘s, to become sidetracked by his own train of thoughts, is crucial to
the play, and crucial to the central motivational mystery of Hamlet – the delay of the
revenge. But we will see much more of that to come.
We might also note that in his first soliloquy Hamlet appears deeply ―depressed,‖ as
we would put it today, or ―melancholic,‖ as the people of the early seventeenth century
would have put it. The audience of Hamlet’s own day would have expected as much.
The play belongs to a genre known as ―revenge tragedy.‖ Such plays occupied many
of the greatest playwrights of the generation directly preceding Shakespeare‘s,
including Thomas Kyd, but by the time Hamlet was written they had come to be seen
as rather old-fashioned. Like any genre, revenge tragedy has certain predictable
conventions, one of which is that the protagonist of the play is melancholic –
dominated by saturnine, sluggish, pensive ―humors,‖ or bodily spirits. In Hamlet,
Shakespeare, rather than simply repeating this convention, explores it as a convention.
That is, he gives us the archetypal revenge hero, the most introspective, most
melancholic, most pensive hero ever seen on the English stage.
At the same time, Hamlet seems somewhat aware that he is, in fact, playing a role on
stage. He notices his own costume and makeup (―‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, good
mother [...]‖ (I.ii.77 ff.)); he refers to specific areas in the theater (as when he notes
that the ghost is ―in the cellarage‖ (I.v.150)); in short, he seems at once to be the most
typical of types, and to be an audience to his own typecasting – and furthermore, he
seems to be distressed about being so typecast, and anxious to prove that there is
something genuine behind his theatrical veneer. In general, critics have long noticed
that Hamlet is a play about plays, most specifically a revenge tragedy about revenge
tragedy, and the pretzel-like self-preferentiality of the protagonist is the main reason
why.
As a relatively light-hearted accompaniment to such ghastliness and introspective

misery, Act One features two appearances by Polonius and his family. Nearly every
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Elizabethan play has at least one so-called ―subplot,‖ and this family occupies the
primary subplot of Hamlet – the question of Hamlet‘s relationship with Ophelia.
Polonius, you might have noticed already, is long-winded, pedantic, and meddlesome,
even while he is somewhat loveable in his fussy way. He is always interested in being
―in the know,‖ whatever the occasion. Notice, for instance, how eagerly he questions
Ophelia about her earlier conversation with Laertes.
Act One contains Polonius‘ most famous speech in the play, and one of the most
quoted speeches of Shakespeare, the advice speech to Laertes that ends, ―to thine own
self be true‖ (I.iii.55 ff.). One can weigh the various maxims here offered on the basis
of their individual merits. However, it is a common mistake of new readers of
Shakespeare to take this speech simply at face value – to think, in effect, that
Shakespeare, not Polonius, is giving this advice. This is never the case in Shakespeare
– he never simply speaks ―through‖ a character – and most certainly not the case here.
Notice, for instance, that Polonius‘ speech begins by telling Laertes to rush off to catch
his boat, and then detains him from doing just that. Notice also, that Polonius begins
by declaring that he will offer Laertes a ―few precepts,‖ then goes on to ramble for
thirty lines. Polonius, in short, never misses an occasion for a speech, and follows his
own advice creatively if at all. His meddlesome, didactic character leads to his
undoing, as we shall see.
Scene 1
Act Two begins with Polonius speaking to one of his servants, Reynaldo, about his
son, Laertes, who has by this time returned to Paris. We see Polonius in the act of
sending Reynaldo after Laertes to inquire into his son‘s conduct. He instructs
Reynaldo very precisely in the method of obtaining this information. First, Reynaldo is
to find out from strangers in Paris about the prominent Danes in the city without
revealing that he has any particular attachment to Laertes. When Laertes‘ name comes
up, Reynaldo is to pretend to have some distant knowledge of him, and is further to
suggest that he knows of Laertes as something of a happy-go-lucky youth given to
gambling, drinking, fencing, swearing, fighting, and whoring. By this path of
insinuation, Polonius explains, Reynaldo will hear from his hypothetical Parisian
interlocutor the unvarnished truth about Laertes‘ conduct in France. Having thus
prepared Reynaldo to spy on his son, Polonius sends him off .
14
Ophelia enters, distraught. She tells her father that Hamlet has frightened her with his
wild, unkempt appearance and deranged manners. After Ophelia describes Hamlet‘s
behavior, she further reveals that, as per Polonius‘ orders, she has cut off all contact
with Hamlet and has refused his letters. Polonius reasons, thus, that Hamlet‘s madness
is the result of Ophelia‘s rejection. He had thought that Hamlet was only trifling with
her, but it turns out (he now declares) that Hamlet was indeed deeply in love with
Ophelia. Polonius hurries off to tell Claudius and Gertrude that he has discovered the
reason for their son‘s odd behavior.
Scene 2
King Claudius has made plans of his own to discover the reasons for Hamlet‘s
supposed madness. He has summoned two of Hamlet‘s school friends, Rosencranzs
and Guildenstern, both to comfort his nephew-cum-son and to try to discover the
reason for his distemper (so he says). The two scholars are only too happy to oblige in
this task.
After Rosencrantz and Guildenstern leave the royal presence, Polonius rushes in,
announcing that he has found the reason for Hamlet‘s madness. Before he reveals his
news, however, he entreats Claudius and Gertrude to hear from the two ambassadors to
Norway, Voltemand and Cornelius, who have just returned. They report that the King
of Norway, after looking into his nephew Fortinbras‘ actions, found out that he was
indeed planning to invade Denmark. The King of Norway then rebuked Fortinbras and
ordered him to abandon his plan of Danish conquest, which young Fortinbras agreed to
do. Overjoyed at his nephew‘s acquiescence, Norway then rewarded Fortinbras with a
generous annual allowance. Further, Norway granted Fortinbras leave to levy war
against the Polish. Finally, the ambassadors report that Norway seeks Claudius‘
permission to allow Fortinbras passage through Denmark in this proposed campaign
against Poland. Claudius declares his approval of this message and says that he will
consider its details anon .
Polonius steps forward to reveal his discovery. He tells the king and queen, in a very
roundabout way, that he has discovered Hamlet‘s foiled love of Ophelia, and that he
believes this lost love to be the root cause of Hamlet‘s madness. Claudius asks how
they might prove this to be the case. Polonius has a plan. He offers to loose Ophelia on
Hamlet while he is reading alone in the library. Meanwhile, he suggests, he and
Claudius could hide behind a tapestry and observe the meeting. Claudius agrees .
15
Just then, Hamlet enters, reading. Gertrude and Claudius exit while Polonius attempts
to speak to Hamlet. Hamlet plays with Polonius, mocking him, evading his questions,
and turning his language inside out. Nevertheless, Polonius ―reads between the lines,‖
as it were, and interprets Hamlet‘s nonsensical replies as motivated by a broken heart.
Polonius leaves to contrive the proposed meeting between Hamlet and his daughter.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter, surprising their friend Hamlet. The three friends
banter philosophically for a good while before Hamlet asks the two why they have
come to Elsinore. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern try to dodge this question, declaring
that they have come for no other reason than to visit him. Hamlet, though, won‘t let
them off the hook, and makes them admit that the king and queen sent for them. When
they admit it, Hamlet also tells them why they were sent for – because he has been
deeply melancholy, and has foregone his accustomed behavior. He sinks deeply into a
speech detailing this misery.
Rosencrantz changes the subject. He tells Hamlet that he and Guildenstern passed a
troop of players on their way to Elsinore. They gossip briefly about the city theaters
the troop had left before coming to Denmark (presumably those of London). Soon the
players arrive with a flourish. Polonius rushes back into the scene, bearing the already
stale news that the players have arrived. Hamlet banters with Polonius in the same
mocking vein as before until the players burst into court, at which point Hamlet rushes
up to welcome them.
Hamlet insists upon hearing a speech straight away, and in particular requests a
recitation based on a scene in Virgil‘s Aeneid, as related by Aeneas to Dido,
recounting the death of Priam during the fall of Troy. Hamlet himself begins the
speech and then cedes the floor to one of the players, who recites a long and fustian
description of Priam‘s death by Pyrrhus‘ hand. The player goes on to speak of the wild
grief of Hecuba, Priam‘s wife, after her husband has been killed. While speaking of
her agony, the player begins to weep and shake. Polonius finally cuts him off and
Hamlet agrees.
Before the players retire, however, Hamlet pulls the main player aside and asks him
whether the company knows a certain play, ―The Murder of Gonzago.‖ The player
says that they do, and Hamlet commissions it for the following night, saying that he
will write some speeches of his own to be inserted into the play as written. The player
says that this would be fine and then takes his leave.
16
Left alone on stage, Hamlet muses about the strangeness of his situation. He asks
himself, ―How can this player be so filled with grief and rage over Priam and Hecuba,
imaginary figures whom he doesn‘t even know, while I, who have every reason to rage
and grieve and seek bloody revenge, am weak, uncertain, and incapable of action?‖ He
curses himself and his indecisiveness before cursing his murderous uncle in a rage.
Having regained composure, Hamlet announces his plan to make sure that the ghost of
his father is genuine – that the apparition was not some evil spirit sent to lure his soul
to damnation. He declares his intention to stage a play exactly based on the murder of
his father. While it is played he will observe Claudius. If the king is guilty, Hamlet
figures, surely he will show this guilt when faced with the scene of the crime.
Analysis
This Act begins by establishing the atmosphere of political intrigue at Elsinore.

Polonius plots to spy on Laertes by means of Reynaldo; Claudius and Gertrude plot to
spy on Hamlet by means of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; Norway foils Fortinbras‘
plot to invade Denmark, only to assist him in a venture against Poland. It seems that
everyone in Elsinore is plotting against everyone else. Significantly, though, these
intrigues are represented as very clumsy, if not stupid. Polonius‘ instructions to
Reynaldo are so comically complex and so circuitously related that he himself loses
track of them at one point. And his attempt to relate his great discovery of Hamlet‘s
broken heart to Claudius and Gertrude in the second scene does not go any better.
―Brevity is the soul of wit,‖ he says (another instance of Polonius getting one of
Shakespeare‘s most famous and most often decontextualized lines); and he then
proceeds to be anything but brief, anything but witty. Rather, he is dull, pedantic, self-
important, pompous, flowery – and, more to the point, dead wrong. As in Act One,
Polonius obviously fancies himself a great political mind. We might beg to differ.
Claudius, too, shows remarkable political stupidity in trusting to the espionage of

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two rather clownish fellows whom Hamlet sees through
instantly. Moreover, the Norway episode reveals Claudius‘ blunt instincts quite
clearly; he appears ready to agree to allow Fortinbras, whom only days before had
planned to take over his realm, to march through Denmark on his way to conquer
Poland. This is sort of like allowing Canada to march through the United States in
order to attack Mexico. In other words, it makes no sense at all, strategically or
logistically. Claudius and Polonius, try as they might to play the part of Machiavellian
lords of state, are really quite out of their depth .
17
Hamlet, however, has found his element in Act Two. His language is dazzling, full of
wild puns, inventive jokes, and succinct and strong observations – sheer mastery. His
repartee with Polonius, for instance, plays brilliantly with the notion of ―method in
madness‖ (as Polonius puts it). He plays the role of the melancholic madman almost as
though Polonius is a gullible audience member. Hamlet toys with Polonius, leading the
old fool to think just what he wants. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, too, are no match
for the perceptiveness of Hamlet. He instantly plumbs the depths of their purpose,
calling them out for royal spies. In short, Hamlet appears in this Act as the only truly
gifted politician, the only accurate reader of men‘s minds, in the whole of Elsinore.
Why, then, is he so reluctant to act – so incapable, it seems, of action? Why does he
not even mention revenge until the very last speech of the Act? It seems that Hamlet is
so obsessed with contemplating the meaning of action that he is rendered unable to act
himself.
This is the central question of Hamlet, of course, and one that has frustrated and
intrigued readers for centuries. The transition from the Hamlet of Act One Scene Five,
so willing and eager to kill Claudius, to the Hamlet of Act Two Scene Two, where he
is witty and evasive and ultimately impotent, is really quite absurd. It‘s almost as
though we‘ve suddenly landed in another play – one not about revenge, but about
something else, about madness or politics or about the very meaning of acting.
This theme comes to a head, of course, with the appearance of the troop of players.
The handling of the players in Hamlet places the play firmly in the genre of
―metatheater,‖ or theater about theater. The scenes with the players are full of in-jokes
about theatrical happenings in Shakespeare‘s own day – the rise in popularity of boy
acting troops, for instance. In another winking moment in Act Three, Polonius declares
that he was an actor in his younger days. ―I did enact Julius Caesar,‖ he says. ―I was
killed i‘th‘Capitol. Brutus killed me.‖ In fact, scholars surmise, Shakespeare
staged Hamlet immediately following his own Julius Caesar. Here are two moments
among many, then, where Shakespeare refers outside of the play, to the reality of
London stage culture (where, in fact, the play is actually taking place, at the time of its
first performances). What is he up to with these references? Are they simply jokes, or
do they point to some deeper concerns?
It seems that Shakespeare is blurring the lines between theatricality and reality. He
insists that we see his play as occurring at the same time in the fantasy world of
Elsinore and in the actual world of the Globe Theater in London in the early
seventeenth century (which for us, at our historical remove, is yet another layer of
18
fantasy). He writes elsewhere, in As You Like It, ―All the world‘s a stage.‖ In Hamlet,
he takes this notion a step farther, giving us a play that presses relentlessly on the
primordial relationship between acting in the theater and acting in ―real life.‖ Is there
ever a moment when we, as human beings, are not ―playing a role‖ in one way or
another? Are the tears that we shed for the loss of our loved ones any more genuine
than the tears that an actor sheds for the imaginary death of Priam, the imaginary grief
of Hecuba? If so, how? Why?
And this, of course, is the subject of Hamlet‘s second soliloquy, which closes the Act.
―What‘s Hecuba to him or he to her?‖ he asks of the player who has just wept for his
fictional subject. Shakespeare has layered this speech so carefully and so vertiginously
that it might be helpful simply to bracket out the several planes of meaning on which it
operates. First, Hamlet speaks of the man on stage who has shown such an outpouring
of emotion for Hecuba while he, Hamlet, who has every reason to show such grief
himself, remains cold and reluctant to act. But on another level, ―Hamlet‖ himself is an
actor on stage, and has no more reason to wail and grieve and gnash his teeth than the
player who spoke of Hecuba does. While he is philosophizing about the nature of
pretend grief versus real grief, all is ultimately pretend. There is no Hamlet. There was
no poisoning, not really. On this second level, it seems almost as though Hamlet
―knows‖ that he is in a play. He does not hurry along the revenge because he knows
there is nothing really to revenge; nothing really happened; it has all been staged. Of
course, he can‘t really ―know‖ this, but Shakespeare creates the effect of self-
awareness and self-doubt that reaches beyond the limitations of the stage. Somehow he
is able to explore these philosophical questions while maintaining a compelling
plotline.
By the way, this notion of Hamlet as "metatheater" is explored, among several other
places, in Lionel Abel's book, Tragedy and Metatheatre: Essays on Dramatic Form.
Scene1
An entourage consisting of the king and queen, Polonius and Ophelia, and Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern enters to begin the Act. Claudius asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
what they have learned about Hamlet‘s malady. The two reply that they have not been
able to find its cause. They do mention, however, that Hamlet was very enthusiastic
about the players‘ performance that night, which prompts Claudius to agree to attend
the play. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern leave. Polonius and Claudius then begin their
19
plan to loose Ophelia on Hamlet and mark their encounter, hoping to find the root of
his madness. They instruct Ophelia to pretend that she is simply reading a book and
withdraw behind a tapestry.
Hamlet enters and delivers the most famous speech in literature, beginning, ―To be or
not to be.‖ After this long meditation on the nature of being and death, Hamlet catches
sight of Ophelia. After a short conversation she attempts to return some of the
remembrances that Hamlet gave when courting her. Hamlet replies caustically,
questioning Ophelia‘s honesty. He then berates Ophelia, telling her off sarcastically
and venomously, with the refrain, ―Get thee to a nunnery,‖ or in other words, ―Go
become a nun to control your lust.‖ After this tirade, Hamlet exists, leaving Ophelia in
shambles.
Claudius and Polonius step out of their hiding place. The king states that he does not
believe that Hamlet is mad because of his foiled love for Ophelia, or really mad at all,
but tormented for some hidden reason. He determines to send Hamlet on a diplomatic
mission to England before he can cause any serious trouble. Polonius endorses this
plan, but persists in his belief that Hamlet‘s grief is the result of his love for Ophelia.
He consoles his daughter. Polonius suggests in parting that Claudius arrange a private
interview between Hamlet and his mother after the play that evening and Claudius
agrees.
Scene 2
Just as the play is about to begin, Hamlet instructs the players on the art of acting,
telling them to act naturally and to avoid bombast. He sets the players to their
preparations and then conferences with Horatio. After complimenting Horatio in the
most sterling terms, Hamlet asks his friend to assist him in watching the king‘s
response to the play they are about to see (apparently Hamlet has by this time told
Horatio what the ghost revealed). Horatio seats himself so as to view the king
properly. The royal entourage enters. Hamlet manically chatters with Claudius,
Polonius, Gertrude and Ophelia, reserving special attention for the latter, whom he sits
next to and teases.
The play begins with a ―Dumb Show,‖ which is a pantomime of the drama to come.
On stage, the basic form of the alleged murder is repeated: a king and queen are shown
happily married; the king takes a nap; a poisoner enters and pours something in the
king‘s ear, killing him; the poisoner than takes possession of the queen. Ophelia seems
21
confused by this plot but Hamlet tells her to wait for the speaker of the prologue to
explain.
The prologue is a short little jingling rhyme. The player king and queen then
immediately enter the stage. The king mentions that they have been married thirty
years. The player queen expresses a hope that their love last as long over again. The
king encourages the queen to remarry if he dies. The queen protests against this notion
vehemently, swearing never to love another if were too she turn widow. With this, the
king falls asleep and the queen exits. Hamlet asks his mother, Gertrude, how she likes
the play, and Gertrude replies with the famous line, ―The lady doth protest too much,
methinks.‖ Claudius is also outspokenly apprehensive about the nature of the play. It
continues, however, with the entrance of Lucianus, the sleeping king‘s nephew. This
evil character creeps up to the sleeping player king and pours poison in his ear.
Hamlet, unable to contain himself, erupts, telling everyone that Lucianus will soon win
the love of the king‘s over-protesting wife.
At this, Claudius rises and orders the play to end. He retreats with his retinue. Hamlet
and Horatio laugh together, certain now that the ghost was telling the truth. After a
short celebration, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter and tell Hamlet that he has made
Claudius very angry. They also say that Gertrude has ordered Hamlet to meet her in
her chamber. They then entreat Hamlet to tell the cause of his distemper. Hamlet
replies mockingly by saying that they are trying to play him like a pipe and that he
won‘t let them. Polonius enters and entreats Hamlet again to see his mother. All exit
but Hamlet. In a short soliloquy, Hamlet reflects that he will be cruel to his mother,
showing her the extent of her crime in marrying Claudius, but will not actually hurt
her.
Scene 3
Claudius gives Rosencrantz and Guildenstern a sealed envelope with orders to convey
Hamlet to England and give the envelope to the king there. In highly flattering terms,
they agree to do the king‘s bidding and exit. Polonius then enters, saying that Hamlet
is going to meet with his mother, and declaring his intention to hide behind an arras
and listen to their conversation. He exits. Alone, the king looks into his soul. He is
deeply disgusted by what he sees. He kneels to pray, hoping to purge his guilt, but
reflects that this penance will not be genuine because he will still retain the prizes for
which he committed murder in the first place, his crown and his wife.
21
As Claudius is vainly attempting to pray, Hamlet comes up behind him. He reflects
that he now has an opportunity to kill his uncle and revenge his father, but pauses,
considering that because Claudius is in the act of prayer he would likely go straight to
heaven if killed. Hamlet resolves to kill Claudius later, when he is in the middle of
some sinful act. He continues on to his mother‘s chamber.
Scene 4
In the chamber, awaiting Hamlet‘s arrival, Polonius hides himself behind one of
Gertrude‘s curtains. Hamlet enters. Gertrude attempts to be firm and chastising, but
Hamlet comes right back at her, saying that she has sinned mightily in marrying her
husband‘s brother. He pulls his mother in front of a mirror, saying that he will reveal
her in most part, and Gertrude momentarily misinterprets this, thinking that Hamlet
may attempt to murder her. She cries for help. Polonius, hidden from view, also cries
out for help. Hamlet thinks that the hidden voice belongs to Claudius. He stabs
Polonius through the curtain, killing him. When he sees that he has killed Polonius,
Hamlet declares the old man to be a ―rash, intruding fool.‖
Quickly forgetting about this death, Hamlet seats his mother down and presents her
with two portraits, one of her first husband and the other of Claudius. He describes the
two as opposites, the one all nobility and virtue, the other all deformity and vice.
Gertrude is deeply affected by this comparison and seems to comprehend the enormity
of her sin. Hamlet continues to berate her and describe Claudius in the most foul and
hurtful language. While in the middle of this harangue, Old Hamlet‘s ghost appears
once more, telling Hamlet to stop torturing his mother and to remember his duty to kill
Claudius. At the ghost‘s command, Hamlet consoles his mother. Gertrude, unable to
see the ghost, sees Hamlet talking to thin air and resolves that he is indeed insane. The
ghost exits.
Hamlet tells his mother that he is not in fact insane. He reiterates that she should repent
her marriage to Claudius and tells her in particular to stay away from their shared bed
for the night. After describing the importance of this abstinence in the most colorful
terms, Hamlet reminds his mother that he is ordered to England. Hamlet says that
although he will go to England, he will not trust Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He
exits his mother‘s bedroom, dragging the body of Polonius behind him.
Analysis
22
One of the most remarkable things about the speech that begins, ―To be or not to be,‖
the most famous speech in western literature, is how out-of-place, how offhand it
seems in the larger context of the play. Hamlet has, only a few lines before, hit upon
the play as his means of exposing the king – why, then, is he suddenly contemplating
suicide (if that‘s what he‘s doing in ―To be or not to be‖)? This psychological
strangeness is true, at least, of the version of the play that most of us read – which is a
conflation of two Renaissance texts, as explained in the ―Additional Content‖ section.
(In the first printed version of Hamlet, the speech occurs at perhaps a more logical
place, in Act Two scene two, in place of Hamlet‘s mocking repartee with Polonius.) In
these longer, more literary versions of Hamlet, ―To be or not to be‖ arrives as a
surprise – it slows down the action just as the action is really beginning to move.
This odd, out-of-place effect of the speech is a testament to Hamlet‘s tendency to

become wrapped up in his own thoughts, regardless of his surroundings. In the middle
of the urgent business of revenge, Hamlet takes the time to explore the nature of death
and human life with a subtlety and eloquence that renders the speech unforgettable.
Think of his brain as a sort of obsessive problem-solving machine, a focused, powerful
instrument that exhausts one subject and then another indiscriminately in short-term
bursts – now theater, now death, now sex, now filial duty – and that can only with
great difficulty (if at all) focus on a longer-term plan, such as, ―I must kill Claudius.‖
So what is ―To be or not to be‖ about, anyway? This is an enormous question. Entire
books have been written on the speech, most recently Douglas Bruster‘s To Be or Not
To Be, and critical consensus as to its nature is far from settled. Most casual readers
of Hamlet take the speech to be, at its simplest level, a contemplation of suicide.
Hamlet is saying, in effect, ―Wouldn‘t it be nice to die? We don‘t know what to expect
after death, though, and so that keeps us alive. We would rather suffer the woes we
know, painful as they are, than go on to possible woes we cannot conceive of.‖ But of
whom is he speaking? Himself, or human beings in general? In other words, the
speech can be thought of as a general contemplation of the human condition rather
than a specific expression of a desire to die. In an interview in the Atlantic Monthly,
the famous Shakespearean Harold Bloom offers an idiosyncratic reading of the speech
along the latter lines: ―It is a testimony, indeed, to the power of the mind over a
universe of death, symbolized by the sea, which is the great hidden metaphor.‖ You
can read more about this interpretation in his book, Hamlet: Poem Unlimited .
This speech, which is really tangential to the action, threatens to dominate most
readings of Act Three. But there are many more interesting exchanges and famous
23
scenes in the Act. The play-within-a-play, for instance, is the culmination of the theme
of theatricality that we‘ve already looked at in Act Two. The play-within-a-play, like
other features of Hamlet (the madness of the revenger, the appearance of a ghost, etc.),
is a convention found in several revenge tragedies, including The Spanish Tragedy and
Shakespeare‘s own early tragedy, Titus Andronicus. In Hamlet, naturally, Shakespeare
takes this convention to its extreme. Hamlet seems to take great pleasure in the
exposure of Claudius‘ guilt by theatrical means, relishing the self-referential potential
of the scenario, exploring the multiple forms of drama capable of representing the
same action (the dumb show versus the spoken verses), and filling the whole scene
with London theatrical in-jokes.
After all this, though, the exposure does not actually lead to the satisfaction of
vengeance. Just after the play, Hamlet has a chance to kill Claudius and talks himself
out of it; two scenes later he is shipped off to England, no questions asked. One can
speculate on his reasons. To me, it seems almost as though the exposure, the ―catching
of the king‘s conscience‖ in the play, is fulfillment enough for Hamlet, who is at home
in a realm of contemplation rather than action. He has had his revenge on Claudius‘
conscience, which is aptly demonstrated by the king‘s moving prayer soliloquy (the
only soliloquy in the play that does not come from Hamlet), and this is what counts for
him. The body is simply a silly machine for Hamlet; the mind, the spirit, is where the
action really is.
Another strain that goes through Hamlet, and a disturbing one, is the abuse by Hamlet
of his former beloved and his mother, Ophelia and Gertrude. In his scenes with
Ophelia, Hamlet is relentlessly cruel, charging her with a lustful nature, a dishonest
heart, a dissembling appearance, and so on. He builds up, in scene three, to an utterly
misogynistic rant, beginning, ―I have heard of your paintings well enough.‖ Men in the
English Renaissance were obsessed with women‘s make-up, which they took to be a
symbol of feminine wiles, excuses, manipulations, artifices, and hypocrisies.
Shakespeare, especially, has a long rhetorical history with this line of vitriol; it shows
up in many of his plays and features strongly in his Sonnets. Readers have long
sympathized deeply with Ophelia‘s position in the play; as far back as 1765, Samuel
Johnson wrote, ―[Hamlet] plays the madman most, when he treats Ophelia with so
much rudeness, which seems to be useless and wanton cruelty.‖
Up to this point, Ophelia has been given few lines and hardly a will or mind of her
own; she has done her father‘s will, her brother‘s will, and Hamlet‘s will. All three of
the men in her life have defined her almost exclusively in terms of her sexuality and
24
her beauty. Remember Laertes‘ parting instruction to Ophelia, that she should not open
her ―chaste treasure‖ to Hamlet? Here, throughout Act Three, is Hamlet‘s own
iteration of the same patriarchal order, only now in a mocking, sarcastic, ghastly tone.
The young and presumably innocent Ophelia is besieged and defined by fantasies of
female lewdness and she has little power to do anything about it.
Hamlet‘s conduct with his mother is also probably repulsive to most readers. Their
encounter in scene four is full of even more ripe and fetid language of corrupt
sexuality. Can you imagine saying to your parent, to your mother, ―Nay, but to live / In
the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, / Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love
/ Over the nasty sty.‖ This is ridiculously hurtful language, and seems motivated by
something very deep and dark in our protagonist. Sigmund Freud claimed to have
discovered the buried, primeval cause of Hamlet‘s flare-up in his Oedipal theory, his
assertion that all little boys go through an original sexual drama in their childhood, in
which they want to murder their fathers and possess their mothers. Ensuing scholars
have questioned this theory, but this scene provides continuing fuel for speculation as
to the exact nature of Hamlet‘s feelings toward his mother. Again, at the very least we
can agree that he is here uselessly, excessively cruel. His cruelty toward both Ophelia
and Gertrude seems at least as motivated by a deep-seated and virulent hatred of
women as by the logic of the revenge plot. Act Three, then, gives us Hamlet as his
most sublime, in his meditations on death, and his most inexcusably depraved, in his
cruelty toward the women.
Scene 1
Immediately after Hamlet exits, dragging Polonius‘ body, we see Claudius

asking Gertrude to explain what has happened. She tells him of Hamlet‘s accidental
killing of Polonius and Claudius realizes that he could have just as easily been slain.
Claudius asks where Hamlet has gone and Gertrude says that he has taken the body
away. The king orders Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find Hamlet and discover
where he has taken Polonius‘ corpse.
Scene 2
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern question Hamlet about Polonius‘ whereabouts. Hamlet

evades their questions playfully, accusing his former friends of sycophancy to the king
and leading them on a wild goose chase.
25
Scene 3
Claudius is greatly distracted by the death of Polonius and the attempt to find the body.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter with Hamlet. Claudius questions Hamlet as to
where he has taken Polonius. After some morbidly humorous replies, Hamlet reveals
that he hid Polonius ―up the stairs into the lobby.‖ The king sends attendants to find
the body. Claudius then tells Hamlet that he is to depart immediately for England, as
planned. Hamlet mockingly departs, leaving Claudius to reflect on his plans for
Hamlet. He has prepared letters asking the English king, whom Denmark has recently
defeated in war, to kill Hamlet as part of the duties owed by right of conquest.
Scene 4
Next we see Fortinbras ‘ Norwegian army. They are at the borders of Denmark.
Fortinbras sends one of his captains to the court of Claudius to ask permission to cross
Denmark in the course of their march to Poland. The captain travels on and Fortinbras
and the rest of the army exit.
The captain meets with Hamlet, who is being conveyed by Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern to the ship to England. Hamlet asks the captain about his army and his
purpose in going to Poland. The captain says that in Poland there is ―a little patch of
ground‖ which Norway claims as her own. He describes this land as perfectly
worthless and small. Hamlet suggests that the Poles will not likely defend such a piece
of land, but the captain sets him straight, saying that Poland is already garrisoned and
ready for their dispute. Hamlet wraps up his conversation with the captain. He hangs
back from the others marching to the ship and delivers a long soliloquy on the irony of
this occasion – these men are off to risk their lives for a worthless piece of land, while
he, who has every reason to risk his life in the cause of revenge, delays and fails to act.
Hamlet resolves to recast his mind to bloody thoughts. Ironically, however, just after
making this resolution he continues on toward England, leaving Denmark behind him.
Scene 5
Back in the court of Denmark, we see Gertrude speaking with a gentleman who
explains that Ophelia has gone mad. She is rambling nonsensically about her father
and insisting on seeing Gertrude. The queen reluctantly admits Ophelia, who proceeds
to sing a number of simple and haunting songs, some of them quite bawdy. The king
enters and witnesses her madness. Ophelia then speaks openly of her father‘s untimely
demise and hasty, unofficial burial. She threatens, ―My brother shall know of it,‖ and
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exits. Claudius reflects on the difficulty of their situation, admitting that their decision
to cover up Hamlet‘s deed and bury Polonius so covertly has gone against them. He
says that Laertes has come from France, egged on by people who see the court as
responsible for Polonius‘ death.
On cue, a messenger arrives with word that Laertes has come to court with a mob of
followers who wish to depose Claudius and make Laertes king. Laertes bursts in and
tells his followers to wait outside. In a half-crazed state he insists that Claudius give
him Polonius. Claudius attempts to calm Laertes and tells Gertrude to keep out of their
talk and let Laertes question him to his heart‘s content. Claudius tells Laertes that
Polonius is dead. He also insinuates that he and Laertes are on the same side – that he
has been injured by Polonius‘ death too.
Just as Claudius is about to explain what he means, Ophelia enters again, bearing a
bundle of flowers. The sight of his insane sister deeply grieves Laertes. Ophelia
handles all those present gifts of flowers, each symbolizing a reproach to the receiver.
She sings another song about her dead father and exits abruptly. As she leaves
Claudius tells Laertes to inquire into the matter as deeply as he wishes, confident that
he will find himself aligned with Claudius against Hamlet. Laertes agrees.
Scene 6
A messenger approaches Horatio, saying that some sailors have news for him. Horatio
receives from these sailors a letter from Hamlet. He reads the letter aloud. It recounts
an amazing turn of events: on his way to England, pirates attacked Hamlet‘s ship.
During the fray, Hamlet boarded the pirate vessel. The two ships parted with Hamlet
still aboard. The pirates treated Hamlet ―like thieves of mercy,‖ promising to return
Hamlet to Denmark in return for some favors. Hamlet also alludes to a startling
development having to do with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern but says that he must
delay telling of this until they meet. He tells Horatio to follow the sailors to where he
is hiding. Horatio says that he will help to deliver the rest of their letters, one of which
is addressed to the king, and then go with them to see Hamlet.
Scene 7
Claudius and Laertes are in conference. The king seems to have explained the strange
occasion of Polonius‘ death to Laertes‘ satisfaction. He says that he did not try Hamlet
for two reasons, first, because his mother loves him so much, and second, because the
people of Denmark are supporters of Hamlet. A messenger arrives and delivers a letter
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to Claudius, who is greatly surprised to learn that the letter comes from Hamlet. The
letter announces Hamlet‘s imminent return to court.
With this in mind, Claudius and Laertes plot to find a means of killing Hamlet without
upsetting Gertrude or the people. They propose to arrange a duel between Hamlet and
Laertes, both of whom are accomplished swordsmen, though Laertes is the more
reputed. Claudius suggests that Laertes be given a sharp sword while Hamlet‘s remains
blunt. Laertes does him one better, saying that he will dip his sword in poison so that
the least scratch will kill Hamlet. Claudius says that on top of this he will prepare a
poisoned cup and give it to Hamlet during the fight.
Gertrude enters with yet more tragic news. She says that Ophelia has drowned. She
was watching Ophelia play in the branches of a willow by the water when she fell in.
Gertrude says that Ophelia seemed ignorant of danger and went to her death slowly,
singing songs. This news reignites Laertes‘ rage and Claudius goes to console him.
Analysis
You can see simply from the quickness with which the scenes of Act Four proceed that
the action has reached a point of great tension following the death of Polonius. We see
more evidence of Claudius‘ lack of political talent when we learn that he has simply
hushed up Polonius‘ death, burying his longtime advisor without pomp or
circumstance, and keeping the nature of the death a mystery. This, as much as the
death itself, prompts the two events most central to Act Four, the return of Laertes and
the madness of Ophelia.
First, though, it‘s necessary to note that the fourth scene contains another of Hamlet‘s
famous soliloquies – ―How all occasions do inform against me.‖ This speech
reiterates, basically, the point that Hamlet made in his previous soliloquy about the
actor playing Hecuba. The basic position of Hamlet is one of befuddlement that these
soldiers can go off to their deaths over a patch of worthless ground while he, who has
every reason to rage and war and battle Claudius, is introspective and melancholy, and
chokes off his action with excessive contemplation. He remarks, ―Rightly to be great /
Is not to stir without great argument, / But greatly to find quarrel in a straw / When
honor‘s at the stake.‖ In other words, the greatness of man comes not with the
greatness of an occasion, but with treating any occasion, however petty, as an occasion
for greatness. One should not overthink, but do. Of course, this is not Hamlet‘s
character at all, and as soon as he has resolved that his thoughts be bloody or be
nothing worth, he is off to England, leaving revenge for another day, if ever. Indeed,
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Hamlet seems to express the central irony in his case – it is not enough that
his thoughts be bloody. They already are bloody. What he needs, or what his father‘s
spirit needs, is bloody deeds, not thoughts, and those are, as ever, beyond our
protagonist.
Laertes, though, provides precisely the model of what Hamlet is not. The early
twentieth century critic A.C. Bradley once illustrated Shakespeare‘s gift for
characterization by observing that if Othello were in Hamlet‘s place the play would be
about thirty minutes long – as soon as he learned of the murder, he would kill Claudius
– and likewise if Hamlet were in Othello‘s he would immediately see through Iago‘s
plottings and simply laugh the intrigue away. Just so, Laertes‘ vengeful return, like
Fortinbras‘ military example, serves as a contrast to Hamlet‘s own hesitating, over-
thinking character. This is a true avenger. When he bursts into court demanding
satisfaction, he says, ―That drop of blood that‘s calm proclaims me bastard, / Cries
cuckold to my father, brands the harlot / Even here between the chaste unsmirched
brow / Of my true mother.‖ In other words, Laertes proclaims that he has a blood-
bound duty to avenge his father‘s death impetuously and bloodily, or else he proves
himself not his father‘s son. In contrast, Hamlet has been calm, reflective, passive,
playful, morbid, and impotent in his own long-delayed quest for revenge – a quest
which has led rather to an attempt to find motivation to revenge, to reflect on the
nature of revenge, the nature of man, and the nature of Hamlet. In short, Hamlet has
thought and thought but has not acted. Laertes, we will see, acts without thinking.
The other major event of this Act is the madness of Ophelia. We have seen Ophelia, up
to this point, represented as a chaste, innocent, obedient, bewildered little girl. With
her madness, however, she suddenly has a deluge of lines and a rich, multi-layered,
startling consciousness. The songs she sings are quite sexual – especially the one that
begins, ―To-morrow is Saint Valentine‘s day.‖ This ballad, which documents the
duplicity of a man who promises to marry a young maid in order to get her into bed,
and then abandons her because she relented to him, has been read by some as evidence
that Ophelia herself gave up her virginity to Hamlet, who then left her in the lurch. In
Kenneth Branagh‘s adaptation of Hamlet, for instance, the filmmaker explicitly shows
flashbacks to Hamlet and Ophelia in bed.
However, it may not be necessary to read the song, and the other songs, so
straightforwardly. In her mad scenes, Ophelia is perhaps demonstrating the cultural
pressures of a young woman of her time, forced into the impossible position of
simultaneous chastity and sexualization. Ophelia, throughout the play, is forever urged
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to be chaste, be chaste, be chaste – as in Laertes‘ instructions, or the ―get thee to a
nunnery‖ scene – as a means of controlling her sexual identity. This emphasis on
chastity contains, of course, the other side of the coin, a concern with lewdness. She
must know nothing about sex, yet know enough to avoid it. In her madness, it seems as
though Ophelia‘s inner dam, so to speak, has broken, and all of her contained
knowledge of sexuality, and of the unfair position of women within her culture, has
come rushing out.
Ophelia‘s death by drowning is one of the famously impossible-to-settle questions

of Hamlet. Did she die accidentally or did she commit suicide? If one looks forward to
Act Five, it seems as though she was indeed a suicide. Given the immediate evidence
of Gertrude‘s testimony, however, there is no reason at all to believe that she killed
herself. Gertrude describes her as dying almost in slow motion: ―Her clothes spread
wide, / And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up, / Which time she chanted snatches
of old lauds, / As one incapable of her own distress, / Or like a creature native and
indued / Unto that element.‖ Indeed, the question to ask given this description is not,
―Did Ophelia kill herself?‖ but rather, ―If she had time to sing songs while dying, why
on earth didn‘t Gertrude try to save her?‖ Perhaps, though (as suggested in the
television series, Slings & Arrows, among other places), Gertrude's narrative is an
attempt to protect Ophelia. She knows that Ophelia is better off dead and tries to hide
the fact of her suicide with her narrative. As with so many aspects of this play, the
truth is not forthcoming.
These shifts in meaning from Act to Act are difficult to pin down, but they serve to
underline one of the most prevalent trends in the play, toward interpretive uncertainty.
Any account of things in this play – whether the testimony of the ghost, the
murmurings of Laertes‘ followers, or this eye-witness account of Gertrude‘s – leads to
quite divergent interpretations. As Hamlet says in Act Two, ―[T]here is nothing either
good or bad, but thinking makes it so.‖ If there is one lesson to take from Hamlet, it is
this – that by our very nature we cannot ever know the truth, only interpretations of the
truth.
Scene 1
The final Act begins with a conversation between two gravediggers as they
dig Ophelia‘s grave. They repeat a rumor that Ophelia committed suicide and wonder
whether she ought to be buried in hallowed ground. We learn that the king has
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overridden the objections of the clergy and provided for her burial. After some witty
and macabre banter on the nature of grave digging, Hamlet and Horatio enter. The
main gravedigger sends his partner off for a cup of liquor and then commences to dig,
singing songs all the while. Hamlet appears fascinated by the gravedigger‘s
indifference to the gravity of his profession. As the gravediggers throws various skulls
out of the grave, Hamlet wonders whom they might have belonged to in life – whether
a courtier or a lawyer.
Hamlet approaches the gravedigger and exchanges witticisms about this morbid work.
The gravedigger informs Hamlet about the length of time it takes bodies to decay in
the ground. He then produces a skull from the grave that he says has been lying there
for twenty-three years. The gravedigger says that this is the skull of Yorick, the old
king‘s jester. Hamlet is amazed – he knew Yorick and loved him as a child. He takes
up the skull and speaks about Yorick, a topic that leads him to consider the nature of
mortality more generally.
A procession interrupts Hamlet‘s reveries – Claudius, Gertrude, and Laertes march

toward the grave along with a priest and an entourage bearing a body. Hamlet notices
that the burial is less elaborate than usual, signifying that the deceased was a suicide.
He and Horatio stand aside while Laertes argues with the priest about the paltriness of
the burial rites. In the course of his arguing with the priest, Laertes reveals to Hamlet
that the dead body is that of Ophelia. Gertrude steps forward to say farewell to
Ophelia. Laertes follows. In his intense grief, Laertes leaps into his sister‘s grave to
hold her body again and orders the gravediggers to bury him alive. Provoked by this
show of grief, Hamlet then reveals himself. After grappling with Laertes, Hamlet
declares that he loved Ophelia more than forty thousand brothers could. The king and
queen dismiss his avowal as madness. Hamlet then exits and Horatio follows him.
After they have left, Claudius reminds Laertes of their plan to take care of Hamlet.
Scene 2
Hamlet explains to Horatio what happened on his journey to England. He says that he
strongly suspected Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of foul play, and so decided to
apprehend their letter to England. In the letter he found an order for his death. Hamlet
then devised a substitute letter asking for the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
He happened to have a signet ring in the shape of the seal of Denmark, and so sealed
the letter. Hamlet then replaced the letter while Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were
asleep. At this point, pirates attacked the vessel, as related previously.
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A courtier, Osric, interrupts Hamlet and Horatio. In very ornate and silly language,
Osric declares to Hamlet that Claudius has proposed a contest of swordsmanship
between Laertes and he. Hamlet and Horatio mock Osric‘s pompous and artificial
mannerisms. Eventually Hamlet agrees to enter the contest. When Horatio worries that
Laertes is better at swordplay than he, Hamlet declares that he has been in continual
practice for some time.
A table is prepared and the king, queen and other figures of state gather to watch the
swordfight. Hamlet begs Laertes‘ pardon both for his outburst at Ophelia‘s grave and
for his rash killing of Polonius. Laertes appears to accept this apology but declares that
his honor will not be satisfied until they have had their contest. Hamlet and Laertes
choose their swords. Laertes nonchalantly chooses the unblunted sword with the
envenomed blade. As they prepare to fight, Claudius proposes a drink to Hamlet.
The fight begins with Osric as referee. Hamlet wins the first point and the king offers
him a drink to refresh himself, dropping a poisoned pearl in the wine just before he
hands it over. Hamlet declines to take the drink for the time being. They play another
round and Hamlet again wins a point. After this second pass, Gertrude toasts to
Hamlet‘s health. She takes up the poisoned chalice and has a drink despite Claudius‘
protestations. Hamlet and Laertes have a third pass which ends in a draw.
After this pass, while Hamlet is unguarded, Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned
rapier. They scuffle and Hamlet ends up with Laertes‘ poisoned sword. He wounds
Laertes with it. Just then, the queen collapses. She declares that she has been poisoned
by the drink and then dies. Hamlet asks for the treachery to be found out and Laertes
confesses the plan hatched by the king and he. He says that they are both inevitably
going to die, having been wounded by the poisoned blade. Hamlet takes the
envenomed sword and wounds Claudius, then forces the king to drink from his
poisoned cup. Claudius dies. Laertes asks Hamlet‘s forgiveness and then also dies.
Hamlet, knowing that he is about to die also, asks Horatio to explain this bloody
spectacle to the confused onlookers. Horatio, on the contrary, wishes to die with his
friend, but Hamlet convinces him to live a while and clear his name. Hamlet declares
that Fortinbras should become King of Denmark. He then dies – ―the rest is silence.‖
A flourish is heard and Osric brings news that Fortinbras has arrived from his victory
in Poland with ambassadors from England. Fortinbras enters the court only to find four
noble bodies sprawled out on the floor. The ambassadors from England enter with
news that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been killed. Horatio explains that
Claudius would not have welcomed this news even if he had been living to receive it.
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He orders that the royal bodies be taken up. Horatio further promises to explain the
story behind the deaths, a story full of ―carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts; / Of
accidental judgments, casual slaughters; / Of deaths put on by cunning and forced
cause.‖ In short, he promises to tell the story of Hamlet. Fortinbras agrees to hear it.
He adds that, given the death of the Danish royalty, he will now pursue his own claims
to the throne. Finally, Fortinbras declares that Hamlet shall receive a soldier‘s burial.
Some soldiers take up his body and bear it from the stage.
Analysis
No surprise, this final Act of Hamlet is as mysterious, ambiguous, and controversial as

those that precede it. The play begins rather straightforwardly, if ironically, as a
revenge tragedy – Old Hamlet‘s ghost spurs his son to revenge – and it would seem
that Act Five, like the Act Fives of all major revenge tragedies preceding Hamlet,
should fulfill this initial plotline. Indeed, in Act Five Hamlet kills Claudius – finally.
But he does so in such a roundabout, half-cocked, off-hand way, we wonder whether
this really counts as revenge. The death of Claudius certainly lacks the poetic justice
that vengeance seems to require. What on earth is Shakespeare trying to do with this
strange play – why doesn‘t he give it a proper ending?
Many of the earliest extant critics of the play, those of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, found the strange and abrupt manner of Hamlet‘s revenge to be as puzzling
as we might. These critics often found fault with the play‘s lack of moral meaning.
After all, if Claudius was wrong to kill his brother and marry his brother‘s wife (and
surely he was), shouldn‘t the lethal correction of these crimes feel more satisfying,
more ―right,‖ than it does in this play? Samuel Johnson, writing in 1765, voices critical
dissatisfaction quite clearly: ―The poet is accused of having shown little regard to
poetical justice, and may be charged with equal neglect of poetical probability. The
apparition left the regions of the dead to little purpose; the revenge which he demands
is not obtained but by the death of him that was required to take it; and the gratification
which would arise from the destruction of an usurper and a murderer, is abated by the
untimely death of Ophelia.‖ In other words, Johnson charges that the ending
of Hamlet is both unjust and improbable. The earlier part of the play, including the role
of the ghost in giving the death of Claudius a moral shape, seems to have been
forgotten. Hamlet seems to bring the drama to a close almost accidentally, and Johnson
accuses Shakespeare on these grounds of dramatic clumsiness and moral ineptitude.
Later critics have been much less quick to fault Shakespeare‘s dramatic instincts.
Indeed, some of them have found the ending of Hamlet to signal a shift to a ―higher,‖
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more self-aware theater, a purposeful rejection of the simple morality of revenge in
favor of a richer, deeper investigation of the nature of performance itself. The critic
Harold Bloom, for instance, has written at length about Act Five as Hamlet‘s rejection
of his own dramatic role. He seems to have grown bored with his own play, in other
words, and shrugs off its generic requirements. Bloom writes: ―Any Fortinbras or
Laertes could chop Claudius down; Hamlet knows he deserves the prime role in a
cosmological drama, which Shakespeare was not quite ready to compose.‖ In this
view, Hamlet‘s final Act transcends the play itself. The plot, the action, has only been
an occasion for Hamlet‘s own tremendously powerful self-exploration, and the
culmination of the requirements of "revenge tragedy" appropriately occurs almost
despite the play itself.
Shakespeare‘s abandonment of the central focus on revenge, then, perhaps amounts to

his finally agreeing with his protagonist, so to speak. Hamlet has been, from the very
first moments of the play, reluctant to carry out the absurd and generic task that is his
as a character in a revenge tragedy – ―The time is out of joint. Oh cursed spite / That
ever I was born to set it right!‖ Shakespeare has purposefully miscast his hero and
given us a character whose accomplishments are intellectual and verbal, not violent
and physical. By the final Act, it seems as though the playwright has finally given up
trying to tie his hero down to conventions. Hamlet has forced Hamlet off the rails,
taken it from a simple and predictable genre play to something inscrutable, massively
significant, and, for lack of a better term, post-theatrical.
Meanwhile, in between the two major events of Act Five (the burial of Ophelia and the
duel between Hamlet and Laertes), Shakespeare includes several very famous set
pieces. The range of Hamlet‘s verbal and philosophical variety becomes clear as he
goes from trading macabre jokes with the gravedigger, to his moving rumination on
the dead court jester, Yorick, to his declaration of love for Ophelia and his attendant
mockery of Laertes‘ over-the-top mourning display, to a scathing parody of Osric‘s
ludicrous courtly mannerisms. As noted before, Hamlet‘s mind seems to work as an
intense magnifying glass of sorts. He looks at one subject – say, the gravedigger‘s
macabre humor – and scrutinizes it to exhaustion before turning to another – say, the
nature of mortality as occasioned by the discovery of Yorick‘s skull – and treating it
with a similar thoroughness. The variety of his curiosity is matched by depth of
penetration. He is both wide-ranging and profound – truly a Renaissance mind.
In this final Act, Hamlet seems no longer to curse this tendency of his to become
distracted by thought in favor of action, as he does for instance in his soliloquies on
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Hecuba and on Fortinbras‘ army, but to celebrate it. He says to Horatio, for instance,
when his friend seems concerned that he is walking into the trap set by Claudius and
Laertes, ―[W]e defy augury. [...] If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it
will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.‖ Hamlet rejects
―augury‖ – that is, he rejects any predictive phenomena, or any future-oriented
thinking at all. In a way, he rejects the ghost‘s order to fulfill a set goal. (By the way,
we might ask what Hamlet means by ―it‖ in the above sentence. Does ―it‖ refer to his
plan to kill Claudius? – ―If I will kill him now, so be it.‖ Does ―it‖ rather refer to death
itself? – ―If I am to die now, so be it.‖ Or is ―it‖ a placeholder for anything, any
event?) At any rate, Hamlet has achieved a point of philosophical ―quietus,‖ an
acceptance of the world with all of its flaws and absurdities, which he has made not
with ―a bare bodkin‖ but with his own mental powers. His gaze is focused on some
spiritual realm beyond the pettiness of Danish political intrigue.
Of the four deaths that occur in the final scene of the play, only one – Hamlet‘s – is
planned. The other three are, if not senseless, at least spontaneous and chaotic. The
entire gory episode seems to be a playing-out of Hamlet‘s new understanding of the
world – death strikes randomly, senselessly, absurdly. The only meaning that matters
must be made out of apparent meaninglessness. Hamlet‘s dying words, in fact, are a
plea to his friend, Horatio, to help the court audience sort out the carnage that they
have seen: ―[I]n this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, / To tell my story.‖ Hamlet
emphasizes that significance comes only in retrospect, with storytelling, with sense
making, not in prospective action. His death thus demonstrates the value of
introspection over action, and the triumph of thought over fate, against the uncertainty
and confusion of death.
With the arrival of Fortinbras, the tone shifts dramatically in the other direction.
Fortinbras, whose own barely-limned plot is extremely similar to Hamlet's (his
identically-named father dead, his rise in Norway impeded by his uncle, etc.), in
nonetheless Hamlet's opposite. He is a man of action, a man like Laertes, or Old
Hamlet. As Hamlet predicts, he hardly wastes a moment in declaring his intention to
take the throne of Denmark for his own. And, as a final irony, Fortinbras
misunderstands the dead prince, and gives him a soldier‘s funeral. Though we know
very little of him, it seems that Fortinbras is the anti-Hamlet – a man who can only
understand others in light of his own simple and straight-forward mind. Hamlet,
because he was a prince, was probably a soldier, so he is given a soldier‘s burial. In an
exact opposite way, Hamlet finds a universe of variety within his own mind; he
explores the world from many perspectives, searches many questions, revolves all but
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resolves nothing. Fortinbras‘ arrival marks the end of the true reign of Hamlet, not
Claudius‘ petty and incompetent rule, but Hamlet‘s regime of the mind and the
possibilities of subjectivity.
Hamlet Themes
Madness
Madness is one of the dominant themes of Hamlet. Hamlet displays many sides of
his personality since the death of his father. He appears as a philosopher, a sage, a mad
as well as a mentally disturbed person. He also expresses that there is a ―method in my
madness.‖ It shows that he is insane but just in his pretensions to show his pain to
others. He wanted them to see and understand that it was difficult for him to bear
things like loss and betrayal. That is the very reason that King Claudius fears his
madness as some pretention to have exposed his crime of assassinating Old Hamlet.
On the other hand, he shows such a face to Ophelia that she reports that his madness is
true. Polonius, on his part, considers it a madness of love, while Gertrude considers it
only madness. However, King Claudius does not accept any of these opinions and sees
his insanity a threat to his throne and his own life. In the end, his fear comes true when
Hamlet exposes him. However, Hamlet also loses his own life in this struggle.
Revenge
Although not considered a good act in Christianity and even in other faiths,
revenge is another theme that runs throughout the play. In fact, the appearance of the
ghost in the first act lays a heavy responsibility on Hamlet to demand the revenge of
his ―unjust murder.‖ However, as a philosophical mind, Hamlet must prove the
responsibility of the crime on Claudius first and only then take the decision to
seek justice. Due to Hamlet‘s conscious mind, the revenge is delayed. He, though,
succeeds in discovering the crime, Hamlet does not find a way to try Claudius in the
court. On the other hand, Laertes also seeks revenge from Hamlet for his father‘s
murder and is willing to kill Hamlet even in the Holy place, church. These two
situations of revenge run parallel until the last fight and their deaths.
Subversion of Relationships
Subversion and turns and twists in relationships is another theme of Hamlet.

Gertrude is a cousin of Claudius and must not marry him on legal or religious terms.
However, they both marry subverting their relationship. Claudius is Hamlet‘s uncle but
36
also becomes his step-father. This subversion in the sacred relations against the
Protestantism is another great theme of Hamlet.
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.
The Complexity Of Action
Directly related to the theme of certainty is the theme of action. How is it

possible to take reasonable, effective, purposeful action? In Hamlet, the question of
how to act is affected not only by rational considerations, such as the need for
certainty, but also by emotional, ethical, and psychological factors. Hamlet himself
appears to distrust the idea that it‘s even possible to act in a controlled, purposeful
way. When he does act, he prefers to do it blindly, recklessly, and violently. The other
characters obviously think much less about ―action‖ in the abstract than Hamlet does,
and are therefore less troubled about the possibility of acting effectively. They simply
act as they feel is appropriate. But in some sense they prove that Hamlet is right,
because all of their actions miscarry. Claudius possesses himself of queen and crown
through bold action, but his conscience torments him, and he is beset by threats to his
authority (and, of course, he dies). Laertes resolves that nothing will distract him from
acting out his revenge, but he is easily influenced and manipulated into serving
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Claudius‘s ends, and his poisoned rapier is turned back upon himself.
The Mystery Of Death
In the aftermath of his father‘s murder, Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of
death, and over the course of the play he considers death from a great many
perspectives. He ponders both the spiritual aftermath of death, embodied in the ghost,
and the physical remainders of the dead, such as by Yorick‘s skull and the decaying
corpses in the cemetery. Throughout, the idea of death is closely tied to the themes of
spirituality, truth, and uncertainty in that death may bring the answers to Hamlet‘s
deepest questions, ending once and for all the problem of trying to determine truth in
an ambiguous world. And, since death is both the cause and the consequence of
revenge, it is intimately tied to the theme of revenge and justice—Claudius‘s murder
of King Hamlet initiates Hamlet‘s quest for revenge, and Claudius‘s death is the end of
that quest. The question of his own death plagues Hamlet as well, as he repeatedly
contemplates whether or not suicide is a morally legitimate action in an unbearably
painful world. Hamlet‘s grief and misery is such that he frequently longs for death to
end his suffering, but he fears that if he commits suicide, he will be consigned to
eternal suffering in hell because of the Christian religion‘s prohibition of suicide. In
his famous ―To be or not to be‖ soliloquy (III.i), Hamlet philosophically concludes that
no one would choose to endure the pain of life if he or she were not afraid of what will
come after death, and that it is this fear which causes complex moral considerations to
interfere with the capacity for action.
Doubt
In Hamlet, the main character‘s doubt creates a world where very little is known
for sure. Hamlet thinks, but isn‘t entirely sure, that his uncle killed his father. He
believes he sees his father‘s Ghost, but he isn‘t sure he should believe in the Ghost or
listen to what the Ghost tells him: ―I‘ll have grounds / More relative than this.‖ In his
―to be or not to be‖ soliloquy, Hamlet suspects he should probably just kill himself, but
doubt about what lies beyond the grave prevents him from acting. Hamlet is so
wracked with doubt, he even works to infect other characters with his lack of certainty,
as when he tells Ophelia ―you should not have believed me‖ when he told her he loved
her. As a result, the audience doubts Hamlet‘s reliability as a protagonist. We are left
with many doubts about the action – whether Gertrude was having an affair with
Claudius before he killed Hamlet‘s father; whether Hamlet is sane or mad; what
38
Hamlet‘s true feelings are for Ophelia.
Honor
Although it is not that significant, honor is another theme that various characters
depict through their actions and dialogues. The honor that Hamlet feels lies in his
revenge of his father‘s murder. However, he always thinks that his honor is at risk if
his actions have no justification. On the other hand, Laertes thinks that he will lose his
honor if he does not exact revenge of his slain father who Hamlet mistakenly kills. In
other words, the true honor for both lies in seeking revenge for their fathers though in a
different way. Therefore, honor is one of the notable themes of Hamlet.
The Ambiguity of Language
The ambiguity of language and its skillful use is one of the minor themes of
Hamlet. The language used by Hamlet and Claudius in the first act is full of ambiguity
as well as the skillful use of puns. Hamlet, too, uses similes, metaphors and
various literary devices to make his language sound vague. To unravel such a rich
language has lent Hamlet a great place among all the masterpieces .
Human Beings
Although it does not seem much significant, human beings or mankind‘s

mysterious capabilities and faculties are seen as another secondary theme in the play.
Hamlet thinks too much about ‗man‘ (human) and praises his abilities of thinking and
taking relevant actions that impact other humans‘ lives. However, he also wonders at
the other metaphysical realities such as death, destiny, human relations and use of
words.
Political Intrigues
Hamlet is also a political drama. Because it starts with political intrigues in

which Old Hamlet has lost his life, and the young Hamlet is after his uncle, Claudius.
His mother has married his uncle, while the rest of the palace is divided into these
massive intrigues. The intrigues lead to widespread conspiracies and killings. Hamlet
wants to avenge his father‘s death as soon as he gets the right opportunity so that he
can expose King Claudius true nature to his subject. However, everything comes to an
end when Claudius also plots to kill Hamlet or be killed.
Suicide
39
Although suicide is not all pervasive like other dominant themes, it is present in
Hamlet‘s character throughout the play. Specifically his soliloquy ―to be or not to be‖
points his tendency toward suicide but he drops it later when he realizes it is forbidden
in religion. Ophelia, too, commits suicide but her case is different from Hamlet
because she could not carry the weight of Hamlet‘s satire and loses her sanity. In other
words, suicide is also a primary theme of Hamlet.
Religion
Although not a dominant theme, religion still has its significant impact on the
roles and acts of Hamlet and other characters. Besides some religions markers, there
are some dominant religious opinions and thoughts. Hamlet‘s ―to be or not to be‖ is
interpreted on the lines of his religious thinking about suicide. As a suicide, is a sin
and will take you to hell. He also does not kill Claudius during prayers because he
would go to heaven and he does not want to grant him this opportunity. The last
comments by Horatio also show the religious expressions in the play, which is also a
form of prayer, when he says ―flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.‖ It means that
religion is still a strong point in Hamlet even at the end.
Delay
One of the most controversial and most striking themes of Hamlet is his delay.
While trying to establish the crime, Hamlet delays his revenge. He doesn‘t want an
innocent‘s death on his conscience and wants his action to be justified. In the entire
play, he has numerous chances to kill Claudius. He waits until he confirms the crime
of Claudius by staging the play. Once he also finds Claudius praying, and has a perfect
opportunity to kill him. The delay also drives him mad and leading to severe
depression until he finally acts up it. The delay indirectly cost his own life. However,
the last conversation with Horatio to leave and show the justification of his cause to
the world makes it clear that the intent of delaying was to seek justification.
Hamlet Quotes and Analysis
"That it should come to this!" (Act I, Scene II)
What does it mean? 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
41
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.
"Frailty, thy name is woman!" (Act I, Scene II)
What does it mean? 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.
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, and
borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry." (Act I, Scene III)
What does it mean? Here Polonius is giving his son, Laertes, sound advice before
Laertes returns to Paris. Polonius is really saying loaning money to other people is
dangerous. Often, people don't pay you back and you use a friend because of the failed
transaction. On the flip side, it is distasteful to borrow money because it is impolite
and usually indicates you are living outside of your means.
"This above all: to thine own self be true." (Act I, Scene III)
What does it mean? Again, Polonius is doling out sage advice to his son, Laertes.
Simply put, Polonius is telling his son "be yourself." In the context of the play,
Polonius is also telling Laertes to be a gentleman and not "false to any man" (line 80).
Overall, Polonius's advice helps reveals a theme of irony that threads throughout the
play. Neither Polonius nor Laertes heeds the advice that Polonius gives in this scene,
and both perish due to their lack of adherence.
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." (Act I, Scene IV)
What does it mean? 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.
"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't." (Act II, Scene II)
41
What does it mean? At this point of the play, Hamlet and Polonius are interacting
onstage, but this quote is technically spoken by Polonius to the audience, in an aside.
What Polonius is saying is that, even though Hamlet is talking crazy, it actually makes
sense, or it has a "method." Polonius's assertion is ironic because he is right and
wrong. Polonius believes Hamlet is acting "mad" because Hamlet's love of Ophelia has
driven him to such. While Polonius is correct to think that there is reason behind
Hamlet's actions, he is incorrect as to the cause. Hamlet is purposefully acting mad to
disguise his true mission to avenge his father's murder.
"To be, or not to be: that is the question." (Act III, Scene I)
What does it mean? 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 you
don't know what happens after you die, Hamlet realizes that death wouldn't be the
ideal escape he craves.
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks." (Act III, Scene II)
What does it mean? 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.
I have that within which passeth show,

These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
(I.ii.)
When Hamlet‘s mother asks him why he still seems so upset about his father‘s death,
he replies that he doesn‘t just ―seem‖ to be in mourning, he has feelings within himself
42
that surpass what other people can see from the outside. This quote resonates with
many other parts of the play that suggest Hamlet has an unusually rich inner life—that
he has more going on inside him than outsiders can see or understand. At the same
time, the distinction Hamlet draws between how he seems and how he really is also
resonates with the theme of deception that runs throughout the play: both Hamlet and
Claudius go to great lengths to hide the truth about their actions and intentions, but so
do most of the other characters.
O God, God,
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
(I.ii.)
Hamlet‘s first soliloquy shows us that his feelings run much deeper than the people
around him realize. Not only is he grieving for his father and angry with his mother for
remarrying, he is sick of life itself. This quote is the play‘s first hint that Hamlet might
be suicidal, and the lines make clear that Hamlet is extremely troubled even before he
hears the Ghost‘s story.
What‘s Hecuba to him, or he to her,

That he should weep for her?
(II.ii.)
Hamlet has just watched a player from a visiting acting troupe perform a speech
describing the slaughter of King Priam and the subsequent grief of his widow, Queen
Hecuba, at the end of the Trojan War. Hamlet expresses amazement that the Player can
shed real tears out of sympathy for Hecuba, a figure from ancient history, and he
contrasts the Player‘s emotiveness with his own inaction when confronted with this
father‘s murder. Throughout the play, Hamlet wrestles with the idea that performances
can seem more real than ―reality.‖
The play‘s the thing

Wherein I‘ll catch the conscience of the King
(II.ii.)
Hamlet cannot decide whether his uncle is guilty of killing his father, so he decides to
gather more evidence before he acts. Hamlet‘s plan is to stage a play about a similar
murder and watch his uncle‘s reaction to the action onstage. But Hamlet has already
repeatedly expressed his doubts that external appearances can be trusted, so we have
43
reason to think that Hamlet may be deceiving himself in thinking that this stratagem
will solve his problem.
I have heard of your paintings well enough. God hath given you one face and you
make yourselves another […] It hath made me mad.
(III.i.)
Hamlet here claims that the deceitfulness of women, who wear makeup to look like
something they‘re not, is what has driven him mad. Hamlet‘s madness is one of the
more ambiguous elements of the play. While at certain times he explicitly says he is
only pretending to be mad, at other times he seems possibly sincere about admitting
he‘s lost his grip on sanity. Throughout the play, Hamlet does seem genuinely troubled
by his feelings about women, heaping abuse on both Gertrude and Ophelia with no
particular purpose.
Do you think I meant country matters?

(III.ii.)
When the court assembles to watch Hamlet‘s play, Hamlet is supposed to be watching
King Claudius for signs of guilt. Instead, he seems preoccupied with his misogynistic
feelings about women. When Ophelia tries to ask him polite questions about the play,
he responds with cruel sexual jokes. In this line, the word ―count-ry‖ is a pun .
Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to feed us, and we
fat ourselves for maggots.
(IV.iii.)
Hamlet says this to Claudius, having been escorted into Claudius‘s presence by armed
guards after killing Polonius. At this point in the play Hamlet has to convince Claudius
that he‘s insane he won‘t be held accountable for the murder or be perceived as a
direct and immediate threat to Claudius, and it works—Claudius does think he‘s
dangerous, but also that he‘s out of his mind. Hamlet‘s words literally mean ―The
worm has the most exclusive diet (because it eats humans after they‘re buried).
Humans fatten other animals to eat, but they also fatten themselves to be eaten by
worms.‖ The words can be taken as evidence of Hamlet‘s morbid obsession with death
and decay, or as a reminder that we are all mortal, but they have a menacing undertone
as well, subtly reminding Claudius that he is mortal and will at some point be food for
worms.
44
There‘s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.
(V.ii.)
Hamlet makes this remark to Horatio while explaining how he woke up on board the
ship to England and on a sudden impulse snuck in and stole the king‘s letter from
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The point Hamlet is making is that sometimes when we
act impulsively or rashly things turn out well, showing that there is a divine power
shaping our lives. The significance of Hamlet‘s remark is that it shows how much he
has changed since the first half of the play. In the early acts, Hamlet had been
indecisive but also very preoccupied with knowing the truth and determining the best
thing to do. After he kills Polonius, and through the end of the play, Hamlet acts much
more recklessly and is prepared to do things and let the chips fall where they may. This
attitude carries him into the last act, where Claudius and Laertes have laid a trap for
him in the fencing match, but Hamlet is no longer particularly concerned with what
happens to himself and gladly accepts, hoping the outcome will somehow fall in his
favor.
See you now,

Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth,
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out.
(II.i.)
Polonius advises his servant, Reynaldo, to spy on his son, Laertes, who has just
departed for Paris. Polonius explains that Reynaldo should approach his task with
subtlety. Reynaldo must use falsehoods to find out the truth, not unlike how a
fisherman uses a small piece of ―bait‖ to reel in a big ―carp.‖ Polonius‘s instructions
relate to the motif of spying and the use of deceptive stratagems that runs throughout
the play, in which certain characters direct other characters to try to discover
something through deception and indirection. Polonius‘s words thus foreshadow
significant events in the play, such as Hamlet‘s attempt to use the performance of a
fictional play to determine whether or not Claudius is truly guilty.
Oh, my offence is rank. It smells to Heaven.

It hath the primal eldest curse upon ‘t,
A brother‘s murder.
(III.iii.)
45
Claudius utters these lines at the beginning of a soliloquy in which he confesses to
murdering his brother. At first Claudius does not explicitly state that he killed his
brother. However, his reference to the ―primal eldest curse‖ that has been laid on his
―offence‖ alludes to Cain‘s murder of his brother, Abel, as recounted in the Bible. By
comparing himself to Cain, Claudius illustrates that he understands the severity of his
sin, and he expresses his sense of his own moral corruption through images of decay
and putrefaction: his sin is ―rank‖ and sends the smell of rot all the way to heaven.
Additionally, Claudius‘s confession also gives the audience (and only the audience)
confirmation that he did, in fact, kill his brother. Hamlet‘s apparent descent into
madness might otherwise suggest that the murder conspiracy exists solely in Hamlet‘s
head, but Claudius‘s confession clears this ambiguity up—but not for any of the
characters in the play, sadly enough.
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.
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).
46
Ears And Hearing
One facet of Hamlet‘s exploration of the difficulty of attaining true knowledge is the
slipperiness of language. Words are used to communicate ideas, but they can also be
used to distort the truth, manipulate other people, and serve as tools in corrupt quests
for power. Claudius, the shrewd politician, is the most obvious example of a man who
manipulates words to enhance his own power. The sinister uses of words are
represented by images of ears and hearing, from Claudius‘s murder of the king by
pouring poison into his ear to Hamlet‘s claim to Horatio that ―I have words to speak in
thine ear will make thee dumb‖ (IV.vi.21). The poison poured in the king‘s ear by
Claudius is used by the ghost to symbolize the corrosive effect of Claudius‘s
dishonesty on the health of Denmark. Declaring that the story that he was killed by a
snake is a lie, he says that ―the whole ear of Denmark‖ is ―Rankly abused. . . .‖
(I.v.36–38)
Symbols
Yorick’s Skull
In Hamlet, physical objects are rarely used to represent thematic ideas. One important
exception is Yorick‘s skull, which Hamlet discovers in the graveyard in the first scene
of Act V. As Hamlet speaks to the skull and about the skull of the king‘s former jester,
he fixates on death‘s inevitability and the disintegration of the body. He urges the skull
to ―get you to my lady‘s chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor
she must come‖—no one can avoid death (V.i.178–179). He traces the skull‘s mouth
and says, ―Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft,‖ indicating his
fascination with the physical consequences of death (V.i.174–175). This latter idea is
an important motif throughout the play, as Hamlet frequently makes comments
referring to every human body‘s eventual decay, noting that Polonius will be eaten by
worms, that even kings are eaten by worms, and that dust from the decayed body of
Alexander the Great might be used to stop a hole in a beer barrel.
47

Hamlet: Key Facts

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Hamlet: Key Facts

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Al Qalam University College

English Department - Third stage- Drama

Full Title The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

Author William Shakespeare

Type of Work Play

Genre Tragedy, revenge tragedy

Settings (Place) Denmark

Foreshadowing The ghost, which is taken to foreshadow an ominous future for

Shakespeare and Hamlet Background

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet , is

The Background of Hamlet's drama

Hamlet Character List

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Polonius' servant, sent to check on Laertes in Paris. He receives absurdly detailed

A captain in Fortinbras' army who speaks briefly with Hamlet.

Hamlet Summary and Analysis of Act 1

As a relatively light-hearted accompaniment to such ghastliness and introspective

Hamlet Summary and Analysis of Act 2

This Act begins by establishing the atmosphere of political intrigue at Elsinore.

Claudius, too, shows remarkable political stupidity in trusting to the espionage of

Hamlet Summary and Analysis of Act 3

This odd, out-of-place effect of the speech is a testament to Hamlet‘s tendency to

Hamlet Summary and Analysis of Act 4

Immediately after Hamlet exits, dragging Polonius‘ body, we see Claudius

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern question Hamlet about Polonius‘ whereabouts. Hamlet

Ophelia‘s death by drowning is one of the famously impossible-to-settle questions

Hamlet Summary and Analysis of Act 5

A procession interrupts Hamlet‘s reveries – Claudius, Gertrude, and Laertes march

No surprise, this final Act of Hamlet is as mysterious, ambiguous, and controversial as

Shakespeare‘s abandonment of the central focus on revenge, then, perhaps amounts to

Subversion and turns and twists in relationships is another theme of Hamlet.

The Complexity Of Action

Directly related to the theme of certainty is the theme of action. How is it

The Mystery Of Death

The Ambiguity of Language

Although it does not seem much significant, human beings or mankind‘s

Hamlet is also a political drama. Because it starts with political intrigues in

Hamlet Quotes and Analysis

"That it should come to this!" (Act I, Scene II)

"Frailty, thy name is woman!" (Act I, Scene II)

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." (Act I, Scene IV)

I have that within which passeth show,

What‘s Hecuba to him, or he to her,

The play‘s the thing

Do you think I meant country matters?

See you now,

Oh, my offence is rank. It smells to Heaven.

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