Shakespeare’s

Hamlet
Prince of
Denmark
1. It creates a feeling of empathy and bonding with the
characters.
2. Sad stories make people feel better about their own lives.
3. Science proved that watching a sad movie makes us
happier (increasing pain tolerance by upping endorphin
levels in the brain)
4.Tragedy tells us that the world is mightier than us, and we
face a choice like Hamlet did. 
5.Catharsis, meaning “cleansing” in Greek is the process of
releasing, and providing relief from strong or repressed
emotions that is the purpose of a good story, especially a
tragedy. 
What are the side effects of revenge? What happens to
someone as a result of revenge? Is it self destructive?
Who gets hurt?

REVENGE
 Hamlet is a play that has fascinated audiences and readers
since it was first written in around 1599-1604

 It is commonly considered to be one of Shakespeare’s

greatest works, and thus, one of the greatest pieces of literature
ever written.

 Apart from the Bible, Hamlet is the most quoted work in the
English language.

 Hamlet has been so much performed, read, debated, and

filmed because;
 the raw material of Hamlet is something that appeals to
everybody.
everybody
It deals with PERSONAL PROBLEM.
PROBLEM
 A Brief Introduction to
Hamlet
 The play centers around Hamlet’s decision whether or not to
avenge the murder of his father, the King of Denmark.This
weight of this decision drives all the other action and
relationships in the play.

 Hamlet is part of an old tradition of revenge plays, and is

based on an old oral legend about Amleth, a prince whose
father was killed by his uncle, who then married his mother.

 Amleth pretends to be mad, while plotting how to avenge his

father’s death, and eventually is able to kill his uncle.
 Setting

The story takes place in  the royal palace in Elsinore,

a city in Denmark,in the late medieval period (14th
and 15th centuries, or 1300 to 1499).
 CHARACTERS
Hamlet
 The Prince of Denmark, the
title character, and the
protagonist.
protagonist About thirty
years old at the start of the
play, Hamlet is the son of
Queen Gertrude and the late
King Hamlet, and the
nephew of the present king,
Claudius.
Claudius
The King of Denmark,
Hamlet's uncle, and the
play's antagonist. The
villain of the play,
Claudius is a calculating,
ambitious politician,
driven by his lust for
power, but he occasionally
shows signs of guilt and
human feeling, for
instance his love for
Gertrude, seems sincere.
 Gertrude
 The Queen of Denmark, Hamlet's
mother, recently married to
Claudius. Gertrude loves Hamlet
deeply and Hamlet spends a whole
lot of time dwelling on her
incestuous marriage to Claudius —
but we know practically nothing
about her motivations or feelings.
 Gertrude is shallow, and thinks only
about her body and external
pleasures. Like a child she longs to
be delighted.
Polonius
 The Lord Chamberlain of
Claudius's court. He is the
father of Laertes and
Ophelia. Shakespeare uses
Polonius for his less
sophisticated audience
members, whose theatrical
tastes are less developed
than the ideal playgoer. 
 Horatio
 Hamlet's close friend, who
studied with the prince at
the university in
Wittenberg. Horatio is loyal
and helpful to Hamlet
throughout the play. After
Hamlet's death, Horatio
remains alive to tell
Hamlet's story.
Ophelia
 Polonius’ daughter, a
beautiful young woman
with whom Hamlet has
been in love. Ophelia is a
sweet and innocent young
girl, who obeys her father
and her brother, Laertes.
 She gets mad after her
father’s death.
 Laertes
 Polonius's son and
Ophelia's brother, a young
man who spends much of
the play in France.
 Passionate and quick to
action, Laertes becomes
an enemy for Hamlet who
killed his father, Polonius.
Fortinbras
 The young Prince of Norway,
whose father, the king (also
named Fortinbras) was killed
by Hamlet's father (also
named Hamlet). Now
Fortinbras wishes to attack
Denmark to avenge his father's
honor, making him another
enemy for Prince Hamlet.
 The Ghost
 The ghost of Hamlet's
recently deceased father. The
ghost, who claims to have
been murdered by Claudius,
calls upon Hamlet to avenge
him. Other characters may
see the ghost (the castle
guards and Horatio, for
example), but Hamlet's the
only one who has a dialogue
with it.
1. Who is the protagonist of our drama and
Prince of Denmark?

Horatio

Hamlet

Polonius

Claudius
2. Who is the Queen of Denmark and
Hamlet's mother?

Ophelia

Gertrude

Elsinore

Rosencrantz
Who is the current King of Denmark?

Hamlet

King Hamlet

Claudius

Laertes
Who murders the original King of Denmark
to take his throne?

Hamlet

Polonius

Claudius

Gertrude
Who is the daughter of Polonius and love
interest of Hamlet?

Gertrude

Ophelia
Who first sees the ghost of King Hamlet?

Marcellus and Bernardo

Horatio

Hamlet

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Who remarries and betrays his/her original
spouse?

Claudius

Polonius

Gertrude

Horatio
Where was the setting?

Elsinore, Denmark

Rome, Italy

Ontario, Canada

London, England
Who is Claudius to Hamlet?

Son

Cousin

Step-Dad

Step-Dad and Uncle

 Who  is Horatio?
The prince of Denmark

Hamlet's best friend

The prince of Norway

The Lord Chamberlain of Claudius’s court, and
the father of Laertes and Ophelia.

Polonius

Fortinbras

Barnardo

Francisco
The young prince of Norway, whose father
the king and was killed by Hamlet’s father

Barnardo

Fortinbras

Francisco

Polonious
Who kills the King of Norway?

the late King Hamlet

Hamlet

Claudius

Fortinbras
 Act 1 Scene 1
BERNARDO BERNARDO
Who's there?
FRANCISCO 'Tis now struck twelve; get
Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold thee to bed, Francisco.
yourself.
BERNARDO
FRANCISCO
Long live the king! For this relief much thanks:
FRANCISCO 'tis bitter cold,
Bernardo?
BERNARDO And I am sick at heart.
He. BERNARDO
FRANCISCO
You come most carefully upon Have you had quiet guard?
your hour. FRANCISCO
Not a mouse stirring.
On a dark winter night outside Elsinore Castle in
Denmark, an officer named Bernardo comes to
relieve the watchman Francisco. In the heavy
darkness, the men cannot see each other. Bernardo
hears a footstep near him and cries, “Who’s there?”
After both men ensure that the other is also a
watchman, they relax.
 Cold, tired, and apprehensive from his many hours
of guarding the castle, Francisco thanks Bernardo
and prepares to go home and go to bed.
Page 6
BERNARDO
Welcome, Horatio: welcome,
good Marcellus.
MARCELLUS
What, has this thing appear'd
again to-night?
BERNARDO
I have seen nothing.
MARCELLUS
Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy,
and will not let belief take hold of him
touching this dreaded sight, twice seen
of us:
Therefore I have entreated him
along with us to watch the minutes of
this night;
That if again this apparition come, He
may approve our eyes and speak to it.
HORATIO
Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.
Bernardo and Marcellus have urged Horatio to stand
watch with them, because they believe they have
something shocking to show him. In hushed tones,
they discuss the apparition they have seen for the
past two nights, and which they now hope to show
Horatio: the ghost of the recently deceased King
Hamlet, which they claim has appeared before them
on the castle ramparts in the late hours of the night.
 Page 7 BERNARDO
Enter Ghost It would be spoke to.
MARCELLUS MARCELLUS
Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes Question it, Horatio.
again! HORATIO
BERNARDO What art thou that usurp'st this time of
In the same figure, like the king that's dead. night,
MARCELLUS Together with that fair and warlike form
Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio. In which the majesty of buried Denmark
BERNARDO Did sometimes march? by heaven I
charge thee, speak!
Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.
MARCELLUS
HORATIO
It is offended.
Most like: it harrows me with fear and
wonder.
 Page 10 Page 11
Re-enter Ghost o HORATIO
HORATIO So have I heard and do in part believe it.
I'll cross it, though it blast me. But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Stay, illusion! Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward
If thou hast any sound, or use of
hill:
voice,
Break we our watch up; and by my advice,
Speak to me:
If there be any good thing to be Let us impart what we have seen to-night
done, Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
That may to thee do ease and This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
grace to me, Do you consent we shall acquaint him with
Speak to me: it,
…… As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?
Horatio is skeptical, but then the ghost suddenly appears before
the men and just as suddenly vanishes. Terrified, Horatio
acknowledges that the ghost does indeed resemble the dead
King of Denmark, that it even wears the armor King Hamlet
wore.
The ghost appears for a second time, and Horatio tries to speak
to it. The ghost remains silent, however, and disappears
again.Horatio suggests that they tell Prince Hamlet, the dead
king’s son, about the apparition. He believes that though the
ghost did not speak to him, if it is really the ghost of King
Hamlet, it will not refuse to speak to his beloved son.
 Scene 2 Page 11
CLAUDIUS
Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death. The memory be green,
and that it us befitted to bear our hearts in grief and our whole
kingdom, to be contracted in one brow of woe. Yet so far hath
discretion fought with nature that we with wisest sorrow think on
him together with remembrance of ourselves. Therefore our
sometime sister, now our queen, Th' imperial jointress to this
warlike state, have we—as ’twere with a defeated joy,with an
auspicious and a dropping eye, with mirth in funeral and with dirge
in marriage, in equal scale weighing delight and dole—taken to
wife. Nor have we herein barred your better wisdoms, which have
Although I still
freely gonehave fresh
with memories
this of myFor
affair along. brother the thanks.
all, our elder Hamlet’s death,
and though it was proper to mourn him throughout our kingdom, life still goes
on—I think it’s wise to mourn him while also thinking about my own well being.
Therefore, I’ve married my former sister-in-law, the queen, with mixed feelings
of happiness and sadness. I know that in marrying Gertrude I’m only doing
what all of you have wisely advised all along—for which I thank you. 
HAMLET
Page 13
(aside) A little more than kin and less than kind.
CLAUDIUS
How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
HAMLET
Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.
HAMLET
Ay, madam, it is common.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
If it be,
Why seems it so particular with thee?
HAMLET
More than nephew and less than son.
CLAUDIUS
Why are you still so gloomy, with a cloud
hanging over you?
HAMLET
It’s not true, sir. Your son is out in the sun.
GERTRUDE
My dear Hamlet, stop wearing these black
clothes, and be friendly to the king. You
can’t spend your whole life with your eyes
to the ground remembering your noble
father. It happens all the time, what lives
must die eventually, passing to eternity.
HAMLET
Yes, mother, it happens all the time.
GERTRUDE
So why does it seem so particular to you?
 Page 13
HAMLET
Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems.'
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of
grief,
That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
“Seem,” mother? No, it is. I
don’t know what you mean by
“seem.” Neither my black
clothes, my dear mother, nor my
heavy sighs, nor my weeping, nor
my downcast eyes, nor any other
display of grief can show what I
really feel. It’s true that all these
things “seem” like grief, since a
person could use them to fake
grief if he wanted to. But I’ve got
more real grief inside me that
you could ever see on the surface.
These clothes are just a hint of it.
 Page 14-15
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet: I
pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
HAMLET
I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
CLAUDIUS
Why, ’tis a loving and a fair reply.Be as ourself
in Denmark.—Madam, come.This gentle and
unforced accord of Hamlet Sits smiling to my
heart, in grace whereof No jocund health that
Denmark drinks today But the great cannon
to the clouds shall tell, And the king’s rouse
the heavens shall bruit again, Respeaking
earthly thunder. Come away
GERTRUDE
Please answer my prayers,
Hamlet, and stay with us.
Don’t go back to Wittenberg.
HAMLET
I’ll obey you as well as I can,
ma'am.
CLAUDIUS
That’s the right answer—it
shows your love. Stay in
Denmark like us.—My dear
wife, come. Hamlet’s agreeing
to stay makes me happy, and
every merry toast I’ll drink
today will be heard as far as
the clouds overhead. My
drinking will be echoed in the
 HAMLET Page 15
Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would
melt,Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,Or
that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon
'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God! How
weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me
all the uses of this world! Fie on ’t, ah fie! 'Tis
an unweeded garden That grows to seed.
Things rank and gross in natüre Possess it
merely. That it should come to this. But two
months dead—nay, not so much, not two. So
excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a
satyr. So loving to my motherThat he might
not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face
too roughly.—
HAMLET
Ah, I wish my dirty flesh could melt away into
a vapor, or that God had not made a law
against suicide. Oh God, God! How tired,
stale, and pointless life is to me. Damn it! It’s
like a garden that no one’s taking care of, and
that’s growing wild. Only nasty weeds grow in
it now. I can’t believe it’s come to this. My
father’s only been dead for two months—no,
not even two. Such an excellent king, as
superior to my uncle as a god is to a beast,
and so loving toward my mother that he kept
the wind from blowing too hard on her face.
 Page 15
HAMLET Would have mourned longer!—
Heaven and earth, married with my uncle,
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on My father’s brother, but no more
him like my father
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on, and yet, within a month—
Than I to Hercules.
Let me not think on ’t. Frailty, thy name is Within a month,
woman!— Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous
A little month, or ere those shoes were old tears
With which she followed my poor father’s
Had left the flushing in her gallèd
body,
Like Niobe, all tears. Why she, even she— eyes,
O God, a beast that wants discourse of She married.
reason O most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous
sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good,
But break, my heart, for I must hold
my tongue.
Do I have to remember that? She would hang on to him, and the more she
was with him the more she wanted to be with him; she couldn’t get
enough of him. Yet even so, within a month of my father’s death (I don’t
even want to think about it. Oh women! You are so weak!), even before
the shoes she wore to his funeral got old, crying like crazy—even an
animal would have mourned its mate longer than she did!—there she was
marrying my uncle, my father’s brother, who’s about as much like my
father as I’m like Hercules. Less than a month after my father’s death,
even before the tears on her cheeks had dried, she remarried. Oh, so
quick to jump into a bed of incest! That’s not good, and no good can come
of it either. But my heart must break in silence, since I can’t mention my
feelings aloud.
Alone, Hamlet exclaims that he wishes he could die, He wishes bitterly that God had not
made suicide a sin. He laments his father’s death and his mother’s marriage to his uncle. He
remembers how deeply in love his parents seemed, and he curses the thought that now, not
yet two month after his father’s death, his mother has married his father’s far inferior
brother.

His soliloquy about suicide leads in what will be a central idea in the play. The world is
painful to live in, but, within the Christian framework of the play, if one commits suicide to
end that pain, one damns oneself to eternal suffering in hell. The question of the moral
validity of suicide in an unbearably painful world will continue in the rest of the play; it
reaches the height of its urgency in the most famous line in all of English literature: “To be,
or not to be: that is the question” Throughout the play, we watch the pieces of the beliefs
on which Hamlet’s worldview has been based. Already, in this first soliloquy, religion has
failed him, and his corrupt family situation can offer him no relief.
 Page 17
HORATIO HORATIO
My lord, I think I saw him Season your admiration for awhile
yesternight.
With an attent ear, till I may
HAMLET deliver,
Saw? who? Upon the witness of these
gentlemen,
HORATIO
This marvel to you.
My lord, the king your father.

HAMLET HAMLET

The king my father! For God's love, let me hear.

 Scene 3 page 20
LAERTES LAERTES
My necessaries are embark'd: farewell:An My belongings are on the ship already. Good-bye. And,
d, sister, as the winds give benefit And convoy is my dear sister, as long as the winds are blowing and
assistant, do not sleep,But let me hear from you. ships are sailing, let me hear from you—write.
OPHELIA
o OPHELIA
Do you doubt I’ll write?
Do you doubt that? LAERTES
o LAERTES As for Hamlet and his attentions to you, just consider it a
big flirtation, the temporary phase of a hot-blooded
For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour, Hold it a
youth. It won’t last. It’s sweet, but his affection will
fashion and a toy in blood, A violet in the youth fade after a minute. Not a second more.
of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, OPHELIA
sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance No more than a minute?
of a minute; No more.
OPHELIA
No more but so?
In Polonius’s house, Laertes prepares to leave
for France. Bidding his sister, Ophelia,
farewell, he cautions her against falling in love
with Hamlet, who is, according to Laertes, too
far above her by birth to be able to love her
honorably. Since Hamlet is responsible not
only for his own feelings but for his position in
the state, it may be impossible for him to
marry her. Ophelia agrees to keep Laertes’
advice as a “watchman” close to her heart
POLONIUS Page 22
Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame! The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail And
you are stayed for. There, my blessing with thee. And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar.Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear ’t that th' opposèd may beware of thee.Give every man thy ear but few thy voice. Take
each man’s censure but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not
expressed in fancy—rich, not gaudy,for the apparel oft proclaims the man, And they in
France of the best rank and station.Are of a most select and generous chief in that. Neither a
borrower nor a lender be,for loan oft loses both itself and friend,and borrowing dulls the edge
of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be true,and it must follow, as the night the
day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.Farewell. My blessing season this in thee.
POLONIUS

You’re still here? Shame on you—get on board! The wind is filling your ship’s sail, and
they’re waiting for you. Here, I give you my blessing again. And just try to remember a few
rules of life. Don’t say what you’re thinking, and don’t be too quick to act on what you
think. Be friendly to people but don’t overdo it. Once you’ve tested out your friends and
found them trustworthy, hold onto them. But don’t waste your time shaking hands with
every new guy you meet. Don’t be quick to pick a fight, but once you’re in one, hold your
own. Listen to many people, but talk to few. Hear everyone’s opinion, but reserve your
judgment. Spend all you can afford on clothes, but make sure they’re quality, not flashy,
since clothes make the man—which is doubly true in France. Don’t borrow money and
don’t lend it, since when you lend to a friend, you often lose the friendship as well as the
money, and borrowing turns a person into a spendthrift. And, above all, be true to yourself.
Then you won’t be false to anybody else. Good-bye, son. I hope my blessing will help you
absorb what I’ve said.
 Scene 4 Page 26
Enter Ghost
HAMLET
Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd,
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts
from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou comest in such a questionable shape
That I will speak to thee: I'll call thee
Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me!
Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell
Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in
death,
Have burst their cerements
Oh angels, protect us! Whether
you’re a good spirit or a cursed
demon, whether you bring
heavenly breezes or blasts of hell
fire, whether your intentions are
good or evil, you look so strange I
want to talk to you. I’ll call you
“Hamlet Senior,” “King,”
“Father,” “royal Dane.” Answer
me! Don’t drive me crazy with
curiosity, but tell me why your
church-buried bones have burst out
of their coffin.
 Scene 5 Page 28
GHOST I’m the ghost of your father,
doomed for a certain period of
I am thy father’s spirit,Doomed for a certain term time to walk the earth at night,
to walk the night And for the day confined to while during the day I’m trapped
fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my
in the fires of purgatory until I’ve
days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But
done penance for my past sins. If I
that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison
weren’t forbidden to tell you the
house, I could a tale unfold whose lightest
secrets of purgatory, I could tell
Word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy
you stories that would slice
young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars,
through your soul, freeze your
start from their spheres,Thy knotted and
combinèd locks to part And each particular hair blood, make your eyes jump out of
to stand on end,Like quills upon the fearful their sockets, and your hair stand
porpentine. on end like porcupine quills.
 Page 29
GHOST
Revenge his foul and most unnatural GHOST
murder. His most horrible murder.
HAMLET
Murder’s always horrible,
Murder!
GHOST but this one was especially
Murder most foul, as in the best it is; horrible, weird, and
But this most foul, strange and unnatural. unnatural.
HAMLET
Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as HAMLET
swift
Hurry and tell me about it, so I
As meditation or the thoughts of love,
May sweep to my revenge. can take revenge right away,
faster than a person falls in
love.
GHOST
Scene 5 Page 29
Now, Hamlet, hear:'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark is by a
forged process of my death. Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth,the serpent that did sting thy father's life now
wears his crown.
HAMLET
O my prophetic soul! My uncle!
GHOST
Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,--O wicked wit and gifts, that
have the power so to seduce! won to his shameful lust the will of my most seeming-virtuous queen: O Hamlet, what a
falling-off was there! from me, whose love was of that dignity.That it went hand in hand even with the vow I made to her
in marriage, and to decline.
Now listen, Hamlet. Everyone was told that a poisonous snake bit me when I was sleeping in the orchard. But in
fact, that’s a lie that’s fooled everyone in Denmark. You should know, my noble son, the real snake that stung
your father is now wearing his crown. Yes, that incestuous, adulterous animal. With his clever words and fancy
gifts, he seduced my seemingly virtuous queen, persuading her to give in to his lust. They were evil words and
gifts to seduce her like that! Oh, Hamlet, how far she fell! She went from me, who loved her with the dignity
and devotion that suits a legitimate marriage, to a wretch whose natural gifts were poor compared to mine.
 Page 30
GHOST

Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury and damnèd incest. But
howsoever thou pursuest this act, Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven And to those thorns that in her
bosom lodge To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once. The glowworm shows
the matin to be near, And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire. Adieu, adieu, adieu.
Remember me.
Don’t let the Danish king’s bed be a nest of incest. But however you go about
your revenge, don’t corrupt your mind or do any harm to your mother. Leave
her to God and her own guilt. Now, good-bye. The glowworm’s light is
beginning to fade, so morning is near. Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye.
Remember me.
While Hamlet fits a genre called revenge tragedy, it is unlike any
other revenge tragedy in that it is more concerned with thought
and moral questioning than with bloody action.
One of the central tensions in the play comes from Hamlet’s
inability to find any certain moral truths as he works his way
toward revenge.
Even in his first encounter with the ghost, Hamlet questions the
appearances of things around him and worries whether he can trust
his perceptions, doubting the authenticity of his father’s ghost and
its tragic claim. 
 Page 34
HORATIO
O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
HAMLET
And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,than are dreamt of
in your philosophy. But come;Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,how strange or odd soe'er I bear
myself,as I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on,that you, at such times seeing me,
never shall,with arms encumber'd thus, or this headshake,or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,as 'Well,
well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we would,'
Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they might,'Or such ambiguous giving out, to note that you know aught of
me: this not to do,so grace and mercy at your most need help you, Swear.
Then give it a nice welcome, as you would give to any stranger. There are more things in heaven and
earth, Horatio, than you’ve even dreamed of. But now listen to me. No matter how strangely I act
(since I may find it appropriate to act a little crazy in the near future), you must never, ever let on—
with a gesture of your hands or a certain expression on your face—that you know anything about
what happened to me here tonight. You must never say anything like, “Ah, yes, just as we
suspected,” or “We could tell you a thing or two about him,” or anything like that. Swear you won’t.
Intensely moved, Hamlet swears to remember and
obey the ghost. Horatio and Marcellus arrive upon the
scene and frantically ask Hamlet what has happened.
Shaken and extremely agitated, he refuses to tell them,
and insists that they swear upon his sword not to
reveal what they have seen. He tells them further that
he may pretend to be a madman, and he makes them
swear not to give the slightest hint that they know
anything about his motives.
 OPHELIA Act II Page 39
O, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!
LORD POLONIUS
With what, i' the name of God?
OPHELIA
My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced; No hat upon his head; his
stockings foul'd, Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle; Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;
And with a look so piteous in purport as if he had been loosed out of hell.To speak of horrors,--he comes before
me.
LORD POLONIUS
Mad for thy love?
OPHELIA
My lord, I do not know; But truly, I do fear it.
OPHELIA
Father, I was up in my room sewing when Hamlet came in with no hat on his head, his shirt unbuttoned, and his
stockings dirty, undone, and down around his ankles. He was pale as his undershirt, and his knees were
knocking together. He looked so out of sorts, as if he’d just come back from hell. He came up to me.
 POLONIUS   Page 39
What said he?
OPHELIA
He took me by the wrist and held me hard. Then
goes he to the length of all his arm, And, with
his other hand thus o'er his brow, He falls to
such perusal of my face As he would draw it.
Long stayed he so.At last, a little shaking of
mine arm And thrice his head thus waving up
and down, He raised a sigh so piteous and
profound As it did seem to shatter all his bulk
And end his being. That done, he lets me go,
And, with his head over his shoulder turned, He
seemed to find his way without his eyes For out
o' doors he went without their helps, And to the
last bended their light on me.
POLONIUS
What did he say?
OPHELIA
He grabbed me by the wrist and held me
hard, then backed away an arm’s length
and just looked at me, staring at me like
an artist about to paint my picture. He
stayed like that a long time. Finally, after
shaking my arm a little, and jerking his
head up and down three times, he sighed
like it was his last breath. After that he let
me go. He left the room with his head
turned back on me, finding his way out
without looking, since his eyes were on
me the whole time.
 KING CLAUDIUS Page 40
Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern! Moreover that we much did long to see you,the need we have to
use you did provoke our hasty sending. Something have you heard of Hamlet's transformation; so call it,
Sith nor the exterior nor the inward man resembles that it was. What it should be,more than his father's
death, that thus hath put him so much from the understanding of himself, I cannot dream of: I entreat you
both,That, being of so young days brought up with him, and sith so neighbour'd to his youth and havior,that
you vouchsafe your rest here in our court some little time: so by your companies to draw him on to
pleasures, and to gather, so much as from occasion you may glean,whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts
him thus,that, open'd, lies within our remedy.
Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. I’ve wanted to see you for a long time now, but I sent for
you so hastily because I need your help right away. You’ve probably heard about the “change” that’s
come over Hamlet—that’s the only word for it, since inside and out he’s different from what he was
before. I can’t imagine what’s made him so unlike himself, other than his father’s death. Since you
both grew up with him and are so familiar with his personality and behavior, I’m asking you to stay a
while at court and spend some time with him. See if you can get Hamlet to have some fun, and find
out if there’s anything in particular that’s bothering him, so we can set about trying to fix it .
Within the castle, Claudius and Gertrude welcome
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of Hamlet’s friends
from Wittenberg. Increasingly concerned about
Hamlet’s strange behavior and his apparent inability to
recover from his father’s death, the king and queen have
summoned his friends in the hope that they might be
able to cheer Hamlet out of his melancholy, or at least
discover the cause of it. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
agree to investigate, and the queen orders attendants to
take them to her “too much changed” son
 Page 44
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Came this from Hamlet to her?
LORD POLONIUS
Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful.
Reads
'Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers;
I have not art to reckon my groans: but that
I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu.
'Thine evermore most dear lady, whilst
this machine is to him, HAMLET.'
This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me, and more above, hath his solicitings, as they fell out by
time, by means and place,all given to mine ear.
CLAUDIUS  
Page 45 CLAUDIUS
How may we try it further? What can we do to find out if it’s true?
POLONIUS POLONIUS
You know sometimes he walks four hours Well, you know he sometimes walks here in the
together lobby for four hours at a time.
Here in the lobby. GERTRUDE
GERTRUDE   Yes, he does.
So he does indeed. POLONIUS
POLONIUS When he’s there next time, I’ll send my daughter
At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him. to see him. (to CLAUDIUS) You and I will
(to CLAUDIUS) Be you and I behind an arras hide behind the ARRAS and watch what
then, happens. If it turns out that Hamlet’s not in
Mark the encounter. If he love her not And be love after all, and hasn’t gone mad from
not from his reason fall'n thereon, Let me be no love, then you can fire me from my court job
assistant for a state and I’ll go work on a farm.
But keep a farm and carters.
Polonius declares that the prince is mad with love for
Ophelia. He shows the king and queen letters and love
poems Hamlet has given to Ophelia, and proposes a
plan to test his theory. Hamlet often walks alone
through the lobby of the castle, and, at such a time,
they could hide behind an arras (a curtain or wall
hanging) while Ophelia confronts Hamlet, allowing
them to see for themselves whether Hamlet’s madness
really comes from his love for her. 
GUILDENSTERN Page 54
There are the players.
HAMLET
Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore.
Your hands, come then. Th' appurtenance
of welcome is fashion and ceremony. Let
me comply with you in this garb—lest
my extent to the players, which, I tell
you, must show fairly outwards, should
more appear like entertainment than
yours. You are welcome.
GUILDENSTERN
The actors are here.
HAMLETGentlemen, welcome to
Elsinore. Don’t be shy—shake hands
with me. If I’m going to welcome you
I have to go through all these polite
customs, don’t I? And if we don’t
shake hands, when I act all nice to
the players it will seem like I’m
happier to see them than you. You
are very welcome here
 The trumpets blow, announcing the arrival of the actors
(or “players”). Hamlet tells his friends they are welcome to
stay at Elsinore.
He plans a trap for Claudius, forcing the king to watch a
play whose plot closely resembles the murder of Hamlet’s
father; if the king is guilty, he thinks, he will surely show
some visible sign of guilt when he sees his sin reenacted on
stage. Then, Hamlet will obtain definitive proof of
Claudius’s guilt. “The play’s the thing,” he declares,
“wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king”.
Claudius and Gertrude discuss Hamlet’s behavior with
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who say they have
been unable to learn the cause of his melancholy. They
tell the king and queen about Hamlet’s enthusiasm for
the players. Encouraged, Gertrude and Claudius agree
that they will see the play that evening. Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern leave, and Claudius orders Gertrude
to leave as well, saying that he and Polonius intend to
spy on Hamlet’s confrontation with Ophelia. Gertrude
exits, and Polonius directs Ophelia to walk around the
lobby. Polonius hears Hamlet coming, and he and the
king hide.
 PAGE 64
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?—To die,—to sleep,— 
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to,—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die,—to sleep;— 
To sleep: perchance to dream:—ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
….
This soliloquy, probably the most famous speech in the English language, is
spoken by Hamlet.

His most logical and powerful examination of the theme of the moral legitimacy
of suicide in an unbearably painful world, it touches on several of the other
important themes of the play. Hamlet poses the problem of whether to commit
suicide as a logical question: “To be, or not to be,” that is, to live or not to live.

He then decides the uncertainty of the afterlife. He outlines a long list of the
miseries of experience, ranging from lovesickness to hard work to political
oppression, and asks who would choose to bear those miseries if he could bring
himself peace with a knife.

In his famous soliloquy, 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.
Death is therefore empowering: killing oneself is a way of taking action, taking up arms,
opposing and defeating the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Living is a passive
state; dying is an active state. But in order to reach the condition of death one has to take
action in life – charge fully armed against Fortune.

Hamlet attempts to reason out whether the unknown beyond of death is any easier to bear
than life. The underlying theme remains Hamlet's inaction and his frustration at his own
weaknesses. Here, however, Hamlet seems less introspective about his failure to kill
Claudius than perhaps his failure to take his own life. This is also a speech that explores
the idea of consequence.

Hamlet is weighing the benefits versus drawbacks of ending his own life, but also that he
recognizes that suicide is a crime in God’s eyes and could thus make his afterlife worse
than his present situation. In essence, many of Hamlet’s thoughts revolve around death 
 Page 65
HAMLET
You should not have believed
me, for virtue cannot so inoculate
our old stock but we shall relish
of it. I loved you not.
OPHELIA
I was the more deceived.
HAMLET
Get thee to a nunnery. Why
wouldst thou be a breeder of
sinners? I am myself indifferent
honest, but yet I could accuse me
of such things that it were better
my mother had not borne me.
HAMLET
You shouldn’t have believed me, since
we’re all rotten at the core, no matter
how hard we try to be virtuous. I
didn’t love you.
OPHELIA
Then I guess I was misled.
HAMLET
Get yourself to a  nunnery at once. Why
would you want to give birth to more
sinners? I’m fairly good myself, but
even so I could accuse myself of such
horrible crimes that it would’ve been
better if my mother had never given
birth to me.
OPHELIA
Heavenly powers, restore him!
HAMLET
I have heard of your paintings too, well
enough. God has given you one face and you
make yourselves another. You jig and amble,
and you lisp, you nickname God’s creatures
and make your wantonness your ignorance.
Go to, I’ll no more on ’t. It hath made me
mad. I say, we will have no more marriages.
Those that are married already, all but one,
shall live. The rest shall keep as they are. To
a nunnery, go.
OPHELIA
Dear God, please make him normal again!
HAMLET
I’ve heard all about you women and your
cosmetics too. God gives you one face, but you
paint another on top of it. You dance and
prance and lisp; you call God’s creations by pet
names, and you excuse your sexpot ploys by
pleading ignorance. Come on, I won’t stand for
it anymore. It’s driven me crazy. I hereby
declare we will have no more marriage.
Whoever is already married (except one person
I know) will stay married—all but one person.
Everyone else will have to stay single. Get
yourself to a nunnery, fast.
Bitterly commenting on the wretchedness of
humankind, he urges Ophelia to enter a nunnery rather
than become a “breeder of sinners”. He criticizes
women for making men behave like monsters and for
contributing to the world’s dishonesty by painting their
faces to appear more beautiful than they are. Working
himself into a rage, Hamlet denounces Ophelia, women,
and humankind in general, saying that he wishes to end
all marriages.
 Page 72
Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly, the
Trumpets play. The pantomime show begins.
Queen embracing him and he her. She kneels and A king and queen enter and embrace lovingly.
makes show of protestation unto him. He takes She kneels before him and resists his passion.
her up and declines his head upon her neck, lays He lifts her up and lays his head on her neck.
him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing He lies down on a bank of flowers. When she
him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, sees him sleeping, she leaves. Another man
takes off his crown, kisses it, pours poison in the comes in, takes the crown from the king,
King’s ears, and exits. The Queen returns, finds pours poison in the sleeping man’s ear, and
the King dead, and makes passionate action. The leaves. The queen returns and finds the king
Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in dead. She becomes hysterical. The killer
again, seeming to lament with her. The dead comes back with three others and calms the
body is carried away. The Poisoner woos the queen. The body is carried away. The killer
Queen with gifts. She seems loath and unwilling woos the queen with gifts. She is cold toward
awhile, but in the end accepts his love him for a while but then relents and accepts
his advances.
 Page 76
OPHELIA
The king rises.
HAMLET
What, frighted with false fire!
QUEEN GERTRUDE
How fares my lord?
LORD POLONIUS
Give o'er the play.
KING CLAUDIUS
Give me some light: away!
All
Lights, lights, lights!

When the moment of the murder arrives in the theater, Claudius leaps up and
leaves the room. Hamlet and Horatio agree that this proves his guilt.
 Page 81
Elsewhere in the castle, King Claudius speaks to Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern. Badly shaken by the play and now considering Hamlet’s
madness to be dangerous, Claudius asks the pair to escort Hamlet on a voyage
to England and to depart immediately. They agree and leave to make
preparations. Polonius enters and reminds the king of his plan to hide in
Gertrude’s room and observe Hamlet’s confrontation with her. He promises to
tell Claudius all that he learns. When Polonius leaves, the king is alone, and he
immediately expresses his guilt and grief over his sin. A brother’s murder, he
says, is the oldest sin. He longs to ask for forgiveness, but says that he is
unprepared to give up that which he gained by committing the murder,
namely, the crown and the queen. He falls to his knees and begins to pray.
Hamlet slips quietly into the room to kill Claudius. But
he thinks that if he kills Claudius while he is praying, he
will end the king’s life at the moment when he was
seeking forgiveness for his sins, sending Claudius’s soul
to heaven. This is hardly an adequate revenge, Hamlet
thinks, especially since Claudius, by killing Hamlet’s
father before he had time to make his last confession,
ensured that his brother would not go to heaven. Hamlet
decides to wait, resolving to kill Claudius when the king
is sinning—when he is either drunk, angry, or lustful. He
leaves. 
In Act III, scene iii, Hamlet finally seems ready to put his
desire for revenge into action. He is satisfied that the play
has proven his uncle’s guilt. When Claudius prays, the
audience is given real certainty that Claudius murdered
his brother: a full, spontaneous confession, even though
nobody else hears it. This only heightens our sense that
the climax of the play is due to arrive. But Hamlet waits.
Now that he’s satisfied that he knows Claudius’s guilt, he
wants to know that his punishment will be sufficient.
 Page 85
HAMLET
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass where you may see the inmost part of you.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho!
LORD POLONIUS
What, ho! help, help, help!
HAMLET
How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
LORD POLONIUS
O, I am slain!
Falls and dies
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O me, what hast thou done?
HAMLET
Nay, I know not: Is it the king?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
In Gertrude’s chamber, the queen and Polonius wait for Hamlet’s
arrival. Polonius plans to hide in order to eavesdrop on Gertrude’s
confrontation with her son, in the hope that doing so will enable him
to determine the cause of Hamlet’s bizarre and threatening behavior.
 Fearing for her life, Gertrude cries out. From behind the arras,
Polonius calls out for help. Hamlet, realizing that someone is behind
the arras and suspecting that it might be Claudius, cries, “How now!
a rat?” (III.iv.22). He draws his sword and stabs it through the
tapestry, killing the unseen Polonius. He’s committed the act of
killing in the first time in his life.
Suddenly, the ghost of his father again
appears before him.
Hamlet speaks to the ghost, but Gertrude is
unable to see it and believes him to be mad.
The ghost says that it has come to remind
Hamlet of his purpose, that Hamlet has not
yet killed Claudius and must achieve his
revenge.
 Enter Ghost
Ghost
Page 88
Do not forget: this visitation QUEEN GERTRUDE
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. To whom do you speak this?
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits: HAMLET
O, step between her and her fighting soul: Do you see nothing there?
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works: QUEEN GERTRUDE
Speak to her, Hamlet. Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.
GHOST HAMLET
Don’t forget. I’ve come to sharpen your Nor did you nothing hear?
somewhat dull appetite for revenge. But look, QUEEN GERTRUDE
your mother is in shock. Oh, keep her
No, nothing but ourselves.
struggling soul from being overwhelmed by
horrid visions. The imagination works
HAMLET
strongest in those with the weakest bodies. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!
Talk to her, Hamlet. My father, in his habit as he lived!
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the
portal!
 Act IV Scene I
Gertrude hurries to Claudius and tells him about her encounter with Hamlet. She says that he is as
mad as the sea during a violent storm; she also tells Claudius that Hamlet has killed Polonius.The
king notes that had he been concealed behind the curtain, Hamlet would have killed him. Claudius
wonders aloud how he will be able to handle this public crisis without damaging his hold on
Denmark. He tells Gertrude that they must ship Hamlet to England at once and find a way to explain
Hamlet’s misdeed to the court and to the people. He calls Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, tells them
about the murder, and sends them to find Hamlet.

The short first scene of Act IV centers around Gertrude’s betrayal of her son, revealing him to
the king. The immediate way in which she tells Claudius about Hamlet’s behavior and his
murder of Polonius implies that she sees herself as allied to the king rather than to her son. 
 Act IV Scene 2
Elsewhere in Elsinore, Hamlet has just finished disposing of
Polonius’s body, commenting that the corpse has been safely hidden.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern appear and ask what he has done
with the body. Hamlet refuses to give them a straight answer,
instead saying, ‘’ashes to ashes, and dust to dust.”  He also accuses
them of being spies in the service of Claudius. He calls Rosencrantz
a “sponge’’

Hamlet’s murder of Polonius is one of the most disturbing moments

in the play. If it was previously possible to consider Hamlet a “hero”
or an idealized version of a human being, it is no longer possible
after he kills Polonius. His sensitive now disappears in the wake of
its violent opposite: a rash, murderous explosion of activity. 
 Page95-96
KING CLAUDIUS
Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
HAMLET
At supper.
KING CLAUDIUS
At supper! where?
HAMLET
Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him.
Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves
for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one
table:that's the end.
KING CLAUDIUS
Alas, alas!
HAMLET
A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
 HAMLET
Not where he’s eating, but where he’s being eaten. A
certain conference of worms is chowing down on him.
Worms are the emperor of all diets. We fatten up all
creatures to feed ourselves, and we fatten ourselves for the
worms to eat when we’re dead. A fat king and a skinny
beggar are just two dishes at the same meal. That’s all I
have to say.
A man can fish with the worm that ate a king, and then eat
the fish he catches with that worm.
The king tells Hamlet that he must leave at once for
England, and Hamlet enthusiastically agrees.
He exits, and Claudius sends Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern to ensure that he boards the ship at once.
Alone with his thoughts, Claudius states his hope that
England will obey the sealed orders he has sent with
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
The orders call for Prince Hamlet to be put to death.
 Act 4 Scene 4
On a nearby plain in Denmark, young Prince Fortinbras marches at the head of his
army, traveling through Denmark on the way to attack Poland. Fortinbras orders his
captain to go and ask the King of Denmark for permission to travel through his lands.
On his way, the captain encounters Hamlet, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern on their way
to the ship bound for England. 

Hamlet’s encounter with the Norwegian captain serves to remind the reader of
Fortinbras’s presence in the play and gives Hamlet another example of the will to action
that he lacks. 

Now, he is amazed with the willingness of Fortinbras to devote the energy of an entire
army.

My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!” he declares (IV.9.56). Of course, he fails to

put this thought into action, as he has failed at every previous turn to achieve his revenge
on Claudius.
 Page 101
OPHELIA OPHELIA
Where is the beauteous majesty of Say you? nay, pray you, mark.
Denmark?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Sings
How now, Ophelia! He is dead and gone, lady,
OPHELIA He is dead and gone;
Sings At his head a grass-green turf,
How should I your true love know At his heels a stone.
From another one?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
By his cockle hat and staff,
And his sandal shoon. Nay, but, Ophelia,
QUEEN GERTRUDE OPHELIA
Alas, sweet lady, what imports this Pray you, mark.
song? Sings
White his shroud as the mountain
snow,--
Ophelia’s insanity is designed to
contrast strongly with Hamlet’s,
differing primarily in its legitimacy:
Ophelia does not go crazy to achieve
an end,
end but is truly driven mad by
external pressures. 
pressures
After her father’s death, Ophelia goes mad with grief.
Polonius’s son, Laertes, who has been staying in France,
returns to Denmark in a rage (angrily).
Claudius convinces him that Hamlet is to blame for his father’s
deaths.
Then Horatio and the king receive letters from Hamlet
indicating that Hamlet has returned to Denmark after pirates
attacked his ship on the way to England.
Laertes is pleased that Hamlet has come back to Denmark,
since it means that his revenge will not be delayed.
Laertes is Hamlet’s best foil throughout the play, and in this scene the
contrast between the two, each of whom has a dead father to avenge,
reaches its peak.
While Hamlet has difficulty in deciding and acting, Laertes knows what
to do and is active. He has no interest in moral concerns, only in his
desire to avenge his father Polonius.
When Claudius later asks Laertes how far he would go to avenge his
father, Laertes replies that he would slit Hamlet’s throat in the church
(IV.vii.98). This statement, indicating his willingness to murder Hamlet
even in a sacred place of worship, brings into sharp relief the contrast
between the two sons.
The king speculates that if Hamlet could be tempted into a duel
with Laertes, it might provide Laertes with the chance to kill him.
Laertes agrees, and they settle on a plan. Laertes will use a
sharpened sword rather than the traditional fencing blade. Laertes
also poisons his sword, so that even a scratch from it will kill
Hamlet. The king makes a plan B as well, saying that if Hamlet
succeeds in the duel, Claudius will offer him a poisoned cup of
wine to drink from in celebration.
Gertrude enters with tragic news. Ophelia, mad with grief,
has drowned in the river. Mournful to have lost his sister so
soon after his father’s death, Laertes leaves the room.
Claudius tells Gertrude it was nearly impossible to decrease
Laertes’ wrath, and worries that the news of Ophelia’s death
will reawaken it.
In the churchyard, two gravediggers are digging a grave for
Ophelia. Hamlet and Horatio enter and watch the
gravediggers work. Hamlet looks with wonder at the skulls
they excavate to make room for the fresh grave and wonders
about what jobs of the owners of these skulls. Hamlet picks
up a skull, and the gravedigger tells him that the skull
belonged to Yorick, King Hamlet’s clown. 
 Page 123
HAMLET HORATIO
Horatio, tell me one thing. If you thought that you’d be thinking too much.
HORATIO
What’s that, my lord?
HAMLET
HAMLET No, not at all. Just follow the logic: Alexander
Do you think Alexander the Great looked like this died, Alexander was buried, Alexander
when he was buried? returned to dust, the dust is dirt, and dirt
HORATIO
makes mud we use to stop up holes. So why
Exactly like that.
HAMLET can’t someone plug a beer barrel with the dirt
And smelled like that, too? Whew!  that used to be Alexander? The great emperor
HORATIO Caesar, dead and turned to clay, might plug
Just as bad, my lord.
up a hole to keep the wind away. Oh, to think
HAMLET
How low we can fall, Horatio. Isn’t it possible to that the same body that once ruled the world
imagine that the noble ashes of Alexander the could now patch up a wall! But quiet, be quiet a
Great could end up in a hole? minute.
The gravediggers represent a humorous type commonly
found in Shakespeare’s plays: the clever commoner who
gets the better of his social superior through wit. At the
Globe Theater, this type of character appeals to the
tastes of “groundlings”.
The skull is a physical reminder of the finality of death.
After all his philosophical contemplation of
mortality,Hamlet literally looks directly in the face right
here.
He thinks about the commonness of death and vanity of life.
Hamlet realizes that death eliminates the differences among people.
The hierarchical structure of society is illusory and ultimately
crumbles into dust, just like the bones of those long gone.
He emphasizes the subject of death and the fact that all men are
worm's meat, all that lives will one day die, and that no rank or
money can change the equality of death. Death transforms even great
kings like Alexander into trivial objects.
 Page 125
Suddenly, the funeral procession for Ophelia enters the churchyard, including Claudius,
Gertrude, Laertes, and many mourning courtiers. Hamlet and Horatio hide as the
procession approaches the grave. As Ophelia is laid in the earth, Hamlet realizes it is she
who has died.
At the same moment, Laertes becomes angy with the priest, who says that it’s not true to
give Ophelia a proper Christian burial because she committed suicide. Laertes leaps into
Ophelia’s grave to hold her once again in his arms. Grief-stricken and shocked, Hamlet
leaps into the grave and fights with Laertes, saying that “forty thousand brothers / Could
not, with all their quantity of love, / make up my sum”.
Hamlet cries that he would do things for Ophelia that Laertes could not dream of—he
would eat a crocodile for her, he would be buried alive with her. They are pulled apart by
the funeral company. Gertrude and Claudius declare that Hamlet is mad. Hamlet storms
off, and Horatio follows. The king urges Laertes to be patient, and to remember their plan
for revenge.
 Scene 2 page 127
The next day at Elsinore Castle, Hamlet tells Horatio how he plotted to
overcome Claudius’s scheme to have him murdered in England. He
replaced the sealed letter carried by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,
which called for Hamlet’s execution, with one calling for the execution
of the bearers of the letter—Rosencrantz and Guildenstern themselves.

He tells Horatio that he has no sympathy for Rosencrantz and

Guildenstern, who betrayed him and catered to Claudius, but that he
feels sorry for having behaved with such hostility toward Laertes.

In Laertes’ desire to avenge his father’s death, he says, he sees the mirror
image of his own desire.
Hamlet learns that Claudius wants him to fence with
Laertes and that the king has bet with Laertes that Hamlet
will win. Against Horatio’s advice, Hamlet agrees to fight,
saying that “all’s ill here about my heart, and one must be
prepared to die, since death can come at any moment’’.
 Page 135
HAMLET (to LAERTES)

 I beg your pardon, sir. I’ve done you wrong. Forgive me

as a gentleman. Everyone here knows—and I’m sure
you’ve heard—that I’m suffering from a serious mental
illness. When I insulted you it was due to insanity. Was
Hamlet the one who insulted Laertes? No, not Hamlet. If
Hamlet is robbed of his own mind, and insults Laertes
when he’s not really himself, then Hamlet’s not guilty of
the offense. Who is guilty, then? Hamlet’s mental illness is.
In the moments before the duel, Hamlet seems peaceful, though
also quite sad. He says that he feels ill in his heart. Exactly what
has caused the change in Hamlet is unclear, but his desire to attain
Laertes’ forgiveness clearly represents an important shift in his
mental state. Whereas Hamlet previously was obsessed almost
wholly with himself and his family, he is now able to think
sympathetically about others.
others He does not go quite so far as to take
responsibility for Polonius’s death, but he does seem to be acting
with a broader perspective after the shock of Ophelia’s death. 
Even though Laertes accepts his apology, he has already made his
plan to kill Hamlet
 Page 137
They select their swords, and the king says that if Hamlet wins the first
or second hit, he will drink to Hamlet’s health, then throw into the cup a
pearl (actually the poison) and give the wine to Hamlet. The duel begins.
Hamlet strikes Laertes but rejects to drink from the cup, saying that he
will play another hit first.

He hits Laertes again, and Gertrude rises to drink from the cup. The king
tells her not to drink, but she does so anyway. In an aside, Claudius
murmurs, “It is the poison’d cup: it is too late”.

They fight again, and Laertes wounds Hamlet with his poisoned sword.
Scuffling, they exchange swords, and Hamlet wounds Laertes with
Laertes’ own sword.
The queen falls. Laertes, poisoned by his own sword, declares, “I am
justly kill’d with my own treachery” (V.ii.318). The queen moans that
the cup must have been poisoned, calls out to Hamlet, and dies. Laertes
tells Hamlet that he, too, has been slain, by his own poisoned sword,
and that the king is to blame both for the poison on the sword and for
the poison in the cup.

Leartes dies and Hamlet, in a fury, stabs Claudius with the poisoned
sword and forces him to drink down the rest of the poisoned wine.
Claudius dies crying out for help.

Before Hamlet dies, he tells Horatio that he is going to stay and tell the
tragic story of him.
At this moment, a Norwegian prince named Fortinbras,
who has led an army to Denmark and attacked Poland
earlier in the play, enters with ambassadors from
England, who report that Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are dead. Fortinbras is stunned by the
sight of the entire royal family lying on the floor dead.
He moves to take power of the kingdom. Horatio,
fulfilling Hamlet’s last request, tells him Hamlet’s tragic
story. Fortinbras orders that Hamlet be carried away in
a manner befitting a fallen soldier.
 Major Themes
The Impossibility of Certainty
What separates Hamlet from other revenge plays is that the action we expect to see,
particularly from Hamlet himself, is continually postponed while Hamlet tries to obtain more
certain knowledge about what he is doing. This play poses many questions like:
Can we have certain knowledge about ghosts?
Does the ghost have reliable knowledge about its own death, or is the ghost itself
deluded?
Can Hamlet know the state of Claudius’s soul by watching his behavior?
Can Claudius or the audience know the state of Hamlet’s mind by observing his
behavior and listening to his speech? 
Many people have seen Hamlet as a play about indecisiveness, and thus about Hamlet’s
failure to act appropriately. It might be more interesting to consider that the play shows us
how many uncertainties our lives are built upon, how many unknown quantities are taken for
granted when people act or when they evaluate one another’s actions.
 The Complexity 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 simply act as they feel is appropriate. But in some sense they prove that
Hamlet is right, because all of their actions fail. Claudius possesses a queen and crown
through bloody action, but his conscience torments him, and, of course, he dies. Laertes
decides that nothing will distract him from acting out his revenge, but he is easily influenced
and manipulated into serving for Claudius’s ends, and his poisoned sword is turned back upon
himself.

What about Gertrude?

 Reaction to death
After 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 deal of perspectives. He thinks both he spiritual result 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.

Uncertainty in death may bring the answers to Hamlet’s deepest questions, while trying to
determine truth in an ambiguous world.

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 brings justice.

The question of his own death tortures Hamlet as well, as he repeatedly questions whether or not
suicide is a morally rational action in an unbearably painful world. Hamlet’s grief and misery is
such that he frequently wants to end his suffering, but he fears that if he commits suicide, he will
suffer in hell because of the Christian religion’s prohibition of suicide.
 Who and What is
Hamlet?

 Hamlet is
A tragic figure whose flaw is an unwillingness to act

 Shakespeare took the basic plotline and created 5 stories in one!

Family Drama – An uncle has married the wife of his brother.
Love Story – Young love is forced apart by circumstance
Madness – A young prince may or may not have gone mad.
Revenge Play – death, murder, suicide, ghosts!
Political Thriller– Who should have the throne?
 Hamlet: The First “Modern Man?”
 Hamlet is also a play concerned with the
question “Who Am I?”
 First line of the play➔ “Who’s there?”
 Is our role in life defined by fate?
Family? Our own choices? Are we
completely alone in the world, or are
we tied to others?

 Hamlet’s struggle with these “existential”

questions has led critics like Freud to
suggest that Hamlet is a representation of
a fully modern man
Able to look at the stupidity, falsity,
and difficulty everyday life, without
relying on easy answers
Famous Hamlets

Edwin Booth, left

Richard Burton, above
Famous Hamlets
Jude Law left,
Mel Gibson
right,
Kenneth
Branaugh, below
 Famous Hamlets
Ethan Hawke, below
Sir Lawrence Olivier, right
 Literary Terms

Repetition: the repeating of words for

emphasis
HAMLET: I humbly thank you; well, well,
well.
HAMLET: Words, words, words.
 Metaphor: a comparison between two things
(that does not use 'like' or 'as')
HAMLET: This world…tis an unweeded garden,that
grows to seed…
In this quote, Hamlet compares his this world to an
unweeded garden.
 Simile: a comparison using the words 'like' or 'as'
HAMLET: A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears
This quote compares Queen Gertrude to Niobe, a character from
Greek mythology. The gods killed Niobe's children and she
wept bitterly, unlike Queen Gertrude who did not seem to show
much emotion for the death of her husband, Hamlet's father.
Alliteration: repetition of the same
consonant in following words.
O, ’tis too true!
Bare bodkin
Single spies
Anadiplosis: ending a phrase with a word
and starting the next phrase with the same
word
HAMLET: To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream
 Anaphora: repeating the same word
at the beginning of each phrase
POLONIUS: Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.