HAMLET
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
by William Shakespeare
Luísa Lana Viegas
Pedro Henrique Gomes
1. General introduction
✣ Tragedy - 26 july 1602;
✣ Used more new words;
✣ Elizabethan tendency;
✣ Renaissance setting;
✣ Select audience;
✣ Revenge still provides the basic structure, but the heart of
the play is in the human relationships it creates;
✣ The hero’s struggle with, and reflections on the word in
which he finds himself;
✣ It appeals to all sorts and conditions of men.
2. SETTING
3. main characters
4. The plot
One night, in front of the Castle of Elsinore, two royal guards tell Horatio
about a mysterious ghost similar to the dead King Hamlet. Meanwhile, the
Queen Gertrudes and King Claudius try to understand the prince's melancholy.
The appearance of the ghostly figure that resembles his dead father comes to
Hamlet's acquaintance. Then Hamlet decides to go and see with his own eyes.
Upon seeing the ghost Hamlet follows him, even to the protests and warnings
of his guards and Horatio. After being guided away, the Ghost announces
himself to Hamlet as his father and tells him how his death really happened.
The Ghost tells the prince that the whole story behind his death was fake and
forged by his Uncle Claudius, who at a moment of rest of the King, approached
and dripped venom in his ear.
Meanwhile Lord Polonius, the chief counselor of King Claudius, shares the same
opinion of his son Laertes about the intentions in the processions that Hamlet invests
his daughter Ophelia. After a while, Hamlet surprised Ophelia with a visit to the girl's
bedroom. Frightened, Ophelia runs to her Father and reports the Prince's strange
behavior. Polonius then reports to King Claudius and Queen Gertrudes on Hamlet's
behavior and justifies it as an "ecstasy of love". At this moment a troupe of actors
arrives at the palace, Hamlet receives them cordially. However, Hamlet takes
advantage of the artists' stay, and secretly asks one of them to play a specific piece
called "Murder of Gonzaga". Also asking to be dramatized a small scene.
On the day of theatrical attraction, the whole court appreciates the play, including the
King and Queen. The actors dramatize the moment of King Hamlet's death, without
anyone knowing what it is about. At this moment King Claudius realizes that he has
been unmasked, and begins to feel troubled. Claudius's expressions prove to Hamlet
his expectation. Claudius leaves in discomfort. Hamlet follows him and sees that the
King was praying, and furtively, plans to kill him at that moment. But Hamlet tells
himself and realizes that killing him during a moment of prayer would be the same as
sending his father's murderer to Paradise.
Agitated, Hamlet goes to the Queen's room, not knowing that before Polonius was
talking to Gertrudes. His alarmed arrival leaded Polonius to hide behind a curtain.
Hamlet and the Queen have an enlightening conversation, but at this point the Ghost
appears for Hamlet. The dead King asks Hamlet to welcome the Queen and continue
his revenge plan. As she sees Hamlet talking to himself, Gertrudes realizes that Hamlet
would really be crazy. At this moment Lord Polonius accidentally accuses that he was
behind the curtains. As Hamlet hears the noise, he thinks it could be Claudius, and kills
Polonius by accident. Then, the Prince escapes dragging Polonius. Right after Hamlet is
found and questioned of where the body of Polonius would be, by Rosencrantz, but
Hamlet is evasive and does not reveal where the body is.
Soon after the body of Polonius is discovered, Ophelia sees the body of her father and
goes crazy, wandering around the court humming. Laertes, who had traveled to France,
finds out about the death of his father and Ophelia’s depression. Enraged and in spirit
of revenge to Hamlet, Laertes acquits a plane next to Claudius to kill The Prince.
However, Hamlet had been sent to England as an exile for the crime he committed.
After a while, the troops of Fortinbras enter through Denmark. Hamlet returns to
Elsinore, but first goes to a cemetery when he notices that while he was away, Ophelia
accidentally fell into a lake and died, by one of the gravediggers who were there. At this
moment one of the gravediggers gives Hamlet a skull, and says that he was from Yorick,
a court jester who was part of the prince's childhood, giving him a moment of reflection
on life and death.
Hamlet returns to the court and is received with Claudius’ idea, who, with Laertes, had
made a trap for the Prince. The troops of Fortinbras, prince Norway, approached. At
the moment of the duel everyone is gathered. Claudius plots two plans for Hamlet's
death. During the duel, the King offers a chalice with a pearl to the winner of the match.
In fact, Hamlet wins the first clash against Laertes and to celebrate the Queen
Gertrudes proposes the toast to his son. She drinks the bowl that contained the pearl,
when Claudius notices that, he puts in practice his second trap and bathes the sword of
Laertes with poison. Realizing that Hamlet was ill, Laertes attacks him. Hamlet in
response comes out in a melee match.
At this moment the Queen announces that she was poisoned. As he wields his swords
again, Hamlet does not know that the weapon he took was from Laertes and was
poisoned, so he wounded Laertes deeply. As a last act of clemency, Laertes accuses that
King Claudius was the mentor behind the assassination plan and apologized to Hamlet.
The Queen falls to the dead ground. Hamlet in a moment of fury strikes Claudius with
the poisoned sword and forces him to drink from the same cup Gertrudes had taken,
until he dies. The prince, already affected by the poison, falls to the ground with his
last words "The rest is the silence".
Horatio was constantly watching the scene, clamming loyalty to Hamlet, but
Fortinbras had already wrecked the palace. The Norwegian prince presides the scene
related to a battlefield and orders that the body of Hamlet leaves loaded by four
guards. In a funeral corpse with all bodies are greeted by reverence shots.
5. QUOTES
"To be, or not to be: that is
the question."
(Hamlet - Act III, Scene I)
“Something is rotten in the
state of Denmark”
(Marcellus - Act I, Scene IV)
“The are more things in
heaven and earth,
Horatio, than are dreamt
of in your philosophy.”
(Hamlet - Act I, Scene IV)
“Brevity is the soul of wit.”
(Polonius - Act II, Scene II)
"The rest is silence."
(Hamlet - Act V, Scene II)
6. adaptations
Over fifty movies of Hamlet
have been made since 1900.
Khoon Ka Khoon Gamlet,
( Blood for Blood), by Grigori
by Shrab Modi, India, 1935 Kozintsev, Russia,
1964,
· The Lion King, Hamlet,
by Rob Minkoff. by Kenneth Branagh,
Disney ,1994 1996
· Hamlet, · Hamlet,
by Michael Almereyda, by Cristiano Burlan,
2000 Brazil, 2000
· Simpsons,
“Tales from the Public Domain”
FOX 2002
References
The Oxford Shakespeare - Hamlet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet
Thank you!
Any questions?
