HAMLET 1601
SETTING
Late Middle Ages, in and around the royal castle in Elsinore, Denmark. Denmark is a protestant country, like England. The protagonist, Hamlet studies in Wittenberg, Germany, where Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation. Hamlet is sceptical of the ghost,who claims to be his father, wandering in purgatory. Protestants rejected the notion of purgatory. In the subplot a possible war against Norway is suggested.
CHARACTERS
HAMLET: the most talkative of all Shakespeare's characters. Uses a language characterized by ambiguity. Everything he says is conveyed through metaphor, simile and wordplay. His words have a hidden meaning, with affinities to the language of the unconscious. He suffers of melancholy After his father's death and the re-marriage of his mother, the world changes its colour, life its meaning.
THEMES
revenge tragedy >> vengeance
the relationship between father and son, mother and son, Hamlet and his friends
love relationships
madness
youth and age
action and inaction
corruption linked to power
the existence of God and life after death
melancholy
doubt
appeareance vs. reality
honour
SOURCES
Greeks
Seneca
FEATURES of a revenge tragedy
sexual or violent crime committed against a family member of the hero (here a fratricide and regicide); laws and justice cannot punish it, so the hero after a period of doubt, calls for revenge.
appeareance of a ghost
close relationship between the avenger and the audience through soliloquies and asides
bloody action and many deaths
STRUCTURE
5 ACTS
PLOT
I act- Hamlet's father,the King of Denmark, has been dead for only two months, but his mother, Queen Gertrude, has married her brother-in-law, Claudius, who has now become king. A ghost, resembling the late king of Denmark has appeared at the castle of Elsinore, preannouncing a possible attack by Fortinbras, Prince of Norway. Hamlet encounters the ghost, his father, who reveals to have been murdered by Claudius, who poured poison in his ear while sleeping. The ghost asks Hamlet to avenge him, but to leave his mother's punishment to heaven. II act - Hamlet pretends to be mad and arranges a troupe of actors to perform The Murder of Gonzago (a play within the play), a play whose story is similar to the one revealed by the ghost. III act- the play is presented. Hamlet is in his mother's bedroom and during an argument he kills Polonius, father of his beloved Ophelia, who is hiding behind a curtain to overhear the conversation. The king decides to get rid of Hamlet sending him in England. IV act- Hamlet is sent to England to be killed. Ophelia goes mad and drowns herself; Laertes, her brother, wants revenge for his father's murder. The king plots Hamlet's death in a duel with Laertes. V act- the duel. the king prepares a poisoned drink and puts poison on the tip of Laerte's sword. Hamlet refuses to drink, but his mother does.During the duel, Hamlet is wounded with the poisoned tip of the sword, the swords are exchanged and even Laertes his wounded . The queen dies, Laertes falls and denounces the king, who is stabbed by Hamlet. Both the king and Laertes die. Hamlet asks his friend Horatio to tell the story, recommending that Fortinbras, the Norway Prince, be elected King of Denmark. Hamlet dies, Fortinbras enters and take possession of the reign, giving military honours to Hamlet.
cinema adaptation
Hamlet by Kenneth Branagh, 1996
texts
Hamlet meets the ghost
To be or not to be parallel between conscience and consciousness (line 28). A series of infinite forms, give voice to Hamlet 's uncertainty and enables him to distance himself from the action. The series of questions give way to other questions instead of finding a solution.