HAMLET Summary Hamlet is the prince of Denmark. His father has recently died

HAMLETHAMLETSummarySummary

Hamlet is the prince of Denmark.

His father has recently died.


His uncle, Claudius, has married his mother, Gertrud,

and is the king now.


Hamlet's father appears as a ghost and tells him that he has to kill Claudius


Gertrud ClaudiusThe Ghost

Hamlet


Hamlet is a person who always THINKS to decide what to DO.


He wants to kill Claudius.


He pretends to be mad because this could help him...

... but the question remains throughout the play: Does he

actually go mad?


Polonius is the chamberlain.

Ophelia and Laertes are his daughter and son.


Claudius and Polonius want

to know if Hamlet is

mad with love for Ophelia.


(TO BE OR NOT TO BE solilloquy )

They hide and watch Hamlet when he thinks aloud about life

and death


Hamlet designs a trick to prove that

Claudius killed his father: some

actors will perform a play where a king is murdered by his

brother.


Hamlet watches Claudius's reaction.

Claudius is frightened, leaves the theatre and

starts to pray.


Hamlet tries to kill Claudius now but he stops: Claudius would go

to heaven while his father is suffering in hell.


Hamlet confronts his mother.

He says that it is a shame that she

is married to Claudius,

someone so inferior to her

former husband (Hamlet's father).


Polonius is hearing from behind a curtain. Hamlet discovers him and kills him thinking that it is Claudius who

is hiding there.


Ophelia goes mad and drowns in a river.

Her brother, Laertes, is very sad.


Hamlet doesn't know Ophelia is dead and takes a walk in the

fields.


He discovers someone who is digging a grave and finds Yorik's skull.


Yorik was a clown with whom Hamlet used to play as a child.



The skull makes him reflect on the consequences of death.


The play ends with a long scene where Hamlet and Laertes fight with swords, apparently only for sport.


But Claudius and Laertes have put some poison in Hamlet's drink

and on Laertes's sword.


After some confusions, Gertrud drinks the poison and dies and Laertes and Hamlet are killed by the sword.

Before dying, Hamlet kills Claudius.


Denmark dies as a country, too:

Fontinbras, king of Norway, who has conquered Poland, finds the royal family dead and takes

power of the kingdom.

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HAMLET Summary Hamlet is the prince of Denmark. His father has recently died