Hamlet Summary and Analysis

Theme: In Hamlet, Shakespeare warns that when you don't know who you are you are unable to effectively exercise moral judgement.

Summary: Bernardo, Marcellus, Fernando, and Horatio come across Old Hamlet's ghost on a night watch but he doesn't respond to them. They resolve to tell Hamlet about this. Claudius allows Laertes to go to France but he and Gertrude don't allow Hamlet to return to Wittenberg for school. Polonius tells Ophelia to not see Hamlet. Hamlet confronts his father's ghost and the ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius killed him. Hamlet promises to avenge his father's death. Ophelia tells Polonius that Hamlet has gone mad and describes how Hamlet came to her in her closet. Polonius concludes that Hamlet is mad from his love for Ophelia and tells Claudius. They decide to spy on him. Claudius recruits Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern to find what afflicts Hamlet. Claudius and Polonius spy on a conversation between Hamlet and Ophelia where Hamlet tells Ophelia he never loved her. Claudius decides that something else is afflicting Hamlet. Hamlet has the Players put on The Murder of Gonzago and Hamlet decides that Claudius truly is guilty based on his reaction to the performance. Claudius wants Ros and Guil to take Hamlet to England. Hamlet finds Claudius praying confessional but can't bring himself to kill him while he's praying. Hamlet has a heated conversation with his mother while Polonius spies. Polonius heres Gertrude yell and calls for help. Hamlet murders him, believing him to be Claudius. Hamlet continues to berate his mother for her actions before seeing his father's ghost again. Gertrude tells Claudius of Polonius' death. Claudius reveals that he plans to have Hamlet executed in England. On his way to the boats, Hamlet runs into Fortinbras' army and resolves to kill Claudius. Ophelia goes insane and Laertes returns to Elsinore and swears revenge on Hamlet. Horatio learns that Hamlet escaped the ship and is coming back to Denmark dues to pirates. Ophelia commits suicide. Hamlet contemplates the meaning of death with a skull in his hand. He and Horatio stumble upon Ophelia's funeral procession and Hamlet and Laertes tussle over her casket over who loved her more. They agree to duel later. Hamlet reveals to Horatio that he left orders for Ros and Guil to be executed. Hamlet also tells Laertes that he's prepared to die. Before the duel, Hamlet apologizes Laertes, who pretends to accept it. Claudius has poisoned wine meant for Hamlet and Laertes has tipped his sword with poison. But Gertrude ends up drinking the wine and Hamlet and Laertes are both hit with the poisoned sword. Gertrude dies. Laertes sells out Claudius and accepts Hamlet's apology. Hamlet stabs Claudius and forces him to drink the poisoned wine, who dies along with Laertes. Hamlet dies. Horatio lives! Fortinbras storms in and takes over.

Characters: (Adapted from the Collaborative Review)

Hamlet: Protagonist. Thirty-some. Quite obviously a Christ figure, though perhaps in certain adaptions and interpretations a failed Christ figure or even a figure of the Devil. Son of Old Hamlet and Gertrude, nephew to Claudius, who has just wed Gertrude. We presume that when he is in Elsinore, he loses the personality he had when he was at school in Wittenberg. Hamlet is in a “relationship” with Ophelia, which may result in a possible pregnancy. May have an Oedipal relationship with Gertrude. Constantly contemplates suicide, and is perhaps having an existential crisis to due his conflict of character and values as a Protestant man coming from schooling in Germany, and the values of Elsinore.

Gertrude: Hamlet’s mother, previously married to Old Hamlet, currently married to Claudius. It is strongly suggested that she is guilty of incest, either with her affair with Claudius while Old Hamlet still lived, or the sketchy Oedipal relationship between herself and Hamlet as portrayed in certain adaptions.

Claudius: King of Denmark, as elected by the council of Denmark’s elders. Hamlet’s father and uncle. Killed Hamlet’s father for Gertrude, and subsequently crowned the new king of Denmark.

Ophelia: Daughter of Polonius, sister to Laertes. In a relationship with Hamlet, unbeknownst to most of the court. Possibly pregnant, goes insane after her father’s death and subsequently kills herself. And of course, in certain interpretations can be seen to have an incestuous relationship with her brother. Incest for the win-cest.

Laertes: Son of Polonius, brother of Ophelia. Spends most of the play in France, until Polonius is killed. After his father is slain by Hamlet, Laertes returns to the court where the citizens quickly rally around him to be the next King of Denmark. He seeks vengeance on Hemlet and subsequently enters into a plot with Claudius to poison Hamlet in a duel.

Polonius: Chief counselor to the King. Laertes’ and Ophelia’s father. Likes to work behind the scenes. Has two personalities, one for politics and one for his family. He is seen as a fool and too wordy and pompous, but in truth he is very smart and aware of his surroundings, though not necessarily in touch with his family.

Motifs: (Adapted from the Collaborative Review)

• Ambiguity
• Insularity

• Incest
• Identity
• Providence
• Revenge
• Control
• Religion
• Duality (Natural vs. Unnatural, identity vs. public appearance, father & son, light vs. day, pure vs. impure)
• Death
• Surveillance
• Misogyny
• Ears & hearing
• Synecdoche
• Fortune/luck
• Lack of trust
• Mystery of death- afterlife
• Nation as a poisoned body
• Putting on persons- inner vs. outer self. Acting
• Lies
• Madness

Symbols: (Adapted from the Collaborative Review)  

Mirrors (movies only): visual effect used to portray the identity crises present in the play and the role of looking into the reflection of one’s own soul and consequential actions.

Yorick’s Skull- Hamlet’s realization death is part of a natural order; to not fear it, and that his own death is inevitable.

Old Hamlet's Ghost - a physical representation of the usurpation of Old Hamlet, and the unholiness of the quest he asks of Hamlet, as it is not right for spirit to dwell on Earth after it has been killed.

Hamlet/Old Hamlet - Hamlet and Old Hamlet share the same name, thus suggesting that as characters they are in fact, interchangeable.

Hamlet is a play, thus there is no point of view, but Hamlet's struggle largely tells the tale. The style Shakespeare uses is also hard to pin point because A) it's a play and B) we do not actually have any of the stage directions from Shakespeare and even the dialogue is mostly guesswork and the common acceptance of versions. The mirrors in the cinematic adaptions also provide an interesting image to support the imagery of introspection, especially in Hamlet's many soliloquies.

Quotes:

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks" (Act III, scene ii) -- This quote highlights the significance of the hypocrisy of the royalty in Denmark, as Gertrude is criticizing someone who is essentially her. It shows the rottenness of the Denmark ruling class. 

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" (Act I, scene iv) -- This line from Marcellus foreshadows what we'll later know to be true. Elsinore is so insular and full of duplicitous, power-hungry elites spying on each other that it's making Denmark rotten to the core.