Summary of 'Hamlet'
The
ghost of the death king appears to Horatio and the guards. It was wearing full
armour, and seemed about to speak, but then walked off, apparently offended by
Horatio's words. Marcellus asks Horatio why Denmark is preparing for war, and
why it is necessary to keep such a careful guard. Horatio explains that an
invasion is expected from Norway.
Thirty years ago the old king Hamlet, young Hamlet's father, was challenged by
the king of Norway,
old Fortinbras, to single combat. They agreed that
the winner would take a part of the looser's lands.
Old Hamlet killed old Fortinbras, and Denmark took possession of a part of Norway. Now
young Fortinbras,son of the dead king of Norway, has decided to invade Denmark to
recover the lands lost by his father. At this point the ghost appears again.
Again it was about to speak, but when the cock crew it disappeared. Horatio and
Marcellus decided to tell Hamlet what they had seen. After old Hamlet's death,
old Hamlet's brother Claudius married the queen, Hamlet's mother Gertrude, and
became the new king of Denmark.
Now he appears in his first public audience at court. He introduce Gertrude as
his wife (an embarassing moment, since she used to be
his sister-in-law), discusses the problem of the imminent invasion from Norway, and speaks to Polonius and his son Laertes, giving the latter permission to go to France. Then
Claudius turns to his nephew Hamlet. Hamlet appears at court with the king and
queen. Claudius and Gertrude tried to convince him to abandon his black clothes
(worn in mourning for his father) and not to go back to university at Wittenberg. Hamlet spokes
sarcastically to his uncle, but agreed to stay in Denmark. When he is alone he
expresses all his desperate bitterness at his mother's marriage to his huncle, so soon after his father's death. He was disgusted
by life, and said that he wanted to die. Horatio and Hamlet meet: they are old
friends from university. Horatio tells Hamlet about the ghost, and Hamlet
decides to speak to it the next night. The next scene meet Polonius, the chief
counsellor of Claudius, his son Laertes and his
daughter Ophelia. Laertes is leaving for Paris: before he goes he
gives his sister some cynical advice about Hamlet, who was been courting her.
He tells her she must not believe that Hamlet's feelings for her will last; and
moreover a prince like Hamlet cannot choose his wife freely. She must be
careful. Ophelia thanks him for his advice, and reminds him thet
when when he is in Paris, he must practise as he preaches.
Polonius appears, and makes a long farewell speech to Laertes
full of advice on life in general.Polonius then talks
to Ophelia about Hamlet. He ordered her to stop seeing him, because young men
cannot be trusted. She humbly promised to obey her father. Hamlet has joined
Horatio and Marcellus on the castle battlements. It is just before midnight,
and the king and the court are drinking. The ghost appears and leads Hamlet
away; Horatio begs theat it is an evil spirit that
will tempt him to suicide. The ghost told Hamlet how Claudius poured poison in
his ear while he was asleep, then claimed that he had died of a snake bite. The
ghost also suggested that Gertrude had been unfaithful even before he died. As
down breaks, the ghost disappears. Hamlet makes Horatio and Marcellus promise
to keep the night's event secret, and warns them that he may pretend to be mad,
presumably to mask his real intentions. About a month passes between act 1 and
act 2. Hamlet has behaving strangely; Claudius has sent for Hamlet's old school
friends, Rosencratz and Guildenstern, to try and find
out what is wrong. Ophelia tells her father how Hamlet broke into her room
while she was sewing. His clothing in disorder, an expression of terror on his
face, he stared at her without speaking, then went away. Ophelia said nothing
either, but went straight to her father. Polonius assumes that Hamlet's
behaviour is caused by unhappy love, and decides that the king must be told.
The ambassadors return, saying that the king of Norway
has told Fortinbras not to invade Denmark, but to use his troops against Poland. He asks
Claudius to give Fortinbras a safe conduct through Denmark.
Polonius reads a love letter from Hamlet to Ophelia, but Claudius is not
convinced. Polonius discuss Hamlet with the king and queen. He proposed to make
Ophelia meet Hamlet 'by accident', and listen to their conversation. Then
Hamlet come in, and under cover of his madness insultes
Polonius in a ambiguos and cryptic way. Then Polonius
and Claudius plot to use Ophelia as a decoy in order to spy on Hamlet. Rosencratz and Guildenstern arrived at Elsinore, and were welcomed by him. But Hamlet
soon guessed that they were there to spy on him, and he forced them to admit
it. Now Hamlet knows that Rosencratz and Guildenstern
have been asked to spy on him. He continues to chat with them about the actors.
The actors then arrive, and Hamlet asks the principal actor to recite a
melodramatic speech about the killing of Priam of
Troy and the despair of the wife Hecuba. Hamlet
reproached himself for his failure to revenge his father more quickly. He
ed himself unfavourably to the actor, who wept real tears for the
fictional Hecuba, while he had not done anything for
his murdered father yet. Then he remembered that he had a to test the
ghost's story: he will get the actors to put on a play wich
shows a crime similar to the murder of his father: if his uncle is really
guilty, it should be obvious from his face as he watches this play. Rosencratz and Guildenstern report to the king and queen on
their talk with Hamlet. They admit that he revealed nothing about the cause of
his madness, but they do not mention another embarassing
fact: that Hamlet guessed that Claudius had employed them as spies. Hamlet
meditate on life and death, and consider the relative nobility of suicide and
patient endurance. At the end of the soliloquy, he sees Ophelia with a prayer
book in her hands. They start a conversation and Hamlet furiously attacks
Ophelia. Either he realise that she is collaborating with his enemies, Polonius
and the king, or he makes her the victim of his contempt for women in general.
Claudius decided that love was not the cause of Hamlet problems, and is
frightened enough to decide to send him to England. Hamlet talks to the actors
who are going to perform a play at court. He explains how he would like them to
act, criticising the formal, bombastic style, and praising a more naturalistic
restraint. Hamlet tells Horatio to observe Claudius carefully during the play,
for it will contain a scene similar to the assassination of the old king. The
actors performe 'The murder of Gonzago'
at court. Apparently in a panic as a consequence of what he had seen, Claudius
runs out of the theatre. After the play has been interrupted, Hamlet is
jubilant. He has proof of Claudius' guilt, and he tells Horatio he his now
convinced of the honesty of the ghost. But other people have interpreted
Claudius' reaction in a different way: it seems to the queen and the court that
Hamlet has threatened his uncle, and that Claudius rushed out of the play in
anger at his nephew's violent and offensive behaviour. Rosencratz
and Guildenstern come to call Hamlet to an interview with his mother, and to
make one more attemt to discover his secret. For a
while he pretends to trust them, and confesses that he is suffering from
frustrated ambition, then he becomes angry, ing himself to a musical insrument on which they are trying to play without knowing
how. Polonius arrives, and repeats the message that Hamlet is expected by his
mother in her 'closet'. Claudius, shaken by the play, kneels down to pray,
though he cannot bring himself to repent. Hamlet comes in behind him, and
considers killing him straight away. But he decides that to kill him while he
is praying would mean sending his soul to heaven, while Claudius deserves to go
to hell. Polonius hides behind the curtain in Gertrude's closet, and Hamlet
goes in to speak to her. Hamlet confronts his mother in her 'closet'. Polonius
is hiding behind a curtain, and when Hamlet hears him call out, he killed him,
thinking it was Claudius. Then he begin reproaching his mother for the second
remarriage. At this point the ghost appears again to Hamlet, although his
mother cannot see it. He reminds Hamlet that his task was to punish Claudius,
not the queen. Seeing her son talking to the empty air, Gertrude takes this
like one more sign of madness. But Hamlet says he is only pretending to be mad,
making her promise not to say anything to Claudius about this. Before he
leaves, he tells her once more to avoid his uncle's bed. Gertrude tells
Claudius that Hamlet has killed Polonius; Rosencratz
and Guildenstern are sent to ask where he has hidden the body, but Hamlet won't
give them a serious answer. Claudius also fails to discover What Hamlet has
done with the corpse, and tells him he must go to England for his own safety. But
after Hamlet goes out, Claudius confides in soliloquy his intention to have his
nephew killed as soon as he arrives there. On his way to England, Hamlet meets Fortinbras
and his army, who are preparing to march through Denmark
to Poland.
Hamlet talks to a captain, and discovers that this great military expedition
has no useful purpose. Fortinbras hopes to capture a
little 'patch of ground' in Poland
which is not worth having. When he is alone, Hamlet es his own
hesitations with Fortinbras readiness to sacrifice
the lives of twenty thousand men for nothing. As a consequence of Polonius
death Ophelia becomes mad, singing confusely about
her love and her father. Laertes had gathered
supporters to rebel against Claudius, and break into the king's palace
demanding to know who killed his father. When Laertes
sees his sister's condition, he becomes even more enraged. But Claudius denies responsability and advises him to wait. Claudius explains
to Laertes that his enemy is Hamlet. Horatio receives
a letter from Hamlet saying that his ship has been attacked by pirates, and he
has escaped. Another letter is brought to Claudius: Hamlet writes that he is
coming back to Denmark
'naked'(unarmed) and 'alone'. Claudius suggests a plot to Laertes:
he will arrange a duel between him and Hamlet, and Laertes
will use a sword without a protective button on the point. Since he is a better
fencer than Hamlet, it will not be difficult to kill him as if by accident. Laertes decides that he will also put poison on his sword.
Claudius adds yet another guarantee: he will offer Hamlet a poisoned drink when
he is thirsty. At this moment Gertrude enters and announces that Ophelia has
drowned in a little stream: it is not clear whether it was suicide or an
accident. The scene begins in a graveyard: a man is digging Ophelia's grave.
Hamlet and Horatio arrive; they listen to his jokes about death. As the man
digs up old bones, Hamlet asks him about his profession. Hamlet and Horatio
talk to the gravedigger about death and corruption, and Hamlet meditates on the
skull of Yorich, his father's clown. Then they saw
the funeral procession for Ophelia arrive. After watching Laertes
make an exhibition of his grief, Hamlet, infuriated by his histrionics, step
forward to reveal himself 'Hamlet the Dane'- that is king of Denmark. Laertes attack him, but he ht him off and mocked his
exaggerated behaviour, saying that he had loved Ophelia much more than any
brother could. Hamlet describes to Horatio his adventures on the voyage to England.
Suspecting a trap, he opened and read the letters that Rosencratz
and Guildenstern were carrying to the king of England and found that they
contained orders for his execution. So he sobstituted
another letter, ordering instead the execution of Rosencratz
and Guildenstern. Then they were attacked by pirates; Hamlet excaped and returned to Denmark,
while Rosencratz and Guildenstern continued towards England. A
gentleman comes in with Claudius' proposal for a fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet. Laertes is
considered by far the better fencer, so Hamlet only has to win five rounds out
of twelve in order to win the match. Hamlet and Horatio both suspect a trap,
but they react differently. Hamlet has got a presentimemt
of death but he wants to ht however. Laertes and
Hamlet start to ht and after two rounds and Hamlet is winning; but Laertes hurts Hamlet incorrectly with the poisoned point of
his sword. Meanwhile the queen has drinked
inadvertently the poison prepared for Hamlet. Hamlet attacks Laertes and takes his sword. Then he hurts Laertes who immeditely fall down;
the queen dies. Laertes says that the king is the
author of the machination and dies. Hamlet, before diing,
kills Claudius with the remaining poison. Then Hamlet makes Horatio promise to
tell his story: his honour, at least, will be preserved. After Hamlet's death Fortinbras arrives with the intention to takes possession
of the throne.
