Hamlet Summary and Analysis

Summary and Analysis of Hamlet

Author

Hamlet was written by William Shakespeare. He is the author of 38 plays and dozens of sonnets. It's unknown when exactly Hamlet was written.

Setting

The play takes place in the castle Elsinore in Denmark. The time period isn't certain.

Summary

 The play starts off at Elsinore with the changing of the guards and the mysterious appearance of the ghost. Horatio comes.  Later Hamlet explains to his friends that if he begins to act crazy, to take no notice of it. Other characters are introduced along with Claudious, the king, and his wife, Hamlet's mom. Hamlets feelings for Claudious are made apparent to the audience. We meet Ophilia, who is supposedly Hamlet's lover, but who turns "crazy", after Hamlet rejects her. Ophilia was directed by her father to help manipulate Hamlet, and Hamlet is sick of all this betrayal. Hamlet stabs polonius. Laertes and Hamlet duel. Hamlet is poisened, his mom dies, pretty much everyone dies, fortinbras comes to attack Elsinore, but sees the chaos. He is left with the castle.

Characters

Hamlet

The prince of Denmark, beloved by the people. He is 30 years old and highly intelligent but distressed by the death of his father. He is driven to the point of madness by his desire to avenge his father, and constantly debates if he should kill the king although he sees moral problems with it. He also contemplates suicide throughout the play. He's very philosophical.

Horatio

Hamlets best friend! He's known to be very trustworthy.

Claudius

The kind of Denmark! His brother is Old Hamlet and shortly after his death, Claudius married Hamlet's mom. The people don't really like him, and as we find out later, he murdered his brother.

Gertrude

The queen of Denmark and the wife of Old Hamlet. Married Claudius shortly after her former husbands death. She is fond of her son Hamlet and of her new husband. Though she feels guilt about the dishonor that comes from marrying her dead husband's brother when Hamlet accuses her of it. 

Polonius

The advisor of the king. He's very involved in his children's lives and is very manipulative. He's murdered by Hamlet.

Laertes

Polonius's son. He's manipulated by his father and the king and is angry when Hamlet kills his father. He's very close with Ophelia.

Ophelia

Polonious's daughter. Young, innocent and claims to love Hamlet. May be pregnant.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Were friends with Hamlet when he was a kid. The kind brings them in to help take down Hamlet.

Fortinbras

Son of the old king of Norway. Foil to Hamlet. He is decisive and acts quickly. Attacks Elsinore at end of play. 

Style

The play has lots of lines that can be interpreted in multiple ways. For instance, Ophelia's madness/pregnancy. The audience never knows for sure what is true. This leaves much for interpretation.

Tone 

The plays tone is sort of hard to identify, but I would say it's sort of ominous. From the first scene with the ghost, and as characters are killed as time goes on.

Imagery

The plays tone is acheived through its imagery thats sort of haunting with the ghost and the large castle.

Symbolism:

Yorick's Skull

The skull Hamlet finds in the graveyard represents his fear and wonder about death. The skull represents everything that he has philosophized about death throughout the play and what remains of someone's body  and soul after death.

Flowers:

Flowers symbolize innocence in the play, especially when relating to Ophelia, who is commonly associated with violets. She is frequently compared with a flower, and describes for herself what the different flowers symbolize during the flower scene.

Quotes

"To be or not to be." The most famous quote from the play is a symbol for Hamlet's constant question of the mystery of death and his inability to decide whether he wants to be dead or alive.

 

Theme

The mystery of death

This to me was the most significant theme of the play. Hamlet's character in itself represents the mystery of death as he is constantly questioning it and speaking to other characters about it. His "to be or not to be" soliloquy is a prime example of this.