Hamlet Summary and Analysis

• The author of this play is William Shakespeare. He was born in 1564 in Stratford, England and wrote this play in the very early 1600s.
• The play takes place in Denmark, mainly at a castle called Elsinore. This castle is home to the royal family of Denmark, including Hamlet.
• Plot: Hamlet sees the ghost of his father Old Hamlet, and the ghost asks him to kill King Claudius. Claudius was Old Hamlet’s brother. Claudius murdered Old Hamlet, got the throne and married Old Hamlet’s widow. Hamlet is now set on revenge. He pretends to go crazy as a part of his plan to kill Claudius. The rest of the royal family thinks that Hamlet went crazy because he is in love with Ophelia. A acting group comes to Elsinore and Hamlet asks them to perform a play. The play is a reenactment of how Hamlet thinks Claudius killed his father. Claudius realizes what is going on and leaves. Claudius is afraid of Hamlet now. Hamlet goes to visit his mom in her bedroom, and he hears someone behind the curtain. Thinking it’s the King, Hamlet stabs the guy to death. It turns out to be Polonius, Ophelia’s father. Hamlet is sent to England in punishment, to be killed but he comes back because his ship was attacked by pirates and he never makes it to England. While Hamlet is gone, Ophelia is distraught by her father’s death and drowns. Laertes, Ophelia’s brother, finds out about his sister’s and father’s death and comes from France to fight Hamlet. They decide to have a fencing match. Both swords are supposed to be blunted, but Laertes’ is not. Laertes’ sword is also laced with a poison, the King’s plan to kill Hamlet. In case that doesn’t work, the King had put poisoned pearls in Hamlet’s drink, so that if Hamlet wins, he will still die after he drinks the drink. The fight starts. Laertes does manage to hit Hamlet, so Hamlet is poisoned and set to die. However, Hamlet uses Laertes’ sword and hits him back, so Laertes will die too. The Queen drinks out of Hamlet’s cup and is poisoned and dies. Hamlet, realizing the King was behind it, hits the King with the sword and forces him to drink the rest of the poison in the cup. After the King, Queen, and Laertes die, Hamlet dies. Horatio, Hamlet’s best friend is the only one that lives to tell the tale. Fortinbras, the prince from Norway and sees all the dead. He takes the throne and decides to give Hamlet a soldier’s funeral.
• The main characters are:

          -Hamlet-Prince of Denmark
          -Ophelia- Hamlet’s lover
          -Old Hamlet- Hamlet’s father and the old King of Denmark
          -Claudius- Hamlet’s uncle, new King of Denmark
          -Gertrude- Hamlet’s mother, present wife to Claudius
          -Horatio- Hamlet’s best friend
          -Rosencrantz and Guildenstern- Old friends of Hamlet that turn to spies
          -Laertes- Ophelia’s brother, kills Hamlet
          -Polonius- Claudius’ right hand man, Ophelia’s father

• Since this is a play, there’s not really a narrative voice or much of an author’s style.
• Main quotes:

          -“To be, or not to be: that is the question:
             Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
             The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
             Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
             And by opposing end them?—To die,—to sleep—” (Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 58-62). This quote is very famous. It is spoken by Hamlet, and he is thinking about the idea of suicide and if it’s more noble to live and suffer or die and not suffer and compares dying to sleep.
          -“Neither a borrower nor a lender be:
             For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
             And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
             This above all,—to thine own self be true;
             And it must follow, as the night the day,
             Thou canst not then be false to any man” (Act 1, Scene 3, Lines 75-80). This is yet another famous quote. It’s Polonius giving Laertes some fatherly advice. The first line of this quote is often used now as a general piece of advice. Polonius is saying that not to get money from a friend or give money from ta friend, because often time s that complicates the relationship. He also says to be true to yourself first, and then you will be true to others. For a man who is cast in a negative light in this play, this is some sound advice.

• Theme: Certainty of thought is what leads to action.
• This theme is supported by the plot because Hamlet takes so long to kill Claudius. He had so many chances to do what the ghost asked, but he keeps prolonging the action. We see that he is uncertain about the ghost, because he questions whether it’s a bad spirit, like from the devil. Then he questions if he can believe the ghost and what it said about how his father died, and tries to figure out of Claudius is guilty by having the players perform that play. We also see that Hamlet is unsure about whether he wants to kill Claudius because he talks about how it’s unfair that his father will end up in heaven, and that he himself will end up in hell because of this revenge. 

Open Prompt #4 Revised

2007. In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present activities, attitudes, or values of a character. Choose a novel or play in which a character must contend with some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character's relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

            The past often plays a big part in the lives of many people. It’s hard to move on from the experiences that have already happened. A novel that shows how a person deals with their past personal experiences is Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. The novel centers on the character Willy Loman and how his relationship with his past is so strong that it’s a daily struggle for him to stay in the present. It’s through this constant reminder of the past that we see what Willy has been through and how that relates to his relationships now and his eventual death.

            Willy’s past actions always haunt him, because he thinks they are the reason for his unhappiness now. His past memories are shown in the book as hallucinations because Willy actually thinks it’s going on in the present. One of his hallucinations is a memory of his brother Ben coming to visit. Ben offers Willy a job, but Linda convinces Willy to say no because she says that he already has a good job. This hallucination appears to Willy just as he loses his job. We see that Willy is regretting the decision not to take the job his brother offered, and he blames that decision on Linda. He believes he could have been rich by now. As the disappointment and stress of not having a job continue to take a toll on him, we see he becomes curter with Linda. Judging by the memory we just saw play out, it shows the audience why he is acting that way toward her.

Another particular memory that continues to haunt Willy is the memory of his son Biff walking in on him while he was cheating on Linda. In that moment, Biff loses all respect for his father and their strong relationship goes downhill. Not only does Willy feel guilt for cheating on his wife, which we see stills affects him, but he feels sadness and more guilt because he lost his relationship with Biff. Willy believes that this incident caused Biff to not pass high school, setting him up for failure for the rest of his life. It’s through this memory that the audience understands the bitterness always exchanged between father and son throughout the story and their constant attempts to bridge that gap between them. It also shows the importance of the reconciliation at the end. Biff finally frees his father of that guilt by taking responsibility for the failures in his life and not blaming them on Willy. Willy is finally free of that constant consuming guilt he has felt for so long, so as a result he kills himself. Not as a way to escape his problems, but as a last attempt to help Biff get on his feet. With Willy dead, Biff can collect the insurance money. In a way, the past acted as a barrier against this sad end. Once he got over that particular memory, it seemed to push him towards killing himself.

            Willy Loman’s past haunted him every day and we see that he was negatively affected by it. The novel uses flashbacks of his past to let the audience understand the character of Willy and his mindset better. We also see that the past was a barrier for Willy, because he couldn’t seem to move on from it, until the very end. Overall, the past was an important part of Willy’s present life and the novel. 

Response to Course Material 5

            After what has seemed like a long time, we finally finished reading Hamlet out loud. Even though the daily activity of reading out loud seemed tedious, I’m really glad we did it now, because we got to stop at many different points and discuss what was going on. Those discussions are what made me understand the basic plot, because often times the language was hard to decipher. Also, reading the play out loud made me more aware of the type of language Shakespeare used in the play, and how it differs from our language and style now.

            We also watched one full version of the movie, and parts of another version. The second version we watched, was the one I enjoyed a lot more. It was more emotional because the style of the movie was different. The second version seemed more like a modernly made movie and had a good setting. The first version we saw didn’t really have a good setting, and often times the characters were just talking in front of a screen.  It was hard to overlook that and focus on the actual story of Hamlet. So in comparing the two movies, I wish we had watched the entire second version and then parts of the first one. But I really appreciate that we watch movies in addition to reading the book, because I like to see how the movie compares to the book. The movie makes the story more memorable in my head, when I see a visual representation of what I just read.