Hamlet Summary & Analysis

Hamlet Summary and Analysis:

Characters:

Hamlet – Obviously, the play is based around Hamlet himself. He is the son of Old Hamlet, the late king of Denmark. When his father died, his brother (Hamlet’s uncle) Claudius took the throne as well as Hamlet’s mother as his wife. The play centers around the question of Hamlet’s sanity, after he sees (supposedly) his father’s ghost and hears that Claudius killed his father, and was told to avenge his father’s death by the ghost. Another theme with Hamlet is the relationship between him and his mother, Gertrude (the queen) as Hamlet feels betrayed by his mother after so quickly marrying his uncle after his father’s death.

Horatio – Hamlet’s best friend (assumed to be through textual evidence) and adviser to the king. His role is important because he is the only character we see that Hamlet continues to show affection for and trust throughout the play no matter the events.

Gertrude – The queen of Denmark, mother of Hamlet, widow of Old Hamlet, and wife to Claudius. Being the loving mother of Hamlet, Gertrude is at many times put in between the throne and Hamlet’s ally. As Hamlet appears to go mad and yells at the queen for her quick re-marriage to Hamlet’s uncle, and after an attempt to kill Claudius goes awry and Hamlet ends up killing Polonius instead, Gertrude has to sort of pick a side, to agree with Claudius that Hamlet is mad and needs for the safety of others to go away, or to believe Hamlet.

Claudius – Brother of Old Hamlet and uncle of Hamlet, Claudius murders his brother, taking the throne and the widow of Old Hamlet and mother of Hamlet, Gertrude.

Polonius – Adviser to the king and father of Laertes and Ophelia. Polonius believes the reason Hamlet goes mad is because he told his daughter to stay away from Hamlet, who became upset with his love for her. He tries to convince the king and queen of this theory, setting up Ophelia to lie to Hamlet while he and Claudius listen in to their conversation. Polonius also goes to listen in when Hamlet is in his mother’s bedroom yelling at his mother and accusing her of being a whore and betraying his father, Old Hamlet. It is then that Polonius is killed by Hamlet, who believes from behind a tapestry is Claudius listening in instead.

Ophelia – Daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and supposed lover of Hamlet. Ophelia is set up by Polonius to lie to Hamlet and sort of stick to a script and get Hamlet to say something that implies that the reason Hamlet is going mad is because Ophelia isn’t returning his love (while Polonius and Claudius are listening in to their conversation behind a wall. Ophelia eventually goes mad after the death of her father (Hamlet kills him) and witnessing Hamlet yelling at her, going in front of Laertes, Gertrude and Claudius and singing and handing them flowers. In this scene there is evidence within the text that suggests Ophelia and Hamlet had sex, and that Ophelia was pregnant. Ophelia ends up killing herself (drowning) in despair.

Laertes – Brother of Ophelia and son of Polonius. Laertes is Hamlet’s foil. Laertes goes off to college for a long time during the play, and returns upon hearing about the death of his father, and later the death of his sister. At the end of the play Laertes is told by Claudius to kill Hamlet during a fencing match by hitting him with a foil that is poisoned at the end.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were childhood friends of Hamlet. Both are called upon to return to the kingdom to spy on Hamlet and get him to tell them what was going on with him that made him go mad. The two are eventually killed, with Hamlet forging a letter to say the two should be executed. The theme of betrayal is big with the interactions between Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet.

Plot:

Hamlet is the son of the late king of Denmark, Old Hamlet, who was recently killed. Upon his death, Hamlet’s uncle and Old Hamlet’s brother Claudius takes the throne and marries Old Hamlet’s widow, Gertrude, queen of Denmark. Hamlet feels betrayed and disgusted by his mother for re-marrying so quickly after the death of his father, and is soon firm in those feelings when he encounters his father’s ghost one night after Horatio and some guards tell him they saw the ghost. The ghost tells Hamlet that his father was murdered by Claudius, and that Hamlet must avenge his father’s death. Hamlet pretends to go mad, a plan to help him do things such as perform a play in front of the king and queen that suggests Claudius murdered Old Hamlet, so that Hamlet and Horatio can see if he was guilty, and Hamlet can just have the excuse of being mad so that no one tries to harm him. Throughout the course of the play, the question of whether or not Hamlet is actually mad becomes evident, and whether or not Hamlet is actually still seeing his father’s ghost, or if his madness and paranoia is taking over him and making him hallucinate. Hamlet kills Polonius, father of Hamlet’s love Ophelia, while he is confronting his mother in her bedroom about her betrayal and incestuous behavior and hears someone listening in behind a tapestry, thinking instead of Polonius that it was Claudius. Ophelia ends up committing suicide, and Laertes is after the death of Hamlet. In the end, Claudius’s plan to kill Hamlet by poisoning him goes awry, and he himself, Laertes, Gertrude, and Hamlet end up killed by the poison.

Central Themes:

-       Betrayal

-       Sanity vs. Insanity

-       Incest