The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

• General Information– Date of Publication

– Genre

– Setting (TIME)

– Setting (PLACE)

• 1603

• Tragedy

• Late Middle Ages

• Denmark

3 Modern Movie Adaptations of the Play from Mel Gibson, Kenneth Branagh, and Ethan Hawke

• General Information– Protagonist

– Antagonist

– Major Conflict:

• Hamlet

• Claudius

• Hamlet faces self-doubts and obstacles as he weighs whether or not to avenge his father’s death by killing his uncle Claudius

Hamlet watches on as his mother marries his uncle

• Background Information

– Renaissance Movement

– Humanist Movement

• Influenced by Histoires Tragiques by Francosi de Belleforest

• Focused on interests in the human experience and optimism about the scope of human understanding

• A reaction to the Renaissance:– Explored the limitations of

man’s understanding– Hamlet must correct an

injustice he will never fully understand

• At its core, Hamlet is a play about the difficulty of humans having to live life in a world with so many unanswerable questions

• Conflicts and Themes • Impossibility of Certainty

• Corruptive Nature of Power

• Revenge• Self Doubt• Action vs. Inaction• Loyalty vs.

Selfishness• Inevitability of Death • MadnessHamlet is constantly battling

self-doubt; he looks inward for answers, but rarely finds any certainty

• Symbol– Yorick’s Skull

• Every human—great or small—meets the same end.

• Representative of the destructive nature of death: “Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft.”

Shakespeare’s Influence: Enters into almost all mediums of entertainment

• Personification– Denmark

• Denmark is described throughout the play in terms of being a human body

• With King Hamlet, Denmark was healthy and strong

• With King Claudius, Denmark becomes weak and corrupted

Famous Quotations from Hamlet

• "This above all: to thine own self be true”

• “Frailty, thy name is woman!”  • “Though this be madness, yet

there is method in 't.”  • "What a piece of work is man.

How noble in reason. How infinite in faculty. In form and moving how express and admirable. In action, how like an angel. In apprehension, how like a God. The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust. Man delights not me. 

• "Murder most foul, as in the best it is, But this most foul, strange, and unnatural."

• "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 troublesAnd, by opposing, end them."

• "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.“

• "A little more than kin and less than kind.”

• OVERVIEW • King Hamlet’s ghost visits Hamlet and tells him his Uncle Claudius murdered him; he orders Hamlet to avenge his death

• Claudius has also married Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude, further complicating matters

• Hamlet becomes confused, hesitant and even loses his mind a little as he tries to summon the will to avenge his father

• OVERVIEW • Part of Hamlet’s confusion stems from needing absolute proof of his Uncle Claudius’ guilt. He uses actors to recreate how he thinks his father was murdered

• If Claudius reacts to the scene he is guilty

• If has no reaction, he is innocent

• Claudius does react, but, again, Hamlet hesitates killing him because he is in prayer when he goes to confront him– Hamlet fears he will send the

king to heaven if he kills him during prayer

The Play’s the Thing!

Hamlet Hesitating to Kill his Uncle in Prayer

• OVERVIEW • Later Hamlet tries to kill the king again, but mistakenly kills the Chamberlain instead

• Fearing for his life and seeing Hamlet’s madness grow, Claudius plots against Hamlet, both by poisoning his goblet and poisoning Laertes’ sword – Laertes’ father was the

man mistakenly killed by Hamlet!

• During Hamlet’s fencing contest he refuses to take any drinks, but instead his mother drinks from Claudius goblet and expires

Hamlet killing the Chamberlain

Laertes preparing to fence Hamlet

• OVERVIEW • Hamlet is wounded by the poisonous sword

• Hamlet then learns that Claudius has killed his mother with poison and successfully wounds the king forces him to drink the rest of the goblet before also dying

• The entire royal court lays dead

• Characters– Hamlet

• Protagonist• Son of Gertrude and the

dead King Hamlet; nephew of Claudius

• Melancholy, bitter and cynical

• Feels hatred toward Claudius and detests the Queen’s sexuality

• Indecisive and hesitant one moment and rash and impulsive at other times

• Characters– Claudius

• The king of demark, Hamlet’s uncle, King Hamlet’s brother and the plays antagonist

• Calculating, ambitious politician driven by sexual appetites and lust for power

• Sincerely loves Gertrude

• Characters– Queen Gertrude

• Hamlet’s mother. Marries Claudius after the death of the King

• Loves Hamlet but is more concerned with selfish desires than discovering the truth about her deceased husband

• Characters– Polonius

• The Lord Chamberlain of Claudius’s court

• Father of Laertes and Ophelia

• Pompous and conniving

• Murdered by Hamlet

• Characters– Ophelia

• Polonius’s daughter and Laertes’ sister

• Intimate with Hamlet• Sweet and Innocent• Succumbs to

madness and death after her father is murdered

• Characters– Laertes

• Polonius’s son and Ophelia’s brother

• Passionate and does not hesitate to act

• Plays a foil to Hamlet’s more contemplative self

• Characters– Horatio

– Fortinbras

• Hamlet’s best friend• Loyal and Helpful to Hamlet

• The Young Prince of Norway. • His father was killed by

Hamlet’s father. • A foil for Hamlet, who is

seeking to avenge his father’s honor by conquering Denmark.