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Hamle
Hamlet is a tragedy in 5 acts written by Shakespeare in 1601. It is set in the late Middle Ages (14th^ and 15th^ centuries) in Denmark. The whole action takes place inside and around the castle in Elsinore; Shakespeare probably chose Denmark to help the development of the plot: the possibility of a war with the Norway increases the tension from the very first scenes of the play. CHARACTERS: ● Hamlet → Prince of Denmark ● Claudius → The King's brother, new husband of the Queen (Hamlet's mother) and new King of Denmark ● Polonius → Claudius' counsellor ● Ophelia → Polonius' daughter, in love with Hamlet ● Laertes → Polonius's son and Ophelia's brother ● Horatio → Hamlet's friend ● Fortinbras → Prince of Norway and, in the end, new King of Denmark
PLOT:
Hamlet's father, the King of Denmark, was killed by his brother Claudius who poured poison in his ear while the King was asleep in the garden; nobody knew the truth and Claudius married Hamlet's mother, thus becoming the new King. The play starts two months after these facts happened. In the castle of Elsinore (Denmark), a ghost resembling Hamlet's father appears to the sentries of the castle (ready and armed for a possible attack by Fortinbras, Prince of Norway); Hamlet and his friend Horatio organize a meeting to see if the ghost appears to them → The ghost appears and tells Hamlet the truth about his death, asking his son to AVENGE HIM but to leave his mother's punishment to heaven. In order to carry out his plan more easily, Hamlet pretends to be mad. The King's counsellor, Polonius, thinks Hamlet's madness is caused by his love for his daughter, Ophelia. Hamlet arranges for a troupe of actors (arrived at the castle to entertain the court) to perform a play called “The Murder of Gonzago” because the story is similar to what happened to his father based on what the ghost of his father told Hamlet. During the play, Claudius leaves the room; Hamlet has an argument with his mother and then kills Polonius who was hiding behind a curtain. Claudius decides to send Hamlet to England to get rid of him → Ophelia goes mad and drowns herself. Hamlet escapes and Ophelia's brother, Laertes, wants revenge for his father's murder, so the King organizes a duel between Hamlet and Laertes. Before the duel, the King prepares a poisoned drink and puts poison on the tip of Laertes' sword to make sure that Hamlet will die. Hamlet refuses to drink the poisoned wine, but his mother drinks it and then dies. Laertes wounds Hamlet but then swords are exchanged and Hamlet wounds Laertes too; before dying, Laertes denounces the King, who gets stabbed and thus killed by Hamlet.
Hamlet is a play of LIFE AND DEATH and of man's relationship with both. The complex nature of man is represented through Hamlet's doubts, melancholy and struggle to act. Another theme is the di erence between appearances and reality, what is true and what only seems to be true → all that man knows for sure is that he exists. STRUCTURE: In Hamlet there is the PLAY-WITHIN-THE-PLAY, an expedient commonly used in the Elizabethan theatre. It turns the actors into an audience: there is a real audience and the on-stage-audience formed by the original actors of the main play who in the story pretend to watch a play. “The Murder of Gonzago” is chosen by Hamlet because it has similar traits to his father's murder so that a spectator could ask where does the acting end?
