A Summary of Shakespeare's play, "Hamlet"
(taken from Masterplots, available in the James White Library)
A Synopsis of Shakespeare's "Hamlet"
Of all Shakespeare's plays, few are as widely known as Hamlet. Reworkings of the Hamlet story, some set in the time period of the play, others positioned in alternate time periods, appear regularly. The most recent is a Kenneth Branagh version staring Ethan Hawke and Bill Murray, among others.
The play tells the story of Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, who avenges
the murder of his father by his uncle. A summary of the play, quoted
directly from That night Hamlet saw his father's ghost and listened in horror
to what it had to say. He learned that his father had not died from the
sting of a serpent, as had been supposed, but that he had been murdered
by his own brother, Claudius, the present king. The ghost added that
Claudius was guilty not only of murder but also of incest and adultery.
But the spirit cautioned Hamlet to spare Queen Gertrude, his mother, so
that heaven could punish her.
The ghost's disclosures should have left no doubt in Hamlet's
mind that Claudius must be killed. But the introspective prince was not
quite sure that the ghost was his father's spirit, for he feared it might
have been a devil sent to torment him. Debating with himself the problem
of whether or not to carry out the spirit's commands, Hamlet swore his
friends, including Horatio, to secrecy concerning the appearance of the
ghost, and in addition told them not to consider him made if from then on
he were to act queerly.
Meanwhile Claudius was facing not only the possibility of war
with Norway, but also, and much worse, his own conscience, which had been
much troubled since his hasty marriage to Gertrude. In addition, he did
not like the melancholia of the prince, who, he knew, resented the king's
hasty marriage. Claudius feared that Hamlet would take his throne away
from him. The prince's strange behavior and wild talk made the king
think that perhaps Hamlet was mad, but he was not sure. To learn the
cause of Hamlet's actionsmadness or ambitionClaudius commissioned two of
Hamlet's friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to spy on the prince.
But Hamlet saw through their clumsy efforts and confused them with his
answers to their questions.
Polonius, the garrulous old chamberlain, believed that Hamlet's
behavior resulted from lovesickness for his daughter, Ophelia. Hamlet,
meanwhile, had become increasingly melancholy. Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern, as well as Polounius, were constantly spying on him. Even
Ophelia, he thought, had turned against him. The thought of deliberate
murder was revolting to him, and he was constantly plagued by uncertainty
as to whether the ghost were good or bad. When a troupe of actors
visited Elsinore, Hamlet saw in them a chance to discover whether
Claudius were guilty. He planned to have the players enact before the
king and the court a scene like that which, according to the ghost, took
place the day the old king died. By watching Claudius during the
performance, Hamlet hoped to discover for himself signs of Claudius' guilt.
His plan worked. Claudius became so unnerved during the
performance that he walked out before the end of the scene. Convinced by
the king's actions that the ghost was right, Hamlet had no reason to
delay in carrying out the wishes of his dead father. Even so, Hamlet
failed to take advantage of his first real chance after the play to kill
Claudius. He came upon the king in an attitude of prayer, and could have
stabbed him in the back. Hamlet did not strike because he believed that
the king would die in grace at his devotions.
The queen summoned Hamlet to her chamber to reprimend him for his
insolence to Claudius. Hamlet, remembering what the ghost had told him,
spoke to her so violently that she screamed for help. A noise behind a
curtain followed her cries, and Hamlet, suspecting that Claudius was
eavesdropping, plunged his sword through the curtain, killing old
Polonius. Fearing an attack on his own life, the king hastily ordered
Hamlet to England in company with Rosencrantz and Guildernstern, who
carried a warrant for Hamlet's death. But the prince discovered the
orders and altered them to that the bearers should be killed on their
arrival in England. Hamlet then returned to Denmark.
Much had happened in that unhappy land during Hamlet's absence.
Because Ophelia had been rejected by her former lover, she went mad and
later drowned. Laertes, Polonius' hot-tempered son, returned from France
and collected a band of malcontents to avenge the death of his father.
He thought that Claudius had killed Polonius, but the king told him that
Hamlet was the murderer and even persuaded Laertes to take part in a plot
to murder the prince.
Claudius arranged for a duel between Hamlet and Laertes. To
allay suspicion of foul play, the king placed bets on Hamlet, who was an
expert swordsman. At the same time, he had poison placed on the top of
Laertes' weapon and put a cup of poison within Hamlet's reach in the
event that the prince became thirsty during the duel. Unfortunately,
Gertrude, who knew nothing of the king's treachery, drank from the
poisoned cup and died. During the contest, Hamlet was mortally wounded
with the poisoned rapier, but the two contestants exchanged foils in a
scuffle, and Laertes himself received a fatal wound. Before he died,
Laertes was filled with remorse and told Hamlet that Claudius was
responsible for the poisoned sword. Hesitation no longer, Hamlet seized
his opportunity to act and fatally stabbed the king. Then the prince
himself died. But the ghost was avenged.
Three times the ghost of Denmark's dead king had stalked the
battlements of Elsinore Castle. On the fourth night Oratio, Hamlet's
friend, brought the young prince to see the specter of his father, two
months dead. Since his father's untimely death, Hamlet had been
grief-stricken and in an exceedingly melancholy frame of mind. The
mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of his father had
perplexed him; then too, his mother had married Claudius, the dead king's
brother, much too hurriedly to suit Hamlet's sense of decency.