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Hamlet 3 c
This document provides context and summaries of key elements of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. It discusses that the play was written in the early 17th century and first performed in 1602. The story is set in Denmark and involves Prince Hamlet seeking revenge on his uncle Claudius for murdering Hamlet's father and marrying his mother. The document summarizes important characters like Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, and Ophelia. It also discusses major themes of the play such as revenge, madness, power and love.
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Hamlet 3 c
- 2. PUBLICATION AND SOURCES Writtenduring the first part of the seventeenth century (probably in 1600 or 1601), Hamlet was probably first performed in July 1602. It was first published in printed form in 1603 and appeared in an enlarged edition in 1604.
- 3. SETTING The story takesplace in the country of Denmark in the late medieval period.
- 4. PLOT Hamlet is thestory of a Danish prince whose uncle murders the prince's father, marries his mother, and claims the throne. The prince pretends to be feeble-minded to throw his uncle off guard, then manages to kill his uncle in revenge.
- 5. CHARACTERS He is anenigmatic character. A university student whose studies are interrupted by his father’s death, Hamlet is extremely philosophical and contemplative. He is particular drawn to difficult questions. But even though he’s thoughtful, Hamlet also behaves rashly and impulsively, as when he stabs Polonius. He is extremely melancholy and discontented.
- 6. CLAUDIUS GERTRUDE She’s Hamlet’s motherand she’s, more so than any other characters, the antithesis of her son. Gertrude is shallow, and thinks only about her body and external pleasures. She’s very sexual being, and it is her sexuality that turns Hamlet so violently against her. Hamlet’s major antagonist is a lustful and conniving king. Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, is bent upon maintaining his own power and he’s a corrupt politician, whose main weapon is his ability to manipulate others. His marriage with Gertrude seems as a strategic move to help him with the throne after the King Hamlet’s death.
- 7. HORATIO Hamlet’s close friend,who studied with the prince at the university in Wittenberg. He is loyal and helpful to Hamlet. Polonius He’s the counsellor to the King. He’s got a son, Laertes, and also a daughter, called Ophelia.
- 8. OPHELIA Polonius’ daughter, abeautiful young woman with whom Hamlet has been in love. Ophelia is sweet and innocent. Even in her lapse into madness and death, she remains maidenly. Laertes Polonius’ son and Ophelia’s brother.
- 9. One of themost obvious conflicts in Hamlet is the conflict between Hamlet and King Claudius. The conflict is internal and external. Hamlet knows that Claudius killed his father and he seeks to avenge his father’s death. This starts the conflict. Not only did Claudius kill Hamlet’s father, but Claudius also married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. Hamlet has internal conflict towards killing Claudius because he doesn’t want to cause Gertrude more pain over losing a husband, but Hamlet wants to avenge his father’s death.
- 10. The conflict betweenHamlet and Gertrude starts because he tries to tell her that Claudius is the killer of her husband. But she doesn’t want to believe Hamlet and she’s afraid of him because he stabbed Polonius. Furthermore, Hamlet is extremely angry at her, because he thinks she has forgotten Hamlet’s father too soon. Hamlet VS Gertrude
- 11. THE GHOST It’s theghost of King Hamlet, who is Hamlet’s father. He is very important, because the whole plot develops as a consequence of the reveletions he makes to Hamlet: the ghost exhorts him to kill his brother Claudius (King Hamlet’s brother, so Hamlet’s uncle), who claims he has killed him in order to secure the throne and the Queen of Denmark.
- 12. King Hamlet appearsas a ghost three times in the p Act I, scene 1 First appearance Act I, scene 4-5 Second appearance Act 3, scene 4 Third appearance
- 13. In Hamlet thepower of the words drives the action of the plots. The words shape and create the sense of reality and are like weapons used by characters. The power of language has a direct impact on the outcome of the play. Hamlet is written in a combination of verse, unrhymed iambic pentametre (nobles) and prose (common people).
- 14. PRODUCTIONS FILMS VERSIONS • “Hamlet”1948 by Laurence Olivier • “Hamlet” 1969 by Tony Richardson • “Hamlet” 1990 by Franco Zeffirelli • “William Shakespeare’s Hamlet” 1996 by Kenneth Branagh • “Hamlet” 2000 by Michael Almereyda • “Hamlet” 2009 by Gregory Doran
- 16. • Melancholy • Death •Love •Madness • Revenge • Power
- 17. Hamlet is arevenge tragedy and there are several characters who want to revenge on somebody: Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras. The action leads to the downfall of two and the rise to power of one. The play isn’t about Hamlet’s successfull vengeance but about his hesitation that will drives the plot to the death of almost all characters. What makes Hamlet a unique piece of writing is the way in wich Shakespeare uses th delay to build Hamlet’s emotional and psychological complexity.
- 18. How all occasionsdo inform against me, And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and god-like reason To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on the event, A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdom And ever three parts coward, I do not know Why yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do;’ Sith I have cause and will and strength and means To do’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me: Witness this army of such mass and charge Led by a delicate and tender prince, Whose spirit with divine ambition puff’d Makes mouths at the invisible event, Exposing what is mortal and unsure To all that fortune, death and danger dare, Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great Is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When honour’s at the stake. How stand I then, That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d, Excitements of my reason and my blood, And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see The imminent death of twenty thousand men, That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, Which is not tomb enough and continent To hide the slain? O, from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
- 19. POWER The play dealswith the theme of power, inside and outside the court. This theme is linked to Claudius, the powerful figure who dominates Elsinore. He is engaged in a psychological (but not only!) battle with Hamlet who represents a threat for his new kinghsip. An important passage in the evolution of his character is the soliloquy “My offence is rank” In opposition with his power there’s the total powerless of women.
- 20. Madness can beconsidered the cause of the tragedy. Infact the storyline follows a vein of madness from the King Hamlet’s murder by Claudius to the death of almost all characters in the final act. The majority of madness concerns Hamlet: is he really mad or he’s just pretending. There’s much evidence in the play that deliberately feigned madness but during the action it seems that is becoming truly mad. In conclusion we can’t know whether he is mad or not but this is just another prove of Shakespeare ability and of the complexity of this play.
- 21. LOVE Does Hamlet really loveOphelia? Ophelia died because of her love for Hamlet?
- 23. “A sort ofsadness that brings a subject to live passively without taking action, adapting oneself to external events, thinking that they don’t concern him. It is the desire of a thing, of a person never known or a love never consumed, but of which one feels the lack. It brings the subject to deny the time, turning towards an idyllic past or future.”
- 24. Now might Ido it pat, now he is praying; And now i'll do't. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd: A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. O, this is hire and salary, not revenge. He took my father grossly, full of bread; With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as may; And how his audit stands who knows save heaven? But in our circumstance and course of thought, 'Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged, To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and season'd for his passage? No! Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent: When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed; At game, a-swearing, or about some act That has no relish of salvation in't; Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, And that his soul may be as damn'd and black As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays: This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.
- 25. To be or not tobe That is the question f