William Shakespeare's Hamlet

William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Prince Hamlet bitterly opposed the marriage of his mother, Gertrude,

to Claudius, her own brother-in-law, so soon after her husband's

death. Hamlet had a strange suspicion that the new king - his

stepfather and former uncle - had somehow plotted his father's

mysterious demise, and he refused to stop mourning his natural father,

now two months dead.

Hamlet was approached by his close friend Horatio, who revealed that

for three nights now castle guards had seen the former king as a

ghost. He persuaded the prince that his father must have some message

of importance and so Hamlet should wait with him that night for the

ghost to appear again.

The ghost was the Hamlet's father. In horror, Hamlet listened with

Horatio as the dead king described how his brother Claudius had

seduced Gertrude, and how the two of them had arranged for his murder,

while claiming that a serpent had injected poison.

Hamlet was appalled at this revelation. But he was even more shaken

when the ghost made a desperate plea , and ordered Hamlet to kill

Claudius, but Gertrude must be spared.

Hamlet swore Horatio to secrecy concerning the ghost and continued for

the next few days to fret on what he must do.

Filled with anger toward both his mother and Claudius, and torn

between doing his duty in honour and carrying out a murder, Hamlet

began to act more and more erratic. Ophelia, his lady friend and the

daughter of the new king's most trusted counsellor, Polonius, reported

Hamlet's eccentric behaviour to her father. Polonius insisted that

Hamlet had become demented, and cautioned Ophelia to keep her

distance. He then repo...

... middle of paper ...

... wounded Hamlet, and Hamlet in turn

fatally pierced Laertes. Then, as the queen fell to the ground crying,

"The drink, the drink! I am poison'd!" Hamlet demanded that the

treachery be revealed. At this, dying Laertes spoke up and exposed the

plot - the poisoned wine and the venom-tipped foil, whose effects

Hamlet would soon feel. Laertes further divulged that "the King's to

blame": Claudius had authored the entire miserable scene.

Hesitating no longer, Hamlet rushed forward, stabbed Claudius, and

cursed the "incestuous, murderous, damn'd Dane." Then Laertes and

Hamlet turned and implored each other's forgiveness, that they might

both die in peace. Within minutes, Fortinbras arrived, and, with

Hamlet's dying approval, appropriated the throne of Denmark - a throne

so tragically twice vacated in the previous few months.