~Appunti scolastici~

Hamlet

Act I

When the king of Denmark died, queen Gertrude married her brother-in-law, Claudius; the ghost of the king of Denmark appeared at the caste while the sentries guarded, for a possible attack from prince of Norway, so Hamlet and his friend Oratio, one night wait to see the ghost, who tells him he was killed by claudius with a poison, finally the ghost asks Hamlet to revenge him, but leave the mothers punishment to heaven.

Act II

Hamlet pretends to be crazy and Polonius thinks hamlet's madness is caused by his love for Ophelia, after he organizes a theatrical show in which the story is similar to that told by the ghost.

Act III

Hamlet narrates his famous soliloque "to be or not to be", then the work continues: King Claudius rushes away, Hamlet goes to his mother's bedrooms and kills Polonius who hides behind a curtain listening to their discussion.

Act IV

Hamlet is sent to England to be killed and Ophelia goes crazy, his brother Laertes wants revenge, and the king plots hamlet's death in a duel with Laertes.

Act V

Hamlet returns, the king prepares a poison drink and also puts poison on the tip of Laertes' sword. Hamlet refuses to drink it, and his mother drinks it instead, dying. Laertes injures Hamlet, then the swords are exchanged, and Hamlet injures Laertes, who falls and denounces the king. Both the king and Laertes die. Horatio tells the story, Hamlet also recommends that Fortinbras be made king; then he died and Fortinbras took possession of the Kingdom

SETTING

The story of Hamlet is set in the late Middle Ages in the royal castle in Elsinore, a city in Denmark, a Protestant country. Hamlet studies in Wittenberg where Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation, and he is sceptical of the ghost. The subplot deals with a possible war against Norway and this increases tension and creates atmosphere.

THE CHARACTER OF HAMLET

Hamlet is the most talkative of all Shakespeare's characters and a French psychoanalyst holds that the most striking characteristic of Hamlet's language is its ambiguity; it uses metaphors, similarities and puns with a hidden meaning: it follows the language of the unconscious. Hamlet's shock at his father's death and his mother's re-marriage is the cause of his melancholy and complains that he has to play roles he desn't believe in.

THEMES

Through vengeance Shakespeare develops a series of themes that are universal:

the relationship between father and son, mother and son, and Hamlet and his friends;

love relationships; madness;

youth and age;

the corruption linked to power;

the existence of God and a life after death; because Hamlet is a play of life and death, melancholy and doubt. A major question for man is the relation between 'appearance and reality'. Another important issue is 'honour' and honourable action, any action to correct a wrong should be reasoned.

STRUCTURE

In the third act Hamlet wants to expose his father's killer and transforms the actors into an audience: there is a real audience and an audience on stage.

A REVENGE TRAGEDY

All tragedies derived from Greek plays and Seneca has established a rule: there is always a sexual or violent crime against a member of the hero's family. The author cannot be punished and the hero must take revenge, with complex planning. Other common features are the appearance of a ghost and the hero's relationship with the audience through soliloquies. It often isolates up to madness. There are deaths as in Hamlet and many psychological insights, the hero's relationship with the outside world and his doubts.

HAMLET'S LANGUAGE

Hamlet is very talkative. It has the most lines and ambiguous language, full of metaphors and puns. His words have a hidden meaning; finally the character complains that he has to play roles he doesn't believe in.

A RELUCTANT AVENGER

Hamlet cannot avenge his father until the final act, because he tends to delay things, is confused and says he is afflicted with "melancholy". Hamlet sees a disease spreading from man to the universe and life-changing, and his constant doubt about his role as a avenger expresses his rejection of a barbaric lifestyle. Shakespeare lets Hamlet sell his father at the end but only because of anger.