The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his attempts to exact revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet's mother.
Hamlet is considered among the "most powerful and influential tragedies in the English language", with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others". It is widely considered one of the greatest plays of all time. Three different early versions of the play are extant: the First Quarto (Q1, 1603); the Second Quarto (Q2, 1604); and the First Folio (F1, 1623). Each version includes lines and passages missing from the others. Many works have been pointed to as possible sources for Shakespeare's play, from ancient Greek tragedies to Elizabethan dramas.
Characters
Hamletson of the late king and nephew of the present king, Claudius ClaudiusKing of Denmark, Hamlet's uncle and brother to the former king GertrudeQueen of Denmark and Hamlet's mother Poloniuschief counsellor to the king OpheliaPolonius's daughter Horatiofriend of Hamlet LaertesPolonius's son Voltemand and Corneliuscourtiers Rosencrantz and Guildensterncourtiers, friends of Hamlet Osrica courtier Marcellusan officer Bernardoan officer (spelled Barnardo or Barnard in quarto versions) Franciscoa soldier ReynaldoPolonius's servant Ghostthe ghost of Hamlet's father, King Hamlet Fortinbrasprince of Norway Gravediggersa pair of sextons Player King, Player Queen, Lucianus, etc.players
Plot
Act I Prince Hamlet of Denmark is the son of the recently deceased King Hamlet and nephew of King Claudius, his father's brother and successor. Claudius married King Hamlet's widow and Prince Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. Denmark has a long-standing feud with neighbouring Norway; Denmark fears an invasion led by the Norwegian king's son, Fortinbras.
Prince Hamlet's friend Horatio, and two sentries, witness the ghost of King Hamlet and resolve to tell Prince Hamlet. The court gathers the next day and Claudius berates Hamlet for continuing to grieve for his father. Hamlet bemoans his father's death and his mother's hasty remarriage. Learning of the ghost from Horatio, Hamlet resolves to see it himself.
Ophelia has been wooed by Hamlet. Her brother Laertes, who is leaving for France, warns her against returning Hamlet's affection, and then her father Polonius orders her to reject Hamlet's advances. That night, the ghost appears to Hamlet and tells him that he was murdered by Claudius: demanding that Hamlet avenge him, which Hamlet vows to do. The prince confides to Horatio that he plans to act as though he has gone mad and swears Horatio and the sentries to secrecy. Hamlet remains uncertain of the ghost's reliability.
Act II Ophelia tells Polonius that Hamlet had appeared at her chamber and behaved erratically; Polonius concludes that Hamlet's madness is due to love. Meanwhile Fortinbras has been ordered by Norway to abandon an invasion of Denmark but requests passage through Denmark for a march on Poland.
Polonius speaks to Hamlet and the latter feigns madness. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of Hamlet's friends, arrive; Hamlet discerns that they are there to spy on him. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell Hamlet that they have brought a troupe of actors. Hamlet asks the actors to stage The Murder of Gonzago, a play featuring a death in the style of his father's murder. Hamlet intends to study Claudius's reaction to the play and determine the truth of the ghost's story.
Act III Polonius orders Ophelia to return Hamlet's love tokens, while he and Claudius secretly watch to evaluate Hamlet's reaction. Hamlet accuses Ophelia of immodesty, denying he ever loved her, convincing Claudius that Hamlet is not mad for love. The court assembles to watch the play Hamlet has commissioned, and Claudius abruptly rises and runs from the room which, for Hamlet, proves his uncle's guilt.
Claudius tries to pray, but cannot repent. Hamlet sneaks behind Claudius but does not kill him, reasoning that killing him at prayer will send him to heaven. In the queen's bedchamber, Hamlet and Gertrude fight. Polonius, who is spying on the conversation behind an arras, calls for help and Hamlet stabs wildly, killing Polonius. Hamlet brutally insults his mother, but the ghost enters and reprimands Hamlet for his harsh words. Unable to see or hear the ghost, Gertrude takes Hamlet's conversation as further evidence of madness.
Act IV and V The king sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to accompany Hamlet to England with a sealed letter to the English king requesting that Hamlet be executed. Ophelia is driven mad by her father's death. Laertes arrives back from France, enraged, and witnesses Ophelia's madness. Claudius convinces Laertes that Hamlet is responsible. A letter arrives indicating that Hamlet has returned to Denmark. Claudius proposes a fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet. Laertes will be given a poison-tipped foil, and, if that fails, Claudius will offer Hamlet poisoned wine. Gertrude arrives with news that Ophelia has drowned.
Hamlet and Horatio happen upon Ophelia's funeral, and Laertes and Hamlet fight.
Back at the castle, Hamlet agrees to the fencing challenge. Gertrude raises a toast to him using the poisoned wine. Claudius tries to stop her but she drinks. Laertes then slashes Hamlet with his poisoned blade. In the ensuing scuffle, they switch weapons, and Hamlet wounds Laertes. Gertrude dies and Laertes reveals Claudius's plan. Hamlet kills Claudius. Hamlet dies in Horatio's arms, naming Fortinbras as his successor.
Sources
Hamlet-like legends are so widely found (for example in Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Byzantium, and Arabia) that the core "hero-as-fool" theme is possibly Indo-European in origin. Several ancient written precursors to Hamlet can be identified. The first is the anonymous Scandinavian Saga of Hrolf Kraki. In this, the murdered king has two sons—Hroar and Helgi—who spend most of the story in disguise, under false names, rather than feigning madness, in a sequence of events that differs from Shakespeare's. The second is the Roman legend of Brutus, recorded in two separate Latin works. Its hero, Lucius ("shining, light"), changes his name and persona to Brutus ("dull, stupid"), playing the role of a fool to avoid the fate of his father and brothers, and eventually slaying his family's killer, King Tarquinius. A 17th-century Nordic scholar, Torfaeus, compared the Icelandic hero Amlóði (Amlodi) and the hero Prince Ambales (from the Ambales Saga) to Shakespeare's Hamlet. Similarities include the prince's feigned madness, his accidental killing of the king's counsellor in his mother's bedroom, and the eventual slaying of his uncle.
Many of the earlier legendary elements are interwoven in the 13th-century "Life of Amleth" () by Saxo Grammaticus, part of Gesta Danorum. Written in Latin, it reflects classical Roman concepts of virtue and heroism, and was widely available in Shakespeare's day. Significant parallels include the prince feigning madness, his mother's hasty marriage to the usurper, the prince killing a hidden spy, and the prince substituting the execution of two retainers for his own. A reasonably faithful version of Saxo's story was translated into French in 1570 by François de Belleforest, in his Histoires tragiques. Belleforest embellished Saxo's text substantially, almost doubling its length, and introduced the hero's melancholy.
According to one theory, Shakespeare's main source may be an earlier play—now lost—known today as the Ur-Hamlet. Possibly written by Thomas Kyd or by Shakespeare, the Ur-Hamlet would have existed by 1589, and would have incorporated a ghost. Shakespeare's company, the Chamberlain's Men, may have purchased that play and performed a version for some time, which Shakespeare reworked. However, no copy of the Ur-Hamlet has survived, and it is impossible to compare its language and style with the known works of any of its putative authors. In 1936 Andrew Cairncross suggested that, until more becomes known, it may be assumed that Shakespeare wrote the Ur-Hamlet. Eric Sams lists reasons for supporting Shakespeare's authorship. Harold Jenkins considers that there are no grounds for thinking that the Ur-Hamlet is an early work by Shakespeare, which he then rewrote. Professor Terri Bourus in 2016, one of three general editors of the New Oxford Shakespeare, in her paper "Enter Shakespeare's Young Hamlet, 1589" suggests that Shakespeare was "interested in sixteenth-century French literature, from the very beginning of his career" and therefore "did not need Thomas Kyd to pre-digest Belleforest's histoire of Amleth and spoon-feed it to him". She considers that the hypothesised Ur-Hamlet is Shakespeare's Q1 text, and that this derived directly from Belleforest's French version.Terri Bourus in Actes des Congrès de la Société française Shakespeare 34 (2016): pp.2-5.
The precise combination of Shakespeare's use of the Ur-Hamlet, Belleforest, Saxo, or Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy as sources for Hamlet is not known. However, elements of Belleforest's version which are not in Saxo's story do appear in Shakespeare's play.
Most scholars reject the idea that Hamlet is in any way connected with Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet Shakespeare, who died in 1596 at age eleven. Conventional wisdom holds that Hamlet is strongly connected to legend, and the name Hamnet was quite popular at the time. However, Stephen Greenblatt has argued that the coincidence of the names and Shakespeare's grief for the loss of his son may lie at the heart of the tragedy. He notes that the name of Hamnet Sadler, the Stratford neighbour after whom Hamnet was named, was often written as Hamlet Sadler and that, in the loose orthography of the time, the names were virtually interchangeable.
Scholars have often speculated that Hamlets Polonius might have been inspired by William Cecil (Lord Burghley)—Lord High Treasurer and chief counsellor to Queen Elizabeth I. E. K. Chambers suggested Polonius's advice to Laertes may have echoed Burghley's to his son Robert Cecil. John Dover Wilson thought it almost certain that the figure of Polonius caricatured Burghley. A. L. Rowse speculated that Polonius's tedious verbosity might have resembled Burghley's. Lilian Winstanley thought the name Corambis (in the First Quarto) did suggest Cecil and Burghley. Harold Jenkins considers the idea of Polonius as a caricature of Burghley to be conjecture, perhaps based on the similar role they each played at court, and perhaps also based on the similarity between Burghley addressing his Ten Precepts to his son, and Polonius offering "precepts" to his son, Laertes. Jenkins suggests that any personal satire may be found in the name "Polonius", which might point to a Polish or Polonian connection. G. R. Hibbard hypothesised that differences in names (Corambis/Polonius:Montano/Raynoldo) between the First Quarto and other editions might reflect a desire not to offend scholars at Oxford University. (Robert Pullen, was the founder of Oxford University, and John Rainolds, was the President of Corpus Christi College.)
Date
"Any dating of Hamlet must be tentative", states the New Cambridge editor, Phillip Edwards. MacCary suggests 1599 or 1600; James Shapiro offers late 1600 or early 1601; Wells and Taylor suggest that the play was written in 1600 and revised later; the New Cambridge editor settles on mid-1601; the New Swan Shakespeare Advanced Series editor agrees with 1601; Thompson and Taylor, tentatively ("according to whether one is the more persuaded by Jenkins or by Honigmann") suggest a terminus ad quem of either spring 1601 or sometime in 1600.