Hamlet Review

Hamlet

Summary:

Hamlet is the prince of Denmark. His father’s ghost informs him that he was just murdered by his Uncle Claudius who has just married his former wife, hamlets mother, and that Hamlet must get revenge. Meanwhile, Hamlet is in a complicated relationship with a girl named Ophelia. They can never get married because she is not of royal blood. One night, Hamlet is talking with his mother when he realizes someone is spying on them and stabs the person through a hanging tapestry. He is not overly upset when he finds it to be Ophelia's father, who worked for the king and who Hamlet wasn’t fond of. Ophelia then goes mad when she finds that her true love killed her father and she now has no one controlling her life since her fathers death and she drowns in the river. Hamlet, meanwhile plots revenge against Claudius. He passes up his perfect opportunity to kill him because he believes that he is praying and doesn’t want him to go to heaven. He never gets the opportunity again. One day, he engages in a dual with Ophelia's brother Laertes. However, before he agrees his didn’t know that Laertes and the king had secretly plotted revenge against Hamlet for killing Polonius. The king poisoned a glass of wine and Laertes poisoned his sword, one of which would surely kill the Prince. Hamlet does admit that he expects that he is going to die but he goes into the dual anyway. However, things go off track when the Queen knowingly drinks the poisoned wine and dies. Laertes slices Hamlet's arm with his poisoned sword. Luckily this gives him enough time to get revenge on Claudius and after learning that the sword was poisoned he slays Laertes as well. They all end up dying in the end, except Horatio.

Themes:

Madness

Revenge

Mortality

Religion

Art and Culture

Lies and Deceit

Sex

Gender

Family

Structure:

A Shakespearean play and there are five acts in the play.

List of important characters:

Hamlet: Prince of Denmark. Spoken to by his father’s ghost and he “pretends to go mad” but then he really does go mad. Seeks revenge on Claudius for killing his father. Ends up dying in a dual by a poisoned sword.

The Ghost: the “ghost” is either in fact old king Hamlet’s ghost or it is an evil spirit trying to manipulate Hamlet.

Claudius: Hamlet’s uncle/ step father. Killed his brother with poison. Ends up being slayed by Hamlet at the end.

Gertrude: Hamlet’s Mother. She knowingly drinks poisoned wine and dies at the end of the play. She and Hamlet had a strange relationship. Hamlet thought she remarried to quickly and didn’t really care about his father.

Polonius: Ophilia and Laertes Father. He hated Hamlet and did everything in his power to keep him and Ophelia apart.

Ophelia: in a relationship with Hamlet. She has been controlled by her father and her Brother her whole life. When they are both gone she doesn’t know what to do and she ends up drowning in a river.

Laertes: he is easily persuaded by Claudius to kill Hamlet in an attempt to get revenge for his father. He ends up getting slayed himself and dies in the final dual.

Horatio: Hamlets best friend. He is the only one who survives. He is very loyal to Hamlet and he has very good common sense, which is probably the reason he lived in the end.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: Hamlet’s childhood friends. They are interchangeable servants for the royal family. They betrayed Hamlet so Hamlet did the same and had them killed by the King of England’s people.

Fortinbras: He spends the whole time throughout the play building an army to avenge his father and take back some land so that he can have something to his name.

List of major literary devices:

Allusion

Alliteration

Irony

Soliloquy: Hamlet has his first soliloquy was in Act 1 scene 2. Gertrude and Claudius are trying to convince him not to go back to Wittenburg and continue his studies. He also talks about suicide and how pleasant it would be. In Act 3 scene 1 Hamlet gives probably the most famous speech in English literature, To Be or Not To Be. It is his most logical and powerful examination of the theme of the moral effects suicide in an unbearably painful world, and it touches on several of the other important themes of the play.

What type of questions would this be good to answer

Hamlet Works for All AP test questions. Yay!!!