Group 7: Bannò Giorgia, Leporati Anastasia, Vigna Margot, Zalonis Vittoria.

3I

HAMLET - William Shakespeare

THE AUTHOR AND THE PLAY

William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English playwright and poet, considered the most
important English writer and generally considered the most eminent playwright of
Western culture.
He is nicknamed the "Bard of Avon", due to his extraordinary ability to captivate
audiences with his words. Of his works, 38 theatrical texts, 154 sonnets and a series
of other poems have been found, although the authorship and chronology of some of
them is not certain. His plays have been translated into all the major languages ​of
the world and have been performed more often than any other work. Many of his
linguistic expressions have entered everyday English.
The period of composition of most of his works ranges from 1588 to 1613.
Although he was already popular in life, he became immensely famous after his
death.

Hamlet
Hamlet is one of the most famous and cited tragedies by William Shakespeare. It
was probably written between 1600 and the summer of 1602. It is among the most
frequently performed operas in the world and is translated into almost all existing
languages. It is considered by many critics to be Shakespeare's masterpiece, as well
as one of the greatest works of literature of all time. Hamlet became so famous for
having marked England's passage from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance age
and for having a protagonist who represents the new bourgeois intellectual.

THE PLOT

First act
In the castle of Elsinore the guards Bernardo and Marcellus, worried about the
presence of the ghost that showed up in the last few nights, ask Horatio to come with
them.
Horatio, after noticing the similarity between the deceased king Hamlet and the
ghost, decides to inform Hamlet, the prince, son of Hamlet.
Claudius succeeded king Hamlet to the throne, his brother, and married the queen
Gertrude, who was widowed. The prince Hamlet is upset about their marriage.
After Horatio’s message, Hamlet waits with him and the guards for the appearance
of the spectre. The ghost appears, but expresses his will to meet just Hamlet, so, left
alone, he tells the young prince that he is the spirit of the king and he asks his son to
avenge him.
In fact, he was poisoned by Claudius, who let everybody believe that the king died
after being bitten by a snake in order to take the throne and the queen, with whom
he already had an adulterous relationship. After the meeting, Hamlet tells the others
to not speak about the ghost to anyone.

Second act
After seeing his father’s apparition, Hamlet has a strange and sad behaviour.
Worried about his nephew, Claudius asks the prince’s friends, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern, to find out what happened, but the plan fails. Hamlet realises in fact
that they are spying on him and mocks them without their knowledge.
The young prince wants to prove his uncle’s guilt by enacting a theatre performance
that narrates the story of his father’s murder to see Claudius’ reaction and
understand if he is the culprit.

Third act
When Claudius fails his attempt at discovering the causes of his nephew’s sadness
he sends Ophelia, Polonius’ daughter, to talk to him while he spies on them.
Meanwhile Hamlet, lost in his soliloquy ("To be or not to be, that is the question"),
denies Ophelia’s love and advises her to join a convent. Sensing Hamlet's potential
threat to the throne Claudius decides to send him to England.
In the meantime, Hamlet’s play is successful: Claudius gets up and abruptly and
outraged goes away, and Gertrude takes her son aside to talk about his behaviour.
Polonius, spying on their conversation, is mistaken for the king and is fatally stabbed
by Hamlet. After the murder, Claudius is even more convinced about Hamlet being a
danger and rushes to send him to Britain. The nephew accepts the offer eagerly,
unaware that a hitman is waiting for him and is ordered to kill him the moment he will
arrive.

Fourth act
Laertes, Ophelia’s brother, has received the news of the death of his father and
arrives in Denmark eager for revenge.
The king suggests that he should challenge Hamlet, who was able to escape death
and is coming back to Elsinore, to a duel rounding the enemy’s sword, dipping his
own in a deadly poison and poisoning the winner’s cup in case Hamlet wins: Laertes
agrees.
Meanwhile, Ophelia, driven mad by the pain because of Hamlet’s refusal and
the death of the father, dies after throwing herself into a lake.

Fifth act
The duel begins and Hamlet wins the first assault. Gertrude, the queen, makes a
toast to him, drinks from the poisoned cup and dies. In the meantime the duelists are
both hit by the poisoned sword. After the queen's death, Laertes decides to reveal
the truth to Hamlet. The prince reacts with outrage and wrath, and stabs Claudius
with the poisoned sword. Laertes dies and Hamlet, close to death, appoints Horace
to hand down his story and elect Fortinbras, prince of Norway, who precedently
assembled an army to sail to Denmark to reclaim his father’s lands, the new king.

SETTING

The story of Hamlet is set in the late Middle Ages (14th - 15th century) in the castle
of Elsinore, a city in Denmark. Shakespeare probably chose this country due to the
development of the plot. For example, the subplot deals with a possible war against
Norway, and this sense of menace from another country increases the initial tension
and contributes to the setting of the mood of the play.

Also, Denmark was a Protestant country, so Hamlet studied in Wittenberg, Germany,

where Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation. This is why Hamlet is
sceptical of the ghost, who claims to be his father’s spirit wandering in Purgatory : in
fact, protestants rejected the notion of Purgatory as mere superstition.

The major part of the play takes place at the royal court, where there is a
high-powered and manipulative dynamic.

In Elsinore there are many private spaces. For example, Hamlet is often alone while
delivering his soliloquies, Claudius prays in his private chapel and Gertrude, like
Ophelia, has her personal space. These private places reflect how in the play
Shakespeare wants to show people’s behaviour when they are not in public.

CHARACTERS

Hamlet

Hamlet is a very enigmatic character. The most noticeable characteristic of his

language it’s its ambiguity. Everything he says is conveyed through metaphor, simile
and wordplay, and his words have a hidden meaning. A university student whose
studies are interrupted by his father’s death, Hamlet is extremely philosophical and
contemplative: he is the typical man of the Renaissance. Hamlet is so thoughtful that
he is often not able to decide, even though he behaves rashly and impulsively.

He often complains about the fact that he has to play roles that he doesn’t believe in,
like the (non)heir to the throne, the (non)lover of Ophelia, the (non)revenger in a
revenge play.
Another important characteristic it’s his melancholy: he is shocked from the death of
the father and the re-marriage of the mother, which he doesn’t approve of. The world
changes its colour to him, life its meaning and the State its stability. At a number of
points in the play, he contemplates his own death and even the option of suicide.

Gertrude

Gertrude is a woman defined by her desire for affection, as well as by her tendency
to use men to fulfill her instinct for self-preservation, which makes her extremely
dependent upon the men in her life.

Hamlet’s most famous comment about Gertrude is his furious condemnation of

women in general: “Frailty, thy name is woman!”. This comment highlights her most
important trait; she is in fact feeble and incapacitated of thinking critically about her
situation, but seems merely to move instinctively toward seemingly safe choices.
She is at her best in social situations, when her natural grace and charm appear to
indicate a rich, rounded personality. At times it seems that her grace and charm are
her only characteristics.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are depicted as silly and unintelligent, they are the
main arbiters of irony in Hamlet because though they are longtime friends of Hamlet,
they are willing to spy on him for financial gains. They attempt to bring Hamlet to his
death in England, though they are the ones to be executed in his place. They do not
think for themselves but instead take orders from others with more power and drive
than themselves.

Claudius

Hamlet’s major antagonist is a lustful, conniving king who contrasts sharply with the
other male characters in the play. The old King Hamlet was apparently a stern
warrior, but Claudius is a corrupt politician whose main weapon is his ability to
manipulate others through his skillful use of language. As the play progresses,
Claudius is painted as a king who only worries about himself; when Gertrude tells
him that Hamlet has killed Polonius, Claudius does not remark that Gertrude might
have been in danger, but only that he would have been in danger had he been in the
room. He tells Laertes the same thing as he attempts to soothe the young man’s
anger after his father’s death.most of his actions are driven by his selfishness and
cowardice; for precaution, rather than allowing Laertes only two methods of killing
Hamlet, the sharpened sword and the poison on the blade, Claudius insists on a
third, the poisoned goblet. When Gertrude inadvertently drinks the poison and dies,
Hamlet is at last able to bring himself to kill Claudius, and the king meets his downfall
due to his own deceitful plan/ruse.

Polonius

Within the work, Polonius, Laerte and Ofelia’s safe and happy family creates a deep
contrast with Hamlet, Claudius and Gertrud’s dysfunctional family. Polonium's deep
bond with his children can be understood in the way they reacted to his death.
Polonius is a proud and concerned father who tries to protect and help his children.
Within the work, he is a comic character, who always presents himself less wise than
what we could think. His irony also expresses lack of self-awareness and the
impossibility of knowing oneself perfectly. This is a common characteristic between
Polonius and Hamlet.

Ophelia

Ophelia’s role in the work revolves around his relationship with three men. She is the
daughter of Polonius, the sister of Laertes, and has also been romantically involved
with Hamlet. Ophelia’s relations with these men limit his agency and lead to her
death. From the first scene where Ophelia appears, men tell her what to do. The
combination of the cruelty of her lover and the death of her father left Ophelia in a
state of pain, until her death.

Laertes

Laertes is a loyal and citizen son and is protective over his sister Ophelia. The family
is clearly his priority and the institution he is most willing to fight for. Laertes is a man
intensely focused on honour.
As soon as Laertes’s family is harmed, his sense of loyalty shows its darker, more
violent side.
Like Hamlet, Laertes is single-minded in his quest for retributive justice. Unlike
Hamlet, Laertes is decisive and active in how he goes about achieving that justice.
However Laertes, like Hamlet, still dies in the end, because of obsession with
revenge for his family.

Marcellus and Bernard

They are guards and the first to see the ghost of the king walking on the bulwark of
the castle. Marcellus is present when Hamlet sees for the first time the ghost.

Horatio
Horatio is a friend of Hamlet and his classmate at the university of Wittenberg.
Horatio helps Hamlet and remains loyal to him throughout the tragedy. When Hamlet
dies, Horatio stays alive to tell his story.

Fortinbras

He is the Prince of Norway, whose father was killed by Hamlet’s father. He wants to
attack Denmark to avenge his father’s life.

TEXT: HAMLET MEETS THE GHOST - ANALYSIS

Summary

We analysed a part of the fifth scene of the first act, in particular the dialogue
between the ghost of the deceased king and his son Hamlet, after the spirit asked to
talk alone with the young prince. The ghost doesn’t have much time because he has
to return to Purgatory, an horrendous place that human beings can’t even imagine,
but he has crucial information to share and specific requests. He reveals his identity
and asks Hamlet to avenge his horrible murder. The prince accepts and listens to
him carefully while he describes what happened in detail: as he slept in his garden,
Claudius, his brother, poured poison into his ear. The ghost exhorts Hamlet to seek
revenge, telling him that Claudius has corrupted Denmark and corrupted Gertrude,
the queen, having taken her from the pure love of her first marriage and seduced
her. However the ghost urges Hamlet not to act against his mother in any way and to
leave her to be judged by God.

The text is divided in 3 parts:

● The apparition of the ghost and the introduction of the dialogue, represented
with this yellow line.
● The official version of the king’s death, represented with the pink line.
● The orders given to Hamlet, represented with the violet line.

We can also notice some of the themes of the play, such as the main theme, the
revenge in a tragedy, and the theme of the remembrance in the last line, in which
Hamlet is invited to remember his father as the old king himself.

Analysis from the key notes

1. The responses of Hamlet to his father’s spirit are highlighted in green. It can
be noticed how they convey astonishment from the reveal of the murder and
fear, and also how they point out the tragic side of the play, enhanced by his
shocked reactions.
 2. The imperatives of the ghost are highlighted in orange. He gives specific tasks
to Hamlet: he orders to listen to him carefully, to avenge his death and not to
tolerate what happened: he mustn’t let a man like Claudius, corrupted and
devious, on the throne of Denmark. He also tells him not to go against his
mother: her fate will be decided by God.
3. This part of the text written in blue gives some information about the afterlife
world. King Hamlet describes this world as a place too terrifying to be told to
people, so the prince shouldn’t know about it. King Hamlet is condemned for a
certain period of time to roam the nights, while during the day he burns in
flames until the sins that he committed during his lifetime have been purged
from his soul. This indicates that he is in Purgatory.
4. This, highlighted in violet, is an important sentence in which the ghost reveals
his identity, after being mysterious for some time.
5. In pink there are the lines in which we can understand how the murder is
connoted by the ghost: as a horrible, foul, strange and unnatural thing.
6. In red there is the description of Claudius by the ghost, while he is giving the
details of the murder. He is described as a snake, a beast who committed
incest and adultery. He has wicked skills in seducing women and he is a
traitor. Hamlet is furious with his brother Claudius.
7. Then, in blue there is the description of Gertrude by the ghost: the queen
seemed virtuous, but she had a decline; she sinned by lust for personal gain
and went from a celestial bed (Hamlet) to trash (Claudius). She mustn’t be
punished by her son, the judgement of her sins should be left to God.

Paraphrase of the text: Act-1-scene-5-full-scene-modern-english

INFORMATION (apart from the school’s book):

https://www.studenti.it/amleto-william-shakespeare-riassunto-atto-per-atto.html?goog
le-amp=1

https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/section1/

Amleto: riassunto, personaggi e mappa concettuale | Studenti.it

https://www.skuola.net/letteratura-inglese-1700/inglese-layout-of-a-play-hamlet.html

https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/hamlet/setting.html#:~:text=The%20story%20
of%20Hamlet%20is,Elsinore%2C%20a%20city%20in%20Denmark.