HAMLET

Hamlet’s father, the king of Denmark, has been dead only two months, but his mother, Queen Gertrude, has married
her brother-in-law, Claudius, who has now become king. The tragedy begins with the apparition of a ghost that looks
like the late king at the castle of Elsinore, wich is armed in case of attack from Fortinbras, prince of Norway. Hamlet
and his friend Horatio decide to meet the ghost and he tells to his son that he was murdered by his brother Claudius
who poured poison in his ear while he was sleeping in his orchard. The ghost asks Hamlet to avenge him but to leave
his mother’s punishment to heaven.

Hamlet pretends to be crazy so that he can carry out his plans more easily. When arrives a theater company, Hamlet
asks him to represent "The Murder of Gonzago" because it has a similar story so he could see the reaction of Claudius.
At the end of the tragedy, the king rises and rushes away so Hamlet understands that what the ghost said was true and
he starts to plan the revenge.

Hamlet says to her girlfriend, Ophelia, that the Hamlet that she knew was gone and this was a metaphorical message
to say her to wait him. While he was speaking to his mum, he sees that there was someone who was spying on
him behind the curtain and was Pollonius, Ophelia’s father, sent to spy on him by claudio and Hamlet stabs him
with the sword.

Hamlet is sent to England by Claudius to be killed but he has escaped. Meanwhile Ophelia goes mad and drowns
herself. Her brother Laertes decides to duel with Hamlet suggested by Claudius, to revenge her sister. During the duel
both Hamlet and Laertes are wounded by a poisoned sword. At the end, Gertrude drinks a poisoned cup intended for
her son and Hamlet kills his uncle Claudius and before he dies he says Horatio that Fortinbras be elected King.

This tragedy is probably, together Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s most famous work. It is considered the tragedy of
the tragedies because all the protagonists die in the end. The reason of all these tragic events is that from 1601 to
1608 Shakepeare lived a period of depression caused by events like the death of his father or the failure of the
rebellion of essex and the consequent death of his patron, the earl of Southampton. The work is divided in 5 acts as
the others Shakespeare’s works even if we saw that this division is simbolic because there aren’t breaks but there
aren’t actors on the stage. It is seen as the tragedy of the revenge because it starts with the ghost of Hamlet’s father
who asks for revenge and it ends with the death of those who had caused it. Hamlet is a play about life and death and
about man’s amibiguos relation to them in fact in this play is illustrated the concept of man’s complex nature. The
language in sometimes difficult to under stand even for the protagonists, for example Ophelia Hamlet’s girlfriend dies
because she doesn’t under stand the metaphorical message of Hamlet. In the third act we can see that there is a play
within the play in fact the protagonist of Hamlet is in the same time the protagonist and the spectator of the other
play ‘The Murder of Gonzago’.