Hamlet
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare and His Times
Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born when
Queen Elizabeth I was monarch
 Time of national strength and wealth
 Age of exploration – of the world, of
man’s nature, and of the English language
 This time period was considered the
English Renaissance of 1500-1650

Renaissance Ideas found in
Hamlet
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Humans had potential for development
Medieval Christian idea that mortality is merely
preparation for afterlife is questioned; people
began to see importance of everyday life
Ideal Elizabethan man was a talented courtier,
adventurer, fencer, poet, and conversationalist
Arranged marriage (usually for wealth)
Low social status for women
Rulers were agents of God
Proper order of things creates harmony
Origin of Hamlet
Written sometime between 1599-1601, probably
first performed in 1602
 Based, in part, on book 3 of a Danish tale
written in the 12th century, which tells of Amleth
(“fool” or “one who feigns madness”) as he
avenges the murder of his father, Horwendil, at
the hands of Feng – which, in turn, was
probably based on an Icelandic tale called Amloi
 Possibly also drawn from Thomas Kyd’s lost play
referred to as Ur-Hamlet which some scholars
insist was written by Shakespeare as an early
draft
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Setting
Main setting is
Elsinore Castle in
eastern Denmark in
the late medieval
period.
 Other settings
include: a ship bound
for England, a plain in
Denmark, and a
churchyard near
Elsinore.
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Themes
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Hesitancy
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Revenge
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Hamlet feigns madness to prove Claudius’ guilt (and is perhaps
mad) and Ophelia drowns due to madness
Appearance vs. Reality
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Hamlet for old Hamlet, Fortinbras for old Fortinbras, and Laertes
for Polonius
Madness
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Hamlet is conflicted by obligation to avenge his father’s murder
and obligation to follow moral law, so he hesitates
Is Hamlet mad? Who are his friends? The play within a play
Ambition and Loyalty
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Claudius’ ambition drives him to murder; Hamlet has friends and
family who are loyal and others who are not
Themes, cont.
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Inherited sin and corruption
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Allusions to Adam and the Garden of Eden
Certainty
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How can we know for certain the facts about a crime
that has no witnesses? Can Hamlet know the state of
Claudius's soul by watching his behavior? If so, can
he know the facts of what Claudius did by observing
the state of his soul? Can Claudius (or the audience)
know the state of Hamlet's mind by observing his
behavior and listening to his speech? Can we know
whether our actions will have the consequences we
want them to have? Can we know anything about the
afterlife?
Theme of Death
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In the aftermath of his father's
murder, Hamlet is obsessed with the
idea of death, and over the course
of the play he considers death from
a great many perspectives.
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Death may bring the answers to
Hamlet's deepest questions, ending
once and for all the problem of
trying to determine truth in an
ambiguous world
“To be or not to be” and Suicide
In his famous "To be or
not to be" soliloquy,
Hamlet concludes that
no one would choose to
endure the pain of life if
he or she were not
afraid of what comes
after death
 This fear causes
complex moral
considerations to
interfere with the
capacity for action.
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Motifs
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Disease and decay
 “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”
 Hamlet refers to the decay of the human body
Garden
 Hamlet’s father died in the garden, Hamlet calls the world
an “unweeded garden,” Ophelia distributes flowers in her
madness
 Gravedigger likens his graveyard to a garden and himself
to Adam
Misogyny
 Hamlet sees a connection between female sexuality and
moral corruption, inhibiting his relationships with Gertrude
and Ophelia
Motif of Ears and Hearing
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Language is slippery. Words are used
to communicate ideas, but they can
also be used to distort the truth,
manipulate other people and serve as
tools in corrupt quests for power.
Claudius is a man who manipulates
words to enhance his own power.
The poison that killed old Hamlet was
poured into his ear
The ghost says the “whole ear” of
Denmark is “abused” by the false
words of Claudius
Symbolism
Yorick’s Skull discovered by Hamlet
in the graveyard
 As Hamlet speaks to
and about the skull of
the king's former
jester, it becomes a
symbol of several
different aspects of
death
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Metadrama
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Drama that calls attention to itself as a
play or comments on its own actions or
devices.
 Act
2, scene 2 – Shakespeare uses Hamlet to
rail against the current fashion of parading
children around on stage
 In the same scene, Shakespeare uses Hamlet
to speak about the difference between good
drama and popular drama.
 Later, Hamlet berates himself that he shows
less emotion than players delivering their lines
Metadrama - continued
 When
Hamlet realizes he’s being watched, he
essentially becomes an actor performing for an
audience.
 Act 3, scene 2 begins with Hamlet instructing the
actors how to deliver their lines. Shakespeare is
venting his favorite frustrations with his own actors
(don’t speak too loudly, don’t wave your arms
around, but don’t speak too “tamely” either)
 Lastly – the entire play within the play allows
Hamlet to comment on the action of the play
which is, in reality, his commentary on the
situation in Denmark.
The influence of Religion on Ghosts
Shakespeare’s England is officially Protestant,
a religion with simply Heaven and Hell. The
ghost cannot be real.
 Catholicism, however, still has a hold on many
Englishmen, and the idea of Purgatory allows
for the existence of the ghost.
 Hamlet and Horatio are being educated in
Protestant Wittenberg (where in 1517, Martin
Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the
door of All Saints Church) which makes their
doubt logical.
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Ghost or No Ghost?
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Shakespeare leaves it
ambiguous what the
audience is to make
of the ghost,
contributing to both
the suspense and the
final evaluation of
Hamlet as a tragic
character.
The Conflict of Revenge
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Though most of the
Vikings had adopted
Christianity by 960, and all
of the subsequent Danish
monarchs declared
themselves Christians, the
people retained ancient
beliefs.
Prince Hamlet reflects, in
part, the evolving
humanistic attitude of the
Renaissance era.
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In an era that saw rampant
human destruction from war
and plague, the English were
beginning to regard killingeven to avenge murder-as a
less heroic action than had
the people of the Middle
Ages (the time period of the
play). This changing
viewpoint contributes to
Hamlet's delay in avenging
his father's death, causing
him much inner turmoil.
Hamlet

The Prince of Denmark,
the title character, and
the protagonist. About
nineteen years old at the
start of the play (or 30,
due to an editing
mistake), Hamlet is the
son of Queen Gertrude
and the late King Hamlet,
and the nephew of the
present king, Claudius.
Hamlet
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Hamlet returns to Denmark from university to
attend his father’s funeral
His uncle has claimed the throne – on which
Hamlet has claim being the dead king’s son
His mother has married the new king (Hamlet’s
uncle, Claudius) a little more than a month after
old Hamlet died.
Eventually his girlfriend will spurn him for no
apparent reason
And now he is seeing ghosts
Tracing his soliloquies reveals the deterioration
of his mental state
Claudius
The King of Denmark,
Hamlet's uncle
 calculating, ambitious
politician
 driven by his sexual
appetites and his lust
for power
 occasionally shows
signs of guilt and
human feeling—his
love for Gertrude, for
instance, seems
sincere.
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Gertrude
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The Queen of
Denmark, Hamlet's
mother
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a shallow, weak
woman who seeks
affection and status
more urgently than
moral rectitude or
truth.
Polonius
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The Lord Chamberlain
of Claudius's court
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a pompous, conniving
old man
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father of Laertes and
Ophelia.
Horatio
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Hamlet's close friend
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studied with the
prince at Wittenberg
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loyal and helpful to
Hamlet
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Remains alive to tell
Hamlet's story.
Ophelia
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Polonius's daughter
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a beautiful young
woman
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Hamlet’s love
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sweet and innocent
young girl
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obeys her father and
her brother, Laertes.
Laertes
Polonius's son and
Ophelia's brother
 spends much of the
play in France.
 Passionate and quick
to action
 clearly a foil for the
reflective Hamlet.
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Fortinbras
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Young Prince of Norway,
whose father the king
(also named Fortinbras)
was killed by Hamlet's
father (also named
Hamlet)
Fortinbras wishes to
attack Denmark to
avenge his father's honor,
making him another foil
for Prince Hamlet.
The Ghost
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The specter of Hamlet's
recently deceased father.
The ghost, who claims to
have been murdered by
Claudius, calls upon
Hamlet to avenge him.
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It is never certain
whether the ghost is
what it appears to be
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
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Former friends of
Hamlet from
Wittenberg
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summoned by
Claudius and Gertrude
to discover the cause
of Hamlet's strange
behavior