Shakespeare's Hamlet: Summary, Analysis, and Evaluation

Plot Overview

Hamlet is one of William Shakespeare's best-known plays. Although written in England, the play centers on the life of the titular Danish prince. In the first act, Hamlet meets the ghost of his dead father. The ghost tells Hamlet that the King was murdered by Claudius — the King's brother and Hamlet's uncle. Although the information came from an incredible source — a supernatural creature — Hamlet is not the only one to have seen and heard from the ghost. Horatio and several of the castle sentries also bear witness to the revelation of the King's murder. Claudius killed his own brother in order to usurp power, swiftly marrying Hamlet's mother Gertrude and assuming the title of King.

The news throws Hamlet off balance. He is consumed by rage, despair, and a desire for revenge against his uncle, and his psychological state becomes the primary driving force throughout the play. In Act II, Hamlet decides to stage a play at the castle in order to entrap his uncle. He chooses a play with, suitably, a Greek theme about the death of a king. Hamlet believes that while watching the play, his uncle's face and body language may betray his guilt. As it turns out, Claudius does act uncomfortably after seeing the performance, and Hamlet now believes he has proof of the murder.

As Hamlet plots his revenge, his mental state deteriorates. He finds he can trust no one, including his girlfriend Ophelia and his mother Gertrude. After the staged play, Hamlet follows his uncle, planning to kill him, but is unable to do so because he finds Claudius praying. Hamlet then confronts his mother while Polonius — chief advisor to the Crown and Ophelia's father — spies on them from behind a curtain. Hamlet's emotions reach a breaking point after his failure to kill Claudius and his frustration with his mother's ignorance of the truth. He accidentally kills Polonius, believing the figure behind the curtain to be Claudius. Hamlet hides the body and begins to intimidate Claudius, who arranges to have Hamlet sent into exile to protect himself and the crown.

Driven mad by her father's death, Ophelia kills herself. Her brother Laertes returns to Denmark to avenge both his sister and his father. Knowing that Hamlet and Laertes will ultimately fight a duel, Claudius poisons a cup of wine and the tip of a sword, determined to be rid of Hamlet. In the final act, Gertrude accidentally drinks from the poisoned cup and dies. Hamlet and Laertes wound each other with the poison-tipped sword. Laertes dies, having learned the truth about Claudius. Before he too dies, Hamlet finally kills his uncle. He achieves his goal of revenge, but his kingdom has fallen apart and passes into the hands of a foreign ruler — Fortinbras of Norway.

Analysis and Interpretation

Hamlet is as much a psychological thriller as it is a classical tragedy. The play is loosely structured around the Greek story of Oedipus, and yet Shakespeare takes the characterization of his protagonist in a wholly new direction (Lacan, Miller, and Hulbert 11). Shakespeare constructs an intricate, complex protagonist whose mental state deteriorates for reasons the audience can well understand. While Hamlet's actions may seem disproportionate and irrational, his motives are unquestionable: he recognizes that his uncle is dangerous and unfit for leadership. Moreover, Hamlet's own power and masculinity have been called into question by his uncle's bold seizure of what would have been Hamlet's own crown.

The way Shakespeare structures the play, the audience sides with Hamlet and accepts that Claudius is responsible for the King's death. Trusting Hamlet in this way, the audience develops an uncomfortable sympathy with the hero. Hamlet is not comporting himself gracefully as a strong leader should, and yet his moral righteousness earns him credibility. The audience understands that Hamlet must act to remove his uncle from power, yet he fails to forge strategic alliances with potential allies when entrapping Claudius. His self-imposed isolation is one of Hamlet's defining character flaws — one that contributes to his demise and, with it, the demise of his kingdom. Hamlet's performativity of revenge-driven masculinity is also critical to understanding the tragedy (Kastan 111). The play is as much about politics — both the "politics of paternity" and the intricacies of monarchic rule — as it is about human psychology (Haverkamp 171).

Works Cited

Haverkamp, Anselm. "The Ghost of History." Law and Literature, Vol. 18, Issue 2, 2006, pp. 171–197.

Kastan, David Scott. "'His semblable is his mirror': Hamlet and the Imitation of Revenge." Shakespeare Studies, Vol. 19, Jan. 1987, p. 111.

Lacan, Jacques, Jacques-Alain Miller, and James Hulbert. "Desire and the Interpretation of Desire in Hamlet." Yale French Studies, No. 55–56, 1977, pp. 11–52.