Balti state university a. Russo chair of english philology

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”
Hamlet is considered to be the summit of Shakespeare‟s art. It was written in 1601-1602 
and first published in 1603. It is a work of profound philosophy. 
This famous tragedy has as its scene the kingdom of Denmark. But Danish names couldn‟t 
hide from the spectators and readers the fact that it was England, which the great writer depicted 
in his play. 
Hamlet is the profoundest expression of Shakespeare‟s humanism and his criticism of 
contemporary life. 
The present king of Denmark has come to the throne upon the mysterious death of his 
brother. He marries his brother‟s wife right after the death of the former king. Hamlet, the son of 
the late king, is deeply affected because of his father‟s death and horrified at the action of his 
mother in taking a second husband so soon. During this unhappy frame of mind, the ghost of his 
father appears to him and tells Hamlet the circumstances of his recent murder. The ghost 
declares that he was really murdered by his brother who had stolen the queen‟s love. Bidding 
Hamlet to revenge him the ghost disappears. 
Hamlet wishes to find out the truth and insinuates to be mad, using this circumstance for 
hiding his real intensions. Hamlet is in love with Ophelia, whose father Polonius forbids her to 
have anything to do with the prince, fearing that Hamlet can mean nothing honourable towards a 
girl of inferior rank. These ideas are borne into his mind by Claudius, the present king who 
wanted to smash Hamlet and have no other rivals.
Hamlet however in his anguish of spirit at the discovery of the villainy of his uncle and 
treachery of his mother has no more thought of anything but vengeance. So much does the horror 
of the situation press upon his mind that the court thinks he has gone mad. In bitter mood he 
contemplates suicide and comes with his famous monologue: 
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether‟tis nobler in the mind, to suffer 
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles; 
And by opposing end them? To die, - to sleep,
No more; and, by a sleep, to say we end 
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks 
That flesh is heir to, - „tis a consummation 
Devoutly to be wish‟d. To die, - to sleep; - 
To sleep! Perchance to dream: ay, there‟s the rub; 

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For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 
Must give us pause: there‟s the respect,
That makes calamity of so long life, 
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, 
The oppressor‟s wrong, the proud man‟s contumely, 
The pangs of despis‟d love, the laws delay, 
The insolence of office, and the spurns 
That patient merit of the unworthy takes, 
When he himself might his quietus make 
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life; 
But that the dread of something after death, 
The undiscover‟d country, from whose bourn 
No traveller returns, puzzles the will; 
And makes us rather bear those ills we have, 
Than fly to others that we know not of? 
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; 
And thus the native hue of resolution 
Is sicklied o‟er with the pale cast of thought; 
And enterprises of great pith and monument, 
With this regard, their currents turn away, 
And lose the name of action. 
 
Bright hopes and aspirations of his youth come to a clash with crude reality. The infidelity 
of his mother, the servility of the courtiers who bowed and cringed to the unworthy king, the 
falsehood of his friends and, finally, the crime committed by his uncle, made him realize how 
wicked and unjust the world he lived in was. He understood that he was not the only sufferer in 
the country: 
“ For who would bear the whips and scorns of time 
The oppressor‟s wrong, the proud man‟s contumely, 
The pangs of despised love, the laws delay, 
The insolence of office, and the spurns 
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,…?” 

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Hamlet understands that life is cruel and the social injustice presses so much on people. He 
can see it better now when Claudius is ruling the country. In great despair he asks himself: “To 
be or not to be…” But looking at the picture of the surrounding him world he considers that to 
die is easier but “Conscious does make cowers of us all…” It seems that he did not commit 
suicide because he was a coward. But in fact, it was an act of a greater courage to go on living 
with the reality he had to face and so Hamlet decides to live and disguise the murderer. To 
satisfy himself on this score Hamlet devices a plan: a company of traveling actors is to perform 
before the king and Hamlet instructs them to act out in a play the precise circumstances of the 
later king‟s murder as revealed to Hamlet by the ghost. When the actors were performing this, 
the king could stand it no longer. He is tormented and leaves the room. Hamlet is now absolutely 
convinced of the king‟s guilt. In a stormy scene with his mother hamlet reproaches her bitterly 
for her part in the affair. Hearing someone behind the curtains Hamlet stabs through them 
thinking it is the king. But it was instead Ophelia‟s father, who thus meets his death. The death 
of her father added to her lover‟s supposed madness is too much for Ophelia. The poor girl 
looses her senses and is subsequently drowned in a brook. 
A poisoned weapon through the machinations of the king wounds Hamlet. But before he 
dies he slays the murderer. The queen also meets her death accidentally drinking a cup of 
poisoned wine, which had been prepared for Hamlet.