The department of foreign language and literature course work theme : the motive of pretense and play in the tragedy "hamlet"

CONCLUSION

Hamlet is a play written by William Shakespeare. It is estimated to have been written between 1599 and 1601. One of Shakespeare’s best-known and most highly regarded works, it is also his longest, containing a total of 29,551 words and 4042 lines. Interestingly, there are three different versions of the play which have survived to this day. The first version, published in 1603, is only just over half as long as the second, which was printed a year later in 1604. The third version was published in 1623, as part of the first version of Shakespeare’s Complete Works. The version most of us know today is a combination of the second two versions.

Hamlet is a tragedy which deals with a wide variety of themes, including love, death, revenge and mental health.
The play centres around the main character, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. When Hamlet’s father dies, Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, marries his mother and takes the throne for himself. Hamlet’s father appears to the young prince as a ghost, telling his son that he was murdered by Claudius, and he wants Hamlet to kill Claudius to avenge his death.
Hamlet feels he needs proof before taking any drastic action, and he pretends to be mentally ill while he investigates the claims made by his father’s ghost. However, he genuinely becomes deeply affected mentally by the situation, and ends up accidentally killing another man, Polonius, believing him to be Claudius. Polonius was the father of Hamlet’s girlfriend Ophelia, and, on hearing the news, she kills herself by drowning. The story culminates in a sword fight between Hamlet and Laertes, Ophelia’s brother. Laertes has dipped his sword in poison, which he has also added to some wine. This results in the deaths of Hamlet, his mother Gertrude, and Claudius at the end of the play.
So, that’s a short summary of Hamlet in simple English. Now let’s break it down into its five acts.
The play opens with a meeting between Hamlet’s friend, Horatio, and two of the palace guards. The guards inform Horatio that they have seen a ghost resembling the King, who has recently died. The ghost then appears to the group, and they decide to tell Hamlet about it.
We then cut to the following morning, and the wedding of the King’s widow, Gertrude, to his brother, Claudius. Claudius has taken the throne, and Hamlet is extremely unhappy about this and his mother’s wedding. Horatio and the guards inform Hamlet about the ghost. The following scene shows us a conversation between the new King’s advisor, Polonius, and his son and daughter, Laertes and Ophelia. Ophelia has a romantic interest in Hamlet, and her father and brother advise her against this. She agrees not to see him anymore.