W. Shakespeare - Hamlet (by Veronika Kabátová, II.C)

The book (or a play) was written by William Shakespeare in 1599. This version (that I read) isn´t an original. It has been retold by Margaret Tarner, but there are also a few parts of original play.

The story is set in Elsinore, King´s castle in Denmark. The time is the same as the time when Shakespeare lived - 16 ^th century.

The story starts when Hamlet´s father, King Hamlet, dies. His brother (Hamlet´s uncle) becomes a King and marries his brother´s wife and Hamlet´s mother, Queen Gertrude. One night, the ghost appears on the battlemants, but doesn´t speak. Horatio, Hamlet´s best friend, decides to tell Hamlet about the ghost, because it seems to be Hamlet´s dead father´s ghost. The ghost speaks to Hamlet and tells him that his death wasn´t natural - his brother, Claudius, murdered him with poison. Hamlet decides to obey the ghost and make revenge.

Hamlet makes him like a mad. King Claudius and other people think that his love to Ophelia made him mad, but it isn´t true. Polonius, Ophelia´s father, talks to Claudius and tells Ophelia to not be with Hamlet alone.

When players (actors, who performed plays) come on Elsinore, Hamlet talks to them and they play a play with a murder. Claudius gets afraid and runs away. Then Hamlet is sere that his uncle killed his father and he really wants revenge. Later he finds Claudius praying, but he can´t kill him - what about if his praying will get true and Claudius will go to heaven?

Claudius knows that Hamlet wants to kill him. He calls Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and tells them to go with Hamlet to England. He also writes a letter to King of England.

Meanwhile Hamlet is talking to Gertrude, his mother. He reproaches her because of her marriage just two months after his father´s death. Gertrude admits that and she is sorry about it. Hamlet sees somebody behind the tapestry and kills him - he hopes that is Claudius, but it´s Polonius.

Later Hamlet goes with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to England, but he doesn´t trust them. One night on ship, he gets up and finds the letter for King. He writes another letter - King should kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Next day, the ship is attacked by pirates. Hamlet jumps on their ship during the fight and gets back to Denmark.

During the time when Hamlet was away, Ophelia has gone mad because of her father´s death. When she was picking flowers, she fell into the water and drowned. Laertes, her brother, wants revenge; because Claudius told him Hamlet had killed his father and had made Ophelia mad.

Hamlet meets Laertes on Ophelia’s funeral and tells him about his love to Ophelia. Laertes starts fight with Hamlet, but he goes away. Claudius talks to Laertes about his plan to kill Hamlet and Laertes agrees. In the friendly fight, Hamlet kills Laertes with poisoned sword, but he is also stabbed with it. Gertrude drinks a wine, but it´s poisoned, too. Hamlet kills Claudius and Horatio wants to kill himself. Then Prince Fortinbras from Norway comes to the castle. Hamlet wants Fortinbras to be a King of Denmark and tells Horatio to tell everybody his story. Then Hamlet dies.

  

In my opinion, it´s a great an interesting story. I enjoyed it very much. There are very complicated characters, so I can´t recommend this book to everybody, just for people who love books where they must think about.

Questions

1. Describe Gertrude, the Queen of Denmark and the mother of Hamlet.

2. "To be or not to be" - is this the question?

3. What is Ophelia´s tragedy and how she dies?

Answers

1. Gertrude is a normal person. She loves her son and Ophelia, she loved her husband, but she trusts lies and makes negative decisions (like a marriage with Claudius), too. When you tell her to do something bad, she will do it, but when somebody tells her, why is it bad she will regret it.

2. No, it´s just a simplied version of a much complicated question. Hamlet thinks about living and death. He compares death to sleeping, but when he sleeps, he dreams and dreams can become nightmares. He´s got bigger fear from things after death that from things of living. He´s confused.

3. Ophelia´s sincere love to Hamlet, who wants revenge more than love and her father´s murder have made her mad. One day, she went pick up flowers. She went to the river and wanted to pick up flowers among the tree´s branches. One branch has broken and she fell into the water. Her wet clothes sank her and she drowned.