Essay/Term paper: Hamlet

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Hamlet

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He was the son of John and Mary Shakespeare. William attended his town's local grammar school at age six and graduated ten years later. When he was eighteen, he married a woman named Anne Hathaway who gave birth to twins, Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet drowned a few years later. It is said that William named his famous play Hamlet after his son and included a drowning scene in his honor. After the loss of his son, William left his family behind and headed for London to write plays. He was a poet and playwright. He wrote many famous plays, including Macbeth, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet. His stories were very popular with the English people because some of them were about English kings, like Henry IV. One of the characters from Henry IV was Falstaff, a drunk and crude knight. People liked him so much that William wrote another play using Falstaff, entitled The Merry Wives of Windsor. Shakespeare lived during the Renaissance period, and was one of the most influential playwrights of his time.



Hamlet is set in medieval times and relates the story of Hamlet, who is the son of the dead King of Denmark, which appears as a ghost. The ghost appears at midnight and hints to Hamlet and his two friends Horatio and Marcellus about his murder. Hamlet"s mother, Gertrude, quickly marries Hamlet"s Uncle Claudius barely before the King"s body is even cold. Hamlet finds out that Claudius poisoned his father while he was sleeping to gain control of the throne. Hamlet confronts his mother about knowing about the murder of his father, and her affair with Claudius. Claudius attempts to kill Hamlet on a "vacation" voyage to England, by getting Rosncrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet"s boyhood friends to carry a letter to the King of England to chop off Hamlet"s head. Hamlet intercepts the letter, and sends a letter to the King of England, telling him to immediately cut off the heads of the messengers. Hamlet then plots to kill Claudius because "He… killed my king and whored my mother." Laertes is allowed a duel against Hamlet to revenge his father, Polonius", murder. Halfway into the duel, Claudius toasts the duelers, and drops a poison-coated pearl into the wine as an inducement for Hamlet to finish the drink. However, Gertrude decides to drink it herself. The duel continues and both are wounded by Larertes" poisoned dagger. Gertrude falls to the ground and says Claudius has poisoned her. Hamlet stabs Claudius and forces the poisoned wine down his throat. In the end, all of the main characters are murdered.



Hamlet is the main character who is the son of the murdered King of Denmark. Hamlet is a round and dynamic character. He is revenging the death of his father, but turns out he kills Polonius thinking it is his evil Uncle Claudius behind a tapestry. In the end, Hamlet goes insane by the ghostly father and the dastardly plot he unravels. He is killed in a duel with Laertes by the poisonous dagger. Claudius is the evil uncle who killed Hamlet"s father and had an affair with his mother. He marries Gertrude then plots to kill Hamlet. His plot succeeds in the end, but with it comes the death of his wife and himself. I choose Hamlet, (of course the good guy) because of his extreme will to get revenge. I could understand what it would feel like to lose your father and find out that the murder was your mother"s new husband. He had to feel love for his mother, but he had to get revenge for his ghostly father.



The internal conflict is Hamlet"s love for his mother and hate for his father"s murderer, Claudius. The conflict was resolved when Claudius accidentally poisoned his mother and killed Claudius to revenge both his father"s and mother"s death. The external conflict was when Hamlet accidentally killed Polonius thus driving Ophelia to suicide. The conflict is resolved when Laertes, (the son of Polonius and Ophelia"s bother) and Hamlet stab each other with the poisoned dagger. The theme of the play is revenge and justice. Throughout the story, each character is further entwined into a web of revenge and deceit.



I liked the play because there is a lot of fighting and revengeful plotting throughout it. Many people are killed in this battle of revengeful conflict. If my father were killed, I would vow for revenge just like Hamlet. This book is a classic because it shows how easy people become obsessed with revenge and how it only leads to travesty. Also, the fact that Shakespeare, the most noted play writer, wrote it does not hurt either. The title is fairly self-explanatory, due to the fact that Hamlet is the main character of the play.