Encyclopedia
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by
William Shakespeare and is one of his best-known and most quoted plays. Scholarly opinion says that in all probability it was written at some time between mid-1599 and mid-1602.
Hamlet may be the most frequently produced work in almost every western country, and it is considered a crucial test for mature
actors. Hamlet's "To be, or not to be"
soliloquy , the most popular passage in the play, is so well known that it has become a stumbling-block for many modern actors.
Hamlet is one of the world's most famous literary works, and has been translated into every major living language.
Sources
Shakespeare's play tells the story of the legendary Danish Prince Hamlet, or Amleth whose exploits were recorded by
Saxo Grammaticus in his
Gesta Danorum around 1200 AD;
François de Belleforest adapted Saxo's story in his
Histoires Tragiques .
Shakespeare's main source, however, is believed to be an earlier play about Hamlet , which is attributed to
Thomas Kyd and is known to have introduced a ghost to the story. The 'Ur-
Hamlet was never printed, and is now lost. However, it was praised in print in Thomas Nashe's preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon
as early as 1589. It made the phrase "Hamlet, revenge!" famous. While the Ur-Hamlet
is usually assumed to have been written by Kyd, it is sometimes suggested that it may have been written by Shakespeare himself, and later revised or rewritten into the play as it has been preserved in print.
Shakespeare may also have taken some elements from Kyd's other play, The Spanish Tragedy, especially the hero's procrastination.
Texts
There are three extant texts of Hamlet from the early 1600s: two quarto editions, and one from the first folio .
The play first appeared in print in 1603 in a version now known as the 'bad Quarto'. This edition follows essentially the same plot as the play we know as
Hamlet but it is much shorter and its language is often different to that which we are accustomed to encounter; for example, where the accepted version reads "To be or not to be, that is the question", the 1603 Quarto reads "To be or not to be, aye there's the point". These discrepancies, which many critics view as aesthetically weaker than the other versions, have led to the suggestion that the text may have been published without the permission of the playing company, and put together by
stenography or by minor actors recalling the lines of others by memory. It was common practise at the time for actors in rehearsal to be given only their individual part and cue lines; consequently, the finger has been pointed at the actor playing Marcellus as the likely culprit for the source of the "Bad Quarto", as his scenes and lines are rendered most "accurately" compared to other characters. When he is absent from the stage the text seems more divergent from other extant copies. Some modern textual scholars consider this theory to be fanciful, since a minor actor would be unlikely to have memorised the lines of other actors, even inaccurately — but actors and other theatrical professionals would likely dispute this point, since these workers often unintentionally memorize large portions of plays that they work on.
On the other hand, Albert Weiner has argued that the 'bad Quarto' version is not a corruption but an intentional, purposeful, and skillful abridgement of the play, to enable the King's Men to take it on the road with a far smaller complement of actors than would be required to stage the "full version". Additionally, the language was simplified in order to appeal to an audience less sophisticated than that found in London. This theory has not been widely accepted.
The authorized 'Second Quarto' was published in 1604, and was described on its title page as "enlarged to almost as much again as it was". This is the longest text of
Hamlet to be published in the period.
The third edition was the version published in the
First Folio of Shakespeare's complete works. This text is shorter but also contains scenes not in Q2.
Modern editions are a compromise between the Second Quarto text and the Folio text. Some conflate the two to produce one very long text. Others assume that the Folio text represents Shakespeare's final intentions and that the cuts were made by him; they therefore present the cut Q2 passages in an appendix.
In the theatre, performing the full, conflated Q2/Folio text takes around 4 hours. Because of this, most productions use a cut text. For example, the
Royal Shakespeare Company's Artistic Director Michael Boyd staged Hamlet in the summer of 2004 using lines from various Quartos; his text was dubbed the "Boyd Quarto" by newspaper reviewers.
Some theatre companies have experimented with performing the Bad Quarto, which takes only 2 hours. They claim that while it reads badly on the page, in performance it is faster-paced and more direct than the 'official' versions.
Main characters
Prince Hamlet, the title character, is the son of the late King of Denmark, who was also named Hamlet. He is a student at a school in
Wittenberg. He is charged by the ghost of his father to avenge his murder, which he finally succeeds in doing, but only after the rest of the royal house has been wiped out and he himself has been mortally wounded with a poisoned
rapier by Laertes at the end of the play.
Claudius is the current King of Denmark, Hamlet's uncle, who succeeded to the throne upon the death of his brother. The ghost of King Hamlet tells Prince Hamlet that he was murdered by brother Claudius, who poured hebenon in his ear while he was asleep. Claudius is killed with a poisoned rapier by Hamlet. Claudius also accidentally kills Gertrude, his wife and Hamlet's mother, with the draught he actually had intended to poison Hamlet with at the end of the play.
King Hamlet was Hamlet's father. At the start of the play, it has not been long since his death. He appears to Hamlet as a
ghost seeking vengeance for his murder by poison at the hands of his brother, Claudius. Hamlet questions the contention that the spirit really is the ghost of King Hamlet or is actually a malicious demon in disguise. He cannot find a definitive answer until
The Murder of Gonzago is performed by the Players.
Gertrude is Hamlet's mother. Widowed because of King Hamlet's death, she has quickly been remarried to Claudius, the late king's brother, a relationship considered
incestuous by Hamlet and in Shakespeare's time . She dies by drinking poisoned wine intended for Hamlet at the end of the play.
Polonius is Claudius's chief councillor, who is distrustful of Hamlet's relationship with Ophelia, his own daughter, because she is a social inferior to him. He fears Hamlet will only take her virginity and won't marry her, so he forbids her from continuing with their relationship. He is sometimes portrayed as a fatuous bore, and Hamlet frequently teases him while pretending to be mad. He is fatally stabbed by Hamlet, who mistakes him for Claudius, when he hides himself behind an arras while trying to eavesdrop on a conversation between Hamlet and his mother.
Laertes is Polonius's son, who deeply cares for Ophelia, his sister, and spends much of the play in France. In the end, appalled by Hamlet's role in his sister's death, he works with Claudius to rig a duelling contest. In this contest, he kills Hamlet with a poisoned
rapier to avenge the deaths of Polonius and Ophelia. Hamlet kills him with the same rapier, without realising that it was poisoned.
Ophelia is Polonius's daughter. She and Hamlet have had romantic feelings for each other, although they have been warned that it would be politically inexpedient for them to marry. Tormented by Hamlet as part of his 'madness', her father's death causes her to go insane, and she falls into a brook and drowns .
Horatio is a friend of Hamlet's from university. Apparently a commoner, or in any event not a close relative of the royal family, he is not directly involved in the intrigue at the Danish court, which enables the author to use him as a foil or sounding board for Hamlet. Hamlet commissions him to name Fortinbras King of Denmark after the deaths of the royal household.
Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are old school-fellows of Hamlet, who were summoned to the castle by Claudius to keep a watch on Hamlet. Hamlet soon suspects that they are spies. They die off-stage in England, executed by the King's warrant for Hamlet's death which was altered by Hamlet to name them instead.
Fortinbras is the Norwegian crown prince. He is the son of King Fortinbras, who was killed in battle by Hamlet's father, and thus has vengeance on his mind. His firm and decisive action contrasts with Hamlet's procrastination.
Osric is a courtier who referees the sword fight between Hamlet and Laertes, in which both are fatally wounded by a poisoned rapier.
Plot summary
The play concerns the revenge of Prince Hamlet, whose father, the late King of
Denmark, victor over the Polish army, died suddenly while Hamlet was away from home at
Wittenberg University, supposedly bitten by a poisonous snake. Prior to the opening of the play, the King's brother Claudius has been proclaimed king, and cemented his claim to the throne by marrying Hamlet's mother Gertrude, the widowed Queen.
The play opens on the battlements of
Elsinore Castle, seat of the Danish monarchy, where a group of sentries are visited by the ghost of the recently deceased King Hamlet. Hamlet's friend Horatio joins the soldiers on their watch and when the ghost appears, bids it to speak. They suspect it has some message to deliver, but it vanishes without speaking.
The next day, the Danish court meets to celebrate the wedding of Claudius and Gertrude. The new King urges Hamlet not to persist in his grief. When he is alone, Hamlet expresses his anger at the accession of his uncle Claudius to the throne and his mother's hasty remarriage. Horatio and the guards come to the scene and tell him of the appearance of the ghost of his father. Hamlet is determined to investigate this.
Joining Horatio on the watch on the battlements that night, the ghost appears again. It beckons him to come along with him and then reveals a fearful secret: his father was murdered. He was poisoned through the ear by Claudius, and the Ghost commands Hamlet to avenge him. Shocked by this discovery, Hamlet returns to Horatio and the sentries, making them swear an oath not to reveal details of the night's events to anyone.
- "But know, thou noble youth,
- The serpent that did sting thy father's life
- Now wears his crown."
- [Act 1, Scene 5]
Hamlet is unsure whether the ghost he has seen is really his father, and suspects that it might be
the Devil taking his father's appearance in order to take his soul to
hell. He therefore sets out to test the king's conscience through putting on an "antic disposition" , in the hope that his behaviour might reveal the truth, or otherwise provide an opportunity to kill Claudius.
Hamlet feigns insanity in order to convict Claudius of murder and treason, and takes particular delight in making a fool of Polonius, the king's chief councillor. Polonius, convinced of Hamlet's madness, is certain that it stems from his unrequited love for his daughter Ophelia, whom both he and Laertes forbade to continue her relationship with Hamlet. Polonius fears for his status at court and offers his services to the King in this matter in an attempt to redeem himself before the King of any guilt. He suggests arranging a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia during which Polonius and Claudius will spy upon them both. Claudius, perhaps suspecting Hamlet's ruse, also asks Hamlet's schoolmates Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to monitor him, but Hamlet does not let his guard down and sees the intention behind his schoolmates' sudden visit. He enlists a company of travelling performers to stage an existing play,
The Murder of Gonzago, which he has modified to re-enact the circumstances of his father's murder.
- "The play's the thing
- Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King."
- [Act II, scene II]
Shortly after the play begins, Claudius, who cannot bear to watch, rises calling for lights. The king's anguished reaction to the performance convinces Hamlet of his guilt. Shortly afterwards, Claudius arranges for Hamlet to be deported to the Danish territories of
England along with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, where he is to be killed upon arrival. Alone, Claudius privately expresses his disgust at what he has done, and offers a prayer of repentance. Hamlet discovers Claudius at prayer and prepares to kill him, but then stops, reasoning that he does not want his revenge to have the result of sending the repentant Claudius to
Heaven. Ironically, after Hamlet slips away, Claudius concludes that he is unable to repent in his current state of mind; thus, if Hamlet had not attempted to arrogate to himself the destiny of Claudius's soul, rather than just his life, he would have achieved the ultimate justice he sought. By trying to go beyond the ghost's orders, he has doomed his efforts to failure.
Hamlet confronts his mother about the murder of his father and her sexual relations with her new husband. During their conversation, he stabs Polonius, who has been hiding behind a tapestry and eavesdropping on their conversation. Initially suspecting his victim was Claudius, he appears unrepentant and unconcerned when Polonius is revealed, continuing to admonish his mother. King Hamlet's ghost makes a reappearance to rebuke Hamlet. Hamlet's mother cannot see the ghost, but sees him conversing with it, convinced that her son has really gone mad.
Claudius, who has finally understood Hamlet's real motivation, sends Hamlet to England, supposedly for his safety, but accompanied by a sealed letter to the English ordering his death. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sent along to ensure the orders are carried out. When later he returns to Denmark, Hamlet describes how his ship was attacked by pirates, who took him prisoner but then returned him to Denmark.
During Hamlet's absence, Ophelia, gravely disturbed by Hamlet's rejection and the death of Polonius, goes insane. She sings a number of rustic melodies that Shakespeare may have borrowed from the English folk tradition. Meanwhile, Laertes, her brother, leads a mob to Elsinore when he hears of his father's death. He also discovers his precious sister's madness, and is even more inclined to avenge his family. Claudius turns Laertes's anger on Hamlet, and they plan to have Laertes fence with Hamlet in a fixed fencing match. Laertes will be using an unbated and poisoned foil. In addition, Claudius prepares some poisoned wine for Hamlet to drink as a toast, in case Laertes is unable to hit him.
- "I will do't.
- And, for that purpose, I'll anoint my sword.
- I bought an unction of a mountebank,
- So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,
- Where it draws blood... it may be death."
- [Act 4, Scene 7]
- "I'll have prepared him a chalice for the nonce, wheron but sipping,
- If he by chance escape your venomed stuck,
- Our purpose may hold there."
- [Act 4, Scene 4]
But as they are plotting, Queen Gertrude enters and informs Laertes that his sister drowned in what is a suspected suicide. Laertes runs out of the room, grief-stricken.
Returning from his voyage, Hamlet meets Horatio at a graveyard outside
Elsinore castle just as Ophelia's funeral cortege arrives there, where a gravedigger is digging. Hamlet finds the skull of Yorick , an old jester to the court who carried him on his back during his childhood days, and proclaims, "Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft." As Hamlet broods on mortality, the cortege arrives with the King, Queen and Laertes. Hamlet is so distraught to learn of Ophelia's death that he leaps into the open grave and grapples with Laertes.
The scene then moves back to the castle, where Hamlet tells Horatio all that has happened at sea, and how he made his escape. There was a sea-battle in which pirates overtook the ship on which Hamlet was sailing. During the confusion, Hamlet found instructions from Claudius to the English court that Hamlet should be killed immediately upon his arrival in England. Hamlet re-writes this death warrant for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern instead. Suddenly, Hamlet and Horatio are interrupted by Osric, who comes to tell them that Claudius has set a large wager that Hamlet can out-fight Laertes in a fencing match. Horatio advises Hamlet against this, but Hamlet counters with the fact that if he does not die now, his death will be still to come.
When the match begins, Hamlet wins the first two rounds, and Gertrude drinks some of the wine to toast him, unaware that it is poisoned . Hamlet is hit with the sword and fatally poisoned, but in the ensuing brawl, he swaps blades with Laertes, and deals a deep wound to Laertes with the poisoned sword as well. The Queen dies from the wine, warning Hamlet that the drink is poisoned. With his dying breath, Laertes also confesses the whole plot to Hamlet. Enraged, Hamlet kills Claudius with the poisoned weapon, forcing him also to drink the poisoned wine, at last avenging his father's death.
Horatio, horrified at the turn of events, seizes the poisoned wine and proposes to join his friend in death, but Hamlet wrests the cup away from him. He orders him to tell his story to the world to restore his good name. Hamlet also recommends that the Norwegian prince, Fortinbras, be chosen as the successor to the Danish throne. Hamlet dies, and Horatio mourns his passing:
- "Now cracks a noble heart: Good night sweet prince:
- And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!"
- [Act V, scene II]
Fortinbras enters with English ambassadors. Shocked by the carnage, he orders a military funeral for Hamlet, whilst Horatio offers to relate the whole tale.
Hamlet as a character
Like the play itself, Hamlet the character is possibly the most discussed and contentious character in
drama and indeed in Western literature. While conceding he is one of Shakespeare's greatest creations, critics are at odds over the inner motivations and psyche of this character. His relationships with the various characters of the story, including his father, his uncle Claudius, his mother Gertrude and his beloved Ophelia, have all been subjected to multiple speculations, including modern
psychological theories. Critics as varied as
Goethe,
Coleridge,
Hegel, Schlegel,
Nietzsche,
Turgenev,
Freud,
T. S. Eliot,
C.S. Lewis, and
Asimov have written essays on him, each with an alternately fascinating insight. J. Dover Wilson produced one of the most influential readings of the first half of the 20th century;
Harold Bloom was dominant in the second half. Besides being Shakespeare's most demanding role , Hamlet is also the most introspective. Actors have traditionally struggled with this role, and it can be safely said that any one performance can capture only some of the many facets of the creation. This, however, has made the role of Hamlet one of the most desired roles in theatre.
The plot summary above presents perhaps the simplest view of Hamlet, as a person seeking truth in order to be certain that he is justified in carrying out the revenge called for by a ghost that claims to be the spirit of his father. The most standard view is that Hamlet is highly indecisive, which is the view as proposed by Coleridge and a number of other critics. "Shakespeare wished to impress upon us the truth, that action is the chief end to existence". The 1948 movie with
Laurence Olivier in the title role is introduced by a voiceover: "This is a story of a man who could not make up his mind."
Others see Hamlet as a person charged with a duty that he both knows and feels is right, yet is unwilling to carry out. In this view, all of his efforts to satisfy himself of King Claudius' guilt or his failure to act when he can are evidence of this unwillingness, and Hamlet berates himself for his inability to carry out his task. After observing a play-actor performing a scene, he notes that the actor was moved to tears in the passion of the story and compares this passion for an ancient Greek character,
Hecuba, in light of his own situation:
- "O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
- Is it not monstrous that this player here,
- But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
- Could force his soul so to his own conceit
- That from her working all his visage wan'd;
- Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
- A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
- With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!
- For Hecuba?
- What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
- That he should weep for her?" [...]
And he acknowledges to himself the terrible deed he must avenge, yet responds only with words:
- "Yet I,
- A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
- Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
- And can say nothing; no, not for a king
- Upon whose property and most dear life
- A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
- [...]
- But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall
- [...]
- Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
- That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,
- Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
- Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words"
- [Act II, sc. ii]
Hamlet's verbose and painful analyses of his situation and actions encourage many others to see his struggle as something far more existential in nature, having less to do with the revenge drama than with the human condition.
- "The time is out of joint: Oh cursed spite,
- That ever I was born to set it right."
- [Act I, sc. v]
Another view of Hamlet, advanced by
Isaac Asimov in his
Guide to Shakespeare, holds that his actions are attributable not to indecision, but to multiple motivations: his desire to avenge the wrong done to his father, coupled with his own ambition to succeed to the throne. The tragic error committed by Hamlet, in Asimov's view, is his overreaching wish to see Claudius damned, and not merely dead, which prevents him from killing Claudius at the opportune moment.
It has also been suggested that Hamlet's hesitations may also be rooted in the religious beliefs of Shakespeare's time. The
Reformation had generated debate about the existence of
purgatory . The concept of purgatory is a Catholic one, and was frowned on in Protestant England. A devout Protestant might therefore presume the Ghost to be a spirit from
Hell that must be ignored. This has led to the speculation that the elder Hamlet represented Catholicism while the son represented Protestantism.
Ernest Jones, following the work of Freud, held that Hamlet suffered from the 'Oedipus complex'. He said in his 'The Oedipus-Complex as An Explanation of Hamlet's
Mystery: A Study in Motive':
“His moral fate is bound up with his uncle's for good or ill. The call of duty to slay his uncle cannot be obeyed because it links itself with the call of his nature to slay his mother's husband, whether this is the first or the second; the latter call is strongly "repressed," and therefore necessarily the former also.”
Performances, adaptations, influences and references
Hamlet in cinema and TV
- See also Shakespeare on screen .
According to the
Internet Movie Database there have been entitled Hamlet
, plus another 16 made for TV. Another 50 productions have included this name as part of the title or have used a foreign language variation of the name.
Hamlet
film was Le Duel d'Hamlet
, produced and directed by Clément Maurice in France in 1900, and starring Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet . Pierre Magnier played Laertes.The DVD collection Silent Shakespeare
is an anthology of early silent Shakespeare shorts, and includes a scene from Hamlet
.Hamlet , directed by Sven Gade and Heinz Schall and starring Danish actress Asta Nielsen. Though a radical interpretation - Hamlet born female and raised as a man - it is often cited as the finest of the silent film "Hamlets".Hamlet , directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. The Bad Sleep Well is the English title for
?????????, a 1960 film by the Japan [i]ese directo ...
. This
Japanese movie, directed by
Akira Kurosawa is inspired by Hamlet
, set in post-war Japan.Hamlet , directed by Franz Peter Wirth. This is a German television production. Hamlet is played by
Maximilian Schell. The English dubbing of King Claudius is by
Ricardo Montalban and Polonius by John Banner The extremely low quality of the production, along with the English over-dubbing, has earned this version a reputation as one of the poorest adaptations of the play. This is illustrated by its use in a 10th-season episode of
Mystery Science Theater 3000 , usually abbreviated
MST3K, is an [[United States|American]...
.
Hamlet is a tragedy [i] by William Shakespeare [i] and is one of h ...
, directed by Grigori Kozintsev ...
. Hamlet is played by
Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Claudius by Mikhail Nazvanov, and Ophelia by
Anastasiya Vertinskaya. The music is by
Dmitry Shostakovich.
- Hamlet , Broadway production directed by John Gielgud. Hamlet is played by Richard Burton, Laertes by a young John Cullum, and Polonius by Hume Cronyn, a performance for which he won a Tony award.
- Hamlet is a tragedy [i] by William Shakespeare [i] and is one of h ...
, directed by Tony Richardson. Hamlet is played by Nicol Williamson, Claudius by Anthony Hopkins, and Ophelia by Marianne Faithfull - , a Turkish movie directed by Metin Erksan. Hamlet, as a female character, is played by the actress Fatma Girik. The setting is updated to a Turkish village.
- Hamlet is a tragedy [i] by William Shakespeare [i] and is one of h ...
, directed by Franco Zeffirelli . Hamlet is played by Mel Gibson, Gertrude by Glenn Close, Polonius by Ian Holm, and Ophelia by Helena Bonham Carter - The Lion King is the 32nd animated feature [i] in the Disney animated feature [i]...
is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, with Simba as Hamlet, King Mufasa as Hamlet's father who becomes a ghost, Scar as Claudius, and Timon and Pumbaa as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. However, it is a loose rather than a direct adaptation. While the film maintains the themes of the play there are notable differences; chief among them, it ends on a happy note. - Hamlet is a tragedy [i] by William Shakespeare [i] and is one of h ...
, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh. This is a "full text" version, which is over 4 hours in length. The setting is updated to the 19th century. Claudius is played by Derek Jacobi, Gertrude by Julie Christie, and Ophelia by Kate Winslet. - Hamlet is a tragedy [i] by William Shakespeare [i] and is one of h ...
, directed by Michael Almereyda . The setting is updated to modern Manhattan, although the dialogue is unaltered from Shakespeare's text . Hamlet is played by Ethan Hawke, Polonius by Bill Murray, Ophelia by Julia Stiles and Claudius by Kyle MacLachlan. - , a 2006 Chinese film by director Feng Xiaogang and starring Zhang Ziyi
...
is based upon Hamlet.
References to Hamlet in popular culture
A number of films have also used lines from Hamlet's soliloquy as film titles. See
To be, or not to be for a list of these films.
- In the Onimusha video game series, many of the Genma bosses are named after some of the characters in Hamlet: Fortinbras is the Genma King, Rosencrantz is a humorous [i], absurdist [i], tragic [i] ...
, Claudius, Ophelia, Gertrude is the Genma hound dog, Guildenstern, and Osric. - A King in New York , directed by Charlie Chaplin, includes a scene in which Chaplin recites the "to be or not to be" speech, and is arguably on a par with other famous renditions.
- Tom Stoppard's popular play and movie Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead depicts the two title characters contemplating their roles as minor players in a bigger drama. Occasional scenes are taken directly from Hamlet.
- Tom Stoppard also has a short entitled The Fifteen Minute Hamlet which includes Philip Seymour Hoffman in the cast. The fifteen minute version is followed by an even shorter version.
- Hamlet Goes Business by Aki Kaurismäki is a comic reworking of the story as a power struggle in a rubber duck factory.
- Episode 43 of Monty Python's Flying Circus is entitled Hamlet.
- The 1969 film The Magic Christian includes a scene where Guy Grand has bribed a famous actor to perform "To be or not to be ..." as a strip-tease.
- The comedy Strange Brew is loosely based on Hamlet. Among other jokes, scenes takes place at Elsinore Brewery.
- The character General Chang, a Klingon officer, was a Shakespeare aficionado, and opined that Shakespearian works were best experienced in the "original" Klingon. Indeed, Klingonists Nick Nicholas and Andrew Strader in 1996 published The Klingon Hamlet — a Klingon translation of the play. The Klingon version of the famous quote, which Chang recites in the film, is taH pagh taHbe.
- Hamlet features strongly in the film Renaissance Man, in which Danny DeVito's character uses its plot and characters to introduce a group of under-achieving soldiers to critical thinking.
- In a Gilligan's Island was an American [i] TV [i] sitcom [i] ...
episode entitled "The Producer," the castaways put on a musical production of Hamlet set to the music of Carmen is a French [i] opera [i] by Georges Bizet [i]. ...
. - The Simpsons is an Emmy [i] and Peabody [i]-winning American [i] animated [i] ...
offered a shortened version of Hamlet in the episode "Tales from the Public Domain". - Transformers Beast Wars
...
mirrored Hamlet's death in the episode "Code of Hero" in which former
Predacon Dinobot takes on the entire
Predacon team without backup utimately saving humanity before it evolved into today's current existence. With his Maximal comrades he quotes, "Tell my story, tell it truly, the good and the bad; and let me be judged accordingly. The rest is silence."
- The Brak Show was one of Cartoon Network [i]'s 15-minute animated series [i] that airs during Adult Swim [i] ...
referenced the basic plot of Hamlet in the episode "Braklet, Prince of Spaceland". In the episode, Brak's father is killed by Zorak, who also hypnotizes Brak's mother into believing that the two are married. Brak's father appears as a ghost, and informs Brak what has happened. Brak goes insane and makes a movie of the murder, which he shows to Zorak. - The action movie and comedy film Last Action Hero is a 1993 [i] action [i] comedy [i] directed ...
starts with Arnold Schwarzenegger starring in the advert of a action movie that is an adaptation of Hamlet. - There was an episode of South Park is a Peabody [i] and Emmy Award [i]-winning American [i] animated television series [i]...
in which Terrance and Philip's professional relationship failed, resulting in one of them moving to Canada to become a Shakespearean actor, subsequently performing Hamlet with other Canadian actors, with the ending of the play being shown in the episode. - Egyptian director Youssef Chahine frequently cites from Hamlet in his films. His films Alexandria... Why? and Alexandria... New York feature performances of soliliquies. In Alexandria Again and Forever Hamlet appears as a film within the film.
- . Lily, the Princess Mia's best friend, refers to Mia's two chambermaids as "Rosencrantz" and "Guildenstern"
- René quotes part of the "To Be or Not to Be" soliloquy during his portion of The Passion Play in the 1989 film Jésus de Montréal. The film also refers to Hamlet in its trailer.
- The Ninth Configuration featured mentally ill soldiers in an asylum, one of whom wants to stage an all-dog production of Hamlet — the title role, of course, going to a Great Dane.
- In Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle is a comedy movie [i] that was released in 2004 [i]. ...
, Harold and Kumar are neighbors of "Rosenberg and Goldstein", a Jewish mockery of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern. Also, Harold's love interest Maria visits the "Ophelia" movie theater. - In Tales from the Crypt in the episode "Top Billing", a group of insane playwrights are attempting to stage a performance of Hamlet, and all they need is a skull.
- The "To Be Or Not To Be" soliloquy is used in the RTS game Age of Empires III, created by Ensemble Studios
...
.
- In the cult British comedy film Withnail & I is a cult [i] British [i] film made in 1987 [i] by Handmade Films [i] ...
, Withnail's uncle Monty reminisces about giving up acting on realising that he would "never play the Dane" — how at that moment in a young man's life all ambition ceases. Withnail says it is a part he intends to play. The film finishes with Withnail in the rain making the speech from Hamlet "I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth" to some captive wolves. - The play has been referenced in the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday is a children's novel [i] by Mary Rodgers [i] first published in ...
. In an English class, the play is discussed, and in the course of the scene, the quote from the 1948 film starring Laurence Olivier is used as the answer to the question "Describe the character of Hamlet." The answer: "A man who couldn't make up his mind." - In Dan Brown's book, Digital Fortress is a novel by American [i] author Dan Brown [i] and published in 1998 ...
, former military man-turned-NSA employee Greg Hale quotes from the play: "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - In an episode of the American TV series ER titled "Secrets and Lies," Dr. Kovac mentions that he played Hamlet while attending college in Croatia. When he was asked if he performed it in English or Croatian, he replied, "Croatian. Why would I perform it in English?" Dr. Carter then says he played Horatio and starts reciting the "To Be or Not To Be" soliloquy. When he starts to get the lines wrong, Kovac corrects him, first in English and then continues reciting the lines in Croatian.
- In the Star Trek The Next Generation is a science fiction television series [i] ...
episode "Hide and Q" Captain Picard quotes Hamlet: "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!" . - In the film Grosse Pointe Blank, one character recites to another: "What a piece of work is man! How noble... oh, **** it, let's have a drink and forget the whole damn thing."
- A recent successor to Inspector Morse, Inspector Lewis, aired an episode called "Lewis and the Ghost of Inspector Morse" which has many direct and indirect references to the play, and indeed Inspector Lewis uses a clue from his dead mentor to solve the case, an eerie parallel
- In Asterix and the Great Crossing is the twenty-second volume of the Asterix [i] comic book series [i] ...
Hamlet is referenced in two quotes by Danish vikings. One says: "There is something rotten in my kingdom", while holding a skull in his hand. Another one wonders whether he is a discoverer or not and thus says: "To be or not to be; that's the question." - In the video game , after defeating Nupraptor and obtaining his head, the player can examine it in their inventory. Doing so prompts the character Kain to remark "Alas, poor Nupraptor, I knew him well. Well... not really."
- There is also an episode of the original Star Trek series where a play is produced to expose a character's guilt.
- HamLeT is also the term for a ham, lettuce, and tomato sandwich — like a BLT only with ham instead of bacon — which has inspired the doubtful .
Hamlet in literature
- In his novel Ulysses, James Joyce includes a lengthy discussion about Hamlet, referring to it as one of a select few important artworks that outshine the rest.
"Art has to reveal to us ideas, formless spiritual essences. The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring? The painting of Gustave Moreau is painting of ideas, the deepest poetry of Shelley, the words of Hamlet bring our mind into contact with the eternal wisdom, Plato's world of ideas. All the rest is the speculation of schoolboys for schoolboys."
- Gertrude and Claudius, a John Updike novel, serves as a prequel to the events of the play. It follows Gertrude from her wedding to King Hamlet, through an affair with Claudius, and its murderous results, up until the very beginning of the play.
- Ophelia's Revenge, a novel by Rebecca Reisert, tells the story of Hamlet from Ophelia's point of view.
- Anton Chekhov wrote a feuilleton titled I am a Moscow Hamlet , the mutterings of a gossip-mongering actor who contemplates suicide out of sheer boredom.
- In the novel The Journey of The Fool, Faust Amoyo tries to think of all books that can be written in 200 pages, he laughs when he speculates a version of Hamlet where the word is everywhere replaced by 'Danish Butthead'.
Hamlet in music
At least 26 operas have been written based on Hamlet, including:
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- Hamlet, by Ambroise Thomas
- Hamlet, by Humphrey Searle
- Hamlet , by Sandor Szokolay
Instrumental works based on Hamlet include:
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- Hamlet, the score for the 1963 film, by Dmitri Shostakovich.
- "There is a willow grows aslant a brook", a symphonic poem by Frank Bridge, based on the speech of Queen Gertrude about the death of Ophelia.
Contemporary popular music includes:
- "What a Piece of Work is Man" from the 1967 musical Hair
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is Hamlet's speech from Act 2 Scene 2 set to music.
- The Dream Theater song "Pull Me Under" is influenced by, and makes reference to, Hamlet.
- Lou Reed's song "Goodnight Ladies", from his 1972 album Transformer, uses a line from Ophelia's mad speech as its chorus.
- Darling Violetta's song "Ophelia", from the band's debut album Bath-Water-Flowers, references Ophelia's death/suicide.
- Rasputina's song "Dig Ophelia" from the debut album Thanks for the Ether also references the death of Ophelia.
- has a song entitled "Her Fair Judgment", with lyrics rearranged from Ophelia's mad speech.
- Arcturus' first album, Aspera Hiems Symfonia, makes reference to Hamlet's most famous soliloquy in the song The Bodkin & The Quietus.
- Folk singer Jewel makes a reference to Ophelia's suicide in the song "Innocence Maintained": Ophelia drowned in the water/pushed by her own weight.
- the title track of the album Elsinore by swedish musician Björn Afzelius is about a prince locked up in the castle of Elsinore.
- End Of All Hope, a song by Finnish metal band Nightwish
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, contains the line "The rest is silence".
- Bands Flaming Youth takes its name from the text , as does This Mortal Coil .
- The Band recorded a song called "Ophelia," released on their album Northern Lights - Southern Cross was the seventh album by Canadian [i]-American [i] ...
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Notes
Listen to
References
- Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Phillip Edwards, ed. Cambridge, 2003. Updated 1985 edition.
External links
- - from MIT's Shakespeare Electronic Archive
- Multiple versions of Hamlet, numerous commentaries, concordances, facsimiles, etc.
- - wiki summary of characters, scenes, discussion and essay topics.
- An Extra's view of the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2004 production of Hamlet with Toby Stephens in the title role
- Scholarly essays on Shakespeare's Hamlet
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