Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 
CHARACTERS 
Claudius, King of Denmark 
Hamlet, son of the last king, and nephew of the present one 
Horatio, friend of Hamlet 
Polonius, Minister of State 
Laertes, son of Polonius 
Marcellus, a guard 
Ghost of Hamlet's father 
A group of Actors 
Gertrude, Queen of Denmark and mother of Hamlet 
Ophelia, daughter of Polonius 
Less than two months after the sudden death of King Hamlet, 
Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, married his brother Claudius.This 
was judged by everyone at that time to be a strangely unwise or 
unfeeling act, or even worse.She 
compared the qualities of his noble mind, now weakened by the 
deep sadness that troubled him, to sweet bells, which are able to 
give most beautiful music but which, when played out of tune, 
produce only a rough and unpleasant sound.Hamlet was angry that she should give such a dear and 
respectful name as father to the murderer of his true father, and 
he replied, sharply, 'Mother, you have much offended my father.'But young Hamlet had strong suspicions that 
Claudius himself was the snake, and that the snake that had bitten 
his father now wore his crown.He would gladly have put him to death, but 
he feared the people, who liked Hamlet, and the queen, who, in 
spite of all her faults, loved her son dearly.Hamlet was a loving and gentle prince, and greatly 
admired for his many noble and princely qualities.Being of a most honourable character himself, he was 
gready troubled by the shame of his mother's marriage; shame, 
and grief at his father's death, made him fall into a state of deep 
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sadness.Although the loss of the crown was a bitter wound to this 
young prince, it was not this that troubled him and took away all 
his cheerful spirits - it was the fact that his mother had shown 
herself to be so forgetful of his father's memory.This in itself 
was a very improper and unlawful marriage, as they were such 
close relations, but it was made much worse by the speed with 
which it was done and by the unkingly character of the man 
whom she had chosen.As he was sleeping in his garden, 
which was always his custom in the afternoon, his faithless 
brother had stood over him, and poured into his ears a poisonous 
liquid that quickly killed him.Before Hamlet fell into this sad condition, he had dearly loved 
a beautiful girl called Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius, the 
king's chief minister.This made Hamlet realize that while that actor could put such 
great feeling into a story, and cry for Hecuba who had been dead 
for hundreds of years, he himself was so emotionless that he had 
let his revenge He asleep all this time in dull forgetfulness.But when 
Lucianus, according to the story, came to poison Gonzago while 
he was asleep in his garden, Claudius was so nervous that he was 
unable to sit through the rest of the play.Wishing to know all that happened at 
this meeting, and thinking that Hamlet's mother might not tell 
him everything that Hamlet said, the king ordered old Polonius 
to hide behind the curtains in the queen's room; there, unseen, he 
could hear all their conversation.When he saw that it was 
Polonius, the father of Ophelia, whom he so dearly loved, he 
cried bitterly for what he had done.Knowing that 
their prisoner was the prince, and hoping that he would speak for 
them at court, they put Hamlet on shore at the nearest port in 
Denmark.It was this beautiful lady's funeral, attended by her brother 
Laertes, the king, the queen and the whole court, which was 
being performed when Hamlet arrived.He 
came out from where he stood and jumped into the grave where 
Laertes was, even madder than he. Laertes thought of Hamlet as 
the cause of his father's and his sister's death, and seized him by the 
throat as an enemy, until they were separated.He persuaded Laertes to call on Hamlet to see which of them 
was more skilful in a friendly sword fight.Hamlet chose a 
sword; he did not suspect Laertes of being disloyal, so he did not 
examine Laertes's weapon carefully.Hamlet still did not know the truth, but he became more 
violent too and, in the struggle, exchanged his own weapon for 
Laertes's poisoned one.In this way he was able to 
prevent young Hamlet, the son of the buried king and his lawful 
heir, from becoming king.He had not even taken it 
off on the day his mother was married, and he could not be 
persuaded to join in any of the celebrations on what seemed to 
him a shameful day. His father (it 
seemed to him) looked at him so sadly, and appeared so exactly 
the same as when he was alive, that Hamlet could not help 
speaking to him.He said that it had been done by his own 
brother Claudius, as Hamlet had already suspected, in the hope of 
winning his wife and his crown.Nothing 
would live in his brain except the memory of what the ghost had 
told him and ordered him to do. He told the details of the 
conversation to no one except his dear friend Horatio, and he 
commanded both him and Marcellus to keep secret what they 
had seen that night.He feared that it would continue to 
have this effect, and that this might make his uncle suspicious, if 
the king suspected that Hamlet knew more of his father's death 
than he appeared to do. So from that time he decided to act as if 
he were really and truly mad.His dress, speech and behaviour 
became wild and strange, and he pretended to be a madman so 
excellently that the king and queen were both deceived.From that moment they 
were sure that the true cause of Hamlet's madness was love.Or if they were not there, Hamlet's 
mother was usually with her husband, and this stopped him from 
doing what he wanted to do. Also, the act of putting another 
creature to death was hateful and terrible to someone whose 
character was so naturally gentle as Hamlet's, and his sadness 
made him weak and anxious.He 
had especially liked to hear one of them make a sad speech 
describing the death of old Priam, King of Troy, and the grief of 
Hecuba, his queen.He decided that these 
actors should play something like the murder of his father in 
front of his uncle, and he would watch closely to see what effect 
it might have on the king; he could then make up his mind with 
more certainty if he were the murderer or not.The play 
showed how a certain Lucianus, a near relation of the duke, 
poisoned him in his garden to get his property, and how the 
murderer soon afterwards won the love of Gonzago's wife.o 
It was the king's wish that the queen should send for Hamlet, so 
that she could inform her son how much his recent behaviour 
had displeased them both.Even though the 
faults of parents should be treated gently by their children, in the 
case of great crimes a son may speak with some unkindness to his 
own mother, as long as that unkindness is meant for her good 
and to turn her from her bad ways.Then Hamlet asked her how she could continue to live with 
Claudius and be a wife to the man who had murdered her first 
husband, and stolen his crown ... 
As he was speaking, the ghost of his father entered the room.Hamlet begged her not to think that it was his madness, rather 
than her own offences, which had brought his father's spirit to 
earth again.o 
The death of Polonius gave the king an excuse to send Hamlet 
out of the kingdom.Pretending to provide 
for Hamlet's safety, so that he would not be punished for 
Polonius's death, Claudius put him on a ship to England in the 
care of two men from his court.He sent letters with these men 
to the English court (which at that time was ruled by Denmark), 
giving orders that Hamlet should be put to death as soon as he 
landed on English ground.Hamlet suspected some dishonesty, and found the letters 
secretly at night.o 
The king, Hamlet's evil uncle, planned to use Laertes's grief and 
anger over the death of his father and Ophelia to destroy Hamlet.Instead of a sword without a 
point, which the laws demanded, Laertes used one with a point, 
and poisoned.But soon Laertes became angry, cut 
Hamlet with his poisoned weapon, and gave him his death 
wound.With this he repaid Laertes for the stroke 
he had given him, so that Laertes was caught by his own 
dishonesty.Into this the evil king had put a deadly 
poison, to make sure of Hamlet's death if Laertes failed.Hamlet now suspected some evil, and ordered the doors to be 
shut while he tried to discover it. Feeling his life leaving him as a 
result of the wound which Hamlet had given him, Laertes told 
Hamlet about the poisoned point, and said that Hamlet had less 
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than an hour to live, as no medicine could cure him.When Hamlet understood that his end was near, he suddenly 
turned on his false uncle and pushed the point of the poisoned 
sword into his heart.Then, feeling that his breath was failing, Hamlet turned to his 
dear friend Horatio, who had watched all these sad events.Satisfied, the noble heart of Hamlet stopped beating; and 
Horatio, with many tears, prayed for the spirit of this sweet 
prince.Claudius was in no way like her first husband in the qualities 
of his person or his mind.Some people even suspected that he had 
killed his brother, the last king, so that he could marry Gertrude 
and become King of Denmark himself.This unwise action of the queen had a very great effect on the 
young prince, who loved and honoured the memory of his dead 
father.He had been so 
loving and so gende a husband to her, and she had always 
appeared to be a loving wife to him.He was most troubled by an uncertainty about the manner of 
his father's death.Claudius had made it known that a snake had 
bitten him.Those who saw it (and Hamlet's close friend Horatio was one) 
agreed about the time and manner of its appearance.It looked pale, with a face more of 
sorrow than of anger.Its beard was a dark silvery colour.When night came, he took his place with Horatio and 
Marcellus, one of the guards, in front of the palace where this 
spirit had been seen to walk.Their conversation was suddenly 
interrupted by Horatio, who said that the ghost was coming.Gradually he became braver.and begged him to explain the reason why he had left his 
grave, where they had seen him quietly buried, to visit the earth 
and the moonlight again.Horatio 
and Marcellus tried to stop the young prince from following the 
ghost, for they were afraid that it might be some evil spirit which 
would try to harm him.But their warnings and advice could not 
change Hamlet's mind.When they were alone together, the spirit broke his silence, 
and told him that he was the ghost of Hamlet, his father, who had 
been cruelly murdered.Hamlet 
promised to obey the ghost's orders in all things, and the ghost 
disappeared.o 
The terror which Hamlet had experienced at the sight of the 
ghost almost drove him mad.She, good lady, did not want to blame him for being false to 
her, so she persuaded herself that it was only the illness in his 
mind which made him take less notice of her than before.Although the business which Hamlet had in his mind -- the 
punishment of his father's murderer -- did not allow him to think 
of love, there were times when kind thoughts of Ophelia came 
to him.The 
queen certainly hoped that the beauty of Ophelia was the cause 
of his strangeness, and that her goodness would bring him back 
to his former way of life.But Hamlet's illness lay deeper than she thought and it could 
not be cured by love.o 
While he was in this state of mind, some actors, who had often 
given Hamlet great pleasure in the past, came to the court.Hamlet welcomed his old friends and asked the actor if he 
would repeat that speech for him.He described the cruel 
murder of the weak old king, with the destruction of his people 
and city by fire; and he told of the mad grief of the old queen, 
running up and down the palace, with only a simple cloth on her 
head where a crown had been, and another to cover her body, 
where she had once worn a royal dress.The 
duke's name was Gonzago, and his wife's was Baptista.Hamlet sat very near him to watch his 
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expressions.Hamlet saw the king change colour at these words, and knew 
that it was hateful both to him and to the queen.Now Hamlet had seen enough to be satisfied that the words of 
the ghost were true.As soon as Hamlet came, his mother began to speak angrily 
about his bad behaviour.replied Hamlet.'I wish I could forget.You are the queen, 
your husband's brother's wife; and you are my mother.When he pulled out the body, 
though, he found that it was not the king - it was Polonius, the 
old minister, who had hidden there as a secret listener.'A bloody act, mother,' replied Hamlet, 'but not as bad as 
yours, when you killed a king and married his brother.'And the queen was bitterly ashamed that he was 
forcing her to look at her own soul, which she now saw was so 
black and evil.shouted the queen.