The key points in the development of the dramatic plot are the repeated scenes of the poisoning of the king. At first, Claudius insidiously poisons his brother in order to seize the royal throne. The scene of the king being poisoned is then played as theatrical production"The Murder of Gonzago" At the end of the play, the poisoning scene is repeated for the third time. King Claudius intends to get rid of Hamlet with the help of Laertes' poisoned sword, as well as a goblet of poisoned wine. The king's plan succeeds. Laertes wounds Hamlet in a duel. Meanwhile, Queen Gertrude drinks the poisonous drink by mistake. Then Claudius himself dies from a poisoned sword and wine. Hamlet and Laertes also die from the poisoned sword.
One of the key points in the plot of the tragedy is the struggle for power. Thus, Hamlet’s father, the king of Denmark, “whose life and power were so vilely swept away,” is poisoned by his brother Claudius, who then marries the queen and takes over the throne.
The ghost of the king appears to Hamlet and orders him to take revenge on the murderer:
“My son, do not remain indifferent. ... Do not let the bed of the Danish kings serve as bloodshed and debauchery!” - the ghost commands.
The prince could have come to terms with the vile murder of his father and inherited power in his own time. However, Hamlet chooses a different path. He exacts just retribution at the cost of his own life:
“If he had lived, he would have become king deservedly,” Fortinbras testifies at the end of the play.
Hamlet takes the path of revenge for the sake of love for his father:
“If only you really ever loved your father... Avenge his vile murder,” the ghost calls out to the prince’s filial love.
Another important storyline The play is the love of Hamlet and Ophelia:
“I loved Ophelia, and forty thousand brothers and all their love is not like mine,” the prince testifies to the strength of his feelings.
The queen, knowing about the love of her son and Ophelia, counts on their marriage. However, for the sake of revenge, Hamlet is forced to give up his love for the girl. Meanwhile, Ophelia is unable to survive this:
“I dreamed of bringing you into the house as Hamlet’s wife,” Gertrude admits at the grave of the drowned woman.
The prince is driven by the idea of achieving just retribution for the death of his father. The meaning of its later life he sees it as exposing and punishing the vile murderer:
“Only by your sole command will I write out the entire volume, the entire book of my brain... Yes, as before God! O villainous woman! O scoundrel! - Hamlet swears to avenge the death of the king.
Not understanding the prince's motives, those around him mistake him for a madman. Meanwhile, Hamlet is perfectly aware of the meaning of what is happening:
“How insightful his answers are sometimes! Resourcefulness, which... is not always found among sane people,” Polonius notes the prince’s insight.
Tormented by intractable questions, Hamlet, among other things, asks the eternal question about the meaning of existence:
“To be or not to be, that is the question...” - the prince is trying to comprehend.
Thus, the characters of the tragedy are characterized by aspirations for power, love and meaning. At the same time, the heroes do not always achieve what they want, as a result of which they feel their own powerlessness. Some characters are overcome by a feeling of hatred. Sometimes heroes commit unconscious actions. For comparison, the heroes have similar traits Pushkin's works: “Boris Godunov”, “Scene from Faust”, fairy tale “The Groom”.
Indeed, the characters in the play sometimes find themselves powerless to change anything. For example, at first Hamlet does not find the strength to take revenge on his father’s murderer:
“Who wants to say something insolent to me? Give me a punch? I will sign for receipt. There is no bile in my pigeon liver,” the prince is unable to overcome the relaxation of his spirit.
When Hamlet begins to implement his plan for revenge, Claudius decides to deal with him. However, the king is powerless to openly oppose the crown prince:
“That’s how dangerous he is while he’s free! It is impossible to deal harshly with him: the common people are attached to him,” the ruler cannot ignore the opinion of his subjects.
Sometimes heroes feel hatred. So, Hamlet hated dishonest act to his mother, who renounced the king:
“O women, your name is treachery! ... Break your heart, you have to grit your teeth,” the prince is indignant.
When Hamlet mistakenly stabs Polonius to death instead of Claudius, Laertes, inflamed with hatred of his father’s murderer, who also caused the death of his beloved sister Ophelia, challenges the prince to a duel:
“If I see him in church, I’ll rip my throat out,” Laertes hated Hamlet, who subsequently wounded the prince with a poisoned sword, causing him to die.
At some moments the characters seem to be unaware of what is happening. For example, Hamlet is so shocked by his meeting with the ghost of the king that those around him notice strangeness in his behavior, considering this to be a consequence of a mental disorder:
“From a mild disorder he fell into a severe one, in which he rages,” Polonius suggests that the prince was crazy because of love.
At the same time, no one, not even the people closest to Hamlet, realizes the real reason for the change that happened to the prince:
“Oh woe, he’s having a fit,” the queen believes that her son is having a fit of madness, while the prince is talking to the ghost.
Like Pushkin's heroes, the characters of the tragedy are distinguished not only by a certain set of aspirations, but also by ways of realizing their intentions.
Thus, Hamlet does not crave the power that he should rightfully inherit. Moreover, the prince’s self-gratifying sense of power seems to be just a trick of the imagination:
“Enclose me in a nutshell, and I will feel like the lord of infinity,” Hamlet sneers at the feeling of omnipotence.
Having considerable influence at court, Hamlet obeys his duty for the good of the kingdom:
“By rank he is not his own master. He himself is a prisoner of his own birth. He has no right, like any other person, to strive for happiness. The prosperity of the country depends on his actions. He does not choose anything in life, but obeys the choices of others and respects the benefit of the people,” Laertes testifies that the prince puts service to his country above all else.
At first, people close to Hamlet decide that, having fallen in love with Ophelia, the prince is so absorbed in passion for the girl that he goes crazy about her. Meanwhile, the prince’s behavior soon forces those around him to change their opinion about him:
"Love? He is not absorbed by her at all. “He’s either cherishing the dark corners of his soul, hatching something more dangerous,” the king guessed that Hamlet’s mind was not at all absorbed in thoughts of his beloved.
Indeed, for the sake of revenge for his father, Hamlet renounces his love for Ophelia and leaves his beloved:
“I didn't love you. Go to the monastery. ... Shut yourself up in the monastery, I tell you,” the prince calls the girl to seclusion.
Trying to understand the reason for his mother’s betrayal of the king, Hamlet comes to the conclusion that female treachery is to blame:
“You have done something that extinguishes sincerity and shame,” the prince moralizes about his mother’s remarriage.
It should be noted that the prince wants to find convincing evidence of Claudius’s guilt in the death of his father, since he doubts the truth of the ghost’s testimony:
“But it may be that that spirit was the devil. The devil could take on his favorite image. ... We need better evidence than mine,” Hamlet hesitates.
It is noteworthy that main character tragedy, Hamlet is revealed as a self-actualizing person, capable of development. Thus, those around him notice the progressive changes taking place in the prince’s personality:
“The growth of life is not just about developing muscles. As the body grows, the service of the spirit and mind grows in it, as in a temple,” Laertes testifies about Hamlet’s spiritual growth.
Hamlet has creative abilities. In particular, he is interested in theater and has a good understanding of acting. Moreover, the prince is directly involved in the production of one of the scenes. The prince perceives even a deadly sword fight with Laertes as nothing other than a game:
“You have only been playing until now,” Hamlet remarks to his opponent that their duel is just fun.
Hamlet admires the actors' ability to express themselves:
“Every fold of his appearance tells how he lives,” the prince is amazed at how vividly the actor expresses his experiences.
The prince hopes that Claudius will spontaneously express his involvement in the murder during a theatrical production of a scene that will remind him of the poisoning of the king:
“People with a dark past, being at a performance similar in premise, were stunned by the liveliness of the play and themselves confessed to the crime,” Hamlet expects that his uncle will unwittingly give himself away.
Hamlet is no stranger aesthetic feelings. Thus, Ophelia’s beautiful appearance does not leave him indifferent:
“You... are good-looking, your decency has nothing to do with your beauty,” the girl’s beauty confuses the prince.
Hamlet sensitively navigates the most difficult situations. He listens sensitively to the voice of intuition and encourages others to do the same:
“Listen to your inner voice in everything,” the prince encourages the actors, having become accustomed to being guided by intuitive instincts: “For me, the heart has become the law and it understands people.”
Thus, the main character of the play is distinguished by creative needs: in play, self-expression, orientation, aesthetic needs, as well as the desire for self-actualization.
At first, Hamlet is unable to cope with the painful experiences caused by the death of his father and his mother’s betrayal, as a result of which he is overcome by a state of creative decline.
Hamlet is upset by the relaxation of his spirit, which does not allow him to realize his plan of revenge on the murderer:
“And I, a stupid and pathetic degenerate, wander around in sleepy laziness,” the prince said limply.
Hamlet is deeply disappointed by his own indecision:
“And I won’t mention anything about myself, I won’t lay a finger on the king. Well, am I a coward?” the character is dissatisfied with himself.
At one point, Hamlet becomes so disheartened that it seems to him that the whole world is in decline:
"God! God! How insignificant, flat and stupid the whole world seems to me in its movements! What dirt! And everything is desecrated,” - the world is base in the perception of the prince.
Long-term negative experiences and internal struggles cause destructive changes in the prince’s personality:
“This mighty mind rattles like a beaten bell,” Ophelia notices disturbances in the prince’s thinking.
All of the above leads to the degradation of Hamlet’s once decisive attitude to bring his plan to the end:
“This is how plans on a grand scale perish, which at first promised success,” the prince notes the regression in his determination to avenge his father.
Meanwhile, Hamlet still finds the strength to realize his plan, experiencing a feeling of creative uplift.
At a critical moment, Hamlet prepares himself to solve the task facing him:
“Ugh, damn it! Wake up, my brain! - the prince forces himself to pull himself together and overcome his relaxation and indecision.
A strong creative surge takes over Hamlet at the moment when he is captivated by the performance of a visiting actor:
“The blood is draining from his cheeks, his eyes are clouded with tears, his voice is fading,” the performance skill fascinates the audience.
The performance of a theater troupe inspires the prince to stage a scene designed to expose his father's murderer.
“I will instruct the actors to play a thing in front of my uncle according to the model father's death. I’ll keep an eye on my uncle to see if he’ll take him to the quick. If yes, I know what to do,” Hamlet is inspired by a sudden idea.
Hamlet creatively reworks one of theater scenes to recreate in detail the picture of the king’s poisoning:
“Put it on tomorrow night. Tell me, is it possible, if necessary, to memorize a piece of twelve to sixteen lines that I would write, is it possible?” The prince takes a creative approach to staging the scene that the actor will play.
Amazed by the actor's ability to transform during the play, Hamlet decides to use the talent of the troupe in order to radically transform the situation in which he finds himself:
“He would drown the stage in a stream of tears. In his image the guilty person would read his sentence. ... We need better evidence than mine, here in the records. To do this, from the stage I will pry the king’s conscience on them,” the actor is capable of transforming the situation, according to Hamlet.
Thus, Hamlet reveals the creative side of his nature. At the same time, the hero overcomes the state of creative decline, experiencing a feeling of creative upsurge.
The analysis carried out indicates the similarity of the characters of the heroes of the tragedy “Hamlet” and the characters of Pushkin’s works: “Boris Godunov”, “Scene from Faust”, the fairy tale “The Groom”. Like Pushkin's characters, Shakespeare's heroes differ in the types of aspirations, as well as in the ways of realizing their intentions, associated with character traits.
The plot of the tragedy is based on the struggle for power. Claudius achieves power through criminal means, while Hamlet puts service to his duty above all else. At the same time, both characters are sometimes powerless to change anything.
The second important plot line of the play is the love of Hamlet and Ophelia. At the same time, the prince is so consumed by the thirst for revenge for his father that he renounces his beloved. Ophelia's brother Laertes, inflamed with hatred of Hamlet because of the death of his father and sister, kills the prince in a duel with a poisoned sword.
Hamlet's loved ones are trying to understand the meaning of the prince's strange behavior. However, no one realizes the real reason for his apparent madness. Meanwhile, Hamlet doubts the truth of the testimony of the ghost that appeared to him and wants to finally be convinced of Claudius’s guilt.
It should also be noted that Hamlet is revealed as a creative person. The hero finds the strength to overcome the state of creative decline, experiencing a powerful creative upsurge.
Hamlet appears as a self-actualizing personality, capable of development. As the play progresses, the hero transforms right before our eyes. At the same time, at first Hamlet cannot cope with the doubts tormenting him, and the prince’s once decisive attitude to avenge his father is increasingly degraded.
Tormenting internal struggles have a destructive effect on Gamet's personality. Meanwhile, chance provides the prince with the opportunity to recreate the scene of his father's murder, which he entrusts to a passing theater troupe to play.
Hamlet admires the actors' ability to express themselves. The performance of one of them inspires the prince to stage a scene designed to expose the king. Inspired by this idea, Hamlet forgets about his previous decadent moods.
Hamlet is characterized by aesthetic experiences. He is no stranger to the sense of beauty. At the same time, the hero becomes deeply disappointed in people whose actions seem disgusting to him.
Hamlet is sensitive to the most unpredictable situations. However, at first the prince’s spirit is relaxed, which does not allow him to realize his plans. Meanwhile, at a crucial moment, Hamlet managed to set himself up to carry out his plan.
Marcellus, Bernard, Danish officers, learned friend of the prince Danish Hamlet– Horatio came to the square near the castle in Elsinore, they wanted to make sure of the existence of the ghost of the Danish king, who had recently died. And they saw what they wanted. The widow, Hamlet's mother, immediately after her husband's death married the brother of the late king, which greatly upset Hamlet, because he considered his uncle an unworthy person. Hamlet himself, due to the death of his father, interrupted his studies and came home.
Horatio tells his friend about the ghost of the Danish king he saw. Hamlet regards his appearance as a warning of some kind of trouble. The prince decides to meet his father's ghost. Night falls and the Danish king appears, who tells the secret of his death to his son. He says that he died at the hands of his brother, who poured the deadly juice of henbane into the then-living king. It was then that the king died, and thereby lost not only his life, but also his son, queen and crown. He asks Hamlet to take revenge on his murderer. The ghost disappeared, and Hamlet firmly decided to take revenge, and asked his friends, who had heard everything, to forget it and not be surprised by his behavior.
A little later, the reader learns that Hamlet is in love with Ophelia, the daughter of a close nobleman of the king, whose name was Polonius. Her brother Laertes, who was going to study in Paris, as well as the girl’s father, tried to convince her to give up Hamlet. Ophelia herself says that Hamlet, during last meeting I was not myself. Polonius explains this by Hamlet’s great love for Ophelia, from which the prince goes crazy. Hamlet's uncle also notices the change in his nephew's behavior and asks Hamlet's former friends Rosencrantz and Guildestern to find out his secret from the prince, but this idea was not successful, since Hamlet realized that they were sent by the king, the murderer of his father. Then Polonius comes to the Danish king, who talks about the prince’s great love for Ophelia, he shows Hamlet’s letter, and says that he wants to make sure of this by sending Ophelia to the gallery where Hamlet visits. But Hamlet even then realized that this was all for a reason, and began to pretend to be crazy in front of Ophelia.
The Danish prince has come up with a plan, thanks to which he will be able to understand whether his uncle is a murderer or not. He decides to invite the king and queen to the performance of the visiting artists. Hamlet negotiates with the actors that they will play the poisoning scene and insert a verse that the prince himself composed. Everything goes according to the prince's plan. And when the poisoning scene was shown, the king got up and left, confusion began.
The king thought a lot about what he did. He repented of this, prayed a lot, but it was too late. Hamlet was called to a conversation by his mother. Polonius decides to overhear their conversation. The prince begins to speak very emotionally to the queen, and then the ghost of his father appears in the room, who asks the prince not to be rude to his mother. The Queen does not understand that Hamlet is not talking to himself, but to his dead father. The prince, in turn, seeing that someone is eavesdropping on the conversation, decides that it is the king, and shouting “Rat!” Polonius stabs him with a sword.
After this, the king decides to send Hamlet to England, accompanied by Rosencrantz and Guildestern, who are carrying a letter to Britain, which states the king's order to execute Hamlet. He buries Polonium secretly so that rumors do not appear. When Hamlet is with his former friends While setting off on the ship, the prince saw an army that had set out from Norway to Poland to fight over a small piece of land. At this moment, Hamlet realizes that they are fighting over a trifle, and he cannot decide to go to war because of a more compelling reason.
Laertes returns to the city, shocked by the death of his father. Ophelia goes crazy because of Polonius' death. Laertes learns from the king that Hamlet is the culprit. The prince, in turn, decides to go to war and writes a letter that he is returning. Then the king, suspecting something evil, persuades the narrow-minded Laertes to a duel, in which Laertes will have a secret advantage, the end of his sword will be smeared with deadly poison. At this moment, the queen announces that Ophelia has died. During her funeral, Laertes began to insincerely show his deep shock at the death of his sister, he began to jump into the grave and ask to be buried with Ophelia. But Hamlet began to shout that all of Laertes’ regret was false, and that even the love of forty brothers could not compare with Hamlet’s love for Ophelia.
In a personal conversation between Hamlet and Horatio, the prince tells his friend that he read the king’s letter about Hamlet’s execution and, using the king’s seal, replaced the letter, which contained an order to execute those who delivered this letter. And so Rosencrantz and Guildestern sail on the ship, not knowing that they are carrying their sentence.
A little later, Hamlet is informed about the king's dispute, in which he argued that Hamlet would win the duel with Laertes. The prince agrees to a duel, realizing that they have started something against him. Before the fight, he asks Laertes for forgiveness. The king, deciding to play it safe, places a goblet of poisoned wine in addition to the poisoned end of the sword, in case Hamlet wants to drink. During the duel, Laertes wounds Hamlet, then they exchange swords and Hamlet wounds his opponent. The queen drinks poisoned wine for her son's victory and dies. Laertes confesses his betrayal to Hamlet and tells him that the king is the culprit of all the troubles. Hamlet wounds the king with a poisoned sword and dies. Horatio also wanted to be poisoned by poisoned wine because of the death of his friend, but Hamlet told him to live in a harsh world in order to tell his story. Later, Hamlet was raised onto the platform like a warrior.
Elsinore. The square in front of the castle. The clock strikes twelve. Francisco and Bernardo are on duty. Marcellus arrives, and with him Horatio, who was attracted by rumors that a ghost appeared twice in a row at midnight, “with the posture of the dead king.” The friends decide to “inform Prince Hamlet of what they have seen,” hoping that the spirit will “break the silence before him.”
They find the prince in the castle's reception hall. Hamlet suffers from the thought that his mother, less than two months after his father’s death, married his brother, an insignificant and stupid man, “a heavy sack of meat.” Having learned about the ghost, he decides to stand guard at night with his friends:
Father's double in arms! The fat is in the fire!
Some kind of deception. If only it got dark!
And there, soul, patience: a trail of intrigues,
Bury them in the ground and they will come to light.
At this time, Laertes and Ophelia say goodbye in Polonius’s house. The brother, leaving to study in France, asks his sister to write to him, “not to miss opportunities.” He is also haunted by the thought that Ophelia is accepting the courtship of the prince, who is “himself in captivity of his own birth” and, when choosing a wife, will do as “the general voice of Denmark wants.” He believes that the sister should beware of attraction like fire; “It’s easy to slander even virtue.” (“As long as our character is not experienced and young, shyness is our best guardian.”) Polonius, who came to say goodbye to his son, gives him instructions: do not make your cherished thoughts public, beware of fights, listen to everyone, hide your judgments, dress as you allow wallet, do not borrow money: “by lending money, we lose money and friends...”
On the platform in front of the castle, Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus wait for the ghost to appear. There is noise coming from the castle, where the new king “does not sleep and dances until he drops, and drinks and revels until the morning...”. A ghost appears and beckons Hamlet with him, only to him alone can he tell the secret of his death, how he “was by the hand of his brother... in a dream deprived of his crown, life, queen,” how the sleeping man was poisoned by henbane juice. The spirit of the father asks to take revenge on the murderer, not to allow “the bed of the Danish kings to serve incest and debauchery. However, no matter how the revenge turns out,” do not desecrate the soul, do not encroach on the mother: “God is her judge and deep pricks of conscience.”
The meeting with the spirit of his father greatly changed the Prince of Denmark, “he is so unrecognizable internally and externally”: he lost his former cheerfulness and habit of activities. The queen, the king, Ophelia, and her father find traces of changes in him. But Polonius sees “here is an obvious explosion of love attraction.” The king asks Hamlet's schoolmates Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find out what secret is tormenting the prince and whether there is a cure for it. Queen Gertrude blames herself for everything; she believes that the reason for her son’s strange behavior is the death of the king and the haste of her wedding.
Actors are coming to Elsinore. Hamlet asks one of them to read a soliloquy, especially the part where the murder of Priam is mentioned. The prince and the actors agree to play “The Murder of Gonzago” tomorrow evening, but a passage in lines sixteen written by Hamlet will be inserted into the play. Polonius conveys an invitation to the august couple to come to the performance.
Polonius and the king ask Ophelia to call Hamlet for a frank conversation in order to find out: was it love that caused the mental disorder? The Prince of Denmark delivers his famous monologue:
To be or not to be - that is the question;
What is nobler in spirit - to submit
To the slings and arrows of furious fate
Or, taking up arms in the sea of turmoil, defeat them
Confrontation? Die, sleep...
And dream, perhaps?
That's the difficulty;
What dreams will you have in your death sleep?...
Who would bear the lashes and mockery of the century,
The oppression of the strong, the mockery of the proud,
The pain of despised love, the slowness of judges,
Arrogance of the authorities and insults (...),
If only he could give himself a reckoning
With a simple dagger? Who would trudge along with the burden(...)
Whenever the fear of something after death (...) -
To earthly wanderers, - did not confuse the will,
Inspiring us to endure our adversities
And not to rush to others hidden from us?
This is how thinking makes us cowards...
The king, who overhears the conversation, comes to the conclusion that the prince is not absorbed in love at all, “besides, although there is no connection in his words, there is no madness in them.” It was decided to send Hamlet to England “to collect the unpaid tribute.”
Perhaps the sea, new lands
And people will knock it out of his heart
What sits there and what he himself is above
He's racking his brain to the point of stupor.
The performance begins, during which Horatio must watch the king. But here is the decisive scene: Lucian pours poison into the ear of Duke Gonzago, and then “enlists the love” of his wife. The king cannot stand it and leaves, he feels very bad. His retinue leaves with him. Left alone, Hamlet and Horatio come to the conclusion that the king is guilty of the death of the former king.
Returning Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell how upset the king is and how perplexed the queen is about Hamlet’s behavior. But the prince does not want to obey someone else’s will, takes the flute and invites Guildenstern to play it. He refuses: “But I don’t know how to take on this.” Hamlet says with anger: “Look, with what filth you have mixed Me up! You're going to play on me. You take credit for your knowledge of my valves. You are sure that you will squeeze out of me the voice of my secret.”
King Claudius, on whom, in his words, “the seal ancient curse: murder of brother,” decides to pray, but...
Words soar, but feelings bend downward,
But words without feelings are not recognized above.
At this time, Hamlet passes by: he goes to his mother’s chambers. But the prince does not want to kill the king during prayer. “Back, my sword, to a more terrible meeting.”
The pain tormenting the heart of the Prince of Denmark makes his tongue bold. The Queen has never seen her son like this, she becomes scared, she gets scared and screams. The eavesdropping Polonius finds himself in the queen's chambers, behind the carpet. Hamlet shouting “Rat, rat!” pierces him with a sword, he is sure that this is the king. The Queen begs Hamlet for mercy: “You turned your eyes with your pupils into your soul, and there are black traces everywhere, and there is nothing to remove...” A ghost appears... The Queen does not see or hear him, it seems to her that Hamlet is talking to emptiness. Her son really looks like a madman. The ghost demands that Hamlet spare the queen.
The murder of Polonius (“he was buried in secret”) and fear force the king to decide to “sell off” the prince at lightning speed. A secret order was sent to England to kill him.
Laertes returns secretly from Paris. He learns about the death of his father, “stays away, lives by rumor and believes the talkers.” He is concerned with “the mystery of death, the mystery of funerals, ... the circumvention of rituals, the violation of forms...”. But another misfortune awaits him: Ophelia has gone crazy from grief. “She is always delirious about her father, accuses the whole world of lying, beats herself in the chest...” The thought that Hamlet killed her father turned out to be fatal for her. Laertes seeks revenge. Armed, with a crowd of rioters, he breaks into the king's chambers. The king calls Hamlet the culprit of all the young man’s misfortunes,
Sailors arrive at the castle, they bring letters. From them, Horatio and then the king learn that the prince’s ship was attacked by corsairs, and Hamlet returned home. The king gives Laertes his word to arrange the matter so that the end of the prince “will not strike rumors, and even his mother, without suspecting intrigue, will see chance in everything.” A pretext has also been found: Hamlet has long wanted to fight Laertes with rapiers (he heard flattering reviews about the latter’s martial art from the Norman nobleman Lamond). It was decided that during the duel the blunt rapier would be replaced with a combat rapier, the tip of which would be smeared with poison. Prince of Denmark
Like a carefree and direct person
And alien to tricks, he will not
Consider the rapier...
Queen Gertrude arrives and brings sad news - Ophelia has drowned herself.
Elsinore. Cemetery. Two gravediggers are digging a grave. Hamlet and Horatio also come here. Hamlet talks about the vanity of everything on earth, recalling Alexander the Great. “Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander became dust, dust is earth; Clay is extracted from the earth. Why shouldn’t the clay he turned into end up in the coating of a beer barrel?”
A funeral procession appears. Ophelia is buried. Laertes jumps into the grave and asks to be buried with his sister. A quarrel breaks out between him and Hamlet. Hamlet speaks of his love for a girl:
I loved
Ophelia, and forty thousand brothers
And all their love is no match for mine.
The king asks Laertes to be patient and reminds him of their agreement. Everyone leaves. The prince tells his friend how he stole the royal letter, how he learned about his uncle’s “crowned meanness,” how he wrote another, sealing it with his father’s seal, that now Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sailing towards their death. Hamlet regrets “that he made such a fuss with Laertes,” because in his misfortunes he sees a reflection of his own, and speaks of his desire to make peace with him.
Osric arrives. He reports that King Claudius "bet... On six Arabian horses" that out of twelve fights, Laertes' advantage over Hamlet "will not exceed three blows." The Danish prince “does not feel good in his soul,” but one must be above superstition: “without God’s will not even a sparrow would perish.” Before the fight, Hamlet asks his opponent for forgiveness:
Everything I could touch
I am your feelings, honor and position,
Please believe me, it was illness.
...
Let everyone know: I did not wish you harm.
By mistake I shot an arrow over the house
And he wounded his brother.
A duel begins, during which the king continually offers Hamlet poisoned wine. But the cup ends up in the wrong place: the Queen Mother drinks to her son’s victory. In a fight, opponents exchange rapiers.
First Hamlet is wounded, then Laertes. The queen dies. Knowing that it will soon be his turn, Laertes confesses everything:
I myself am dying for meanness and will not rise.
No queen. I can't do it anymore...
The king of everything, the king of everything!
The dying Hamlet strikes the murderer of his father and mother with a poisoned blade. The prince, feeling the approach of death, asks Horatio:
You're alive. Will you tell the truth about me
To the uninitiated.
Horatio wants to finish the poisoned wine so he can follow his friend. Hamlet protests:
What
I will be covered in ignominy in posterity,
No one knows the truth yet!
Shots are heard, English ambassadors arrived in the kingdom, Fortinbras returned from Poland with victory, whom the deceased Hamlet would like to see on the throne. Horatio publicly tells everyone
About the terrible ones,
Bloody and merciless deeds,
Vicissitudes, murders by mistake,
Punished by duplicity...
By order of Fortinbras, Hamlet is carried to the platform by four captains. "If he had lived, he would have become king deservedly."
"The Tragic Story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" or simply " Hamlet" - tragedy William Shakespeare in five acts, one of his most famous plays, and one of the most famous plays in world drama. Written in 1600-1601.
"Hamlet" summary by chapters
Act I Hamlet
Prince Hamlet of Denmark has not yet appeared on stage, and it is he who they want to tell 0 The ghost of the late king. Hamlet appears in a black suit, which immediately makes him stand out against the background of the bright costumes of the courtiers. He restrains himself, responding to the remarks of the king and his mother, but when left alone, he pours out his soul. The prince’s passionate monologue reveals his grief: his father died, and a little over a month later More from the salt of hypocritical tears // The redness on her eyelids did not subside; And the shoes are intact, //In which she walked in tears, like Niobe, //Behind her stepfather’s coffin. In addition, marriage to the brother of the deceased husband was considered a sin of incest.
And in the same monologue, Hamlet speaks negatively about all women. His mother was an ideal in his eyes, and if an ideal is capable of this, then what about the rest? With the death of his father and his mother's betrayal, the ideal world died, and the prince found himself face to face with the real world. But another blow awaited him: from the Phantom he learns that the death of his father is the work of Claudius. Brother killed brother!
In the next monologue, the prince draws terrible conclusions: The world is rotten, its name is treachery.
His anger turns against his mother and uncle: O villainous woman! O scoundrel! O baseness, baseness with a low smile!
The ghost asks Hamlet to take revenge for the treacherous murder of his father, but Hamlet, accepting this task, imposes even greater obligations on himself: to restore universal justice.
In this sense, he is the ideal man of the Renaissance: The connecting thread of days has broken, How can I connect the fragments! So, acquaintance with Hamlet in the first act, in the first part of the development of the action, in its outset, leads to certain thoughts: the hero is truly noble, he has a philosophical mindset, he judges everything from the height of moral laws, but he found himself in a very difficult and even tragic situation, learning the truth about his mother and uncle. The former ideal world collapsed, and he took upon himself the obligation to avenge the death of his father and restore world justice.
Act II Hamlet
Hamlet puts on the mask of a madman; he needs to convince everyone that he has gone mad. For what? By pretending to be mad, the prince, as it were, puts on the guise of a jester, and in Shakespeare’s times the jester was allowed to say whatever he thinks - such was his “privileged” position. Ophelia, his bride, does not understand what happened to Hamlet - the change is so striking. He is simply fooling Polonius, Ophelia's father, by calling him a fishmonger.
With Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet plays differently. He suspects that they were warned about his madness, and he needs to convince them of it. The prince pronounces a monologue in which he praises man, calls him perfection - this is a real Renaissance hymn, but here we also hear disappointment in life’s values. The entire Universe seems to him devoid of any meaning.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern believed in his madness because his speech was full of contradictions.
But Hamlet talks quite sensibly about the theater. He became very animated, remembering the old play about the murder of King Priam of Troy by Pyrrhus.
There is a very emotional moment in this scene when the prince remembers the queen, Priam's wife Hecuba. For Hamlet, this place in the actor’s monologue is very important: Hecuba is a faithful wife, but Gertrude is not. Again the pain bursts out, but this pain is also mixed with reproaches for inaction. Why does he hesitate, why doesn’t he take revenge for his father’s death?
He is angry with himself, rewards himself with various derogatory names: What a slave and scoundrel I am* A stupid and pathetic degenerate...:
O vengeance!
Well, I’m an ass, there’s nothing to say!
I am the son of the father of the murdered man.
Heaven told me: get up and take revenge.
And I, I try my best in pitiful exclamations
And I take away my soul with foul language,
Like a dishwasher! Ugh, damn!
Wake up my brain!
I heard somewhere
That people with a dark past are
At a performance similar in origin,
We were stunned by the liveliness of the game
And they themselves confessed to the crime.
Murder reveals itself without words,
Even though he is silent.
I'll instruct the actors
Play a thing in front of your uncle according to the model
Father's death.
I’ll keep an eye on my uncle to see if he’ll take you to the quick.
If yes, I know what to do.
But maybe that spirit was the devil.
The devil could take on his Favorite image.
Maybe the crafty one
Calculated how tired and depressed I was,
And he uses it to my death.
We need better evidence than mine,
Here in the notes.
For this from the stage
I will betray the king's conscience on them.
The second act ends with this monologue, which also reports a trick devised by the prince to expose Claudius' crime. Hamlet puts reason above all else, he does not trust his intuition and wants Claudius to find out why he will be struck. Hamlet needs Claudius to become aware of his criminality, to be tormented by his conscience (if he has one), and then to deal the fatal blow.
Act III Hamlet
The third part was called the “mousetrap”. The action begins with the famous monologue & to be or not to be. This highest point Hamlet's doubts:
To endure the shame of fate without a murmur
Or must we resist,
Rise, arm, conquer
Or die...
To be is to resist, to rebel...
Not to be - “to endure the shame of fate without a murmur.”
This formulation of the question is directly related to the situation in which Hamlet finds himself: to fight against evil or to evade the fight. Hamlet chooses “to be,” but “to be” means to perish.
Hamlet reflects on death. Reasoning rises to heights philosophical thought: what awaits a person behind the grave? Perhaps the suffering there is worse than on earth, and people can only come to terms with familiar evil. This is how Hamlet the philosopher penetrates into the essence of fatal human suffering. The dialogue with Ophelia presents us with a completely different Hamlet, who has put on a mask of cruelty.
The words addressed to Ophelia are full of mockery: marry a fool, the smart ones know too well what monsters you make of them. The king and Polonius, who overhear this conversation, are convinced that Hamlet is mad.
It is important for Hamlet to see Claudius's reaction to the enacted poisoning scene, to which he attributed his 16 lines. And to the king’s question: What is the name of the play? - answers: “Mousetrap.” The play depicts a murder committed in Vienna. The Duke's name is Gonzago. His wife is Baptista. Lucian, the king's nephew, comes to the garden to pour poison into the sleeping man's ear.
And Claudius gives himself away: Hamlet now has no doubt that he is the murderer of his father.
“The Mousetrap” is the culmination of the tragedy, its highest point. Now nothing can stop Hamlet, and a suitable opportunity seems to be in sight. Going to his mother, Hamlet finds Claudius praying, but he cannot kill him. Why? Prayer protects the king, and Hamlet cannot kill him: So is it revenge if the scoundrel gives up the ghost when he is clean from filth and all ready for a long journey? No.
Back my sword, before a more terrible meeting! When he is angry or drunk, In the arms of sleep or unclean bliss, In the heat of passion, with curses on his lips, Or in thoughts of new evil, Slash him with a flourish so that he falls into hell Feet up, all black from vices. But my mother called me. - Reign yet, Respite is only, not a cure.
The meeting of the prince with his mother, Queen Gertrude, is one of the most difficult scenes. Does a son have the right to blame his mother? Hamlet is cruel, his words-daggers mortally wound the heart, he knows no mercy. But he does not blame the mother, not a specific woman - he accuses vice and defends virtue:
You did this
What extinguishes sincerity and shame,
Slanders the truth, appears as a rash
On the forehead of innocence and purity
And turns marriage vows
Players are trading.
You did what
What disheartens agreements?
And makes it an empty set of words
Church rituals.
The skies are turning red
And the vaults of the world, frowning, look down,
Like on Judgment Day, they will barely remember your action.
Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius, thinking that the king is hiding behind the curtain.
Act IV Hamlet
The King and Queen agree that Hamlet is mad and decide to send him to England. But the king decided to get rid of Hamlet forever, instructing his “friends” Guildenstern and Rosencrantz to deliver the letter - the prince’s death sentence. Hamlet manages to escape and is back in Elsinore. Ophelia went crazy and drowned.
Laertes is told that the prince is the culprit of her death. He swears revenge on Hamlet. The king decides to take advantage of Laertes’ grief and win over the grief-stricken young man to his side.
The scene in the cemetery is a striking scene. For two gravediggers, throwing skulls out of the ground and digging a new grave, it's just a job. And for Hamlet, the sight of a skull represents a chain of various associations. He represents people, smart, educated, who all met the same end. Hamlet is struck by the frailty of earthly existence. The skull of the former jester Yorick causes an exclamation: Yorick, poor Yorick! And further... Hamlet builds an algorithm for the cycle of life after death: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander became dust, dust is earth, clay is extracted from the earth. Why wouldn't the clay he turned into end up in the coating of a beer barrel? Hamlet's abstract thoughts are interrupted by a funeral procession - Ophelia is buried.
Hamlet is shocked: I loved Ophelia, and forty thousand brothers, And all the love and x are not like mine. Tell me, what are you capable of in honor of her? Hamlet receives an invitation from Laertes to compete in fencing, not realizing his conspiracy with the king. Laertes' sword will be poisoned, and Hamlet will die from the wound - this is Claudius's plan.
The prince is tormented by forebodings; Horatio, Hamlet’s faithful friend, suggests that the prince refuse the duel. Hamlet's answer is striking in its wisdom: By no means. We must be above superstitions. Everything is the Lord's will. Even in the life and death of a sparrow. If something is destined to happen now, then you don’t have to wait for it.
If not now, it still cannot be avoided. The most important thing is to always be prepared. Since no one knows their hour of death, why not get together in advance? Come what may! There is a certain Divine power that controls events - these thoughts first appear in Hamlet; earlier he thought that the will of man is the engine of everything.
Final scene
Hamlet, unaware of Laertes' plot with the king, fights him.
The king, queen, and courtiers are watching the fight. It seems to the king that this is not enough; he also prepared wine with poison. After the third fight, Laertes wounds the prince with a poisoned rapier. The queen drinks the poisoned wine and dies, naming the murderer. During the battle, Laertes and Hamlet exchanged rapiers, and Hamlet also strikes him with a poisoned blade. Dying, Laertes calls the king a murderer.
Hamlet pierces the king through with a poisoned rapier and dies himself.
Hamlet is buried with honors like a warrior. He lived and died as a hero and remained a hero for all time.
Who was Hamlet? Shakespeare showed it as " ideal person Renaissance". As his father's son, he had to take revenge on the murderer. But as a philosopher, Hamlet realized that Claudius was not only a villain himself, but also a breeding ground for evil in the country. He seduced not only his mother, but everyone around him. And Polonius, and Laertes, and Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern carry out the will of the villain. It is also important to understand one circumstance.
Hamlet is a knight, and he has a high concept of honor. Among the ideals of chivalry was fidelity in general, and in love especially. Any betrayal of love, duty, friendship was regarded by Hamlet as a violation moral rules chivalry.
Castle in Elsinore. There is a square in front of the castle. Danish officers are standing guard - Bernard and Marcellus. Later, Horatio, the learned friend of the Danish prince Hamlet, approaches them. Having heard a story about the appearance at night of a ghost similar to the late Danish king, Horatio came to verify the veracity of this story. He himself considers all this a fantasy, but at midnight the formidable ghost of the king actually appears in the square, in full military garb. Shocked, Horatio wants to talk to him. Later, reflecting on what happened, he comes to the conclusion that the appearance of a ghost is bad sign for the state may be coming troubled times. Horatio decides to report the vision to his friend Hamlet, who, due to the sudden death of his father, was forced to interrupt his studies in Wittenberg.
Hamlet is grieving the loss, but his grief is also intensified by the fact that his mother almost immediately after the death of his father married his brother. Hamlet does not consider his uncle a worthy person; it is disgusting and disgusting for him to watch what is happening.
Having learned from Horatio about the night ghost, Hamlet is sure that there is something evil hidden in this. He waits for night to fall.
The ghost of his father told Hamlet about terrible crime. When the king was calmly resting in the garden, his brother poured the deadly juice of henbane into his ear. The king died in his sleep, losing both his crown and his queen at once. The ghost of the father asks his son to avenge him and, having said goodbye, leaves.
Hamlet's whole world turned upside down.
He vows to avenge his father's death. He asks his friends to keep this conversation secret and not to be surprised by his strange behavior.
At this time, Polonius, a close nobleman of the king, sends his son Laertes to Paris to study. Laertes gives his sister Ophelia some brotherly instructions as he leaves. It turns out that Hamlet is in love with Ophelia. But it is precisely this feeling that the brother warns his sister against. After all, Hamlet does not belong to himself, he must think about the health of the entire state.
Polonius confirms his son's words and forbids Ophelia to communicate with Hamlet. She tells her father about the prince's recent visit, when he seemed to her to be a little out of his mind. Polonius thinks that the prince's strange behavior is due to the fact that he is madly in love with Ophelia. He decides to tell the king about this.
The king notices Hamlet's strange behavior, he does not know how to explain its reason. The king's conscience, burdened with murder, does not give him peace. He summons Hamlet's old friends - Guildestern and Rosencrantz. Promising “the royal mercy” as a reward, the king instructs them to find out his secret from Hamlet. Polonius arrives and tells the king about his assumption regarding the prince's madness. He even brought Hamlet’s letter to Ophelia, which he took from his daughter, as proof of his words. To make sure of Hamlet’s feelings, Polonius is going to send his daughter to the gallery, where the prince often visits.
Hamlet understands that Guildestern and Rosencrantz were sent to him by the king, so their attempts to find out his secret are in vain.
Having learned that tragic actors have arrived from the capital, Hamlet decides to use them in order to verify the guilt of the king. The prince really liked these actors before. Now he agrees that they will stage a play about the death of Priam, and Hamlet will add a couple of verses to it own composition. The actors agree. Hamlet asks the first actor to read a soliloquy about the murder of Priam. The actor copes with the task brilliantly. Worried, Hamlet ponders that he must find out exactly about the crime. With the help of actors, he wants to “lasso the king’s conscience.”
The king again calls Guildestern and Rosencrantz to his place to find out about the fulfillment of his assignment. They honestly admit that they were unable to find out anything, and also tell the king about the arrival of the capital’s actors and that Hamlet invites the king and queen to the performance.
Walking alone, the Danish prince pronounces his famous monologue: “To be or not to be - that is the question...”. He reflects on why people hold on to life so tightly. And he comes to the conclusion that people are frightened by the unknown of what will happen after death, because this is already forever.
Ophelia comes to Hamlet. He understands that she came at the request of the king and her father, and that their conversation is sure to be overheard. Hamlet pretends to be crazy and advises Ophelia to go to a monastery. The gullible girl despairs when she hears his speech. She believed in his madness. But the king was finally convinced that love was not the reason for the strange behavior of the prince. Hamlet asks his friend Horatio to watch the king during the performance. The play is going on, and Hamlet comments on it. The main character is poisoned in the garden to take away his power and his wife.
The king could not stand the last scene. He rose from his seat, and a commotion began in the hall. The game was stopped. Everyone left. Hamlet and Horatio were left alone. They are now sure of the king’s guilt; he gave himself away.
Guildestern and Rosencrantz return. They tell Hamlet that the king is very upset and the queen does not understand the behavior of her son. Hamlet gives Guildestern a flute and asks him to play it. He says that he does not master this art. Then the angry Hamlet declares that it is also not worth trying to play on him and his feelings. Polonius calls the prince to his mother, the queen.
The king is overcome by fear, a bad conscience torments him. He understands that his sin is serious and vile. But the crime has already been committed, and the king can only pray. He kneels and begs God for forgiveness.
Walking into his mother’s chambers, Hamlet sees the king alone, but does not want to kill him during prayer.
To eavesdrop on the prince's conversation with his mother, Polonius hides in the queen's chambers.
Hamlet is filled with indignation. He is angry with his mother and speaks very impudently to her. Frightened, the queen screams. At this time, Polonius reveals his presence. Thinking it is the king, Hamlet stabs him with his sword in a rage. The Queen begs her son for mercy, repenting of her behavior. Suddenly a ghost appears, which only Hamlet can see. It seems to the Queen that he is speaking to emptiness like a madman. The ghost demands Hamlet to spare the queen.
The queen tells the king that Hamlet, in a fit of madness, killed Polonius, but now regrets it. The king decides to bury Polonius secretly so that rumors do not arise. And he urgently sends Hamlet to England, Guildestern and Rosencrantz - along with him, accompanying him. The king gives the young people a letter, which must be secretly handed over to the Briton. The letter contains a request to kill Hamlet.
On the way to the ship, Hamlet and his “friends” meet an armed army. These are Norwegian soldiers, they are going to fight with Poland over a piece of land. Hamlet is amazed that even such a trivial dispute cannot be resolved peacefully by people.
After this incident, Hamlet thinks a lot about his own indecision. After all, Prince Fortinbras easily sends twenty thousand soldiers to their deaths just because his honor is hurt. But Hamlet, whose father was killed and his mother lives in shame, does not know what he should do. He decides to take bloody revenge.
Upon learning of his father's death, Laertes secretly returns from Paris. At home, he also learns that Ophelia has gone crazy with grief, because her father died at the hands of Hamlet. Armed Laertes bursts into the king's chambers, he is thirsty for revenge. The king blames Hamlet for all the misfortunes. A messenger appears with a letter from the prince, informing him of Hamlet's return. The king does not understand what happened, but he already has another vile plan ready.
He wants to arrange a duel between Hamlet and Laertes. To ensure that Hamlet is killed, the end of Laertes' sword will be smeared with poison. Laertes agrees.
The Queen sadly reports the death of Ophelia. She fell into the river while hanging her wreaths on the branches of a tree.
The gravediggers dig a hole and, in the meantime, exchange jokes.
Horatio and Hamlet appear. Hamlet talks about the futility of all life on earth. They see a funeral procession approaching. Ophelia is buried. Laertes rushes into the grave and asks to bury him with his sister. Hamlet cannot stand this falsehood. He says that he truly loved her. He and Laertes attack each other. The king separates them. He reminds Laertes of the planned duel, in which the result is known in advance. The king is not satisfied with the unpredictability; he demands that Laertes not rush things.
Hamlet privately tells Horatio about what happened to him. He was able to read the king's accompanying letter asking for Hamlet to be executed. Using his father’s signet, Hamlet changed the letter, writing in it: “The donors must be killed immediately.” On the way, robbers attacked the ship, Hamlet was captured and taken to Denmark. Now he is ready for revenge.
The king's close associate Osric reports that the king is betting that Hamlet will defeat Laertes in a duel. Hamlet goes to the duel, but his heart foresees a trap.
Before the battle begins, the prince asks Laertes for forgiveness. He admits that he killed his father in a fit of madness.
To be on the safe side, the king prepared a goblet of poisoned wine. He will offer it to Hamlet if he wants to drink. Laertes wounds Hamlet, they exchange rapiers, and now Hamlet wounds Laertes. The king does not have time to stop the queen, and she drinks wine from the cup for Hamlet's victory. Before her death, she manages to tell her son that the wine is poisoned. Laertes confesses his betrayal through the fault of the king.
Hamlet kills the king with a poisoned blade and dies himself. Horatio also wants to follow his friend, finishing the poisoned wine. But before his death, Hamlet turns to his friend: “Breathe in the harsh world, so that my / Tell the story.” Horatio tells Fortinbras and the English ambassadors about the tragedy that happened. Fortinbras gives the order: “Let Hamlet be raised to the platform like a warrior...”