Hamlet

Although most know the basic story of Hamlet, I thought you might find it helpful to have a plot summary broken down by scenes.

HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK

SCENE: Elsinore, Denmark

ACT I
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is advised by the sentinels of the royal castle of Kronborg, at Elsinore, that an apparition strongly resembling his dead father had appeared on the battlements. Hamlet therefore resolves to encounter the spirit and learn from it, if possible, the true cause of his father's taking-off, about which the Prince has had many suspicions. He meets the Ghost
at its next nightly visitation, and in an interview with it his worst fears are confirmed. The late King's brother Claudius, who has ascended the throne and wedded the widowed Queen, had poisoned the King while he slept. Hamlet is enjoined to secrecy and revenge, and the Ghost vanishes. Hamlet's followers are sworn to say nothing of the occurrence.

ACT II
Because of the news and of the dread task to which he is commissioned, Hamlet is seized with a species of madness, perhaps largely feigned, whereby he may cloak his designs. He writes incoherent and passionate letters to his lady-love, Ophelia, daughter of Polonius, a court dignitary. At this juncture a company of strolling players arrives at the castle and at Hamlet's suggestion a certain play is given before the King and Queen and members of the court.

ACT III
The play deals with the murder of a Venetian duke, whose wife afterwards weds the murderer. The story closely resembles the circumstances of the King of Denmark's demise. During the play Hamlet is intent not upon the players but upon the countenance and actions of his uncle. The latter, as if struck with a realising sense of his own crime, as Hamlet suspected, hurriedly leaves. Hamlet no longer doubts the truth of the Ghost's communications, and turns with energy to seek the vengeance which he has sworn to execute.

The queen mother is also much disturbed by the purport of the play, and sends for Hamlet in order to upbraid him. Hamlet answers reproach with reproach, and leaves his mother overwhelmed with shame and self-convicted. But for the opportune arrival of the dead King's spirit, Hamlet might have adopted even more violent measures. Ophelia's father, Polonius, who is spying upon this interview, is slain by Hamlet, who mistakes him for the King.

ACT IV
Hamlet's banishment is decided upon. Two former school comrades of his are entrusted with a commission to leave him in England, where sealed orders are to bring about the Prince's death. But by a combination of plot and accident the execution is visited instead upon the heads of the two accomplices. Hamlet returns to Denmark. There he is greeted by a strange spectacle—the funeral of a young girl, honored by the presence of the King, Queen, and persons of the court. Hamlet has in fact arrived home just at the time of Ophelia's interment. That unfortunate maiden, through incessant brooding over the madness of her lover, the untimely end of her father, and the continued absence of her brother, Laertes, had become insane. For some days she had wandered about the court singing and strewing flowers, then had strayed to the banks of a stream and been drowned.

ACT V
When Hamlet discovers that it is Ophelia's funeral, he is beside himself with grief. He leaps into the grave and angrily contests with Laertes, who also has just returned, the place of chief mourner. Laertes in turn desires to kill Hamlet, for he regards the Prince as the cause of all the woes that have fallen upon his house.

Seeing the animosity of Laertes, King Claudius thinks he may make use of it to work Hamlet's undoing. He secretly advises Laertes to engage Hamlet in a fencing-match—supposedly friendly. Laertes' foil, however, is to be naked and envenomed. Hamlet, unsuspecting, consents to a trial of skill before the court. The King prepares a poisoned drink for Hamlet, if perchance he shall escape the tipped foil. Laertes and Hamlet fence. After a touch or two for Hamlet, the Queen, to do him honour, toasts him, unwittingly, with the poisoned cup. Laertes wounds Hamlet. In the scuffle they change rapiers, and Hamlet in turn wounds Laertes with the latter's treacherous blade. The Queen dies from the drug while Laertes falls, but before he dies he confesses his guilty design and craves pardon of the Prince. Hamlet turns upon the King with his own dying strength and stabs the usurping monarch to the heart.

NOTES

Hamlet was probably written between the years 1598 and 1602. It is not mentioned by Meres in his "Palladis Tamia" of the earlier year; and in the latter year it was entered in the "Stationers' Register." Internal evidence places it about the year 1600.

FIRST EDITIONS. In 1603 an imperfect text of Hamlet, evidently a pirated version, was published. The next year a clearer, and doubtless official, text was printed, now called the Second Quarto. Both had Shakespeare's name on the title page. The Third Quarto appeared in 1605, and the Fourth in 1611. The First Folio, of 1623, supplies some additional readings not found in any Quarto.

SOURCES. In the twelfth century, the "Historia Danica" by Saxo Grammaticus, a Danish writer of importance, contained the story of Hamlet. The story went the rounds of the minstrels and storytellers, and was first printed in 1514. Belleforest translated it into French in his "Histoires Tragiques," of 1571. Shakespeare may have been familiar with the story aside from either printed form. An earlier play of "Hamlet," now lost, was known to his company of players, about 1590.

ACTION. The historical period is indeterminate, but dates back to the eighth or tenth century. The time depicted on the stage is seven days, with intervals considerably lengthening this time.

SELECTED CRITICISM. "Hamlet is a name; his speeches and sayings but the idle coinage of the poet's brain. What then, are they not real? They are as real as our own thoughts. Their reality is in the reader's mind. It is we who are Hamlet. This play has a prophetic truth, which is above that of history. Whoever has become thoughtful and melancholy through his own mishaps or those of others; whoever has borne about with him the clouded brow of reflection and thought himself `too much i' th' sun' . . . this is the true Hamlet."

From J. Walker McSpadden, Shakespearean Synopses (New York: Crowell, 1959).