Hamlet, the son of the King and Queen of Denmark, had been sent to Wittenburg for his studies. He looked forward to returning to his parents and to Ophelia. She was his beautiful childhood sweetheart, the daughter of Polonius, the Lord Chamberlain. However, he heard that his father had died, bitten by a snake, and returned in haste.
While Hamlet grieved for his beloved father, his mother, the Queen, married his uncle, Claudius! Hamlet was shocked and refused to join the wedding celebrations. Claudius scolded him, but Hamlet said that he couldn’t forget those he loved so quickly.
While the new King and his Queen celebrated their wedding, Hamlet wondered what to do. He was suspicious of his uncle about his father’s death, but he had no proof. While he was thinking, his friend Horatio arrived from Wittenburg. Horatio said, “I think I saw your father last night. And two guards with him had also seen him!”
Hamlet was amazed, and that night he kept watch with Horatio on the battlements. He saw his father’s ghost, dressed in full armour! The ghost beckoned him and told him that Claudius had dropped poison in his ear, as he slept in the orchard one afternoon. “You must take revenge against Claudius,” said his father’s ghost, “But don’t harm the Queen, for I loved her and she is your mother!” Hamlet swore his friends to keep his secret as he planned to avenge his father’s murder.
The knowledge of his father’s murder almost drove him mad. He decided that the best way to hide his true feelings from his uncle was to act as if he had gone crazy. He would spend his days in Purgatory and walk the earth by night. When Ophelia saw him holding a skull in his hand one night at Purgatory, she was shocked. Everyone thought grief and love had driven him mad! Hamlet was in a dreadful fix. He wanted to take revenge but, being a gentle and kind person, he hated the thought of killing anyone, even Claudius.
Some actors came to the court to entertain everyone. Hamlet instructed them about the play they should enact. He gave them the story of the King’s murder by a relative and the marriage of the murderer with the widowed Queen. When the scene of the murder was played, Claudius hurriedly left the room. The Queen was also shaken and she followed him.
The Queen summoned Hamlet to scold him for behaving badly with his uncle. Since, Hamlet was believed to be mad, she asked Polonius to stay hidden behind a curtain in her room. Hamlet’s wild way of talking frightened her and she cried out, and so did Polonius. Thinking it was Claudius hiding behind the curtain, Hamlet drove his sword into it, killing old Polonius!
“What a rash and bloody deed have you committed!” exclaimed the Queen. Hamlet told her about his father’s murder and begged her to stay away from Claudius. His father’s ghost appeared in the room, but the Queen didn’t believe Hamlet! She told everything to Claudius. He said that a change of scene would help Hamlet.
Therefore, he sent Hamlet, with two courtiers to England. He gave a letter for the English King, saying that Hamlet should be put to death. But Hamlet found the letter and changed his name to those of the courtiers! They went to England to die, while he escaped!
Meanwhile, Ophelia had really gone mad with grief. She walked around with flowers in her hair, singing strange songs. One day, as she tried to hang a garland on a willow tree near a stream, she fell in and got drowned! When Hamlet returned, he found his beloved Ophelia dead.
At Ophelia’s grave, her brother, Laertes, mourned her death. But Hamlet leaped into the grave to embrace Ophelia’s body. He and Laertes drew their swords and fought till they were separated. Hamlet begged Laertes’ pardon.
But Claudius called Laertes and told him that it was Hamlet who had killed his father, Polonius. He egged Laertes on to take revenge and kill Hamlet. The two of them planned the murder.
Laertes challenged Hamlet to a friendly fencing match; Hamlet readily agreed. Hamlet used a sword with a blunt point as in fencing practice, but Laertes had a sharp sword with its point tipped in poison! Claudius had kept ready some wine for the swordsmen and Hamlet’s cup was poisoned!
During the duel, Laertes lunged at Hamlet with his sword. Their swords had dropped and, without noticing it, they picked up each other’s swords. When Hamlet thrust at Laertes during the next bout, it was with his poisoned sword! Laertes died because of his own treacherous behaviour!
Just then, the Queen picked up a goblet and drank it. “Oh, Hamlet,” she cried out, “I am poisoned!” Claudius was horrified to see that he had killed the Queen whom he really loved! Hamlet finally realised that if he had killed Claudius earlier, Polonius, Ophelia, Laertes and Queen would have all been alive.
n his grief and anger, he finally killed Claudius with the same poisoned sword. But Hamlet drank the remaining poisoned wine, for he didn’t wish to live. He begged forgiveness from the dying Laertes and asked Horatio to tell the truth to the world after he was dead. As Hamlet died, Horatio mourned, “Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!”
