Hamlet Analysis and Summary
Act 1, Scene 1
Old King Hamlet's Ghost appears to the guards.
On a dark winter night outside Elsinore Castle in Denmark, an officer named Bernardo comes to
relieve the watchman Francisco. In the heavy darkness, the men cannot see each other. Bernardo
hears a footstep near him and cries, “Who’s there?” After both men ensure that the other is also a
watchman, they relax. Cold, tired, and apprehensive from his many hours of guarding the castle,
Francisco thanks Bernardo and prepares to go home and go to bed.
The start of the play is at 12:00-01:00am
This is the witching hour where spirits that did not receive justice in the living world
came back to the world to seek revenge.
Starting the play with a conversation between the working class shows how the decisions of
the powerful have already affected the poor and lower class.
Short sentences between the guards create a hostile and tense atmosphere. Shown by the
short sentences and clear requests. The guards are stationed because Denmark is in a state
of war.
Shortly thereafter, Bernardo is joined by Marcellus, another watchman, and Horatio, a friend of
Prince Hamlet. Bernardo and Marcellus have urged Horatio to stand watch with them, because they
believe they have something shocking to show him. In hushed tones, they discuss the apparition they
have seen for the past two nights, and which they now hope to show Horatio: the ghost of the
recently deceased King Hamlet, which they claim has appeared before them on the castle ramparts in
the late hours of the night.
Horatio is skeptical, but then the ghost suddenly appears before the men and just as suddenly
vanishes. Terrified, Horatio acknowledges that the spectre does indeed resemble the dead King of
Denmark, that it even wears the armour King Hamlet wore when he battled against the armies of
Norway, and the same frown he wore when he fought against the Poles. Horatio declares that the
ghost must bring warning of impending misfortune for Denmark, perhaps in the form of a military
attack. He recounts the story of King Hamlet’s conquest of certain lands once belonging to Norway,
saying that Fortinbras, the young Prince of Norway, now seeks to reconquer those forfeited lands.
Horatio is invited to the castle by the guards because:
Horatio needs to speak to the ghost that has been haunting the castle so the guards
can find out what the ghost wants as he is the only person who they know can speak
Latin. The ghost speaks Latin because it is a language that is almost as old as the
ghost itself.
They need him to witness the ghost because he has traction in society and so they
will believe him if he tells he public about the ghost.
He is Hamlet's best friend and so he would be the one who needs to tell Hamlet that
it is his dad that is haunting the castle.
Ghosts are symbolic to the Elizabethan audience of an unsettled spirit.
Horatio describes the death of the King of Denmark as 'buried Denmark':
Synecdoche: The whole of Denmark is used to represent a single person - the King of
Denmark
The ghost materializes for a second time, and Horatio tries to speak to it. The ghost remains silent,
however, and disappears again just as the cock crows at the first hint of dawn. Horatio suggests that
,they tell Prince Hamlet, the dead king’s son, about the apparition. He believes that though the ghost
did not speak to him, if it is really the ghost of King Hamlet, it will not refuse to speak to his beloved
son.
By having the cock crow at the end of the witching hour, a biblical reference is created.
A cock crowing represents the end of the Witching hour and the waking of the God
of Day.
A cock crowing symbolises the death and betrayal of Hamlet Snr. by Claudius.
Horatio uses personification of the sun 'morn in russet mantle clad' to say that he will tell
Hamlet about the appearances of his father in the morning.
The sun is described as a person wearing a red cloak and walking over a hill.
Act 1, Scene 2
Claudius and Gertrude speak to Hamlet upon his return from studying at Wittenberg University in
Germany.
Hamlet's 1st soliloquy
Horatio tells Hamlet of the ghost.
The morning after Horatio and the guardsmen see the ghost, King Claudius gives a speech to his
courtiers, explaining his recent marriage to Gertrude, his brother’s widow and the mother of Prince
Hamlet. Claudius says that he mourns his brother but has chosen to balance Denmark’s mourning
with the delight of his marriage. He mentions that young Fortinbras has written to him, rashly
demanding the surrender of the lands King Hamlet won from Fortinbras’s father, and dispatches
Cornelius and Voltemand with a message for the King of Norway, Fortinbras’s elderly uncle.
His speech concluded, Claudius turns to Laertes, the son of the Lord Chamberlain, Polonius. Laertes
expresses his desire to return to France, where he was staying before his return to Denmark for
Claudius’s coronation. Polonius gives his son permission, and Claudius jovially grants Laertes his
consent as well.
Upon the entrance of Claudius, only trumpets play and not more regal instrument like a
violin or cello. This is because he is not a real king and so does not deserve a real king's
entrance.
Claudius's speech to his courtiers is long-winded and his message is delivered in a
convoluted tone (difficult to follow and overly complex). He tries to convince his audience
that they should only be temporarily sad about the king's death but they should be
permanently happy about his and Gertrude's marriage.
Turning to Prince Hamlet, Claudius asks why “the clouds still hang” upon him, as Hamlet is still
wearing black mourning clothes (I.ii.66). Gertrude urges him to cast off his “nightly colour,” but he
replies bitterly that his inner sorrow is so great that his dour appearance is merely a poor mirror of it
(I.ii.68). Affecting a tone of fatherly advice, Claudius declares that all fathers die, and all sons must
lose their fathers. When a son loses a father, he is duty-bound to mourn, but to mourn for too long is
unmanly and inappropriate. Claudius urges Hamlet to think of him as a father, reminding the prince
that he stands in line to succeed to the throne upon Claudius’s death.
Claudius enforces his control over Hamlet by addressing his servants before Hamlet.
With this in mind, Claudius says that he does not wish for Hamlet to return to school at Wittenberg
(where he had been studying before his father’s death), as Hamlet has asked to do. Gertrude echoes
her husband, professing a desire for Hamlet to remain close to her. Hamlet stiffly agrees to obey her.
Claudius claims to be so pleased by Hamlet’s decision to stay that he will celebrate with festivities
,and cannon fire, an old custom called “the king’s rouse.” Ordering Gertrude to follow him, he escorts
her from the room, and the court follows.
Claudius speaks to Hamlet in a condescending tone and angers Hamlet:
He speaks in the third person, using the third person pronoun 'us'. This is to show
that he has so much power and control that he needs to take on 'another body'. He
legitimizes himself as the king through speaking like this.
He insults Hamlet's masculinity: 'tis unmanly grief'
He insults Hamlet's God: 'most incorrect to heaven'
He insults Hamlet's parents
He insults Hamlet's education: 'simple and unschooled'
In this speech to Hamlet, Claudius reveals that he killed King Hamlet through an allusion to
the story of Kane and Able in which a brother kills his brother.
Hamlet is a scholar and so preventing him from returning to study in Wittenberg is the first
mistake that leads to Claudius's death. Hamlet grows angry in his presence and so eventually
revenges his father.
Alone, Hamlet exclaims that he wishes he could die, that he could evaporate and cease to exist. He
wishes bitterly that God had not made suicide a sin. Anguished, he laments his father’s death and his
mother’s hasty marriage to his uncle. He remembers how deeply in love his parents seemed, and he
curses the thought that now, not yet two month after his father’s death, his mother has married his
father’s far inferior brother.
Hamlet's first soliloquy
Hamlet quiets suddenly as Horatio strides into the room, followed by Marcellus and Bernardo.
Horatio was a close friend of Hamlet at the university in Wittenberg, and Hamlet, happy to see him,
asks why he has left the school to travel to Denmark. Horatio says that he came to see King Hamlet’s
funeral, to which Hamlet curtly replies that Horatio came to see his mother’s wedding. Horatio
agrees that the one followed closely on the heels of the other. He then tells Hamlet that he,
Marcellus, and Bernardo have seen what appears to be his father’s ghost. Stunned, Hamlet agrees to
keep watch with them that night, in the hope that he will be able to speak to the apparition.
Hamlet speaks to Horatio in a sincere, honest and happy tone but uses macabre (dark
humour) when describing Claudius to Horatio.
Hamlet: 'I shall no look upon his like again.' (1,2,187). This has two possible interpretations:
This is dramatic irony as he is about to see his father again, except in the form of a
ghost.
This links to when he called his father Hyperion - the God of the sun - and how no
leader will be as warm and powerful again.
Horatio tells Hamlet that the ghost was wearing his father's armour. From this, Hamlet
knows that something is wrong with the Chain of Being as his father only ever wore his
armour when he went to war.
Hamlet and Horatio question the appearance of the ghost as they are Renaissance men and
are sceptical of anything to do with religion and the supernatural.
, Hamlet’s First Soliloquy 'O': is an interjection with a strong and emotional tone.
'too too': gives emphasis
'solid flesh': Hamlet feels as if he is a representation
Denmark who is rotten. He feels dirty because his mother
is dirty (because of her marriage to Claudius) and he is a
1,2,129-158
product of her and therefore must also be dirty.
'melt': Hamlet says that he wants to die by being burned
O that this too too solid flesh would melt,
because he wants to feel the pain of his mother and
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
Claudius's sins. This will allow him to cleanse himself and
Or that the Everlasting (God) had not fix'd
be at peace without the dirty flesh that his mother gave
His canon (rules) 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!
him.
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
'dew': be at peace with himself
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
'weary, stale': Hamlet feels as if his life in pointless
Fie on't! O fie! (oh stuff it) 'tis an unweeded garden,
'unweeded garden … rank and gross': He describes his life
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
and the life of Denmark as rotting and decaying as a
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
result of his mother and her relationship with Claudius.
But two months dead! — nay, not so much, not two:
'Hyperion': The God of the sun. This refers to King Hamlet
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
and shows Hamlet's respect, admiration and love for his
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother,
father and his strength as a leader.
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
'satyr': A half man half goat who preys on young girls and
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
is always drunk. It is the lowest ranking creature in Greek
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
mythology. This refers to Claudius and shows Hamlet's
As if increase of appetite (lust) had grown
hatred of him.
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month, —
'Must I remember?': That he lost his father and has to
Let me not think on't, — Frailty, thy name is woman!
constantly witness who his mother remarried.
—
'Why…': from here onwards, Hamlet's tone becomes one
A little month; or ere (before) those shoes were old
of anger instead of despair and mourning.
With which she followed my poor father's body
'Frailty, thy name': Hamlet accuses Gertrude of being
Like Niobe, all tears; — why she, even she, —
morally frail.
O God! a beast that wants discourse of reason,
'Niobe': A Greek myth about a mother who continuously
Would have mourn'd longer, — married with mine
cried for her children. Hamlet uses this description to
uncle,
show that he thinks that his mother's grief towards the
My father's brother; but no more like my father
loss of King Hamlet is over exaggerated and hypocritical
Than I to Hercules: within a month;
as she got remarried so quickly after his father's death.
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
'beast … mourn'd longer': Hamlet says that an animal
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
would have grieved the loss of his father longer than she
She married: — O, most wicked speed, to post
did. Her lust for Claudius is primal.
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
'wicked … dexterity': Shows that Hamlet thinks that his
It is not, nor it cannot come to good;
other got remarried so quickly just so she could have a
But break my heart, — for I must hold my tongue!
relationship with Claudius. Hamlet feels that his is
incestuous and will cause rot in Denmark.
'For I must hold my tongue': His silence will torment and
ultimately destroy him.
Act 1, Scene 3
The introduction of a sub-plot of another father and his children; Polonius with Laertes and Ophelia.
