Hamlet Essay Writing Guide EssayPro

Hamlet Essay Writing Guide | EssayPro
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In this article, our expert writers have prepared a detailed exploration into a classic. Throughout the
article, we will look at thebackground, the characters, the 5 acts, the themes, and the symbolism of this
timelessplay.
A bit of background. Hamlet, well-known and revered as WilliamShakespeare’s most famous play, is
believed to have been written sometime around 1600. Set in Denmark, the play sees this young
Princeon a quest for revenge. His evil uncle Claudius killed Hamlet’s father, the King of Denmark.
But Hamlet is no mere blind revenge seeker. His search is for moral ground, questioning himself and the
justice of his actions.
Hamlet’s inner dialogue is what makes the character such a compelling study, and relevantto the
present. This story has been retold and readapted countlessly,like in our childhood’s favorite film The
Lion King. It’s considered one of the all time greatest works of literature.

Let’s study the characters. HamletHamlet is the Prince of Denmark. He’s the son of the deceased King
Hamlet and Queen Gertrude. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet just returned from his studies to find
his fatherdead, and his mother married to his Uncle Claudius.
Hamlet’s darkest suspicions are confirmed when the ghost of his father, the deceasedKing Hamlet,
appears to tell that Uncle Claudius was behind his death.
This sends Hamlet on a revenge mission. ClaudiusKing Claudius is the brother of King Hamletthe senior.
He kills the King, takes his wife, and takes the throne. Claudius is portrayed as a cunning and
manipulative character, but one that's driven by basicinstincts.
Unlike Hamlet, Claudius kills and manipulates without putting much thought into the moralsbehind his
actions. Before the play opens, Claudius seizes the throne by pouring poison into King Hamlet’sear,
killing him, and passing it off as an attack by a snake. Gertrude
Gertrude is Hamlet’s mother who was formallymarried to King Hamlet Sr.
After his death, married Hamlet’s uncle Claudius.
Gertrude does not seem guilty about marrying to the man who killed her husband, which makesHamlet
resent her.
Polonius
This character is the chief counselor of theKing. He is also the father of Hamlet’s girlfriend Ophelia and
her brother Laertes. Polonius is an unlikeable character in the play, described as having a big and
disrespectfulmouth.
Hamlet refers to him in Act II as a “tedious old fool. ”After Polonius convinces Claudius to spy on Hamlet,
Hamlet kills him by accident, triggeringOphelia’s madness and death, and the play’s climax: a duel
between Hamlet and Laertes.
Ophelia
Ophelia is Hamlet’s girlfriend in the play. She is the daughter of Polonius and sister of Laertes. Ophelia’s
brother and father try to break her and Hamlet up. Polonius goes as far as forbidding her to marry him.
After her father’s death, Ophelia goes insane, speaking in riddles and rhymes, among othersigns of
madness. She ends up killing herself, either deliberately or by accident.
The Ghost
The Ghost of Hamlet’s Father is often referredto King Hamlet to distinguish him from his son. The ghost
appears three times throughout the play:First, to soldiers in the beginning, then to Hamlet sending him
on a mission ofrevenge, and lastly to Hamlet again, rebuking him for nothaving killed Claudius yet.

Rosencrantz and GuildensternThese two characters always appear together. They are childhood friends
of the protagonist who were commanded by King Claudius to watchover the prince and find out the
source of his so-called madness.
They are portrayed as flatterers and sycophants, and Hamlet sees through their guise. Pirates kill
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern shortly before Act V. HoratioHoratio is described as Hamlet’s friend.
He is the only person in the play who is actually on Hamlet’s human side. It is unclear what the origins
of Horatio are, or whether he is noble and holds a positionin court.
Horatio is the only major character who survives the events of the play. Now that you’ve met the
characters, let’scontinue onto:The play itself. The play is actually around six hours longand is very
detailed, but you can still ace your Hamlet essay by just knowing the sequenceof events, themes, and
the symbolism used in the play. Act 1Prince Hamlet is introduced as the protagonistof the play.
Before the play begins, Claudius murders King Hamlet, Hamlet’s father, marries his widowGertrude, and
seizes the throne. The Kingdom of Denmark, where the play isset, has had a long-time feud with Norway
and have feared an invasion from their neighborsfor quite some time. During a casual cold night patrol,
two sentries Bernardo and Marcellus and Hamlet’s friend Horatio see the ghost of the late King Hamlet.
They vow to tell Hamlet about the ghost. The next day, during the court of King Claudiusand Queen
Gertrude, Hamlet is in despair.
He finds it hard to believe that his mother married Claudius so quickly after his father’sdeath. Horatio
meets Hamlet and tells him about theghost, and Hamlet is determined to see it.
Elsewhere, during the royal court, we meet Polonius, his son Laertes and daughter Ophelia. Polonius
says his farewells to Laertes, whois heading off to France, giving him solid fatherly advice in Act 1, Scene
3:“This above all: tothine own self be true”Before he leaves, Laertes warns his sister Ophelia to avoid
Hamlet and to stop overthinkinghis attention towards her.
At night, on the ramparts, the ghost appearsto Hamlet, and tells him that Claudius is behind is murder.
The ghost urges Hamlet to avenge his death and vanishes. Hamlet tells his sentries and Horatio thatthey
must put on an act, acting was if Hamlet had gone mad to disguise his plans for revenge. However, deep
inside, Hamlet is unsure ofwhether to trust this ghost.
Act 2
The act opens up with Ophelia rushing to herfather and telling him that Hamlet is behaving very
strangely. Polonius tells her to ignore all of Hamlet’sadvances, saying says that love has driven Hamlet
mad.
Next, he and goes to inform Claudius and Gertrude about the prince’s behavior. Here, in the King and
Queen’s chambers,we also meet Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two childhood friends of Hamlet. The
royal couple tasked the two to investigate the cause of Hamlet’s strange behavior.

Polonius tells the King and queen about Hamlet’sbehavior and his theory about Hamlet being in love. He
even speaks to Hamlet himself, but Hamlet fakes being mad and insults Polonius.
When Hamlet meets his old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he quickly realizes thatthey are spies.
The two scholars came from Elsinore with atroupe of actors, whom Hamlet asks to put on several plays.
They stage a play about the Trojan War, and Hamlet, being impressed, plots to stage anotherplay called
The Murder of Gonzago in front of Claudius. The events of this play are similar to whatClaudius did with
King Hamlet, and Hamlet seeks to study Claudius’s reaction to determinehis guilt or innocence.
Hamlet doesn’t trust the ghost and seeksfirmer evidence against Claudius. Act 3In the next act, we see
Polonius forcing Opheliato return to Hamlet all of his tokens of love and study Hamlet’s reaction.
Meanwhile, Hamlet is walking around the halls, giving his famous monologue in Act 3, Scene1:“To be or
not to be, that is the question Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer .
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing,
end them”This is Hamlet musing on life and death, saying he’s at a point that he only sees sufferingin life
and that the only thing stopping us from killing ourselves is fear of the unknown.
When Ophelia enters to return Hamlet’s tokensof love, he lashes out at her, and it is unclear whether he
is sincere or he is just playingthe mad prince. Claudius sees Hamlet’s reaction, concluding that he is not
mad for love.
During the Murder of Gonzago, a play organizedby Hamlet, the prince watches Claudius closely and
studies his reactions.
The play disturbs Claudius and he storms out of the room, resolving to send Hamlet awayto England.
After studying his reaction, Hamlet is confident that Claudius is guilty of killing his father. Hamlet’s
mother Gertrude summons Hamletto her chambers in distress.
On the way he stumbles upon Claudius who is kneeling, attempting to pray and repent. Hamlet believes
that if he kills Claudius in prayer his soul will go to heaven, thereforedeciding to spare his life. At
Gertrude’s chambers, Polonius is hidingbehind some curtains to protect Gertrude from her
unpredictable son. Hamlet arrives and has a loud fight with hismother.
He hears something moving behind the curtain and stabs the tapestry thinking it’s Claudius,accidentally
killing Polonius instead. The ghost reappears to Hamlet, warning himto not delay his revenge or to upset
his mother. Gertrude cannot see the ghost, which further fuels her belief that Hamlet has gone mad.
The scene ends with Hamlet dragging the corpseof Polonius away.
Act 4

Gertrude tells Claudius that Hamlet killedPolonius. Hamlet is sent to England by Claudius, who conspires
to have him killed there. He leaves a sealed letter for the King of England with Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern.
The letter instructs the King to kill Hamlet. Hamlet discovers Claudius’s letter and forges an alternative
letter, sending Rosencrantzand Guildenstern to be killed in his place.
Around this time, King Fortinbras of Norwayis crossing Denmark with his army, aiming to attack Poland.
Meanwhile, Ophelia had gone mad from the deathof her father and from Hamlet’s rejection. She goes
around handing out symbolic flowers and talking in rhymes. Her madness reaches a climax and she
drowns.
It is uncertain whether her drowning is accidental or suicide. Laertes, Ophelia’s brother, who had
justcome back from France, is enraged by Polonius’s death and his sister’s madness.
After a session with Claudius, Laertes is convinced that Hamlet is responsible for everything. After
learning that Claudius’s plan withkilling Hamlet failed, he proposes that he and Laertes face off in a
fencing match.
Laertes will be given a poison-tipped foil,and Claudius will poison Hamlet’s wine glass (in case he wins)
to make sure he dies. The scene is interrupted by Gertrude, whoreports that Ophelia has drowned.
Act 5
In the final act, we have an iconic scenewith two gravediggers discussing the death or suicide of Ophelia
while preparing hergrave. Hamlet comes by with Horatio and talks withone of the gravediggers, who
takes out a skull of a jester which Hamlet remembers from hischildhood. Hamlet looks at the skull and
says “alas,poor Yorick” and thinks about death and mortality.
In Act 5, Scene 1, Hamlet states,“That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once…This might be the
pate of a politician, which this ass now o’er-reaches; one that wouldcircumvent God.
”These are his thoughts about how even thosetrying to evade God’s punishments cannot escape death.
Ophelia’s funeral procession comes withLaertes in the lead. Hamlet and Horatio hide, but as soon as
Hamlet finds out that this is Ophelia who died, hereveals himself.
Laertes and Hamlet have a showdown at the graveside, but the fight is broken up. At Elsinore, Hamlet
tells Horatio what happenedon his journey, that Claudius ordered his death, but Hamlet reforged the
letter to orderthe deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern instead. This is when a courtier delivers the
fencing challenge to Hamlet, who accepts it despiteHoratio’s pleas. Before the duel, Hamlet learns that
Claudiusbet on him winning the duel against Laertes.
The bet is part of Claudius’s scheme to cover up the fact that he tried to have Hamletkilled. Hamlet has
no interest in gaining his evil uncle’s respect, even less winning him thebet. During the match, Hamlet is
in the lead.

Gertrude raises a toast for him, using the poisoned glass that Claudios intended forHamlet. Claudius
tries to stop her, but she drinks the glass. Laertes, realizing that it is all about to go south, slashes Hamlet
with the poisonedrapier. In a scuffle, they switch weapons, and Laertesalso gets wounded by the
poisoned blade.
Gertrude falls to the floor, poisoned, and dies. In his dying seconds, Laertes reconciles andtells the
whole plan to Hamlet. Before he dies, Laertes reconciles with Hamlet, and both accept each other’s
apology. Hamlet then runs to Claudius and kills him.
As the poison is about to take Hamlet too,he hears that the Norwegian King Fortinbras and army is
marching through the Danish area.
He names Fortinbras as his successor to the throne. Horatio almost commits suicide in Hamlet’shonor,
but Hamlet tells him to live to tell the story before dying in Horatio’s arms. Fortinbras arrives at the
palace to bringnews of the death of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Seeing the whole Danish royal family
deadon the floor, the prince takes the crown and orders an honorable military funeral for Hamlet.
He is buried as a soldier. And these are the 5 acts of Hamlet. Moving on to the play’s Themes. Because
there are many themes in this play,it is one of the most discussed pieces of literature ever.
One of the most prominent themes is the theme of action vs. inaction, where Hamlet
continuouslyquestions the morality of his decisions, whether he should kill or not kill, to be or not tobe.
The most exciting thing about Hamlet is not his actions, but rather his inactions thatfuel these
discussions of morality. This theme ties in directly with the theme of death.
The theme of religion, honor, and revengeoccurs throughout the story. Characters in Hamlet constantly
lecture each other on how to act;Claudius ‘parent talks’ Hamlet on how to properly show grief;Polonius
lectures Laertes on how he should behave at university;And Hamlet lectures himself in his monologues
on what he should do.
The codes of conduct in this play are largelybased on religion and aristocratic values which demand
honor, stating that revenge isnecessary if honor has been spoiled.
However, as the play progresses, Hamlet findsout that these codes of conduct are contradictory.
Religious codes oppose revenge, saying thatrevenge could put Hamlet’s soul in danger.
The idea of justice becomes confused, andHamlet’s own musing on the idea of revenge slowly muddies
his judgment. Some scholars even say that after Hamlet returnsfrom his trip to England and encounter
with pirates, he behaves very differently, as ifhe’s talked himself out of killing Claudius. The theory goes
that Hamlet’s lust for revengeis refueled with the death of Ophelia and Claudius’s intimidations and
attempts athaving him killed.
Another prevalent theme is appearance vs. reality as each character is trying to find out what the other
characters think. Everybody is spying and trying to decipher everybody else.

Women are another often discussed theme ofthe play. Especially how the protagonist sees women and
their social positions. Hamlet’s view of women is dark, and his pretend madness sometimes becomes
actual madnesswhen he gets furious at women. His mother’s actions prove to him that women are not
to be trusted, that their beauty isjust deceit and sexual desire. Other themes of Hamlet dive less into
theactual play but the history and societal values.
Many scenes from Hamlet exemplify the English codes of conduct at the time or expose thecorrupt and
greedy nature of the English monarchy.
And now, on to Hamlet’s SymbolismThe symbols are evident and apparent, forexample, the Ghost. The
Ghost is usually understood as a symbol of hard times coming ahead, being regardedas a bad omen in
the state of Denmark. The second symbol we see are the flowers ofOphelia, which appear just as she
begins losing her mind.
She gives everybody flowers, describing what it stands for, and expressing her feelingsof betrayal by
offering the flowers so symbolically. It can be interpreted as a cry for help in disguise and could be seen
as Shakespearepoking fun at how nobody understands symbols and what they actually mean. The third
symbol is probably the most famousone in the play; it’s the skull of the jester, which Hamlet picks up.
The story regards it as the symbol of death, decay, and the uselessness of a person aftertheir death. The
skull makes Hamlet think about his destiny and how we all turn to dust when we die. Poison is another
symbol in the play, representingdeceit, betrayal and corruption.
Claudius uses the poison to kill King Hamlet, foreshadowing the ending. The innocent fencing match
between Hamlet and Laertes, appears to be deceitful and corrupted,as each blade is poisoned, along
with Hamlet’s wine.
Poison also works as a metaphor, as the whole royal family has been “poisoned” fromthe very
beginning, betraying and corrupting one another. Shakespeare also uses things like the weatherto set
the scene; when the weather is bad, it’s an omen.
When it’s good, it means good times are coming. That said, these symbols are ambiguous andcan be
over-interpreted while just simply being props to set the mood.

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