Hamlet Revenge

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Date: 28^th November 2011

Hamlet Revenge

The play hamlet revenge is usually shortened as the hamlet. It is one of the longest plays of William Shakespeare ever wrote. It is believed that Shakespeare could have possibly written the hamlet between 1599 and 1601. This play is set in the kingdom set up and to be specific it is within the Denmark kingdom. In it the writer tries to recount the revenge that the prince who is hamlet took against his uncle by the name Claudius. This revenge that Hamlet takes against his uncle is due to some actions that hamlet thinks Claudius took and is unfair. Firstly, we find it that the murder of old king hamlet who comes out to be Claudius brother and the blood father to hamlet. Then, after killing hamlets father, Claudius goes ahead to inherit the throne of the father and as if that is not enough, he also marries Gertrude, the widow of king hamlet and the mother of hamlet. In this play, Shakespeare tries to portray madness in every bit. He gives details of feigned and real madness as it does take place in the society. Also he give the real accounts of themes like revenge and what really ignite the, the theme of incest, moral corruption and treachery.(Hibbard, 34)

Basically, there are three early versions of this play that have survived which was very hypothetical.. These versions include the so called the first folio which is normally denoted as F1, the first quarto, Q1 and the second quarto i.e. Q2. The hamlet of Shakespeare is based on the legend of Amleth which he got from the chronicles that were preserved by Saxo Grammaticus of the thirteenth century. This legend was retold a scholar of the sixteenth century by the name Francois de Belleforest. There are also possibilities that Shakespeare could have gotten information from the play Ur-hamlet of Elizabethan which was very hypothetical. (Lott 59)

This play, presents very many characters and I will just highlight on them. Key character of this play is hamlet who is the son of the former king and also the nephew to the present king Claudius. Claudius is the current king of Denmark and the uncle to hamlet. Gertrude on the other hand is the mother to hamlet and the queen to Denmark. These among others are the characters that are prominent in this play.

In this play, the theme revenge is propelled majorly by protagonists who are not able to commit themselves to the revenging act. In the whole story we find that the revenge that hamlet takes against the death of the father is simply a plot  that leads to the deaths of several people including Ophelia, Gertrude, Polonius,  Guilenstern,  .............