2021-09-11 - hamlet

though hamlet is such a famous play by shakespeare, i had never learned about it in school or watched the play before. i finished listening to the librivox recording a few days ago though. it was fairly easy for me to understand too.

hamlet is a prince of denmark. his father had recently died and appears to hamlet as a ghost. the ghost says he was murdered by hamlet's uncle claudius and asks hamlet to exact revenge on his uncle. hamlet doesn't tell anyone what happened so people think he went mad. hamlet stages a play about a man who kills his brother for the throne to show claudius, to watch claudius's reaction and know whether or not the ghost was speaking the truth. the conclusion is that claudius was definitely the murderer. hamlet sees claudius praying afterwards and decides not to kill him at that time because if he dies while praying, he may be sent straight to heaven. hamlet later talk with his mom and kills his lover's father, thinking it was claudius. claudius tries to have hamlet executed in england, but hamlet escapes that attempt. hamlet's lover then possibly commits suicide after being so sad that her father is dead. hamlet's lover's brother returns to denmark from france and is very angry at hamlet. the story ends with claudius trying to trick hamlet into getting poisoned. but the scheme backfires and four people, including: hamlet, his mother, claudius, and his lover's brother die. since the entire royal family is now dead, the throne is given to the neighboring kingdom of norway.

when i got to act 5, i really wondered how the play would end, because claudius and hamlet were still alive. i was suprised at how many people died from the poison in the last few minutes of the play. it was a bit sad. that said, hamlet was a nice read.