Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

Summary

A spectral chill slithers across the parapets of Elsinore: the late king’s armour-clad wraith accuses his brother Claudius of fratricide, then vanishes into fog thick as regal ermine. Prince Hamlet—lungs marinated in university rhetoric, heart marinated in grief—returns to a court where trumpets celebrate his mother Gertrude’s hasty nuptials to the usurper. The prince’s mind becomes a fun-house of mirrors: every corridor reflects possible vengeance, yet each step toward murder spawns a labyrinth of doubt. He feigns madness, scribbles suicidal soliloquies, stages a meta-play within the play to sting Claudius’s conscience, and accidentally skewers Polonius—father to Ophelia—whose blood becomes the first coin paid in a mounting debt of ruin. Ophelia drowns among garlands of nettles and rue; her brother Laertes returns from France brandishing a rapier dipped in poison. Claudius sets two traps: a friendly duel rigged to kill, and a cup of wine laced for Hamlet’s victory toast. Bodies accumulate like chess pieces tipped by a petulant god: Gertrude drinks, Laertes bleeds, Claudius chokes on his own treachery, Hamlet expires with his father’s name on his lips, while Fortinbras’s army—cannon thundering—claims the hollow crown of Denmark.

Synopsis

Hamlet suspects his uncle has murdered his father to claim the throne of Denmark and the hand of Hamlet's mother, but the prince cannot decide whether or not he should take vengeance.