Hamlet: A Great Tragedy

Hareshwar Roy,

Hamlet: A Great Tragedy

Hamlet is the best tragedy of William Shakespeare. It tells a beautiful story of Hamlet who is the protagonist of this play. Once upon a time there lives a young prince named Hamlet in Denmark. He is a thoughtful young man. He deeply loves his parents and a beautiful lady named Ophelia. But after his father's sudden death the world appeared before him as stale and unprofitable. The hasty remarriage of his mother with his uncle Claudius is shock for him. Hamlet is heartbroken. He feels that there is something wrong in the castle of Elsinore.
The Story of Hamlet
The story of Hamlet begins on a dark and cold night. Guards of the court see a ghost on the castle walls. It looks exactly like the dead King. They inform Horatio. Horatio was Hamlet's best friend. He advises him to see the ghost. Hamlet sees the ghost himself. The ghost reveals a terrible secret that he was murdered. Hamlet is shocked at this secret. The ghost reveals that his own brother, Claudius, poured poison into his ear while he was sleeping in the garden. The ghost suggests him that he should take revenge of his father's murder. Hamlet promises to do so. Hamlet decides to be alert. He knows that his uncle is a shrewd and powerful fellow. So, he pretends to be crazy and he uses his craziness as his defense mechanism.
His madness confuses everyone. His mother Gertrude worries about him. His uncle Claudius becomes suspicious. He deputes Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy against him. Polonius was his chief advisor and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were Hamlet's old friends.
During this time, Hamlet’s relationship with Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius, becomes tense. She is sorry by his strange behavior and by his harsh words. In a fit of despair Hamlet tells her to go to a nunnery. He says, 'Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?' At that time Polonius was hiding nearby and listening to their conversation.
Is his uncle really the murderer of his father? To know the answer of this question, Hamlet makes a clever plan. He arranges for a group of traveling actors to perform a play for the King and Queen. The play, entitled ‘The Murder of Gonzago,’ shows a king being murdered in the exact same way the ghost described. Hamlet watches Claudius minutely during the performance. When the villain of the play pours poison into the ear of sleeping king, Claudius jumps up. Shouting he goes out of the room. Hamlet gets the proof that he needs. He believes that the ghost was telling the truth.
One day Hamlet enters his mother's chamber. At that time he is very angry. He confronts her about her hasty re-marriage to Claudius. He begins to shout. In the meantime he hears a noise behind a curtain. He suspects that he may be his uncle. Without any delay he stabs through the curtain. He finds he has killed Polonius, Ophelia's father. This one rash act has terrible consequences.
The King is now terrified of Hamlet. He conspires against him. He sends him away to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He orders them secretly to kill him on the way to England. In this context fortune favours Hamlet. His ship to England is attacked by pirates. He boards their vessel. The pirates make him their prisoner. In the course of the conversation the pirates recognize his royal status. They leave him back to Denmark. He writes this event of his escape in detail in a letter to Horatio.
Meanwhile, Due to her father's death and Hamlet's rejection Ophelia becomes mad. Once in her madness she tries to climb a tree. The branch of the tree breaks. She falls into a brook and drowns. Her brother, Laertes, returns from France. He is filled with grief and rage. He vows to avenge both his father's and sister's death. Claudius uses Laertes. He convinces Laertes that Hamlet is responsible for his bad condition. Claudius cleverly sets up a duel between them.
The duel is a trap. Laertes's sword is tipped with deadly poison. In the case of failure, Claudius also prepares a cup full of poison for Hamlet to drink. During the duel, things go terribly wrong. Gertrude raises the cup to toast Hamlet's success and drinks. She was unaware of the poison. Claudius tries to stop her but in vain. In the third round, Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned blade. At this Hamlet becomes angry. He and Laertes start scuffling. They accidentally swap swords. Hamlet gets hold of Laertes's poisoned weapon. He then wounds Laertes with the very blade. Both are cut by the poisoned blade. Gertrude collapses and dies. Dying Laertes confesses everything. He reveals the plot of Claudius. Laertes asks for Hamlet's forgiveness before he dies. Hamlet forgives him.
Hamlet, with his last bit of strength, stabs Claudius with the poisoned sword and forces him to drink the cup of poison. Claudius dies. Dying Hamlet asks his friend Horatio to tell his story to the world. He names Fortinbras as his successor to the Danish throne and then dies. His last words are, ‘The rest is silence.’ The scene concludes with the arrival of Fortinbras and ambassadors from England. They are met with the shocking sight of the entire Danish royal court lying dead.
Thus Hamlet's story is a great tragedy. It is a tale about revenge, grief and madness. The play shows how revenge, grief and madness can lead to the downfall of an entire kingdom.
Location: B-37, City Homes Colony, Jawahar Nagar Satna, Madhya Pradesh, India
Currently Dr. Roy is working as Professor of English at Govt. P.G. College Satna, Madhya Pradesh. He is the author of the following books: (1) Diasporic Articulation in the Novels of M.G. Vassanji (2) A Study of M.G. Vassanji 's Novels (3) Varieties of Indianity in the Works of M.G. Vassanji & Rohinton Mistry (4)Diaspora & Indian Diaspora: A Brief Study (5) Short Notes of English Literature - I (6) Short Notes of English Literature - II (7) हमार पहचान ह भोजपुरी - भोजपुरी कविता संकलन (8) हमरा प्यार हो गइल - भोजपुरी गज़ल संकलन (9) भोजपुरी कविताएँ

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