Why ‘Hamlet’ is relevant?

‘Hamlet: The Prince of Denmark’, the longest play by the Bard of Avon (William Shakespeare) was written during 1599-1601 is so good that readers and audiences still connect with it.

Firstly, I would like to summarize the play (spoilers alert!). The play is about Hamlet, the Denmark prince who comes across a ghost of his father- the king of Denmark and tells Hamlet about his murder and the murderer. Hamlet’s Uncle Claudius has murdered the king, married the queen Gertrude who is also Hamlet’s mother and has claimed the throne. As Hamlet has been told to take the revenge of his father’s death, he pretends to be feeble-minded to throw his uncle Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius (Ophelia’s dad), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Hamlet’s childhood pals called by the king to keep watch on him) off guard. Hamlet’s love interest Ophelia also claims Hamlet being crazy. Some actors (players) come and Hamlet decides to perform the murder scene of the deceased king to reveal the truth and watch Claudius’s reaction and check if the ghost is telling the truth. Hamlet also thinks about committing a suicide (here he make the famous speech “to be or not to be, that is the question”). Claudius confesses he’s guilty and Hamlet accidentally ends up killing Polonius (Ophelia’s dad). Claudius sends Hamlet to England, on the way Hamlet comes across Prince Fortinbras of Norway who is trying to regain the territories, lost by his father. At the castle, Ophelia goes mad, Laertes (Polonius’s son and Ophelia’s brother) is mad at Hamlet. Claudius suggests Laertes to fight a friendly ‘duel’ with Hamlet and keep poison as a backup on the tip of the sword. Ophelia dies. Hamlet randomly stumbles upon her funeral and creates a scene is with Laertes. Hamlet tells Horatio (Hamlet’s trusted friend) on the way to England, he found a letter ordering Hamlet’s death but instead he changed his name to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and he returns on a pirate ship. During the friendly duel, everything goes according to Claudius’s plan; Gertrude drinks poisoned wine and dies. Laertes cuts Hamlet with poisoned sword, Laertes is wounded by the same sword. Hamlet ends up killing Claudius with the sword and also makes him drink the poisoned wine. Horatio wants to kill himself but Hamlet tells him to live and tell his story. Fortinbras of Norway enters and takes over the Danish throne.

Hamlet is all about murder, suicide, madness, uncertainty, crime and betrayal. Every character behaves in his or her way, their good and their evil. They all have their own identities. Hamlet delays all his decisions because he is not certain about the truth. He also suffers from procrastination and we must agree that this is something all of us face in our life. Ophelia also represents the secondary position of women in the society. She has no control over her relationships, her body or her choices. Gertrude is an example of adultery which we can see every time in most of the relationships. In the end, we don’t even know whether justice has been achieved. Reading this play again has made me realize that this play has a lot in it for us to learn. Hamlet is not just about the famous soliloquy “To be, or not to be that is the question…”. It is much more than that. Many more pieces of wisdom by Shakespeare come to us via his characters in this play. Here are some quotes I am listing that made me think.

Ophelia-

1. We know what we are, but not what we may be.
2. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?
3. Rich gifts was poor when givers prove unkind.

King Claudius-

1. Offender’s scourge is weighed, but never the offence.
2. My words fly up, my thoughts go below:

Words without thoughts to heaven go.

Queen Gertrude-

1. All that lives must die, passing through the nature to eternity.

Hamlet-

1. Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern- Denmark’s a prison
   Rosencrantz- Then is the world.
2. There are more things in Earth, Horatio, than are dreamy of in your philosophy.
3. The cat will mew and dog will have his day.

Our world is of appearances and Hamlet is a play about the difficulty of living in the world.

-Kalyani L.