About the work
William Shakespeare's tragedy in five acts, probably composed between 1599 and 1601, is the longest of his plays and the most analysed text in Western literature. The story of the Prince of Denmark who cannot bring himself to avenge his father's murder has generated more scholarship, productions, and interpretations than any other theatrical work, and has been continuously performed since its first appearance.
Plot
Prince Hamlet of Denmark returns from university to find his father dead and his mother Gertrude hastily married to his uncle Claudius, now king. The ghost of the old king reveals that Claudius murdered him and demands revenge. Hamlet feigns madness while seeking proof, staging a play that mirrors the murder to catch the king's conscience. He spurns his beloved Ophelia and accidentally kills her father Polonius, mistaking him for the king. Ophelia drowns in madness; her brother Laertes returns to avenge both father and sister. In the final scene, a fencing match arranged by Claudius turns lethal: poisoned blade and poisoned cup leave Hamlet, Laertes, Gertrude, and Claudius dead. Hamlet's friend Horatio survives to tell the tale, as the Norwegian prince Fortinbras claims the throne.
Cultural significance
Hamlet is the most frequently performed of Shakespeare's plays and the supreme role in the English-speaking theatrical tradition. The prince's philosophical hesitation, distilled in the To be or not to be soliloquy, has made him the archetype of modern self-consciousness, claimed by Romanticism, Freudian psychoanalysis, and existentialism alike. August Wilhelm Schlegel's translation made the play a foundational text of German culture, prompting the saying "Hamlet is Germany." Productions and films from John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier to Kenneth Branagh, Ethan Hawke, and Benedict Cumberbatch have defined successive generations of actors.