Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Hamlet by William Shakespeare



      The first clear reference to what we know as William Shakespeare's Hamlet appears in the Stationers' Register, 26 July 1602, as a play called The Revenge of Hamlet Prince [of] Denmark. In that article, the author says the play was "lately acted by the Lord Chamberlain his servants" . In his list of London plays published in 1598, Francis Meres makes no mention of any play called Hamlet, but a note in Gabriel Harvey's edition of Speght's Chaucer (published in 1598) does mention the play Hamlet. Since scholars question the date of the actual writing of that note, most of them agree that Shakespeare published Hamlet after 1601 and before 1603. The First Folio, in 1623, categorized Shakespeare's plays as Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Shakespeare wrote the great tragedies — excluding Romeo and Juliet, which is not, strictly speaking, a true tragedy — between 1601 and 1606, and apparently Hamlet was written first. Shakespeare closely followed Hamlet with Othello (1604), King Lear (1605/6), and Macbeth (1606), but a number of experts in Bardology (the study of Shakespeare, who is known as The Bard of Avon) believe that Hamlet represents the best of Shakespeare's work. It is the perfect play.
        Hamlet is an enigma. No matter how many ways critics examine him, no absolute truth emerges. Hamlet breathes with the multiple dimensions of a living human being, and everyone understands him in a personal way. Hamlet's challenge to Guildenstern rings true for everyone who seeks to know him: "You would pluck out the heart of my mystery." None of us ever really does.

The conundrum that is Hamlet stems from the fact that every time we look at him, he is different. In understanding literary characters, just as in understanding real people, our perceptions depend on what we bring to the investigation. Hamlet is so complete a character that, like an old friend or relative, our relationship to him changes each time we visit him, and he never ceases to surprise us. Therein lies the secret to the enduring love affair audiences have with him. They never tire of the intrigue.
Characters
·         Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 
·         Claudius, King of Denmark 
·         The Ghost 
·         Polonius 
·         Horatio
·         Laertes
·         Ophelia

·         Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review of the book “Puppet on a chain" by Alistair MacLean”

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

war poets of 1st world war.