'the tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark' by William Shakespeare

First of all Hamlet is considered one of Shakespeare's greatest plays together with Macbeth and the Tempest. There is a lot of plays that Shakespeare has wrote, some are tragedies, some are history, cronicals, some are comedies but among the tragedies Hamlet is considered one of the greatest tragedies. Other examples of greatest tragedies are Macbeth, the Tempest.

Shakespeare found/drew inspiration from medieval matter/materials.

A tragedy tells a story, so it is a narrative play because when a text tells a story it is a narrative form of literature.

And even when we read poetry, poetry may be narrative. If the poem tells a story, that poem is narrative.

A tragedy tells about somebody who has got ideals, who lives for those ideals to the point of death. A tragedy has generally got a tragic hero. In order to be a hero there must be somebody who dies for some ideals. The hero is one who has got values and dedicates all his life.

In the Renaissance man was put at the centre of investigation. And if we try to speak an investigate about man and we want this debate to be important/central, this man, or the heroine, we speak about must be interesting for people.

So in the case of Hamlet the full title of the story is 'the tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark'. So it has something to do with a certain character who is also the protagonist and who's social status is that of a prince. So he's not a common man, he is the son of a king. So again/once more the context is the kingdom.

The tragedy was written between 1599 and 1602, so in the very period of transition between the 16th century and the 17th century: two century that are particularly relevant in the history of England.

The tragedy is nor set in England, it is set in Denmark.

In order to understand the spring of the tragedy you have to know that Hamlet, the protagonist, like every human being, have a natural father, who's name is Hamlet again, and at a certain point his father died and Hamlet begins to suspect that his father has been murdered by his uncle who has now married his mother Gertrude. it follows that prince Hamlet, the son, wants to take a revenge against his father.

The stepfather's name is Claudius; not a casual name because 'Claudius' comes from the latin 'claudicare'. So even in the name there is something that doesn't work.

The context is developed on different layers of meaning.

Who is Hamlet?

• According to the title he is a prince. This is something to do do with politics. Prince which means that he comes from a king and the King is the ruler of the kingdom and the kingdom is Denmark. So this is the political level of the context.
• He is a son who had father and who has got a mother. So this is the family level. And so the family level has something to do with affection, love.
• He is an adolescent. So he belongs to the generation of the youth. This explains why he believes that matters are or right or wrong. This is the generation level.

This explains why Hamlet has been considered, by many critics, a revenge tragedy according to a very, common, traditional, medieval, renaissance and classical interpretation.

This second layer opens up to a further layer. Hamlet is a son, but instead of a father, he has a stepfather (he must substitute his natural father with the figure of a stepfather) and still a mother.

So it is interesting to see how this relation, the family level, (stepfather and Hamlet's father and Hamlet's mother) work in the psychology of the young adolescent.

Hamlet finds himself untapped. And when somebody is untrapped in a complex situation he/she ponders different points of view and sometimes finds himself in a contradictory situation: he doesn't know what is right and what is wrong, he doesn't know to behave, he doesn't know what to do.

He doesn't know how to face the situation.

The situation is made even more complex by the existence of a certain Ophelia, an adolescent of the same generation of Hamlet. She is the daughter of Polonius, a man who is very near the new king.

And as it always happened in all good stories, it is the woman that create tragedies. 

And that is why the women in history will never be free because we are stupid, because they don't feel revenge in the way a man does. For a man a revenge is something physical 'i want to destroy you', but generally speaking men want to subdue women because they can't control them. Which is the most difficult kind of woman than a man may have to face with? A woman who he can't control, a woman that is whomhighly.

There are 2 women in Hamlet's life: there is his mother, called Gertrude, and there is Ophelia who is in love with him and apparently he is in love with her.

I say 'apparently' because men are very very weak in their nature. First of all because they cannot create life, they cannot generate children, so they are weaker than women, even on the physical point of view: scientist has demonstrated that a woman is stronger from a physical point. But second because they are subject to conditioning: man are easily conditioning.

Hamlet doesn't know first of all if Claudius has murdered his father. At first he has doubts, but at first he's not so sure. He thinks about it, his mind troubles on that thought very often since when one night, and it is interesting that it happened at night, he hears the voice of his dead father's ghost talking to him and asking for revenge.

He meets his father's ghost at night. This is very important because it created the setting of the scene: at night.

It is a ghost because he has already died.

Hamlet is scared because he cannot control the situation. The situation is whomhighly. The idea of his father's ghost gives him torment.

Hamlet to adapt creatively to reality will stage a play, re-enacting his father's murder, and determine Claudius's guilt or innocence by studying his reaction.

The play performed a king murdered with poison in the ears by his brother who wants to married his wife.

Hamlet stage a play where a king murdered his brother to married his wife, and to have power, because Hamlet is jealous towards his mother.

Hamlet starts to have doubts if his role in the play worth and so he wonders: to be or not to be, this is the question.