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bloopdydooooo · 6 months ago

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WHAT IS THE PLOT OF HAMLET?

(i am cool with a long answer btw)

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ASK OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!!

(this is going under a readmore i know myself)

i tried to keep out as much of my editorialising and interpretation as possible but its really impossible to recount the plot of hamlet without putting your own spin on hamlet. waht you need to know is that im insane about this play and also hamlet and horatio are in love.

i would feel worse about how long this got if you hadn't welcomed it. if you don't want to read it all i put tl;drs for each act

these would usually be my closing remarks but uh. they go here cause of the readmore: this is the plot of hamlet with as little commentary as i could manage without going. if that's all you're interested in, here you are! if you want to know any of my thoughts on various subjects i didn't elaborate on, feel free to dm me/send me another ask/whatever you want. i am always happy to talk about hamlet. seriously, its concerning.

so we open in elsinor, denmark. there are about twenty guards in this scene but the only character name you really need to remember is horatio. horatio is a scholar whose been called out by the night watch because he doesn't believe in the ghost that's been showing itself to the night watch. he sees this ghost and concludes that its the late king hamlet, who died two months ago. he decides to go tell his friend (*cough* boyfriend *cough*) hamlet about the ghost after deciding with the rest of the night watch that its probably some kind of spirit from hell. (1.1)

cut to hamlet, he's absolutely miserable. his father just died and now his mother, gertrude, is marrying his uncle, claudius. his mental health is in the gutter already, but he's considerably more composed than he will be for the rest of the play. claudius tells hamlet not to return to school and instead stay in the palace and he ends up agreeing, though he isn't pleased. horatio comes to tell him about the ghost and we can see that hamlet is already losing it a little (HAMLET: My father - Methinks I see my father! HORATIO: Where, my lord? HAMLET: In my mind's eye. (1.2.191-93)). he agrees to go with the night watch and see the ghost. also hamlet and horatio are gay and in love this will be a recurring theme in the play. (1.2)

new characters! we have laertes and his more famous sister, ophelia. you know her from the paintings and also more likely the song. laertes is leaving for france but before he goes he gives ophelia love advice, which consists of "hamlet doesn't love you don't even think about it". hamlet and ophelia have been exchanging romantic and sexual letters, which she's finally decided to tell her family about. he leaves and their awful father, polonius arrives. he gives her basically the same advice. also i hate him so much i was very relieved when he died. (1.3)

hamlet is on the night watch and he's a rich little princeboy, so he's freezing his ass off. but that's okay, he's going to see his dad! his dad who he misses so terribly. look, he's just a scared, lonely, grieving child who misses his father. and maybe that makes me a little insane. the ghost shows up and beckons hamlet away from the night watch. hamlet follows, despite everyone's warnings. (1.4)

the ghost tells hamlet that he's his father, and that he was killed by polonius, the uncle. polonius dripped poison into his ear one day when he was taking a nap and then called it an accident. hamlet accepts this as fact instantly, despite also being told by the ghost that he's literally from hell. it would be funny if it wasn't devastating. hamlet vows to get vengeance for his father, and dedicates his whole life to revenge in the monologue of all time. (HAMLET: Yea, from the table of my memory I shall wipe away all trivial, fond records, all saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, that youth and observation copied there, and thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain, unmixed with baser matter. (1.5.105-11) HAMLET: O cursèd spite that ever I was born to set it right! (1.5.210-11)). he makes the night watch swear to tell no one what they saw, and goes about his day. this is the last time in this play that we will know the ghost is actually real (and, in my opinion, that's because it's the last time he is real) (1.5)

ACT 1 TL;DR hamlet sees the ghost of his father and learns how he was killed by his uncle, vows to get revenge

act 2 opens with polonius spying on his son, because he's the worst man to ever do it. this horrible man's horrible actions are interrupted by ophelia, who's concerned for hamlet's health. he barged into her room, acting truly and absolutely insane, and i think he was. sometimes, he isnt, he's just faking it. most of the time thought? that guy lost his mind. ophelia says she's worried he might be mad because she rejected his advances. here kicks off her tragedy, when she is used as bait to try and determine whether or not her rejection is actually the root of his insanity. (2.1)

we're now introduced to hamlet's friends, rosencrantz and guildenstern, who are spying on him for claudius to see whats actually wrong with him. gertrude calls hamlet a "poor wretch" (2.2.183) and i couldn't agree more. hamlet and horatio spend some time being in love, and a group of actors show up. hamlet convinces them to put on a show that will mimick what claudius did to his brother, to see if he's guilty. (HAMLET: The play's the thing wherein we'll catch the conscience of a king (2.2.633-34)) he has the coolest monologue of all time, the hecuba monologue, which i used as an audition piece one time but will elect to not recite right now. im not that awful. (2.2)

ACT 2 TL;DR the royal family think hamlet is insane because he was rejected and he proves to be a huge theater kid

the "to be or not to be" (3.1.64) scene i know everyone has been waiting for. the royal family (claudius, gertrude, and polonius thrown in there for clarety) set up a trap for hamlet, watching as he interacts with ophelia to see if her rejection is really what sent him mad. it's clearly not, and we get the whole "get thee to a nunnery" (3.1.131) bit in which he does some really interesting things with prose/verse (i'm actually not sure what is and isn't famous from this play its all famous to me) (3.1)

hamlet gets all his actors in line for the show, flirts with horatio for a little bit, then goes to go sit on ophelia's lap. the plays go well, and that is to say the play goes poorly. the players reconstruct hamlet sr's death in front of polonius, who leaves in a rage, putting a stop to the performance. hamlet is exstatic, though, because this is the proof he needed that what the ghost said was true. he gets horatio in on it to confirm that it really happened the way he hoped before being called to go speak to his mother before bed. (3.2)

THE PRAYING SCENE!!!!!! insane over this one. hamlet stumbles across polonius in the middle of a prayer and goes to kill him, only to decide to wait for a better time because were he to be killed in prayer he would go to heaven. (HAMLET: A villain kills my father, and for that, I, his only son, this same villain send to heaven. (3.3.81-83)) when hamlet has left, polonius reveals that he hasn't been able to pray due to his guilty conscience. (POLONIUS: My words fly up, my thoughts stay below; words without toughts never to heaven go (3.3.102-03)) (3.3)

getrude intends to speak with her son, but, scared of how unpredictable he's become, has polonius hide in the room so he can protect her if worst comes to worst. when hamlet enters he's untstable and angry, gertrude calls out for help. upon realising there's someone else in the room, hamlet kills him. (HAMLET: How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead. (3.3.29)) he then, completely unphased, enumerates the differences between his father and uncle for gertrude. he tells her about his plan to "fake" insanity to throw off claudius while he works on getting his revenge. during this, hamlet sees the ghost of his father again, listed as the same character in the text. hamlet is the only one who can see him though, unlike with the ghost from act 1. he then drag's polonius' corpse away, insulting him all the while. as he should. (3.3)

ACT 3 TL;DR hamlet gets his confirmation that his uncle is guilty but chooses not to kill him when given the opportunity, worried he'd go to heaven. he kills polonius, speaks with his mother, and sees his dead father again before heading off to hide the body.

gertrude warns claudius that hamlet killed polonius (4.1)

rosencrantz and guildenstern try and get hamlet to tell them where he hid polonius' body. he's a little shithead about it. (4.2)

claudius tries to get hamlet to tell him where he put the body. he's still a shithead but he does tell him eventually. claudius then reveals his plan to have him shipped off to english and speaks unto the audience later one of the most batshit monologues you will ever hear /pos (KING: And England, if my love thou dost hold'st at aught [...], thou mayst not coldly set our soveriegn process, which imports at full, by letters congruing to that effect, the present death of Hamlet. Do it, England, for like the hectic in my blood he rages, and thou must cure me. Till I know 'tis done, howe'er my haps, my joys will ne'er begin. (4.3.66-77)) (4.3)

fortinbras, the norweigan prince, arrives to speak with claudius at the same time as hamlet is leaving for england. hamlet interpells the polish captain then ruminates on war and death a little bit before not changing his mind at all about any of it (HAMLET: O, from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth! (4.4.68-69)) (4.4)

we learn the fate of ophelia. this play really is as much her tragedy as it is hamlet's, and she makes me want to burst into tears whenever i think of her. ophelia........ </3 ophelia has gone mad in a different way to hamlet, after her father's death. she's impossible to properly speak to or reason with, singing nursery rhymes and handing out flowers. she's completely gone, there's nothing really left of the woman we met earlier. laertes chooses then to return, demanding to know what happened to his father, polonius. ophelia returns, devastating her brother with the state of her mind. its just. look she makes me really sad. (me when the tragedy is tragedying) (4.5)

horatio recieves a letter from hamlet, telling him that he's heading back to denmark after having made his way onto a pirate ship. it's the gayest scene in the play. (HORATIO: I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet. (4.6.4-6) HAMLET (letter): He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet (4.6.30-31)) (4.6)

claudius and laertes recieve similar letters and decide they will kill hamlet when he returns to denmark. laertes will challenge him to a duel only to attack him with a poisoned, sharpened blade, and if he asks for anything to drink or - god forbid - wins, claudius has a poisoned chalice ready for him to drink. right as they conclude their plan, gertrude comes in and announces ophelia's death. she's drowned herself. (4.7)

ACT 4 TL;DR hamlet is banished from denmark, sent to his death in england, and then returns like a very sad boomerang. ophelia loses her mind and then her life, drowning herself out of grief.

you can't have the tragedy of hamlet, prince of denmark without the gravediggers. they bring comedy and lightheartedness to the saddest play ever to exist on the planet earth. one gravedigger is digging ophelia's grave and prattling on to another. hamlet and horatio approach him and the prince condemns his lightheartedness in the face of his grim work. he recognizes one of the people the gravedigger has uncovered, a jester he'd known as a child (HAMLET: Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio (5.1.190-91)). A funeral procession arrives, carrying ophelia's body. when hamlet realises who's funeral it is, he's overcome with grief and goes to fight laertes for daring to mourn his own sister. he has issues. and i hate him (hamlet apologist). horatio escorts hamlet away wfter breaking up a fight between him and laertes. (5.1)

hamlet tells horatio that he sent rosencrantz and guildenstern to their deaths. upon finding a letter from claudius that said that upon his arrival in england, hamlet was to be excecuted, he changed it to say rosencrantz and guildenstern, literally shooting the messengers. but also, killing his friends. horatio is upset but hamlet shows no remorse. its a great moment. laertes' challenge which we, the audience, know to be rigged, is announced to hamlet who accepts the challenge despite horatio voicing his concerns for what's going to happen. hamlet and laertes fight and hamlet is cut by the poisoned blade, but at some point in the fighting they exchange blades and hamlet cuts laertes back, sealing both of their fates. gertrude drinks the poisoned chalice and dies, warning hamlet of what claudius had tried to do before she dies. hamlet kills his uncle and is officially forgiven by laertes before he dies. hamlet dies with horatio (inhisarmsinhisarmsinhisarmsinhisarms-) (HORATIO: Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, and flight of angels sing thee to thy rest (5.2.396-97)) after announcing that he wants fortinbras to carry on the danish monarchy, with all the royal family dead. hamlet is given a soldier's funeral. i am not too proud to say that i cried. (5.2)

ACT 5 TL;DR hamlet returns to denmark, is fucked up about ophelia's death, and then dies himself. its so fucking sad.

WHOLE PLAY TL;DR hamlet grieves the loss of his father so much that he goes insane and in his quest to get revenge on his uncle who killed his father, ends up causing the deaths of seven unintended people around him. the tragedy really tragedied with this one.

#ask tag #hamlet 1604 #twelfth-dyketor #cecil rambles #rambles about hamlet specifically this isnt even the worst of my rambling. apologies to anyone who has suffered my hamlet madness.#oh!! also if you want more awesome hamlet thoughts go send @go-to-the-mirror an ask claw has some awesome takes #i assume you asked me because of the hamlet pinned post?#god i love this play so much.#the play's the thing!!!!

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