Hamlet

Hamlet's ship was attacked by pirates. The pirates agreed to return Hamlet to Denmark for a price. He sent word to Horatio and asked him to get ready to meet him. We also learn that his traitorous friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, have met with some dire circumstances.

Polonius didn't have any type of cover or guard while listening in on the conversation and wasn't expecting for Hamlet to notice him, "him"(What Hamlet had thought was the supposed Claudius) It was maybe because Hamlet had thought Polonius was Claudius, but even so.

Polonius hid behind the tapestry or the arras while he was eavesdropping on Gertude and Hamlet. Hamlet thought that it happened to be the king Claudius who was spying on him and had hid behind there, but to his unknowing, after slashing away at the cloth he found that he had killed Polonius. Hamlet, instead of being shocked by killing the man said that he was a fool and hid his body somewhere.

Ophelia returns Hamlets gifts because she no longer feels that have any value to her since the sentimental value that they once carried has been lost due to his rude and insane behaviour towards her.

There is nothing in the text that indicates Laertes is in school. He came from France, and wishes to return there after coming back to Denmark to attend King Claudius' wedding.

Hamlet, on the other hand, attended school in Wittenburg, and wishes to retrun there, but Claudius (and more so, Gertrude) convincce him to stay in Denmark. good thing, there wouldn't have been much of a play had he skipped out in the second scene of the play...

The tragic force in Hamlet, according to Gustav Freytag, is when Hamlet, during an interview with his mother, kills Polonius by mistake, thinking that he is killing the king. See Freytag's Technique of the Drama, translated by Elias J. MacEwan, page 191.

Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, accidentally drinks the poison. This happened because she was giving a toast to Hamlet after winning the fencing match against Laertes but not knowing that Claudius intended to make Hamlet drink from that cup if the plant to poison him from fencing fails.

His father died because his uncle poisoned him and that his mother got married to his uncle so fast that she had no time to mourn the loss of her husband.

Polonius dies in Act 3. Ophelia dies offstage in Act 4; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die offstage sometime after Act 4. Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude and Laertes all die in Act 5.

Very possibly. His idea "to put an antick disposition on" comes to him at a moment when he is in extreme emotional turmoil, having just said goodbye to the ghost. It is not clear that he has some kind of fully-formed plan at this point. But as the play develops, he finds that the antick disposition serves him well as a way to protect himself from Claudius's numerous spies, especially Polonius. He uses the play within a play to confirm the ghost's account of his death, but the reputation he has built for himself as a lunatic enables him to behave in a bizarre way on that occasion without surprising most of the court.

Horatio tell HAmlet that after midnight his father ghost shows up

This line is from Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2.

Prince Hamlet has been told by the ghost of his father, King Hamlet, that Prince Hamlet's uncle, King Claudius, murdered his own brother, King Hamlet. Claudius then married the dead King Hamlet's wife and Prince Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude. Since Hamlet does not know if the ghost is truly his father and telling the truth, he devises a plan that he believes will prove if what the ghost has said is true.

Actors have come to perform at Elsinore Castle for King Claudius and Queen Gertrude. Hamlet asks them to use his altered version of the play, in order to "catch the conscience of the King." The alteration tells the story of a Queen whose husband is murdered by poison. The poisoner then woos the Queen with gifts. Though she rejects him for awhile, in the end she accepts his love. Hamlet plans to watch Claudius' reaction to the altered portion of the play, and discern from that response if Claudius is guilty. His fear of King Claudius' power, and his desire to shame his mother, Queen Gertrude, is the reason for Hamlet's indirect method of accusing the King. If Hamlet's plan doesn't work, he will still be free to pursue other possibilities.

Rosencrantz an Guildenstern

Well, the basic reason is that they're not in the Chapel. The setting is Claudius's private room, the King's Room. That's stated in the play dialogue. Guildenstern says it: "(the king) is in his retirement..." It's reference to the place Claudius retires for the night, his private quarters. When Claudius left the 'Mousetrap' play, he went to his own room. Claudius prays during the scene, and apparently the idea of praying has led some people to think the scene is in the Chapel, however, the actual play dialogue tells us otherwise. People don't have to be in a chapel to pray, and many people pray in their own rooms, of course, which is what Claudius does.

Hamlet is discouraged from killing Claudius because he finds Claudius praying. Hamlet is afraid that if he kills Claudius at prayer, Claudius's soul will go straight to Heaven. However, the Ghost said, or very strongly implied, that the soul of Hamlet's father was in Purgatory. Hamlet doesn't see it as fair, that he could send Claudius to Heaven, when his own father is in Purgatory. Hamlet decides to wait for another opportunity later, when there's less chance of sending Claudius's soul to Heaven.

They're not that similar.

Guildenstern admits to Hamlet that they were sent for. Not Rosencrantz.

Guildenstern jokes with Hamlet. Rosencrantz doesn't.

Hamlet takes Guildenstern aside for the "recorder lesson" after the 'Mousetrap' play. Not Rosencrantz.

More could be mentioned. When all the details are observed, they're pretty distinct characters.

Reynaldo is the spy that Polonius sends over to France to spy on his son Laertes. He is told that he is supposed to ask people in France what Laertes is actually like (does he party, drink, sleep with prostitutes etc.). The reasoning behind Polonius sending Reynaldo over to France is to see if Laertes is actually there studying art, or if he is just playing around.

First Folio: The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke

First Quarto: The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke

Second Quarto: The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke (first page) and The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke (title page)

Third Quarto: The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke (first page) and The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke (title page)

Polonius explains this earlier in the play, in 2.2.

P: You know sometimes he walks four hours together

Here in the lobby.

Q: So he does indeed.

P: At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him

Be you and I behind an arras then.

Mark the encounter. If he love her not,

And be not from his reason fall'n thereon,

Let me be no assistant for a state

But keep a farm and carter's.

Laertes plans on killing Hamlet by challenging him to a duel. Laertes will have a sharper blade than needed, and this blade will have posion on it, so if Hamlet gets cut during the battle, he will die. If Laertes fails, King Claudius will posion Hamlet at dinner following the duel.

In Act 3, Scene 1, Claudius and Polonius try to get Hamlet to reveal his private thoughts by setting up a meeting with his erstwhile girlfriend Ophelia. When Hamlet arrives, he probably knows full well that Claudius is lurking somewhere around but does not appear to be sure that Ophelia is party to the trap. Eventually, however, he figures out that Ophelia knows all about it and it makes him very angry.

Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark (that's a country in Northern Europe, between Germany and Sweden), because his father, also called Hamlet, was the king. However, when Hamlet was away at University in Wittemberg, his father died, and before he got back, his uncle Claudius had proclaimed himself king and had married Hamlet's mother Gertrude. Hamlet gets back to find that the country is preparing for war, and some of his buddies have seen a ghost looking like his father stalking the battlements of the castle.

For the rest of the story, watch the play.

It can be argued that towards the end of the play, Hamlet becomes more of a leader; he finally assumes his role as prince right before death, when he proclaims the new King of Denmark to be Fortinbras, who he recognizes as an able candidate immediately. Hamlet also learns to handle important matters for himself and inflicts his ideas of treason upon his government, of Denmark, and also that of England when he decides to command and take responsibility for the death of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

In Act 4, Scene 1 when Claudius asks Gertrude "How does Hamlet?" she tells him that he is as "Mad as the sea and wind", not telling him what Hamlet has admitted to her in the previous scene that he is actually "mad in craft" as opposed to actually mad, thereby protecting his plan. On top of that while she tells Claudius that Hamlet killed Polonious accidentally in the last scene, she does not tell him that Hamlet was openly disappointed that he had not killed Claudius. She also says that Hamlet "weeps for what is done" when in fact after murdering Polonious Hamlet said "Thou wretched, intruding fool, farewell. I took the for thy better."

Claudius does not ask Hamlet what he has done with Polonius, although Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do. He asks Hamlet where Polonius is. His lines are "Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?" and "Where is Polonius?". Hamlet answers, first that Polonius is at supper (not where he eats but where he is eaten) and second that Polonius is in heaven (where Claudius cannot go to find him). Then he adds, "But if indeed you find him not within this month you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby."