The Shakespeare Plays / Hamlet
Hamlet
Considered the best work
by the best writer, ever!
Whether you like brilliant ruminations on life and death or are more a fan of murder and ghosts and screaming at your mother and insanity and poisonings and stabbings and poisoned stabbings, Hamlet has got it all. And it’s got much much more when seen as the work (and practically the life) of the Earl of Oxford.
What exactly is the Ghost, and from where?
Why does Hamlet wait so long to act?
What drives Ophelia insane?
![Hamlet](https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/wp-content/uploads/SI-Hamlet-sq.png)
Themes
The main themes of Hamlet include
- Death
- Betrayal
- Revenge
- Madness
- Corruption
- Rashness vs. Thinking
- Acting
Plot Summary
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragedy that delves into themes of treachery, revenge, moral corruption, and the nature of existence and of death. The play is set in Denmark and follows the story of Prince Hamlet.
The play opens with the ghost of King Hamlet appearing to guards at Elsinore Castle. The ghost reveals to his son, Prince Hamlet, that he was murdered by his brother, Claudius, who has now taken the throne and married Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. The ghost urges Hamlet to avenge his death.
Hamlet feigns madness to investigate and plots to kill Claudius. His erratic behavior confuses and alarms those around him, including his girlfriend Ophelia, daughter of Polonius, the lord chamberlain. Polonius believes Hamlet’s madness is due to his love for Ophelia. Hamlet often reveals his torment in eloquent soliloquies.
Hamlet stages a play, “The Mousetrap,” enacting his father’s murder to provoke an expression of guilt from Claudius. Claudius’s reaction confirms his guilt to Hamlet, who decides to kill him. However, Hamlet hesitates and misses his chance, killing Polonius instead by mistake when he hides behind a curtain.
Ophelia, stricken by her father’s death and Hamlet’s behavior, descends into madness and drowns. Her brother Laertes returns to Denmark to avenge Polonius’s death. Hamlet returns from exile in England and confronts actual death in a graveyard and Ophelia’s funeral. Laertes conspires with Claudius to kill Hamlet in a rigged duel. They plan to poison the tip of Laertes’s sword and prepare a poisoned drink for Hamlet.
During the duel, both Hamlet and Laertes are wounded by the poisoned sword. Queen Gertrude accidentally drinks the poisoned wine and dies. In his dying moments, Laertes reveals Claudius’s plot. Enraged, Hamlet finally kills Claudius.
Hamlet, dying from the poison, names Fortinbras of Norway as his successor. The play ends with Fortinbras arriving to take control of Denmark and ordering a military funeral for Hamlet.
Sources
Hamlet can be dated between 1586 when all the major sources were available and 1602 when it was entered in the Stationers’ Register.
What works inspired the author of Hamlet?
- The “Ur-Hamlet” (c. 1589). A mythical early Hamlet play for which there is no direct evidence. Its existence was created by orthodox scholars to explain away “too-early” references to the Shakespeare play.
- The Precepts of William Cecil, Lord Burghley. A private collection of aphorisms from a father (William Cecil, Lord Treasurer of England) to his son which provided inspiration for “To thine own self be true” and other famous lines from the play.
- The life of Edward de Vere. Events such as the death of his father and “hasty” remarriage of his mother, the relationship with William Cecil who was the model for Polonius, the pirate attack and numerous other references closely follow instances in de Vere’s life.
Act by Act Analysis and more evidence for Oxford's authorship
Michael Delahoyde, Hamlet, Overview and Act by Act.
Visit the website of Professor Michael Delahoyde, host of our series, for an act by act analysis and full treatment of Oxfordian themes in the play, plus a filmography and more.
Learn more!
Eddi Jolly – “Dating Shakespeare’s Hamlet.” The Oxfordian 2 (1999): 11-23.
Eddi Jolly – “The Tragedy of Hamlet.” In Dating Shakespeare’s Play’s. Ed. Kevin Gilvary. Tunbridge Wells, UK: Parapress, 2010. 379-395.
Earl Showerman – “Orestes and Hamlet: From Myth to Masterpiece, Part I.” The Oxfordian 7 (2004): 89-114. [“Part II” unpublished.]
Richard Whalen – Hamlet’s Sources and Influences, and Its “Forerunners” by Oxford. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter: Vol. 54/1 (Winter 2018), 1, 19-31.
Christopher Paul – Oxford, Hamlet, and the Pirates: the naked truth. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter: Vol. 40/1: 01-5 (2004, Winter).
Tom Regnier – The Law in Hamlet: Death, Property, and the Pursuit of Justice. Brief Chronicles, v. 3 (2011).
Ren Draya – The Three Queens of Hamlet. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter: Vol. 54/1 (Winter 2018), 32-36.
Yambert, Karl – “Oxford’s Bible and Hamlet’s Biblical Allusions.” The Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter 60.2 (Spring 2024): 15-24.
BOOKS
Farina, William. De Vere as Shakespeare: An Oxfordian Reading of the Canon. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2006. 195-200.
Gontar, David P. “Hamlet Made Simple.” In Hamlet Made Simple and Other Essays. Nashville: New English Review Press, 2013. 377-415. Gontar focuses on Hamlet’s possible doubt about his own paternity: Claudius? Might explain much.
Beauclerk, Charles. Shakespeare’s Lost Kingdom. NY: Grove Press, 2010.
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