Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Mass Market Paperback, 342 pages

Published July 1st 2003 by Washington Square Press(first published 1603)

“Hamlet” is the story of the Prince of Denmark who learns of the death of his father at the hands of his uncle, Claudius. Claudius murders Hamlet’s father, his own brother, to take the throne of Denmark and to marry Hamlet’s widowed mother. Hamlet is sunk into a state of great despair as a result of discovering the murder of his father and the infidelity of his mother. Hamlet is torn between his great sadness and his desire for the revenge of his father’s murder. – Goodreads

My Opinion: I have to say that out of all the Shakespeare plays that I have read, I enjoyed this one the most. This is only the second Shakespeare play that I have read by the way, Macbeth, being the first. I liked Hamlet, I don’t like the way he acted, but I did like sort of what he stood for. He wants honesty and honor. I think that that’s something that everyone should stand for. I didn’t like his method of revenge though, and some of the methods that Shakespeare used in the writing of the play sort of bugged. I like details and the way that Hamlet died, was not very detaily, at least correctly detailed. Hamlet is hit with the poison first and lives longer, yet Leartes, who is hit second dies, faster… that just doesn’t make sense to me. But whatever… I get that Shakespeare was making this a tragedy about Hamlet and not Leartes, but details like that bug me. I think its just me though.

 

Anyways, I liked the setting, there were some interesting themes that were portrayed in the play. Revenge, Betrayal, Love, the whole internal life vs. the external life in the castle. My favorite character had to be Young Fortinbras. He is just cool. I enjoyed reading the last lines of the play and I think that the end worked really well, so cudos to Shakespeare. My second character has to be Horatio. He sort of reminds me of me. I am not afraid to say that I tend to be a little naive around people because I like to believe in the good of people, Horatio was a little more naive than little, I think, but he was a powerful character that shows the difference in the people that live in the castle and those that don’t.

 

Overall: 4.25 out of 5

 

If you want to watch the movie version of the book, watch this version. It follows the script of the play to the word however the only difference is that it takes a more modern setting.