Hamlet Summary | Chapterly
Hamlet by William Shakespeare: A Complete Summary "To be, or not to be: that is the question." Overview Hamlet (c. 1600-1601) is not just Shakespeare's most famous play -- it is arguably the most important single work of literature in the English language. The story is simple enough: Prince Hamlet of Denmark learns from his father's ghost that his uncle Claudius murdered the king, seized the throne, and married Hamlet's mother Gertrude. Hamlet must avenge his father. But what should be a straightforward revenge drama becomes something far stranger and more profound, because Hamlet cannot bring himself to act. The play's genius lies in that delay. In the space between knowledge and action, Shakespeare explores questions that have preoccupied philosophers, psychologists, and ordinary people for four centuries: What is the nature of consciousness? Why do we hesitate when we know what we should do? Is certainty even possible? What happens to the mind when it turns inward upon itself? Hamlet is the first literary character who feels fully modern -- self-aware, self-doubting, paralyzed by the gap between thought and action. At approximately 4,042 lines, it is Shakespeare's longest play. It has been performed more often than any other play in...