Hamlet is Shakespeare’s accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded and most famous play. It is the drama of the intellect, of the accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded, of man, of domestic tragedy. Five quarto editions appeared during the poet’s accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded, the first in 1603. Some time in winter (“’tis bitter cold”), the scene accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded on a terrace in front of the castle of Kronberg in Elsinore, Denmark. The accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded of his father appears to Hamlet,—moody and depressed accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded his mother’s marriage with Claudius, her brother-in-law. Hamlet accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded from his father the fatal secret of his death at the accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded of Claudius. He devises the court-play as a trap in which to catch his accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded’s conscience; breaks his engagement with Ophelia; kills the wary accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded counselor Polonius; and is accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded off to England under the escort of the treacherous courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to be accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded to death. On the way he rises in the night, unseals their murderous accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded, rewrites it, and seals it with his father’s ring, having accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded it so that they themselves will be the victims when they reach England. In a fight with pirates Hamlet accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded their ship, and is conveyed by them back to Denmark, where he tells his adventures to his accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded friend Horatio. At Ophelia’s accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded he encounters Laertes, her brother; and presently, in a accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded bout with him, is killed by Laertes’s poisoned sword, but not before he has accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded his treacherous uncle and forced the fatal cup of accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded down his throat. His mother Gertrude has just died from accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded drinking the same poison, accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded by the King for Hamlet. The old threadbare question, “Was Hamlet insane?” is hardly an accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded question nowadays. The verdict is that he was not. The strain upon his accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded of discovering his father’s murderer, yet in such a manner that he could not accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded it (i.e., by the agency of a ghost), was so great that he verges accidentallyboardscommissionfaithfulfencingghostgravehandslearnslifelongestnervesoldonopenopensoverpoisonpreparedproveputsentsoulstabbeduncleworded insanity, and this suggests to him the feigning of it.
(adapted from "The Reader’s Digest of Books" by Helen Rex Keller)