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For the whole of the second act—the play’s rising action—Hamlet delays his revenge by pretending to be mad. We learn from Ophelia that Hamlet is behaving as if he is mad with love for her. We see him make fun of Polonius by talking nonsense which contains half-hidden jokes at Polonius’s expense.
Read the Summary of Act 1, scene 1. Hamlet, William Shakespeare, scene summary, scene summaries, chapter summary, chapter summaries, short summary, criticism, literary criticism, review, scene synopsis, interpretation, teaching, lesson plan.
From a general summary to chapter summaries to explanations of famous quotes, the SparkNotes Hamlet Study Guide has everything you need to ace quizzes, tests, and essays.
The raw material that Shakespeare appropriated in writing Hamlet is the story of a Danish prince whose uncle murders the prince’s father, marries his mother, and claims the throne. The prince pretends to be feeble-minded to throw his uncle off guard, then manages to kill his uncle in revenge.
The best study guide to Hamlet on the planet, from the creators of SparkNotes. Get the summaries, analysis, and quotes you need.
The protagonist of Hamlet is Hamlet. When we meet him, Hamlet in a state of internal crisis. He feels depressed, disgusted by his mother’s remarriage, and angry that his uncle has usurped Denmark’s throne.
More than any other play by Shakespeare, Hamlet focuses on the point of view of a single character: Hamlet himself, which makes him sympathetic even as he commits unsympathetic acts. Hamlet has more lines than any other character in Shakespeare, and nearly 40% of the lines in his play—the highest proportion of lines Shakespeare ever gave to a ...
