Book review of Hamlet by William Shakespeare

                                                Hamlet (a tragic play)

                                                 

Information about authors

            William Shakespeare got birth in Stratford-upon-Avon Warwickshire, England on 26 April 1564, and left this mortal world on 23 April 1616. His father was John Shakespeare and Mary Arden was his mother. It was Elizabeth and Jacobean era, and the literary movement was Renaissance. And this great personality contributed abundantly to this movement. He was a playwright, poet, and actor widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”. It is also not wrong that he is the father and pioneer of Drama too. His contributions include in English literature, 39 plays: comic, tragic,



and comic tragedy; and he wrote 154 sonnets and two long narrative poems. His works drew the attention of the world. Therefore, his plays got translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Finally, his greatest and most loving quotation that impressed me very much is “Expectation hurts”, and that is true to me.

Key points or facts in (Hamlet)

            It is to mention that Hamlet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare about 1599-1603, and published in a quarto edition in 1603 from an unauthorized text, concerning an earlier play. The main character in the play is Hamlet who is in the University of Wittenberg at the initiation of the play. His birthplace is Denmark, and he is the prince of Denmark, where his father is the king. During the time he will have been studying there when he will be informed that his father has died. Then he leaves for the palace in Denmark for the funeral of his father. But after sometimes being in Denmark, he feels uncomfortable because of some strange incidents. For example, his mother does not wait a long time to mourn his father's death, but rather quickly married his uncle, Claudius. Here from his suspension got birth that his father had been killed by his own uncle to inherit his father’s wealth and wife. However, hamlet is still not sure whether really his uncle had killed his father or not. But he is in doubt and suspension abundantly. He also treats his mother disrespectfully that how she bore to marry his uncle when her husband just died sometime before. His behaviors create a negative image in everyone’s mind that he is not mentally fine since his father has died. However, this way of behavior was just to discover the suspect. After a short passage of time, he happened to see an apparition of his father in the dark night. His friend Horatio informed him about the incident. Then the next night he meets his father apparition explained all story that how his uncle had poured poison in his ear, while he was asleep on his chair in the garden. From now on his doubt turned out to be true about his uncle what he had thought for so many days about the hand behind his father's death. 

        Then after the incident, he set forth to find the best way to take revenge. Many times he delayed killing his uncle. As a result, a great quotation quoted by Shakespeare is, ‘to be or not to be’. This shows his weakness several times delaying to taking revenge. His behaviors turn to worse day today. One day he comes to his mother’s chamber uttering many bad words. In the meantime, a person moves behind the curtain. He thrust the sword to him and he died on the spot who is to be the father of his love Othello. After the incident uncle tried to send him back to England but he succeeded to send him there. Uncle took advantage of the event, he sent a letter to his guards who accompany hamlet on the way, to kill him on the way to England by sea. Fortunately, some pirates attacked the ship and kill the guards, but do not harm hamlet because discovered himself to be the prince of Denmark. Then he comes back to Denmark where he finds his lover had committed suicide by the grief of his father's death and deeply being saddened by the unusual behaviors of hamlet. He plunged into a funereal place before the dead body of Othello, where her brother fought to him since considering him the killer of his father and sister. Uncle takes benefit of the situation and puts a day for them to fight before the crowd, and before the fight, he manages to poison the sword. Unfortunately, hamlet and his loving brother get wounds from the fight but hamlet also struck the poisoned sword on his uncle who fell down dead on the ground. Hamlet also was about to kick the bucket. His friend Horatio pulled out the sword to kill himself since not bear the departure of his friend. But hamlet stopped him from doing this. He was the honored kingdom of Denmark and was suggested by hamlet to live to share his story with the people. 

The theme of the book

            Through the play hamlet, one can find the theme of revenge, which is one of the biggest themes in hamlet as it is the biggest revenge play player. It shows hamlet a young man who is a part of the royal family of Denmark whose father had wrongfully killed by his uncle, King Claudius. Hamlet fatefully finds this out one night when he is with Horatio, Bernardo, and Marcellus, and the apparition of his father reveals to him that his father was killed by his uncle in the garden. Therefore, several times plans to avenge him. But he is being the king is very protective among several guards and he delays the revenge till the end when he put him to death with his poisoned sword. It shows that Elizabeth era; revenge was necessary to be taken for the honor of the family.

 Throughout the play, Claudius seems very ugly and selfish-minded. He kills his own brother for the wealth. Similarly, the mother of hamlet was shown somehow greedy as getting married soon after the death of hamlet’s father. This theme shows that in that time in the kingdom such sorts of steps were taken by the owner and closed relatives of the kings for just power and kingdom.

Furthermore, one of the very important things in the play, Hamlet is shown as a man of words not a man of action. Because entire play he mentioned he assassinates his uncle. He used abusive language before his mother who is the queen of Denmark. He mentions it as well as with his friends. Further, he also promised his father to take his revenge. But unfortunately, his revenge point of view just continued delaying. ‘To be or not to be’ is that’s why it is very famous today in the literary world. However, he gets prosperous at the end of the play, and he is not to be now called a man of word. In the same manner, one can find characters who are totally selfless in the entire play. The first example is Hamlet himself who had not insisted to kill his uncle, his uncle would have provided him wealth, power, wives, and so on. But he rejected the all-materialistic world. It is sad to mention that he does not care even for his love during circumstances. In that hard situation, he just had one thing in his mind which is to take revenge. But, indeed, he was completely broken when he saw his lover Ophelia’s dead body at the funeral. Thus it shows that there were such characters in the practical life who had remained steadfast in their work and did not change their mind for the materialistic world. 

In the same manner, in the play loyalty is presented by some characters. If we see Horatio who remained a very loyal friend to hamlet throughout the play. He accompanies hamlet in the night to the place where his father's apparition appears. Then promised to hamlet to support him for anything. At the end of the play, hamlet is just fallen down near death because of so many wounds. He picks up the sword to finish himself to accompany hamlet in the immortal world. But it is a hamlet that restrained him from doing like this. Rather hamlet offers him to be the new king of Denmark. He took his friend hamlet’s words. Thus such other several tiny themes are mentioned in the play which has brought amusement and entertainment throughout the play.

Book reviewers’ ideas on the book.

            I must not be unjust toward this great piece. I appreciate everything in it. I am not favoring this because it is written by the greatest writer in the English language, but I appreciate this play because it is full of sentiments that touched my heart. Especially Hamlet’s character who in his young age, who has to just enjoy the time with luxurious and peaceful time, however, grief and sorrows have surrounded his life losing his father untimely. His constant worry put him in trouble and suppression that he forgot himself and his existence. It seems as if his life was ruined after the death of his father, and his mother's marriage with Claudius. Furthermore, another thing that pleased the writer was how beautifully led a play balance in it that type of play within the play was the first time he brought in the writing. This was done when Hamlet performed the play which relates the story of his father's death, in which his uncle conspired against his father and killed him. Furthermore, the diction, writing style, and other important elements were written in such a way that compelled me to read it entirely in two hours without moving or taking a short time gap. In a nutshell, the hamlet is a masterpiece according to my views and I recommend readers to give time to read his works, not only this but other important and deserved things.  


By: Sheela Nabi Bakhsh 

The writer is a student in Linguistic, English Department University of Turbat 

Kech Balochistan