  
Author: William Shakespeare
Translator: Jongcheol Choi
Publisher: Minumsa
222 pages
About this book
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare and
one of his most well-known and oft-quoted plays.
The play concerns the dilemma of Prince Hamlet,
whose father, the erstwhile King of Denmark, was murdered while Hamlet was away
at university. The King's brother Claudius had himself proclaimed king, and
cemented his claim to the throne by marrying Hamlet's mother Gertrude, the
widowed Queen.
Hamlet expresses his anger at the accession of
his uncle Claudius and particularly with his mother's hasty remarriage. Hamlet
soon encounters the ghost of his dead father, who informs him that he was
murdered by Claudius, and commands Hamlet to avenge him. Hamlet then decides to
put on an "antic disposition" (act insane) in order to kill Claudius, but Hamlet
is unsure whether the ghost he has seen is truly his father, and suspects that
it might be the devil taking his father appearance in order to cause havok. He
therefore sets out to test the king's conscience through feigning insanity, and
by enlisting a traveling company to stage a play he has written re-enacting the
circumstances of the murder.
The king's unsympathetic reaction to the
performance convinces Hamlet of his guilt. Shortly afterwards, Claudius
privately expresses his disgust at what he has done, and offers up a prayer of
repentance. Hamlet discovers him at prayer, and prepares to kill him, but then
stops, reasoning that he does not want his revenge to have the result of sending
the repentant Claudius to heaven. In a double irony, after Hamlet slips away,
Claudius concludes that he is unable to repent in his current state of mind;
thus, if Hamlet had not attempted to arrogate to himself the destiny of
Claudius's soul, rather than just his life, he would have gotten the ultimate
justice he sought.
Hamlet confronts his mother about the murder of
his father and her sexual relations with her new husband, and during their
conversation, he stabs Polonius, the king's councillor, who has been hiding
behind a tapestry, thinking it may have been the King. The king, who has
realised that Hamlet knows about the murder he committed, sends Hamlet to
England with a message to the English ordering his death. On the way to England,
Hamlet's ship is overcome by pirates, and Hamlet manages to return to Denmark.
In the mean time, Ophelia, who was in love with Hamlet, is driven mad by her
father Polonius's death and Hamlet's regection of her, she possibly drowns
herself.
Laertes, son of Polonius and brother of Ophelia,
is determined to kill Hamlet in revenge for the havoc that has been wreaked on
his family. He and Claudius engineer a scheme to kill Hamlet while making the
death look like an accident. To this end, Claudius instructs Laertes to
challenge Hamlet to a fencing match. Unknown to Hamlet, Laertes will be fighting
with a sharpened and poisoned foil, instead of the customary blunted blade. In
addition, Claudius prepares some poisoned wine for Hamlet to drink as a toast,
in the event that Laertes is unable to hit him.
After Hamlet wins the first two rounds of the
match, Gertrude inadvertently drinks the poisoned wine. Hamlet is pricked with
the sword and fatally poisoned, but in the ensuing brawl, he swaps blades with
Laertes, and deals a deep wound to Laertes with the poisoned sword. Gertrude
dies from the poison, and in his dying breaths, Laertes confesses the whole plot
to Hamlet. Enraged, Hamlet kills Claudius with the poisoned weapon, finally
avenging his father's death.
Horatio, horrified at the turn of events, seizes
the poisoned wine and proposes to join his friend in death, but Hamlet wrestles
the cup away from him and orders him to tell the true story of the royal
family's troubles to the world at large, thus restoring Hamlet's good name.
Hamlet also recommends that the Norwegian prince, Fortinbras, be chosen as the
rightful successor to the Danish throne. Hamlet dies, and Horatio mourns his
passing:
This book is written in Korean only.
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