Riley
Final Paper
Interpretation and Origin of Hamlet
Although I enjoyed reading many of the texts throughout the semester during this course, my favorite reading was Hamlet. Only the first part of the book was assigned to read, but I was very interested to hear about the end of the book. I decided that this would be a good opportunity to read the rest of the book and use it for my final paper in the class. Not only did I get to finish the book, I also learned much about the author William Shakespeare and the country of England. I hope to make it clear of my understanding of the text, author, and country in this final paper. Hamlet has not only taught me the importance of family and struggle with fate, but has also given me a better understanding of whom and where the novel originated.
The text begins in Denmark where a ghost walks the embankments of Elsinore Castle. The ghost is first discovered by some guards, then by Horatio. Horatio is a close friend and former classmate of Hamlet. The ghost resembles the recently deceased King Hamlet, Hamlet’s father. King Hamlet’s brother, Claudius has inherited the throne and married the king’s widow, Queen Gertrude. Gertrude is Hamlet’s mother. When Horatio and the guards bring Prince Hamlet to see the ghost, it speaks to him. The ghost threateningly states that it is his father’s spirit, and that he was murdered by Claudius. He orders Hamlet to seek revenge on the man who seized his throne and married his wife, and then disappears.
Prince Hamlet decides to devote himself to revenging his father’s death. Hamlet seems to be very thoughtful by nature and enters into a deep state of depression and madness. Claudius and Gertrude worry about the prince’s unpredictable behavior and try to discover its cause. They hire some of Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to watch him. The Lord Chamberlain, Polonius, proposes that Hamlet may be mad with love for his daughter, Ophelia. Claudius decides to spy on...