48 pages 1 hour read

William Shakespeare

Hamlet

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1609

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Themes

Death and the Unknown

Hamlet grapples with the inevitability and the mystery of death. Death’s complex interweaving of what is certain and what can’t be known is at the heart of the play’s concerns. In his most famous soliloquy, Hamlet lays the point out neatly: If it weren’t for the chance of suffering in the afterlife, people would choose to end suffering in this life—to end it all and rest.

The afterlife, of course, rises up and walks in the form of Hamlet’s dead father. The ghost suggests that there is indeed an afterlife, and not necessarily a restful one; his stories of Purgatorial flames are anything but peaceful. Hamlet’s agonizing doubt over this apparition’s veracity plays back into his general difficulty. Though he knows what he saw, he can’t be sure that he interpreted it correctly.

Hamlet is perpetually troubled by the ambiguities and untruths around him, but he takes a grotesque and conflicted pleasure in images of decay. He envisions his father’s tomb opening like jaws to belch his corpse out and Polonius’s body being devoured by worms, and he spends some quality time chatting with the stinking skull of the exhumed Yorick. He does not, however, view the tragic corpse of

blurred text

blurred text

Related Titles

By William Shakespeare

Study Guide
logo

All's Well That Ends Well

William Shakespeare

All's Well That Ends Well

William Shakespeare

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

A Midsummer Night's Dream

William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream

William Shakespeare

Study Guide
logo

Antony and Cleopatra

William Shakespeare

Antony and Cleopatra

William Shakespeare

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

As You Like It

William Shakespeare

As You Like It

William Shakespeare

Study Guide
logo

Coriolanus

William Shakespeare

Coriolanus

William Shakespeare

Plot Summary
logo

Cymbeline

William Shakespeare

Cymbeline

William Shakespeare

Study Guide
logo

Henry IV, Part 1

William Shakespeare

Henry IV, Part 1

William Shakespeare

Plot Summary
logo

Henry IV, Part 2

William Shakespeare

Henry IV, Part 2

William Shakespeare

Study Guide
logo

Henry V

William Shakespeare

Henry V

William Shakespeare

Plot Summary
logo

Henry VIII

William Shakespeare

Henry VIII

William Shakespeare

Plot Summary
logo

Henry VI, Part 1

William Shakespeare

Henry VI, Part 1

William Shakespeare

Plot Summary
logo

Henry VI, Part 3

William Shakespeare

Henry VI, Part 3

William Shakespeare

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

Julius Caesar

William Shakespeare

Julius Caesar

William Shakespeare

Plot Summary
logo

King John

William Shakespeare

King John

William Shakespeare

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

King Lear

William Shakespeare

King Lear

William Shakespeare

Study Guide
logo

Love's Labour's Lost

William Shakespeare

Love's Labour's Lost

William Shakespeare

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

Macbeth

William Shakespeare

Macbeth

William Shakespeare

Study Guide
logo

Measure For Measure

William Shakespeare

Measure For Measure

William Shakespeare

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

Much Ado About Nothing

William Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing

William Shakespeare

Study Guide
logo

Othello

William Shakespeare

Othello

William Shakespeare