Hamlet the Dane

Val Kilmer as Hamlet Since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief: This lesson is about studying Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

There's a lot of material to cover here, so let's just get to it.

The Hamlet Homepage

The Hamlet Homepage is the first Internet stop—a source of good general information about the play. The site includes the complete text and a well-written summary of each scene.

Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet Plays are really written for an audience to see, not read. Seeing a few images might help anchor your understanding of the story as you read the text. If this is the case, you can view images from two acclaimed film productions of Hamlet, one by Sir Lawrence Olivier, the other by Kenneth Branagh.

When you have a basic understanding of the story, take a look at this cause/effect plot summary called Ripples in a Pond. Unlike the play, this summary is chronological, showing how the tragedy progressed from the original foul deed committed by Claudius.

Hamlet in Plain English

Mel Gibson as Hamlet Elizabethan English isn't the easiest language to plough through, especially if you're not accustomed to hearing it. If phrases like "shuffled off this mortal coil" give you pause, you're going to love Lynch Multimedia's adaptations of Hamlet. You can view a modern prose adaptation of the play (good for kids who are struggling), or a classroom version, which presents the original text alongside the modern language adaptation.

Another, somewhat more extreme adaptation of the play can be found at the Hamlet Home Base site. Here's an example of the hip translation:

Original:
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
And in the porches of my ears did pour
The leperous distilment; whose effect
Holds such an enmity with blood of man
Calvin's dinner as Hamlet That swift as quicksilver it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body,
And with a sudden vigour doth posset
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine;
And a most instant tetter bark'd about,
Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,
All my smooth body.
Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand
Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd:

Home Base Revision:
He dripped the stuff in my ears and my body got crusty and gross looking and I died.

A dog as Hamlet If that's not easy enough for some of you, there's a great cartoon summary of Hamlet at the Let's Make Hamlet Fun site (just don't admit to your friends that you couldn't figure it out any other way).

If you do decide to forge ahead and tackle the play as written, it may help you to have a quick reference glossary handy. This is exactly what you'll get when you read MIT's online version of Hamlet, which includes text links to glossary definitions online. See the example above.

A Short Course on Hamlet

If you're so inclined, you can read and study Hamlet online from a single well-written site (which could realistically take you a full semester to work through). Short Course on Shakespeare's Hamlet is basically a series of online lessons consisting of four main sections: the complete text of the play, questions for each Act, simple answers, and other documents, such as commentary on the play. Read the text, answer the questions, and then check your answers. Simple. A rat! If you need to read a summary of the play to help you get started, the site includes three summaries of varying lengths, including this brief one:

Prince Hamlet thought Uncle a traitor
For having it off with his Mater
Revenge Dad or not?
That's the gist of the plot,
And he did - nine soliloquies later.

— Stanley J. Sharpless

Enjoying Hamlet

Ophelia Ed Friedlander's Enjoying "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare page, written for "high school and college students, or anyone else," takes a long (really long) look at many aspects of the play. After some initial observations, you'll find a detailed scene-by-scene summary; however, it might take you longer to read the summary than to read the actual play. Instead, scroll two-thirds down the page to The Background. Here you'll find some fascinating behind the scenes information about the original story (yes, Shakespeare's Hamlet was a remake). Friedlander then address some of the controversial issues of the play such as Hamlet's supposed hesitation and his often-debated madness.

The inside track on Ed Friedlander, MD, is that he's a pathologist. Now there's a rub! If you don't mind getting a little sidetracked, check out his Autopsy page.

Surfing with the Bard

Hamlet and Gertrude Saving the best for last, Surfing with the Bard is a fantastic Shakespeare site for teachers, students, and anyone else interested in reading, studying, and understanding the most popular works of the Bard. Browse the great resources here, or enroll in Shakespeare 101: A Student Guide, designed to help those who are new at reading Early Modern English.

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