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BOOK REVIEW: Hamlet by William Shakespeare

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This is probably Shakespeare’s most popular work. If it’s not, it has to be in the top three. One reason for its popularity relates to language. There’s probably a higher density of widely-quoted lines, and phrases that are part of common speech, in this play than in any other work of literature. From Polonius’s warnings to his son (e.g. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be”), to Hamlet’s soliloquized attempts to think through a course of action (“To be, or not to be: That is the question:”), to Hamlet’s wisdom in moments of lucidity (”There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” or “There is more in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than is dreamt of in your philosophy.”) to the many other quotes from various characters that appear across pop culture and everyday speech. “Methinks she doth protest too much,” “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” “Brevity is the soul of wit,” and “Sweets to the sweet” [or variations thereof] all derive from this play.

But quotability isn’t the sole basis for the play’s popularity. While it’s certainly not the most action-packed of Shakespeare’s plays, that is actually part of what makes it unique and makes its lead character relatable. Shakespeare’s works are full of tragedy resulting from rash conclusions that – in turn — result in ill-considered actions. How many times have we seen the case of a man who is too quick to believe his wife or girlfriend has been unfaithful, and – after the cataclysmic fallout – he then discovers that it was never true in the first place. Hamlet turns the convention on its head, showing us what can go wrong with a character who – in true scholarly fashion – is prone to paralysis by analysis. Hamlet is prone to drawn out contemplation that results in missed opportunities – not to mention, tragic neglect of his love interest, Ophelia. [Such over-analysis is exemplified by the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy as Hamlet considers suicide.] It might seem like inaction would make for a boring play, but the tragedy unfolds never-the-less. [And in the instances in which there is fast-action, it proves flawed as when Hamlet mistakenly kills Polonius.]

Another element of the play’s success hinges on a technique for which Shakespeare was a pioneer and an early master, strategic ambiguity. We don’t know the degree to which Hamlet is insane versus pretending, regardless of hints in the form of moments of lucidity. At least until the final act, we don’t know the degree to which Hamlet’s mother is in on Claudius’s plotting. We also don’t know if Ophelia is a lunatic when she is handing out flowers, or if she’s cunningly delivering a masterful series of passive-aggressive bitch-slaps. Shakespeare is careful with his reveals, and sometimes chooses to not offer any at all.

As most people are at least vaguely acquainted with the story, I’ll offer only a brief description. [But if you don’t want the story spoiled any more than it has been, call it quits here.] Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home from college. He’s bummed because, not only did his father recently die, but his mother has remarried his uncle. Hamlet might be able to cope with this apparent disrespect [arguably to him as well as his father because young Hamlet was next in line of succession], but then his father’s ghost appears to Hamlet. The ghost tells him that he (Hamlet’s father) was murdered by Claudius, and the ghost insists upon revenge. Hamlet doesn’t want to be punked by a malevolent spirit, so he has a group of actors modify their play so that it depicts the assassination as the ghost described it. When Claudius is shaken up by the scene and leaves the theater, Hamlet feels certain that the ghost spoke true. When Hamlet goes to visit his mother, he believes that Claudius [or a real rat] is spying on him and stabs out at a rustling curtain, but he actually kills Polonius (father to Hamlet’s love interest, Ophelia, and a guy who doesn’t deserve to die – despite being a bit of an irritating know-it-all.) Polonius’s killing triggers a sequence of events that ultimately results in Hamlet being sent to England, Ophelia committing suicide, and her brother, Laertes, coming home intent on getting revenge for Polonius’s murder.

Hamlet discovers that Claudius sent him off with a “Please kill this man” note, but Hamlet manages to replace the King’s order and escape. He returns to Denmark in time to happen upon Ophelia’s funeral. He’s distraught about Ophelia’s death, despite having been a complete jerk to the girl whenever he wasn’t completely ignoring her. Laertes is angry at Hamlet for killing Polonius and giving his sister a lethal case of heartbreak, and there is a tussle. This is broken up and an agreement is made to have a gentleman’s duel later. Unbeknownst to Hamlet, this is part of a plot engineered by Claudius and Laertes. [To be fair, Laertes doesn’t know what a treacherous villain Claudius is, and how much the King’s previous plot – killing Hamlet’s father – is the cause all the play’s unfortunate events – as opposed to them resulting from Hamlet being part crazy and part jackass.] Claudius and Laertes poison the tip of Laertes’ rapier, and Claudius doubles down by pouring some more poison into Hamlet’s cup [which Hamlet’s mother ultimately drinks, followed by forced consumption by Claudius at the hands of Hamlet.] In true tragic form, the end is an orgy of death.

This is a must read (or see) for everyone – both for the language and the complex and interesting characters.

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8 thoughts on “ BOOK REVIEW: Hamlet by William Shakespeare ”

AMAZING WORK!

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An insightful view of perhaps the finest play ever written. Loved it! 👍🖤

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I studied Hamlet for A level English when I was sixteen – it had the most profound effect on me – at the time. A lot of the time i identifid with all his prevarications and hesitations. I spent a lot of time overthinking everything and making myself extremely misrable. but what held me up was the language. Shakespeare is incredibly profound. a real man of th epeole he appeals on every level. When I finally became an english teacher i could at last fulfil my passion for making shkaespeare accessible to all abilities. one of my best moment swas taking some pupils with learning difficulties to see a four hour production of King Lear at the Barbican Theatre with ian McKellen, and listening to them exclaim with recognition as they heard the lines they had been studying and saw the scenes they had been imagining. I loved teaching Shakespeare and proving to young people he was still fun and interesting and to use a phrase I dislike – relevant!

thanks for the comment

Excuse all the typos – it won’t let me edit this!

No problem.

Definitely the best of Shakespeare’s plays. Superficially, it is a story of revenge. On a deeper level, it shows the impact violent acts have on those associated with the victims. One criminal but six deaths…

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 25, 2020 • ( 2 )

With Shakespeare the dramatic resolution conveys us, beyond the man-made sphere of poetic justice, toward the ever-receding horizons of cosmic irony. This is peculiarly the case with Hamlet , for the same reasons that it excites such intensive empathy from actors and readers, critics and writers alike. There may be other Shakespearean characters who are just as memorable, and other plots which are no less impressive; but nowhere else has the outlook of the individual in a dilemma been so profoundly realized; and a dilemma, by definition, is an all but unresolvable choice between evils. Rather than with calculation or casuistry, it should be met with virtue or readiness; sooner or later it will have to be grasped by one or the other of its horns. These, in their broadest terms, have been—for Hamlet, as we interpret him—the problem of what to believe and the problem of how to act.

—Harry Levin, The Question of Hamlet

Hamlet is almost certainly the world’s most famous play, featuring drama’s and literature’s most fascinating and complex character. The many-sided Hamlet—son, lover, intellectual, prince, warrior, and avenger—is the consummate test for each generation’s leading actors, and to be an era’s defining Hamlet is perhaps the greatest accolade one can earn in the theater. The play is no less a proving ground for the critic and scholar, as successive generations have refashioned Hamlet in their own image, while finding in it new resonances and entry points to plumb its depths, perplexities, and possibilities. No other play has been analyzed so extensively, nor has any play had a comparable impact on our culture. The brooding young man in black, skull in hand, has moved out of the theater and into our collective consciousness and cultural myths, joining only a handful of comparable literary archetypes—Oedipus, Faust, and Don Quixote—who embody core aspects of human nature and experience. “It is we ,” the romantic critic William Hazlitt observed, “who are Hamlet.”

Hamlet also commands a crucial, central place in William Shakespeare’s dramatic career. First performed around 1600, the play stands near the midpoint of the playwright’s two-decade career as a culmination and new departure. As the first of his great tragedies, Hamlet signals a decisive shift from the comedies and history plays that launched Shakespeare’s career to the tragedies of his maturity. Although unquestionably linked both to the plays that came before and followed, Hamlet is also markedly exceptional. At nearly 4,000 lines, almost twice the length of Macbeth , Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest and, arguably, his most ambitious play with an enormous range of characters—from royals to gravediggers—and incidents, including court, bedroom, and graveyard scenes and a play within a play. Hamlet also bristles with a seemingly inexhaustible array of ideas and themes, as well as a radically new strategy for presenting them, most notably, in transforming soliloquies from expositional and motivational asides to the audience into the verbalization of consciousness itself. As Shakespearean scholar Stephen Greenblatt has asserted, “In its moral complexity, psychological depth, and philosophical power, Hamlet seems to mark an epochal shift not only in Shakespeare’s own career but in Western drama; it is as if the play were giving birth to a whole new kind of literary subjectivity.” Hamlet, more than any other play that preceded it, turns its action inward to dramatize an isolated, conflicted psyche struggling to cope with a world that has lost all certainty and consolation. Struggling to reconcile two contradictory identities—the heroic man of action and duty and the Christian man of conscience—Prince Hamlet becomes the modern archetype of the self-divided, alienated individual, desperately searching for self-understanding and meaning. Hamlet must contend with crushing doubt without the support of traditional beliefs that dictate and justify his actions. In describing the arrival of the fragmentation and chaos of the modern world, Victorian poet and critic Matthew Arnold declared that “the calm, cheerfulness, the disinterested objectivity have disappeared, the dialogue of the mind with itself has commenced.” Hamlet anticipates that dialogue by more than two centuries.

Like all of Shakespeare’s plays, Hamlet makes strikingly original uses of borrowed material. The Scandinavian folk tale of Amleth, a prince called upon to avenge his father’s murder by his uncle, was first given literary form by the Danish writer Saxo the Grammarian in his late 12th century Danish History and later adapted in French in François de Belleforest’s Histoires tragiques (1570). This early version of the Hamlet story provided Shakespeare with the basic characters and relationships but without the ghost or the revenger’s uncertainty. In the story of Amleth there is neither doubt about the usurper’s guilt nor any moral qualms in the fulfillment of the avenger’s mission. In preChristian Denmark blood vengeance was a sanctioned filial obligation, not a potentially damnable moral or religious violation, and Amleth successfully accomplishes his duty by setting fire to the royal hall, killing his uncle, and proclaiming himself king of Denmark. Shakespeare’s more immediate source may have been a nowlost English play (c. 1589) that scholars call the Ur – Hamlet. All that has survived concerning this play are a printed reference to a ghost who cried “Hamlet, revenge!” and criticism of the play’s stale bombast. Scholars have attributed the Ur-Hamle t to playwright Thomas Kyd, whose greatest success was The Spanish Tragedy (1592), one of the earliest extant English tragedies. The Spanish Tragedy popularized the genre of the revenge tragedy, derived from Aeschylus’s Oresteia and the Latin plays of Seneca, to which Hamlet belongs. Kyd’s play also features elements that Shakespeare echoes in Hamlet, including a secret crime, an impatient ghost demanding revenge, a protagonist tormented by uncertainty who feigns madness, a woman who actually goes mad, a play within a play, and a final bloodbath that includes the death of the avenger himself. An even more immediate possible source for Hamlet is John Marston’s Antonio’s Revenge (1599), another story of vengeance on a usurper by a sensitive protagonist.

Whether comparing Hamlet to its earliest source or the handling of the revenge plot by Kyd, Marston, or other Elizabethan or Jacobean playwrights, what stands out is the originality and complexity of Shakespeare’s treatment, in his making radically new and profound uses of established stage conventions. Hamlet converts its sensational material—a vengeful ghost, a murder mystery, madness, a heartbroken maiden, a fistfight at her burial, and a climactic duel that results in four deaths—into a daring exploration of mortality, morality, perception, and core existential truths. Shakespeare put mystery, intrigue, and sensation to the service of a complex, profound epistemological drama. The critic Maynard Mack in an influential essay, “The World of Hamlet ,” has usefully identified the play’s “interrogative mode.” From the play’s opening words—“Who’s there?”—to “What is this quintessence of dust?” through drama’s most famous soliloquy—“To be, or not to be, that is the question.”— Hamlet “reverberates with questions, anguished, meditative, alarmed.” The problematic nature of reality and the gap between truth and appearance stand behind the play’s conflicts, complicating Hamlet’s search for answers and his fulfillment of his role as avenger.

Hamlet opens with startling evidence that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” The ghost of Hamlet’s father, King Hamlet, has been seen in Elsinore, now ruled by his brother, Claudius, who has quickly married his widowed queen, Gertrude. When first seen, Hamlet is aloof and skeptical of Claudius’s justifications for his actions on behalf of restoring order in the state. Hamlet is morbidly and suicidally disillusioned by the realization of mortality and the baseness of human nature prompted by the sudden death of his father and his mother’s hasty, and in Hamlet’s view, incestuous remarriage to her brother-in-law:

O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on’t! ah, fie! ’Tis an unweeded garden That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this!

A recent student at the University of Wittenberg, whose alumni included Martin Luther and the fictional Doctor Faustus, Hamlet is an intellectual of the Protestant Reformation, who, like Luther and Faustus, tests orthodoxy while struggling to formulate a core philosophy. Brought to encounter the apparent ghost of his father, Hamlet alone hears the ghost’s words that he was murdered by Claudius and is compelled out of his suicidal despair by his pledge of revenge. However, despite the riveting presence of the ghost, Hamlet is tormented by doubts. Is the ghost truly his father’s spirit or a devilish apparition tempting Hamlet to his damnation? Is Claudius truly his father’s murderer? By taking revenge does Hamlet do right or wrong? Despite swearing vengeance, Hamlet delays for two months before taking any action, feigning madness better to learn for himself the truth about Claudius’s guilt. Hamlet’s strange behavior causes Claudius’s counter-investigation to assess Hamlet’s mental state. School friends—Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—are summoned to learn what they can; Polonius, convinced that Hamlet’s is a madness of love for his daughter Ophelia, stages an encounter between the lovers that can be observed by Claudius. The court world at Elsinore, is, therefore, ruled by trickery, deception, role playing, and disguise, and the so-called problem of Hamlet, of his delay in acting, is directly related to his uncertainty in knowing the truth. Moreover, the suspicion of his father’s murder and his mother’s sexual betrayal shatter Hamlet’s conception of the world and his responsibility in it. Pushed back to the suicidal despair of the play’s opening, Hamlet is paralyzed by indecision and ambiguity in which even death is problematic, as he explains in the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy in the third act:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of despis’d love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death— The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn No traveller returns—puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action.

The arrival of a traveling theatrical group provides Hamlet with the empirical means to resolve his doubts about the authenticity of the ghost and Claudius’s guilt. By having the troupe perform the Mousetrap play that duplicates Claudius’s crime, Hamlet hopes “to catch the conscience of the King” by observing Claudius’s reaction. The king’s breakdown during the performance seems to confirm the ghost’s accusation, but again Hamlet delays taking action when he accidentally comes upon the guilt-ridden Claudius alone at his prayers. Rationalizing that killing the apparently penitent Claudius will send him to heaven and not to hell, Hamlet decides to await an opportunity “That has no relish of salvation in’t.” He goes instead to his mother’s room where Polonius is hidden in another attempt to learn Hamlet’s mind and intentions. This scene between mother and son, one of the most powerful and intense in all of Shakespeare, has supported the Freudian interpretation of Hamlet’s dilemma in which he is stricken not by moral qualms but by Oedipal guilt. Gertrude’s cries of protest over her son’s accusations cause Polonius to stir, and Hamlet finally, instinctively strikes the figure he assumes is Claudius. In killing the wrong man Hamlet sets in motion the play’s catastrophes, including the madness and suicide of Ophelia, overwhelmed by the realization that her lover has killed her father, and the fatal encounter with Laertes who is now similarly driven to avenge a murdered father. Convinced of her son’s madness, Gertrude informs Claudius of Polonius’s murder, prompting Claudius to alter his order for Hamlet’s exile to England to his execution there.

Hamlet’s mental shift from reluctant to willing avenger takes place offstage during his voyage to England in which he accidentally discovers the execution order and then after a pirate attack on his ship makes his way back to Denmark. He returns to confront the inescapable human condition of mortality in the graveyard scene of act 5 in which he realizes that even Alexander the Great must return to earth that might be used to “stop a beer-barrel” and Julius Caesar’s clay to “stop a hole to keep the wind away.” This sobering realization that levels all earthly distinctions of nobility and acclaim is compounded by the shock of Ophelia’s funeral procession. Hamlet sustains his balance and purpose by confessing to Horatio his acceptance of a providential will revealed to him in the series of accidents on his voyage to England: “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, / Roughhew them how we will.” Finally accepting his inability to control his life, Hamlet resigns himself to accept whatever comes. Agreeing to a duel with Laertes that Claudius has devised to eliminate his nephew, Hamlet asserts that “There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.”

In the carnage of the play’s final scene, Hamlet ironically manages to achieve his revenge while still preserving his nobility and moral stature. It is the murderer Claudius who is directly or indirectly responsible for all the deaths. Armed with a poisonedtip sword, Laertes strikes Hamlet who in turn manages to slay Laertes with the lethal weapon. Meanwhile, Gertrude drinks from the poisoned cup Claudius intended to insure Hamlet’s death, and, after the remorseful Laertes blames Claudius for the plot, Hamlet, hesitating no longer, fatally stabs the king. Dying in the arms of Horatio, Hamlet orders his friend to “report me and my cause aright / To the unsatisfied” and transfers the reign of Denmark to the last royal left standing, the Norwegian prince Fortinbras. King Hamlet’s death has been avenged but at a cost of eight lives: Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencranz, Guildenstern, Laertes, Gertrude, Claudius, and Prince Hamlet. Order is reestablished but only by Denmark’s sworn enemy. Shakespeare’s point seems unmistakable: Honor and duty that command revenge consume the guilty and the innocent alike. Heroism must face the reality of the graveyard.

Fortinbras closes the play by ordering that Hamlet be carried off “like a soldier” to be given a military funeral underscoring the point that Hamlet has fallen as a warrior on a battlefield of both the duplicitous court at Elsinore and his own mind. The greatness of Hamlet rests in the extraordinary perplexities Shakespeare has discovered both in his title character and in the events of the play. Few other dramas have posed so many or such knotty problems of human existence. Is there a special providence in the fall of a sparrow? What is this quintessence of dust? To be or not to be?

Hamlet Oxford Lecture by Emma Smith

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Plays

From the Campfire Graphic Novels series

by William Shakespeare ; adapted by Malini Roy ; illustrated by Naresh Kumar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 27, 2019

A solid introduction for budding lovers of the Bard.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

The timeless tale of the young and disaffected Danish prince who is pushed to avenge his father’s untimely murder at the hands of his brother unfolds with straightforward briskness. Shakespeare’s text has been liberally but judiciously cut, staying true to the thematic meaning while dispensing with longer speeches (with the notable exception of the renowned “to be or not to be” soliloquy) and intermediary dialogues. Some of the more obscure language has been modernized, with a glossary of terms provided at the end; despite these efforts, readers wholly unfamiliar with the story might struggle with independent interpretation. Where this adaptation mainly excels is in its art, especially as the play builds to its tensely wrought final act. Illustrator Kumar ( World War Two , 2015, etc.) pairs richly detailed interiors and exteriors with painstakingly rendered characters, each easily distinguished from their fellows through costume, hairstyle, and bearing. Human figures are generally depicted in bust or three-quarter shots, making the larger panels of full figures all the more striking. Heavily scored lines of ink form shadows, lending the otherwise bright pages a gritty air. All characters are white.

Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2019

ISBN: 978-93-81182-51-2

Page Count: 90

Publisher: Campfire

Review Posted Online: July 12, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORICAL FICTION | GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION

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IF ONLY I HAD TOLD HER

by Laura Nowlin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.

In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me , three characters tell their sides of the story.

Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781728276229

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE

More by Laura Nowlin

by Laura Nowlin

INDIVISIBLE

by Daniel Aleman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 4, 2021

An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.

A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.

Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.

Pub Date: May 4, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

More by Daniel Aleman

by Daniel Aleman

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William Shakespeare | 4.36 | 724,830 ratings and reviews

Ranked #1 in Drama , Ranked #1 in Theater — see more rankings .

Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of Hamlet from the world's leading experts.

Ryan Holiday Author Philosophy runs through this play–all sorts of great lines. There are gems like “..for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” which I used in my last book and “Beware of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, bear it, that the opposed may beware of thee.” was a favorite of Sherman. (Source)

Tim Lott I love the speech when Hamlet’s uncle Claudius admits to being inflicted with the primal eldest curse for killing his brother, and begs on his knees for forgiveness for this ultimate violation of the law of nature. (Source)

Rankings by Category

Hamlet is ranked in the following categories:

#94 in 10th Grade
#33 in 11th Grade
#4 in 12th Grade
#92 in 15-Year-Old
#33 in 16-Year-Old
#4 in 17-Year-Old
#4 in 18-Year-Old
#25 in Academia
#45 in Acting
#23 in Archives
#81 in Betrayal
#32 in Broadway
#54 in Bucket List
#59 in Character
#75 in Character Development
#12 in Class
#37 in Classic
#28 in Classical
#55 in Death
#52 in Dramatic
#23 in English Vocabulary
#18 in English Writer
#33 in Existential
#57 in Existentialism
#12 in Family Law
#71 in Ghost
#79 in Ghost Story
#59 in Gilmore Girls
#10 in High School
#12 in High School Reading
#77 in Human Nature
#91 in Influential
#93 in Ireland
#71 in Literary
#38 in Literature
#20 in Murder
#42 in Period
#55 in Poster
#19 in Procrastination
#70 in Project Gutenberg
#35 in Public Domain
#2 in Renaissance
#2 in Revenge
#86 in Royalty
#14 in Screenplay
#2 in Shakespeare
#70 in Soul
#33 in Suicide
#87 in Top Ten
#3 in University
#67 in Used
#24 in Vocabulary

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Learn: What makes Shortform summaries the best in the world?

By William Shakespeare Written between 1599 - 1601

General Note: In January 2009 I decided that I�d like to go back and read all the plays of William Shakespeare, perhaps one a month if that works out. I hadn�t read a Shakespeare play since 1959, 50 years ago! But I had read nearly all of them in college. I wanted to go back, start with something not too serious or challenging, and work my way through the whole corpus. Thus I began with The Two Gentlemen of Verona. At this time I have no idea how the project will go, nor if it will actually lead me through the entire corpus of Shakespeare�s plays. However, I will keep a separate page listing each play I�ve read with links to any comments I would make of that particular play. See: List of Shakespeare�s play�s I�ve read and commented on

COMMENTS ON HAMLET

Neither a borrower nor a lender be For loan oft loses both itself and friend. And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

It make take our current times a full generation or more to recover from the madness of an entire planet which acted nearly the exact opposite of that marvelous Polonian advice.

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Ancient Civilization
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Hamlet is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays, and is considered to be one of the greatest works of English literature. The play explores themes of revenge, madness, and the corruptions of power, and remains relevant to audiences today.

Plot summary, character analysis, themes and motifs, legacy and significance, language and style, performance and adaptations, notable quotes and analysis.

Hamlet follows the story of Prince Hamlet, who is consumed by grief after the death of his father and the remarriage of his mother to his uncle, who becomes the new king. Hamlet feigns madness in order to uncover the truth behind his father’s death and eventually seeks revenge. The play is filled with deception, intrigue, and ultimately tragedy, as many of the characters meet their downfall.

Hamlet is the central figure of the play, Hamlet , and his character is complex and multi-dimensional. He is deeply conflicted, torn between his desire for justice and his struggle with his own morality. Other notable characters include Claudius, the corrupt king; Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother; and Ophelia, the innocent victim. Each of these characters plays a crucial role in the play and contributes to its themes and motifs.

The play, Hamlet , explores themes of revenge, mortality, and the corruptions of power. These themes are woven throughout the play, as Hamlet struggles with the morality of seeking revenge for his father’s death and the corrupt actions of the kingdom’s new rulers. The motif of madness is also prominent, as Hamlet feigns madness in order to hide his true intentions and gain insight into the actions of those around him.

Hamlet is considered to be one of Shakespeare’s greatest works, and its impact on literature and popular culture is undeniable. Its themes and characters continue to resonate with audiences today, making it a timeless classic that has stood the test of time. The play has been adapted and reinterpreted countless times, solidifying its place as one of the greatest works of English literature.

Hamlet is written in a unique and complex style, making use of puns, soliloquies, and poetic language. Shakespeare’s masterful use of language adds depth and meaning to the play, and contributes to its timeless appeal. The soliloquies in particular provide insight into the inner thoughts and emotions of the characters, and are considered to be some of the greatest examples of this literary device in the English language.

Hamlet has been performed countless times since its original staging, and has been adapted in numerous ways, including film, television, and even musical productions. These adaptations often bring new perspectives and interpretations to the play, but the core themes and characters remain constant. Many notable actors have portrayed Hamlet over the years, each bringing their own unique interpretation to the role.

“To be, or not to be: that is the question.” – Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1.:

This is perhaps one of the most famous quotes from Hamlet, and it is a reference to the question of existence and the human condition. Hamlet is contemplating the pros and cons of life and death, and is considering whether it is nobler to endure the trials and tribulations of life or to simply give up and end it all.

“The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” – Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2.:

In this quote, Hamlet is referring to the play he is preparing, which he hopes will reveal the guilt of his uncle, the king, for the murder of his father. Hamlet believes that the play will be an effective tool for exposing the truth, and he uses it as a means of getting revenge.

“Frailty, thy name is woman.” – Hamlet, Act I, Scene 2.:

In this quote, Hamlet is expressing his disappointment and frustration with women, and is suggesting that they are inherently weak and susceptible to temptation. This sentiment reflects the patriarchal attitudes of the time in which the play was written, but it also highlights Hamlet’s own prejudices and biases.

“To thine own self be true.” – Polonius, Act I, Scene 3.:

This quote is spoken by Polonius, and it encourages the idea of being honest with oneself. Polonius believes that one should be true to one’s own beliefs and values, and should not be swayed by external influences. This quote is often seen as a lesson for the reader or audience, reminding them of the importance of staying true to oneself.

Hamlet is filled with memorable quotes and powerful themes, and Shakespeare’s mastery of language and storytelling is evident in every line. These quotes provide insight into the characters, themes, and motifs of the play, and are a testament to its lasting impact and significance. Whether you are a fan of Shakespeare or a newcomer to his works, Hamlet is sure to captivate and inspire you.

Hamlet is a powerful and timeless play that continues to captivate audiences. Its themes of revenge, mortality, and corruption remain relevant today, and its complex characters and masterful use of language have made it one of the greatest works of English literature. Whether you are a fan of Shakespeare or a newcomer to his works, Hamlet is a must-read that is sure to leave a lasting impression.

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Book Review: Hamlet

Hamlet by William Shakespeare is a play that was wrote in the 1600’s. The play starts off with the death of Hamlet’s father, King Hamlet, and the mystery of how he died. Hamlet feels that he should avenge his father, but never acts on the way he feels. He continues this habit in his relationships causing them to be full of mistrust and in the end, betrayal. This play contains many themes that teach a big lesson that individuals can apply to their lives today. I recommend this book to anybody that wants a murder mystery with multiple plots twists.

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Book Reviews

The real 'hamnet' died centuries ago, but this novel is timeless.

Heller McAlpin

In the 20 years since the publication of her first novel, After You'd Gone, Irish-born Maggie O'Farrell has wooed readers with intricately plotted, lushly imagined fiction featuring nonconformist women buffeted by the essential unpredictability of life, which can turn on a dime. O'Farrell's last book, I Am, I Am, I Am (2018), was a nonfiction account of her own unpredictable life, filtered through 17 dramatic, near-death experiences, from her hair-raising childhood through her middle child's harrowing, periodic anaphylactic attacks brought on by a life-threatening immunological disorder.

With her eighth novel, O'Farrell brilliantly turns to historical fiction to confront a parent's worst nightmare: the death of a child. Set in Stratford, England, in the late 16th century, Hamnet imagines the emotional, domestic, and artistic repercussions after the world's most famous (though never named) playwright and his wife lose their only son, 11-year-old Hamnet, to the bubonic plague in 1596. Four years later, the boy's father transposes his grief into his masterpiece — titled with a common variant of his son's name — in which the father dies and the son lives to avenge him.

O'Farrell's narratives are rarely straightforwardly chronological. In Hamnet, she toggles between two timelines, one beginning on the day the plague first afflicts Hamnet's twin sister Judith, the other circling back to the beginning of their parents' passionate relationship some 15 years earlier.

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In this telling, the woman we know as Anne Hathaway is called Agnes, pronounced Ann-yis, which O'Farrell explains is how her name appeared in her father's will. She's a wonderful character, a free spirit and healer who, like her late mother, is most at home in the woods. But she's also a Cinderella in her nasty stepmother's household, in which the future playwright — still in his teens with an uncertain future — is indentured as a Latin tutor to help settle a debt incurred by his errant father.

The two abused misfits recognize something special in each other, and the chemistry between them is palpable. A first kiss, later followed by sex that literally rocks and upends the apples in the storage shed, would be heavy-handed in its biblical overtones were it not so beautifully written. Hamnet is, among other things, a love story about a sorely tested marriage.

But before we meet his parents, we meet Hamnet, a smart but easily distractible boy, as he desperately seeks help for his twin sister, who has suddenly taken ill. With rising panic, he checks upstairs and down in his family's small apartment and his grandparents' adjacent house, and is anguished to discover that his mother, grandmother, aunt, and older sister are nowhere to be found. His father is off in London staging his plays. The only one home, drinking ale in the off-bounds parlour, is his irascible grandfather, from whom Hamnet has been warned to keep his distance.

As in her earlier novels, O'Farrell seeds her tale with dark forebodings. Agnes, off tending her bees during Hamnet's frantic search, will come to rue her absence that day:

Every life has its kernel, its hub, its epicentre, from which everything flows out, to which everything returns. This moment is the absent mother's: the boy, the empty house, the deserted yard, the unheard cry ... It will lie at her very core, for the rest of her life.

Hamnet vividly captures the life-changing intensity of maternity in its myriad stages — from the pain of childbirth to the unassuagable grief of loss. Fierce emotions and lyrical prose are what we've come to expect of O'Farrell. But with this historical novel she has expanded her repertoire, enriching her narrative with atmospheric details of the sights, smells, and relentless daily toil involved in running a household in Elizabethan England — a domestic arena in which a few missing menstrual rags on washday is enough to alarm a mother of girls.

About halfway through this tour de force, there's a remarkable 10-page passage in which O'Farrell traces how the plague reached Agnes' children. It's a sequence that would stand out even in more salubrious times, but which holds particular resonance in light of the current global Covid-19 pandemic.

"For the pestilence to reach Warwicksire, England, in the summer of 1596," O'Farrell writes, "two events need to occur in the lives of two separate people, and then these people need to meet." The unwitting conduits are a master glassmaker in Murano, who in a moment of inattention burns his hands while blowing glass beads, and a cabin boy on a merchant ship, who becomes enchanted with an African monkey in Alexandria and picks up a stowaway infected flea in his red neckerchief. With the tenaciousness of a forensic viral chaser, O'Farrell charts the flea and its progeny's deadly path, through cats, rats, midshipmen, officers, glassmaker, and into the boxes of glass beads, one of which Hamnet's sister Judith excitedly unpacks when it is delivered to a Stratford seamstress who has been eagerly awaiting them for a client's fancy gown.

Unaware of the source of her children's illness, poor Agnes is left to suffer the consequences. O'Farrell writes, "There is a part of her that would like to wind up time, to gather it in like yarn. She would like to spin the wheel backwards, unmake the skein of Hamnet's death." But of course she realizes, "There will be no going back. No undoing what was laid out for them. The boy has gone and the husband will leave and she will stay and the pigs will need to be fed every day and time runs only one way."

Although more than 400 years have unspooled since Hamnet Shakespeare's death, the story O'Farrell weaves in this moving novel is timeless and ever-relevant.

the starving artist

I'm determined. are you, book review: hamlet.

The story of Hamlet was based on the Dane Amleth, recorded in history by Saxo Grammaticus. Shakespeare might have written an earlier telling of the story, known today as Ur-Hamlet, and three distinct versions survive today, each with particular omissions and inclusions. “Hamlet” is Shakespeare’s longest play, one of his most complex (leading to wide and various interpretation) and respected, and his most popular during his lifetime. It is known as the most filmed story in history, after Cinderella, and leads many theaters in number of performances over time.

There are different ways to approach plays as literature. Even a simple reading of play reviews on Amazon will show that some believe a reading of a play can add to it, while others see the performance of the play as the true actualization. I tend to believe more in the performance as the thing, so I am not sure that reading is really the fairest way to judge a play. However, what performance would you judge a play on, anyhow? Perhaps a conglomeration of the performances? Or a perfect performance idealized by a professional read of the play? That’s a bit too abstract for us, so I’ll just stick to judging the play by my read and then chatting about any video performance I could get my hands on.

Now, due to passage of time between Shakespeare’s writing and the modern man, most people can not just pick up Shakespeare and read it without help. To us, the language is archaic and difficult, and there are plenty of allusions and assumptions that need notes to fill us in. On the other hand, since Shakespeare is taught widely in English-speaking schools and still culled for movies and other entertainment, many of us can eke our way through. I happen to love Shakespeare, so my returning to his works over time has left me with an ability to read it straight, for the most part. However, it is helpful to many to read a synopsis of the play before reading the play, keeping a resource handy to interpret certain passages or confusing words. Unfortunately, full appreciation of Shakespeare is lost on all but the experts, since we are so far removed from his times and his culture. However, even a vague understanding can lead to vague awe.

I find myself impressed by how many thoughts and phrases emerge from “Hamlet.” Within four lines appear “Neither a borrower nor lender be,” and “To thine own self be true.” The text is rife with common quotations and high points of theatrical history. However, it is not one of my favorite Shakespearean plays. When I started to read it (again; I’ve read it before), I was confused by Hamlet’s character, not sure whether he is mad or not and so forth. By the time I was done with my reading and all my viewings, I found Hamlet to be a spoiled prince baby, repugnant in the way he deals with others around him, as if they are cheap or mere playthings. It’s also not my favorite Shakespearean storyline, because, although it is pregnant with great twists and turns, it sort of lacks a flow which makes some of his other plays sleeker.

But of course, “Hamlet” is one of the standards of world literature, and I would not skip it or ignore it just because the Prince of Denmark is confusing or juvenile. Better critics than I put it right at the top of their lists. And anyway, part of the experience is in the interpretation, in seeing it performed, which leads us to the movies I could find.

“‘…my cousin Hamlet, and my son–‘ / ‘A little more than kin, and less than kind'” (p1074).

“Thou know’st ’tis common–all that live must die…. Why seems it so particular with thee?” (p1074).

“I know not seems” (p1074).

“You must know, your father lost a father; That father lost, lost his” (p1074).

“Frailty, they name is woman!” (p1074).

“…best safety lies in fear: Youth to itself rebels” (p1076).

“Give thy thoughts no tongue…. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice: Take each man’s censure, but reserve they judgement” (p1076).

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be: For loan oft loses both itself and friend” (p1076).

“…to thine ownself be true” (p1076).

“…these blazes, daughter, give more light than heat (p1077).

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (p1078).

“And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain, Unmix’d with baser matter” (p1079).

“There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy” (p1080).

“The time is out of joint” (pp1080).

“…brevity is the soul of wit” (p1082).

“How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not…” (p1084).

“‘Denmark’s a prison.’ / ‘Then the world is one'” (p1084).

“…they say an old man is twice a child” (p1085).

“…use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less they deserve the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in” (p1087).

“…the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape” (p1087).

“…the play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king” (p1087).

“To be, or not to be,–that is the question” (p1088).

“…ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause…” (p1088).

“The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn No traveller returns…” (p1088).

“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all” (p1088).

“Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind” (p1089).

“…the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature…” (p1090).

“A second time I kill my husband dead When second husband kisses me in bed” (p1091).

“Our wills and fates do so contrary run” (p1092).

“Never alone did the king sigh, but with a general groan” (p1094).

“And how his audit stands who knows save heaven? (p1094).

“Assume a virtue, if you have it not …. For use almost can change the stamp of nature…” (p1096).

“At supper. / At supper! Where? / Not where he eats, but where he is eaten…” (p1098).

“What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed?” (p1099).

“…his mother Lives almost by his looks” (p1102).

“There lives within the very flame of love A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it” (p1103).

“The cat will mew, and dog will have his day” (p1107).

“I have shot mine arrow o’er the house And hurt my brother” (p1110).

“…death, Is strict in his arrest” (p1111).

So we get it, I like the play. It is clearly brilliant. Although, I have to repeat that I think the 1990 film of it is its perfect actualization; actually better. But I don’t think I am stepping on too many toes there, because it is, after all, a Tom Stoppard production. If you like plays, run out and buy this play (but only after you have a working knowledge of “Hamlet;” without it, you can not appreciate it). Then wonder if you should read more Stoppard. That’s what I did, and for it I have been richly rewarded.

“At least we are presented with alternatives …. But not choice” (p39).

“What a fine persecution–to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened” (p41).

“Half of what he said meant something else, and the other half didn’t mean anything at all” (p57).

“Fire! …. It’s all right–I’m demonstrating the misuse of free speech. To prove that it exists” (p60).

“I mean one thinks of it like being alive in a box, one keeps forgetting to take into account the fact that one is dead … which should make all the difference… shouldn’t it?” (p70).

“There’s a design at work in all art–surely you know that? Events must play themselves out to aesthetic, moral and logical conclusion. / And what’s that, in this case? / It never varies–we aim at the point where everyone who is marked for death dies” (p79).

“The bad end unhappily, the good unluckily. That is what tragedy means” (p80).

“…it’s not gasps and blood and falling about–that isn’t what makes it death. It’s just a man failing to reappear, that’s all–now you see him, now you don’t, that’s the only thing that’s real: here one minute and gone the next and never coming back…” (p84)

“…there are wheels within wheels, etcetera–it would be presumptuous of us to interfere with the designs of fate or even of kings” (p110).

“Very often, it does not mean anything at all. Which may or may not be a kind of madness” (p116).

“But no one gets up after death–there is no applause–there is only silence and some second-hand clothes, and that’s– death –” (p123).

Author Review: Tom Stoppard

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2 thoughts on “ book review: hamlet ”.

I need to re-read R&G again. It was one of my favorites in college. I’ve never seen the movie, I don’t think, so maybe I’ll do that one of these days too. I always like the Kenneth Brannagh versions of Shakespeare. He’s very good in Much Ado… And a little off the subject, Dead Again is another of his great movies. Emma Thomson is in both.

Oh, I love Emma Thomson as well, and their version of Much Ado. Thanks for the Dead Again recommend, and I strongly suggest you see the movie of R&G.

The main themes of Hamlet include

Rashness vs. Thinking

Plot Summary

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragedy that delves into themes of treachery, revenge, moral corruption, and the nature of existence and of death. The play is set in Denmark and follows the story of Prince Hamlet.

The play opens with the ghost of King Hamlet appearing to guards at Elsinore Castle. The ghost reveals to his son, Prince Hamlet, that he was murdered by his brother, Claudius, who has now taken the throne and married Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. The ghost urges Hamlet to avenge his death.

Hamlet feigns madness to investigate and plots to kill Claudius. His erratic behavior confuses and alarms those around him, including his girlfriend Ophelia, daughter of Polonius, the lord chamberlain. Polonius believes Hamlet’s madness is due to his love for Ophelia. Hamlet often reveals his torment in eloquent soliloquies.

Hamlet stages a play, “The Mousetrap,” enacting his father’s murder to provoke an expression of guilt from Claudius. Claudius’s reaction confirms his guilt to Hamlet, who decides to kill him. However, Hamlet hesitates and misses his chance, killing Polonius instead by mistake when he hides behind a curtain.

Ophelia, stricken by her father’s death and Hamlet’s behavior, descends into madness and drowns. Her brother Laertes returns to Denmark to avenge Polonius’s death. Hamlet returns from exile in England and confronts actual death in a graveyard and Ophelia’s funeral. Laertes conspires with Claudius to kill Hamlet in a rigged duel. They plan to poison the tip of Laertes’s sword and prepare a poisoned drink for Hamlet.

During the duel, both Hamlet and Laertes are wounded by the poisoned sword. Queen Gertrude accidentally drinks the poisoned wine and dies. In his dying moments, Laertes reveals Claudius’s plot. Enraged, Hamlet finally kills Claudius.

Hamlet, dying from the poison, names Fortinbras of Norway as his successor. The play ends with Fortinbras arriving to take control of Denmark and ordering a military funeral for Hamlet.

Hamlet can be dated between 1586 when all the major sources were available and 1602 when it was entered in the Stationers’ Register.

What works inspired the author of Hamlet ?

The “Ur-Hamlet” (c. 1589). A mythical early Hamlet play for which there is no direct evidence. Its existence was created by orthodox scholars to explain away “too-early” references to the Shakespeare play.
The Precepts of William Cecil, Lord Burghley . A private collection of aphorisms from a father (William Cecil, Lord Treasurer of England) to his son which provided inspiration for “To thine own self be true” and other famous lines from the play.
The life of Edward de Vere. Events such as the death of his father and “hasty” remarriage of his mother, the relationship with William Cecil who was the model for Polonius, the pirate attack and numerous other references closely follow instances in de Vere’s life.

Act by Act Analysis and more evidence for Oxford's authorship

Michael Delahoyde, Hamlet , Overview and Act by Act. Visit the website of Professor Michael Delahoyde, host of our series, for an act by act analysis and full treatment of Oxfordian themes in the play, plus a filmography and more.

Learn more!

Eddi Jolly – “Dating Shakespeare’s Hamlet .” The Oxfordian 2 (1999): 11-23.

Eddi Jolly – “The Tragedy of Hamlet.” In Dating Shakespeare’s Play’s . Ed. Kevin Gilvary. Tunbridge Wells, UK: Parapress, 2010. 379-395.

Earl Showerman – “Orestes and Hamlet: From Myth to Masterpiece, Part I.” The Oxfordian 7 (2004): 89-114. [“Part II” unpublished.]

Richard Whalen – Hamlet’s Sources and Influences, and Its “Forerunners” by Oxford. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter: Vol. 54/1 (Winter 2018), 1, 19-31.

Christopher Paul – Oxford, Hamlet, and the Pirates: the naked truth. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter: Vol. 40/1: 01-5 (2004, Winter).

Tom Regnier – The Law in Hamlet: Death, Property, and the Pursuit of Justice. Brief Chronicles, v. 3 (2011).

Ren Draya – The Three Queens of Hamlet. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter: Vol. 54/1 (Winter 2018), 32-36.

Yambert, Karl – “Oxford’s Bible and Hamlet’s Biblical Allusions.” The Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter 60.2 (Spring 2024): 15-24.

Farina, William. De Vere as Shakespeare: An Oxfordian Reading of the Canon . Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2006. 195-200.

Gontar, David P. “Hamlet Made Simple.” In Hamlet Made Simple and Other Essays . Nashville: New English Review Press, 2013. 377-415. Gontar focuses on Hamlet’s possible doubt about his own paternity: Claudius? Might explain much.

Beauclerk, Charles. Shakespeare’s Lost Kingdom . NY: Grove Press, 2010.

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A photograph of a suited man seated in a conference room with an American flag. Donald Trump is seated, out of focus, in the foreground.

H.R. McMaster Doesn’t Think Donald Trump Is Very Good at Making Deals

A new memoir by the onetime national security adviser shows how the former president’s insecurities and weaknesses harmed U.S. foreign policy.

The national security adviser H.R. McMaster at a meeting in the White House in 2017. Credit... Tom Brenner/The New York Times

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By Nicolas Niarchos

Nicolas Niarchos is a freelance journalist whose writing on international relations has appeared in The Nation and The New Yorker. He is at work on a book about the supply chain for battery metals.

Aug. 27, 2024
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AT WAR WITH OURSELVES: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House , by H.R. McMaster

Recently on the campaign trail, Donald Trump has talked up his aggressive stance on China, positioning himself as a tough negotiator in a brutal trade war . But a new memoir by Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, one of Trump’s national security advisers, throws that narrative, and many other stories that Trump tells about his time in office, into stark relief.

As McMaster writes in “At War With Ourselves,” the president could sometimes be kept on the straight and narrow with a clever dose of reverse psychology (Xi Jinping wants you to say this, Xi Jinping wants you to say that). But just as often, McMaster shows Trump to have been an unpredictable waffler who undermined himself to the advantage of his competitors on the world stage.

In November 2017, President Trump visited China on the third leg of a 13-day trip around Asia. It was his “most consequential” destination, McMaster explains. As they flew to Beijing, he warned Trump that Xi would try to trick him into saying something that was good for China, but bad for the United States and its allies. “The C.C.P.’s favorite phrase, ‘win-win,’” he recalls telling his boss at one point, “actually meant that China won twice.”

Trump seemed to hear him, but in the Great Hall of the People, the president strayed from his talking points. He agreed with Xi that military exercises in South Korea were “provocative” and a “waste of money” and suggested that China might have a legitimate claim to Japan’s Senkaku Islands. McMaster, his stomach sinking, passed a note to Gen. John Kelly, the chief of staff: Xi “ate our lunch,” it read.

“At War With Ourselves” is intended to be a companion to “ Battlegrounds ,” McMaster’s 2020 assessment of U.S. foreign policy backsliding since the Cold War, but it works well as a stand-alone and serves as essential reading for anyone countenancing a potential second round of Trump as a global leader. The general shows how, despite his best efforts to help the president, the supposed master of the “art of the deal” was treated like a “chump” by a roster of the world’s top authoritarians.

Flattery and pomp from leaders like Xi, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Russian president Vladimir V. Putin seem to have been all that was required to get in Trump’s good graces. In 2018, McMaster found Trump in the Oval Office scrawling a cheerful note to Putin across a New York Post article reporting that the Russian president had denigrated the American political system but called Trump a good listener. Like a child with his Christmas wish list, the leader of the free world asked McMaster to send it to the Kremlin. It was especially bad timing: Evidence was coming to light that Putin had directed an assassination on British soil. McMaster did not forward the note, later explaining to an infuriated Trump that his letter would “reinforce the narrative that you are somehow in the Kremlin’s pocket.”

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Book Review : Hamlet : By William Shakespeare

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Books have seen me through the pandemic. It’s almost a cliché among bibliophiles, but each week I run across this sentiment on Twitter and Facebook, in long-distance phone chats, over brie and bottles of chardonnay in nearby Prospect Park. And then there’s the novel that sees you, almost literally, in this unprecedented year, plots mirroring the trajectory of your life, reversals of fortune identical to your own. Characters who glide off the page and sit on the edge of the bed, soothing your anxiety with whispered confidences―they complete your sentences, complete you.

Imagine my surprise when an Elizabethan odyssey became a roadmap through a year like no other.

In January I lost my 18 year old son, Owen, to sepsis; the infection swept in like a wildfire, ravaging his body and snuffing him out in under forty-eight hours. The previous week Covid-19 cases had peaked in the U.S. while violent insurrectionists had flooded into the nation’s capital. Grief–my grief–felt like a footnote to a vast malevolence, a ripple in a hurricane. The best way to mourn, I vowed, was to go off grid. I hunkered down in my Brooklyn apartment, throwing myself into a skeleton list of tasks: indulging my wife and two other teenagers with Indian take-out, double-masking at the gym, grooming the cats, hauling out garbage and recycling bins. And I read books—not only for work, but also for nourishment I craved but couldn’t quite understand. The less my mind rested, I figured, the less restlessness would surge through me, like a virus.

Which led me to Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet , published last year to universal acclaim and named one of 2020’s five best works of fiction by the New York Times Book Review. I was late to this stunning beauty, but in this case tardiness was a virtue: I picked up Hamnet at the moment I needed it most.

Knopf Hamnet

In precise, lavish detail, O’Farrell recreates the story of Shakespeare’s only son (also known as Hamlet), who succumbed to bubonic plague in 1596 at the age of eleven. She shifts between decades flawlessly, braiding the foreground narrative with the personal history of the enigmatic Agnes Hathaway, the Bard’s wife and mother of his three children. The abrupt subtraction of one. In O’Farrell’s telling the boy slips away fast. His father is summoned from the London stage and dashes back to the homestead in Stratford-upon-Avon but is too late. Agnes leans into her final maternal duty: she stitches Hamnet’s shroud, washes and dresses his body for burial.

“She begins at the face, at the top of him. He has a wide forehead . . . She dips the cloth, she washes, she dips again . . . The third finger of his right hand is calloused from gripping a quill. There are small pits in the skin of his stomach from when he had a spotted pox as a small child . . . Agnes looks at her son. The birdcage ribs, the interlaced fingers, the round bones of his knees, the still face, the corn-coloured hair, which has dried now, standing up from his brow, as it always does. His physical presence has always been so strong, so definite.”

I lacked Agnes’ resolve. After Owen passed away that bright cold January morning–measured in minutes, the stutter of alarms, ICU doctors yelling across a carousel of CPR–I came to his bedside. The tumult had ebbed away; there was a hush in the room. The physicians disconnected his ventilator and dimmed the monitors. His breathing tube stubbed out a few inches like a lopped umbilical cord, a smear of blood and gauze around the stoma. I touched his curls. He seemed himself, just asleep. Pink-cheeked, slack-jawed, lips a rosebud. Later his complexion would ashen, his tongue loll, slug-like, from his mouth.

Two nurses nudged me aside and asked whether they could clean him up before my wife arrived at the hospital. Fresh linens, a starched gown. I said yes, but that I wanted to wait out in the lobby, where for an hour I huddled over my cell, scrolling through contacts, veering from call to call. I must have spoken, in nervous fragments, to at least a dozen family members and friends, but I can’t say for sure. In Agnes O’Farrell captures that sense of light-headed disbelief, an instinct to connect what just happened with a larger story: there’s a global pandemic on and my son just died.

After Hamnet’s funeral, a torturous affair–Agnes is “hollowed out, her edges blurred and insubstantial”—her husband once again heeds the siren call of the theater. He can only mourn by going on with the show; he’s already mulling a new piece, a ghost haunting a disaffected Danish prince. The Bard’s daughters act out: Susanna tantrums while Judith, Hamnet’s twin, weeps in silence. Agnes hobbles around in a daze, immersed in country life, tending gardens, keeping bees in a skep. Only in the novel’s last pages when, years later, Agnes journeys to the Globe Theater to watch a performance of Hamlet , can she reconcile her tragedy with an art that transcends and sustains. The play’s the thing, with many allusions to her son. “The knowledge settles on her like a fine covering of rain,” O’Farrell writes. “Her husband has pulled off a manner of alchemy.”

We seek that alchemy from our masters, Shakespeare to O’Farrell and beyond. We seek to be seen in our most private, stripped-down moments. Recently I was having drinks with an acquaintance, a writer, in a garden tucked behind a trattoria in Greenwich Village, when he asked how many children I had, boys, girls? I fumbled the tense— I have . . .uh . . . had three boys, but now only two —before segueing into a précis of my loss. He sat across a rickety table, eyes glistening with tears, but the moment wasn’t heavy, far from it—I’d learned a thing or two about subtraction from O’Farrell. Just now I’m holding the novel in my hand, flipping it open, and finding my reflection there.

A former book editor and the author of a memoir, This Boy's Faith, Hamilton Cain is Contributing Books Editor at Oprah Daily. As a freelance journalist, he has written for O, The Oprah Magazine, Men’s Health, The Good Men Project, and The List (Edinburgh, U.K.) and was a finalist for a National Magazine Award. He is currently a member of the National Book Critics Circle and lives with his family in Brooklyn.

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14. Review of Hamlet book

Shakespeare’s Hamlet needs no introduction. It is a play that has stood the test of time, captivating audiences for centuries with its tragic tale of the Danish prince, Hamlet. With its immeasurable brilliance and timeless themes, Hamlet remains one of Shakespeare’s most enigmatic masterpieces. In this article, we will unravel the intricate layers of this captivating play, exploring its characters, themes, and the genius behind its creation.

The Tragic Tale of Prince Hamlet: An Enigmatic Journey

Hamlet, the protagonist of Shakespeare’s tragedy, embarks on an enigmatic journey that unravels the complexities of the human psyche. As the play begins, we witness the grief-stricken Prince mourning the death of his father, the King. However, the tale takes a dark twist as Hamlet is visited by the ghost of his father, revealing the truth behind his tragic demise. This encounter sets Hamlet on a path of revenge, filled with internal conflicts and moral dilemmas. Shakespeare’s expert storytelling skillfully weaves a complex web of emotions, plunging the audience into a world of uncertainty and suspense.

Shakespeare’s Opus Unveiled: Insights into Hamlet’s Brilliance

Hamlet stands as a testament to Shakespeare’s unparalleled brilliance in writing. The play’s structure is a masterclass in dramatic storytelling, with its five acts carefully building tension and suspense. The soliloquies, such as Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be,” offer a glimpse into the depths of human introspection and the existential angst that plagues the troubled Prince. Shakespeare’s use of language is mesmerizing, blending poetic beauty with raw emotion. From witty wordplay to profound philosophical musings, the brilliance of Shakespeare’s prose shines through every line.

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Deciphering the Depths: An Exploration of Hamlet’s Complex Characters

Hamlet is not just a one-dimensional character; rather, he is a complex individual grappling with a myriad of emotions and conflicting thoughts. Shakespeare brilliantly portrays the internal struggle within Hamlet’s mind, allowing the audience to delve into the depths of his psyche. The character of Ophelia, Hamlet’s love interest, adds another layer of complexity to the play. Her descent into madness mirrors Hamlet’s own unraveling sanity, showcasing the destructive power of grief and betrayal. Shakespeare’s ability to create multi-dimensional characters adds depth and richness to the narrative, making Hamlet a truly captivating experience.

Unmasking the Genius: Revelations in Hamlet’s Timeless Themes

Hamlet transcends time and continues to resonate with audiences today because of its exploration of timeless themes. The play delves into the complexities of human nature, examining themes such as revenge, madness, loyalty, and the nature of power. Shakespeare’s examination of morality and the consequences of actions invites us to reflect on our own lives and decisions. Hamlet’s internal struggle reflects the universal human experience of grappling with choices, doubts, and the search for meaning. The play’s relevance across centuries speaks volumes about Shakespeare’s genius in creating a masterpiece that remains relevant to this day.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a true masterpiece that unravels the depths of human emotion and reveals the complexities of the human condition. The tragic tale of Prince Hamlet takes audiences on an enigmatic journey, filled with suspense, intrigue, and thought-provoking themes. Through its brilliant characters, profound insights, and timeless themes, Hamlet stands as a testament to Shakespeare’s genius and the enduring power of his works. As we delve into the pages of this captivating play, we find ourselves captivated by its brilliance and reminded of the universal struggles and questions that lie within us all.

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BOOK REVIEW: Hamlet by William Shakespeare

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Book Review : Hamlet : By William Shakespeare

Knopf Hamnet

The Tragic Tale of Prince Hamlet: An Enigmatic Journey

Shakespeare’s Opus Unveiled: Insights into Hamlet’s Brilliance

Deciphering the Depths: An Exploration of Hamlet’s Complex Characters

Unmasking the Genius: Revelations in Hamlet’s Timeless Themes

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