Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, son of Queen Gertrude and the late King Hamlet. After the late King Hamlets death, Claudius (the late Kings brother) married Queen Gertrude and became the father uncle to Prince Hamlet. After the ghost (King Hamlet) appeared to Prince Hamlet and informed him that Claudius was the murderer of his father, by putting poison in his ear, Hamlet was furious. The ghost told Hamlet to seek revenge on King Claudius, but not to harm Queen Gertrude. .
To prove that the ghost was telling the truth and that Claudius did indeed kill King Hamlet, Prince Hamlet developed a plan. The plan was to catch Claudius expressing guilt for murdering King Hamlet. When the players arrived, they put on a play that resembled the actions of Claudius. First, the King would die of poison by his brother. Then after the brother became King, he would marry the Queen (his sister-in-law). Prince Hamlet would watch Claudiuss actions to see if he showed any guilt, if so, then Hamlet would be convinced that the ghost was telling the truth. As suspected, Claudius was very disturbed and he ordered that the play be stopped. Hamlet then realized that the ghost was right and Claudius did murder his father.
Is Hamlet Mad?.
A big part of the play revolves around the question of Prince Hamlets madness and if it exists. If you can imagine, after the death of his father, and the remarriage of his mother, it is hard for him to deal with many things. At any given moment during the play, the most accurate assessment of Hamlets state of mind lies between sanity and insanity. Hamlet certainly displays a high degree of mania and instability throughout much of the play, but his madness is perhaps too intentional for us to conclude that he actually loses his mind. His language is unusual and wild, but beneath his mad-sounding diction often lie clever observations that show the sane mind working bitterly beneath the surface.
