Hamlet Act 5

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Act 5 Scene 1 - summary

Hamlet and Horatio wait in a graveyard when Ophelia’s funeral procession arrives. Hamlet and Laertes fight in Ophelia’s grave until they are pulled apart.

Yorick

The skull of Yorick, the former jester of Hamlet’s late father, represents the inevitability of death and the existential meaninglessness of life in light of this fact.

OTHER The coroner examined her case and says it should be a Christian funeral.  GRAVEDIGGER How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defense?  OTHER  Why, ’tis found so.

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Act 5 Scene 2 - The tragic climax

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's best known, most quoted and longest play, written c1599 - 1602 and rewritten throughout his lifetime. It is the story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, encouraged by his father's ghost to take revenge on his uncle who murdered him, and is set at the court of Elsinore. In soliloquies, the Prince reveals his inner self to the audience while concealing his thoughts from all at the Danish court, who presume him insane. Shakespeare gives him lines such as 'to be or not to be,' 'alas, poor Yorick,' and 'frailty thy name is woman', which are known even to those who have never seen or read the play. And Hamlet has become the defining role for actors, men and women, who want to show their mastery of Shakespeare's work.

BBC RADIO In Our Time

What is a similarity between A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet?

1. Both are comedies
2. Both are tragedies
3. Both are histories
4. Both have a play-within-the-play

Hamlet

- Written in 1601

- Shakespeare's longest play

- Based on 12th century Latin history about Denmark

- Focus on "humanism" = the human experiences

- Main character has lots of complex feelings

Hamlet

- Hamlet's father is dead & tells Hamlet to avenge him

- Hamlet needs to kill the new king Claudius (his uncle)

- To find out the truth he acts like a mad man 

- His girlfriend Ophelia doesn't understand and kills herself

- Claudius wants to assassinate Hamlet, but he escapes

- In the end: Hamlet's mother dies from poison, Claudius from         poison & a blade, Hamlet gets stabbed, and others die as well