true story of hamlet

1186 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What role did the characters play in hamlet

Short Story
The True Story Of Hamlet

“Who’s there?” said Bernardo the watchmen
“it is I, Francisco here to relieve you.”
“it sure is cold and creepy out tonight, where is Horatio he is late?”
“Gentlemen how are you tonight?” asked Horatio
The guards replied at the same instant, “fine”
“Good night and stay warm” said Francisco
Shortly there after Marcellus arrives and they see a ghostlike figure in the distance and Bernardo is positive it was the late great king of Denmark. Horatio quickly agrees and Marcellus is persuaded by the others judgment that it indeed is the ghost of the king.
“Everything is working out great.” said Bernardo
Horatio just glanced over to acknowledge that he understood but Marcellus was so scared at the time he didn’t even notice. The Guards and Horatio go get Prince Hamlet, son of the late King Hamlet of Denmark and take him to the top of the castle to see for himself but the Prince was delusional and vulnerable. He came anyway and when the ghost appeared in the thick fog it almost seemed real to Horatio whom played a strong role of playing shocked and scared but he knew that it was not the old king, but Hamlet didn’t know that and in his state of denial of the recent events in his life he is sucked into believing that it is true and his father has come back to help him. Marcellus and Horatio try and come up with a rational explanation but Marcellus could not think of one and leaves Horatio with knowledge that they believe. Was it true? Did this really happen? The night before last Horatio was in the castle and walked passed King Claudius’s chamber and overheard him confessing his sins to god and overheard the whole story on how and whom killed King Hamlet.
The next morning King Claudius, Hamlets uncle celebrates his marriage to Gertrude Hamlets mother and Claudius proclaims that Hamlet will be king when he is ready to be king. Hamlet obsessed over his new findings and his depression becomes angry and looks upon Claudius with bad eyes since his whore mother whom married less then a month after his fathers death to his uncle keeps asking him to cast away these nightly colors that he is wearing and through all of this brings anxiety to Hamlet and he feels something’s strange and that he should not be forgetting his father.
(Hamlet speaks to himself)

Show More
Related

  • Lets Foil: The Use of Foil Characters to Reveal Personality Depth in Hamlet by Shakespeare

    1472 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the story, Horatio is continuously shown as the voice of reason and clarity. He is the authority figure and it is through him that we see the truth behind the actions of Hamlet and the others. Horatio is the outside observer to the play and it is a result of his words and actions that we can ground the play in reality. Ever since the beginning of the play, Horatio is shown to be a voice of cautious reason and measured skepticism along with a voice of truth, for it was not until he saw the ghost that the ghost became a reality. This idea is clearly portrayed atop the battlements when Horatio says “Before my God, I might not this believe/ without the sensible and true avouch/ of mine own eyes.”(I.i.56-58). Here Horatio confirms that he is the “narrator” of the play and the most sensible observer. However no matter what, Horatio is still Hamlet’s friend and despite his calm mindedness, at the end...

    Read More

  • Horatio's Speech to Fortinbras in Shakespeare's Hamlet

    903 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sir Fortinbras and noble knights of the army of Norway, I stand before you today to tell a tale of a martyred hero to whom we must remember. Hamlet be thy name. He was a friend and a leader. About eight months ago Hamlet was distraught, I'd never seen him like this before. He had a good excuse, I mean his father had just died, his mom, god rest her soul, remarried not even a month afterwards. Hamlet's affair with Ophilia was dwindling in his giant fire of emotions. Ophilia was the kings' servant's daughter. The king's servant was Polonious. Polonious did not want Ophilia with Hamlet, nor did Ophilia's brother Laertes. Hamlet was under a lot of pressure, but it wasn't until a few of the guards and myself saw a ghost whom we believed was Hamlet's deceased father. This was the point of all of our lives were you either take one path or the other each leading you in a total different direction. Hamlet went to the guard tower with us the next night and reasoned to our favor that the ghost did in fact perpetuate the look of King Hamlet. The ghost made a follow me motion to Hamlet and we grabbed him. Please do not follow Sir Hamlet, I pleaded. The spirit was insistent and Hamlets gut instinct drove him to follow the floating omen. I know not the exact words that the ghost spoke that night but from what I understand, he was back from the dead to inform his son that he had not died from the rumorous snake bite which had been presumed. King Hamlet's brother, the current King Claudius, had murdered him while he lay in the garden by pouring poison in his ear. The ghost also informed Hamlet of an affair that his mother had been having with Claudius. This bit of information stunned and enraged if you will Hamlet. Hamlet knew not what to believe. After all the ghost could have just as easily been the devil himself for all we knew.

    Read More

  • The Virtues of Horatio in William Shakespeare's Play

    942 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many characters in the play have confidence in Horatio because of his trustworthiness. Horatio is very trustworthy, and not only in the way that he can keep a secret if needed, but he is honorable and keeps his word, and is honest to himself, showing integrity. Here, Horatio shows this trait by revealing to Hamlet that Hamlet’s father’s ghost had appeared.

    Read More

  • The Ghost: Bona fide or Bogus?

    884 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Act 1 scene I, several guards and Horatio, a well educated close friend of Hamlet, see a ghost dressed in full armor. The ghost being in full armor resembles the tense mood of the scene, because many people are scared Denmark will go to war with Norway. The soldiers tell Horatio to question the ghost. He says: “What art thou that usurp’st this time of night, together with that fair and war-like form in which the majesty of buried Denmark did sometimes March? By heaven I charge thee, speak!” (pg. 33, l. 46). The ghost does not reply to his request and the guards think he has offended it. Later in the scene the ghost disappears into the mist. In a later scene Horatio tells Hamlet about seeing the ghost in the middle of the night. This leads to Hamlet meeting with in ghost in Act I, scene iiiii.

    Read More

  • King Claudius Character Analysis Essay

    995 Words  | 2 Pages

    The book Hamlet focuses on Prince Hamlet who is depressed. He was told to go home to Denmark from his school in Germany to be present at his father 's funeral but was shocked to find his mother Gertrude already remarried to his Uncle Claudius, the dead king 's brother. To Hamlet, the marriage is "foul incest." Worse still, Claudius has had himself crowned King despite the fact that Hamlet was his father 's heir to the throne. Various major characters such as Ophelia, King Claudius, Polonius, Prince Hamlet, Laertes, Horatio, and Gertrude, Ghost of Hamlet’s father, Fortinbras, Yorick, Guildenstern, and Rosencrants featured in the book but in this essay, I would be critically analyzing just one major character, “King Claudius”. I would analyze

    Read More

  • The Character Horatio in Shakespeare's Hamlet

    1244 Words  | 3 Pages

    Horatio serves often as the voice of reason, for instance; he is skeptical of the watchman's testimony that a ghost appeared during their watch in the previous night. Marcellus says of the watchman's testimony, "Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy, / And will not let belief take hold of him" (1.1.23-4). Horatio believes the watchmen only when he witnesses the ghost and even then is still skeptical. He is also the voice of reason when he asks Hamlet to restrain himself from meeting the ghost. He is afraid that Hamlet will hurt himself or go mad (1.4.63-91), finally telling Hamlet, "Be ruled, you shall not go" (1.4.81). Hamlet often seeks verification of events from Horatio as well. Horatio agrees with Hamlet, in 1.4, that the night is cold (1.4.2), and verifies Hamlet's belief that the ghost is "wondrous strange" (1.4.164). Horatio does not exaggerate about the length of the stay of the ghost. In 1.2, Horatio tells Hamlet that the ghost stayed in his presence for possibly "a hundreth" (1.2.137), followed by Marcellus and Barnardo's utterance, "Longer, longer" (1.2...

    Read More

  • Truthful Horatio of Shakespeare's Hamlet

    602 Words  | 2 Pages

    Horatio's role in Hamlet is minor, however he serves two purposes central to the drama. Horatio provides the truth. It is through Horatio that the actions taken by Hamlet and other characters gain credibility. He is the outside observer to the madness. Hamlet could soliloquize to no end, but it is his conversations with Horatio that ground the play in reality. Horatio believes Hamlet and thus we have permission to believe. He sees the Ghost and so we can believe that Hamlet has seen the Ghost. If Horatio were not there, Hamlet's sanity would truly be in doubt.

    Read More

  • Hamlet and his battle with depression

    1756 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hamlet, a young prince preparing to become King of Denmark, cannot understand or cope with the catastrophes in his life. After his father dies, Hamlet is filled with confusion. However, when his father's ghost appears, the ghost explains that his brother, Hamlet's Uncle Claudius, murdered him. In awe of the supposed truth, Hamlet decides he must seek revenge and kill his uncle. This becomes his goal and sole purpose in life. However, it is more awkward for Hamlet because his uncle has now become his stepfather. He is in shock by his mother's hurried remarriage and is very confused and hurt by these circumstances. Along with these familial dysfunctions, Hamlet's love life is diminishing. It is an "emotional overload" for Hamlet (Fallon 40). The encounter with the ghost also understandably causes Hamlet great distress. From then on, his behavior is extremely out of context (Fallon 39). In Hamlet's first scene of the play, he does not like his mother's remarriage and even mentions his loss of interest in l...

    Read More

  • Analysis of Hamlet

    8186 Words  | 17 Pages

    The play does not open with the protagonist, nor with the direct disclosure of the problem. It points to unanswered questions and reveals anxiety and unrest. There is said to be a ghost, but the reason and purpose for the ghost's appearance are unknown. Basically, we can say that the first scene creates an atmosphere and the basis for the disclosure of the specific problem. The first point dramatically established is that there really is a ghost, although the questions raised by its appearance are unanswered. Horatio, the scholar and the skeptic, comes to test the report given by the simple soldiers. The empirical proof that Horatio seeks is there; the ghost appears and it is seen to have a specific identity, that of the deceased King Hamlet. But the reason for his presence is not disclosed and the men on the platform, confronted by the upsetting mystery, have to guess in the dark, literally and metaphorically. Unable to offer an explanation, Horatio sees the apparition in convention terms as an omen of some evil. This is immediately connected with the expository fact that there are feverish military preparations in the kingdom. The indication is that there are pre-existing questions brought into the open in connection with the ghost. The specific question relating to preparations for war, concerning the kingdom and not necessarily the ghost, is answered by Horatio; he gives us expository background concerning the immediate past in the kingdom of Denmark, involving King Hamlet and King Fortinbras of Norway, we hear there was open, chivalric combat between them in which the Danish King vanquished and killed Fortinbras, as a result of which he obtained (fairly) the land which was gained by the Norwegians. But additionally we hear th...

    Read More

  • Hamlet Betrayal

    1210 Words  | 3 Pages

    Claudius is the king of Denmark, who is a very powerful and assertive man. He is the type of person that will do anything to get what he wants and everything in his power to stay king. He will do what it takes to get his way, even if that means betraying the person he is supposed to be committed to and love, his wife Gertrude. Gertrude is the mother of Hamlet, who she deeply cares for and loves. She is convinced that Claudius does as well. In order for Claudius to stay as king he must keep Gertrude happy and pleased. He accomplishes this by pretending to love Hamlet in front of Gertrude when in reality he wants to kill Hamlet. Claudius faces the truth that his secret got out and Hamlet knows he killed King Hamlet. Not wanting to ruin his reputation and of course stay king he plans to have Hamlet killed. He lets Gertrude believe...

    Read More

  • Hamlet's Horatio: A True Friend

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    When the encounter with the ghost occurs at the beginning of the play, Horatio’s original skepticism introduces doubt. When Horatio agrees that the spirit exists, the readers are allowed to believe that the ghost was not a figment of Hamlet’s imagination. At the first sighting of the ghost, Horatio, urging Hamlet to stay away from the ghost, says, “What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord.../And there assume some other horrible form/Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason/ And draw you into madness? Think of it./The very place puts toys of desperation/Without more motive, into every brain” (III.ii.75). Horatio is foreshadowing Hamlet’s descent into madness. Here, Horatio is...

    Read More

  • Hamlet Madness And Madness

    1118 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hamlet undergoes a series of trials and troubles some that are internal and other’s that create towards a certain path that he cannot escape. Hamlet’s best destruction in this path of no return is characterized in the beginning with his uncertainty of his existence and feeling over the loss of his father’s death. Young Hamlet faces risk within his mind when his mother marries his uncle soon after the death of his father. The death of Hamlet’s father and the immediate marriage of King Claudius and Hamlets mother Gertrude was a major factor in Hamlets depression. Unable to comprehend his melancholy mood he boards on a journey of revenge when learning his father’s ghostly appearance is wandering the Castle at night restless from not finding closure in his life. This event derives from his father’s meeting and revealing the cause of his extraordinary death. Hamlet’s uncle Claudius schemed and conquered in killing his own brother in order to gain the throne and Hamlet in some obligation towards truth, anger, and revenge agrees to expose

    Read More

  • Hamlet, The Protagonist

    1280 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hamlet is a tale of tragedy by Shakespeare which tells the story of the prince of Denmark who is on a quest to avenge the death of his father at the hands of his uncle whom subsequently becomes king of Denmark. This is what fuels the fire in the play as Hamlet feels the responsibility to avenge his father’s death by his uncle Claudius; however, Claudius assumed the throne following the death of hamlets father. It is in this context that we see the evolution of hamlets character from a student and young prince of Denmark to the protagonist and tragic hero in the play.

    Read More

  • Hamlet – A Psychological Drama

    1933 Words  | 4 Pages

    In writing Hamlet, William Shakespeare plumbed the depths of the mind of the protagonist, Prince Hamlet, to such an extent that this play can rightfully be considered a psychological drama.

    Read More

  • Hamlet: A Tragic Hero

    685 Words  | 2 Pages

    The tragedy of Hamlet, Shakespeare’s most popular and greatest tragedy, presents his genius as a playwright and includes many numbers of themes and literary techniques. In all tragedies, the main character, called a tragic hero, suffers and usually dies at the end. Prince Hamlet is a model example of a Shakespearean tragic hero. Every tragedy must have a tragic hero. A tragic hero must own many good traits, but has a flaw that ultimately leads to his downfall. If not for this tragic flaw, the hero would be able to survive at the end of the play. A tragic hero must have free will and also have the characteristics of being brave and noble. In addition, the audience must feel some sympathy for the tragic hero.

    Read More

More about true story of hamlet

Open Document