Namangan davlat universiteti ingliz filologiyasi fakulteti amaliy ingliz tili kafedrasi

T
he tragedy blames the adults for their blind self-interest. 
“Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” 
“Hamlet” is one of Shakespeare’s greatest creations, but it is also considered the hardest of his 
works to understand. Some critics count it even mysterious. The source of the plot can be found in a 
Danish chronicle written around 1200. The plot of the tragedy is following: a usurper Claudius 
murders his brother, the lawful king, and seizes the throne. The son of the murdered king and 
lawful heir to the throne Hamlet, discovering the crime, struggles against usurper. But the struggle 
ends tragically for him too. 
As you see, there is nothing mysterious in the plot of the tragedy, but mysterious is the 
complex character of Hamlet himself. First we see Hamlet plunged into despair: he is grieved by 
the death of his father, shocked and horrified by the inconstancy and immorality of his mother, 
filled with disgust and hatred for Claudius, and begins to be disgusted with life in general. 
Later, after talking to the Ghost, he learns of the murder of his father. He sincerely wants to 
kill Claudius, and avenge for his father. The readers also want him to do so. But Hamlet delays and 
goes on delaying. He even rejects a chance to kill Claudius while he is on his knees in prayer. Why 
does he delay avenging his father’s murde Why can’t he make up his mind? This is the mystery. 
Various explanations have been offered by a number of critics, but still they have not come to a 
conclusion, which could satisfy all the readers and investigators of Shakespeare. 
Instead of Claudius Hamlet, by mistake, kills Polonius, Ophelia’s father. It happens because 
Polonius, the king’s adviser, decides to eavesdrop on Hamlet while the prince is visiting his mother 
in her sitting room. He hides behind a curtain, but Hamlet becomes aware that someone is there. 
Hamlet stabs Polonius through the curtain and kills him. 
The king, Claudius, exiles Hamlet to England for the murder. He also sends secret orders that 
the prince be executed after he arrives in England. But Hamlet intercepts the orders and returns to 
Denmark safe and sound. He arrives in time and sees Ophelia’s burial.
Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius and the girl whom Hamlet loves. She goes insane after 
her father’s death and drowns herself. Laertes, Ophelia’s brother, blames Hamlet for his sister’s and 
father’s death. He agrees to Claudius’s plan to kill Hamlet with a poisoned sword in a fencing 
match. Laertes wounds Hamlet during the duel, and is wounded himself by the poisoned weapon. 
Hamlet’s mother, watching the match, accidentally drinks from a cup of poisoned wine prepared by 
Claudius for Hamlet. Dying from the wound, Hamlet kills Claudius. At the end of the play, Hamlet, 
his mother, Claudius, and Laertes all lie dead.
The role of Hamlet in this outstanding play is considered one of the

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greatest acting challenges of the theatre. Shakespeare focused the play on the deep conflict within 
thoughtful and idealistic Hamlet. Hamlet reveals this conflict in several famous monologues. The 
best known of them is his monologue on suicide, which begins with “To be, or not to be.”