SCRIPTORIUM
SHAKESPEAREAN SUMMARIES
Hamlet
Author: William Shakespeare
Time period: Renaissance, 1603
Language: English
The play begins with the scholar Horatio discovering a ghost of the recently deceased King Hamlet whilst walking along Elsinore Castle in Denmark. The main protagonist, Prince Hamlet, believes that his father was murdered by his brother Claudius. Claudius and Prince Hamlet’s mother Gertrude are worried about his strange behavior due to the death of his father and send his two friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to watch him. Polonius, the Lord Chamberlain of Claudius’ court, speculates Hamlet’s strange behavior as love for his (Polonius’) daughter, Ophelia. Aided by Polonius, Claudius spies on Hamlet to find him madly declaring to Ophelia to enter a nunnery and says that he wishes to ban all marriages. (“Get thee to a nunnery.” III.i). Hamlet later gathers actors at a theater, where he has them act out a scene from The Murder of Gonzago, also known as the Mousetrap whilst Claudius is watching in the audience. Hamlet hopes that the murder scene resembling the death of his father would help him understand Claudius’ involvement in his father’s murder, and when Claudius leaves the theater uncomfortably he concludes his forebodings are true. Hamlet accidentally murders Polonius behind tapestry and dispatches to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, however unbeknownst to Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern send letters to the King of England demanding Hamlet be put to death. Ophelia then grieves for her father’s death and drowns herself. Laertes, the son of Polonius, is infuriated at Hamlet for causing the death of his father and plans to stab Hamlet with a poisoned blade or make him drink a goblet full of poison. Hamlet gets stabbed by the poison blade and Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, drinks the goblet of poison, and the two die. Laertus then accidentally stabs himself and as he dies, confesses that Claudius truly was responsible for the murder of King Hamlet. In the end, a Norwegian prince named Fortinbras comes with the information that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead and Fortinbras takes control of the kingdom. Fortinbras then orders Hamlet to be carried away like a fallen soldier, with "with music and rite of war." He orders his soldiers to carry the bodies out, and the play ends.
The Tempest
Author: William Shakespeare
Time period: Renaissance
Language: English
Prospero, the formerly Duke of Milan was usurped by his brother, Antonio, aided by Alonso, the king of Naples. Prospero then flees to an island with his daughter Miranda, using his magical powers to keep the island’s only inhabitant Caliban and the local spirit Ariel as a servant. A ship carrying Antonio passes by the island and Prospero conjures up a storm with the help of Ariel. The ship is destroyed and Antonio, Alonso, Ferdinand, Sebastian, Gonzalo, Adrian, and other court members are shipwrecked. Prospero uses magic to separate the survivors into groups on the island, determined to regain his dukedom. Prospero arranges a romantic relationship between Ferdinand and Miranda, Tinculo (the king’s jester) and Stephano attempt to overthrow Prospero and serve as comic relief, and the ship’s captain and boatswain along with other sailors are asleep until the final act. After Antonio and Sebastian conspire to kill Alonso and Gonzalo in order to make Sebastian king, Ariel confronts them in the guise of Harpy and causes them to flee. Prospero intends Miranda to marry Ferdinand and Ariel conjures a masque featuring the goddesses Juno, Ceres, and Iris to bless them. The masque is then interrupted by Prospero who orders Ariel to stop the nobles’ plot whilst Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano are chased off by swamp goblins in the form of hounds. Prospero vows to set Ariel free and abandon his magic once he achieves his goals and forgives Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian and restores his title as the Duke of Milan. The nobles, Miranda, and Prospero reunite and leave the island and Ariel is instructed to provide good weather to the king’s ship as it sails to Naples, where Ferdinand and Miranda will be married. Ariel is set free and Prospero requests his audience to set him free in an epilogue.