JSSC PGTTCE English Paper Hamlet by Shakespeare

 As per notice published on JSSC website, JSSC PGT (PGTTCE) exam is going to held in the month of March; we have very less time to complete or thorough study of the text of prescribed books. Therefore, we have decided to come with the Daily Notes of English subject. We will be publishing each day with a new author or new topic, so that within the limited days we will have a good collection of materials.

Previous Posts:

 As You Like It 
 Henry IV.

Source

The chief source of this play is Saxo-Grammaticus’ narrative in Historaie Danicae, as retold by Belleforest in his Histories Tragiques.

Major Characters

King Hamlet – king of Denmark and husband of Gertrude, killed by his brother Claudius.

Hamlet Junior- a university student, son of King Hamlet who later swears to take the revenge.

Claudius- King Hamlet’s brother and marriages Gertrude.

Ophelia- Hamlet Junior’s beloved who dies by drowning herself.

Gertrude- King Hamlet’s wife who later on marriages Claudius.

Polonius- Ophelia’s father who works for Claudius as a spy but is mistakably killed by Hamlet the junior.

Horatio- one of the Hamlet’s friend who keeps the secrecy of Hamlet’s plan and madness.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern- both work for Claudius who have been instructed to kill the Hamlet the Junior but failed to do so and both killed by Young Hamlet.

Summary  

Hamlet is one of the greatest tragedies written by Shakespeare. Somehow, it is distinct from other great tragedies, unlike others, its hero or protagonist is a university student who has come recently after hearing the news of his father’s death. Here, Hamlet Junior is often overwhelmed by conflictions in reaching on any final decision. In the beginning, he was not ready to accept that his uncle Claudius is the murderer of his father, when he encountered the ghost of his father and ghost’s accusation of his murder by Claudius is left Hamlet Junior in confliction believing on it. He was also shocked to know that his father’s murderer has become his step-father; Gertrude, Hamlet Junior’s mother marriages the Claudius. Claudius killed the king Hamlet by pouring the poison into his ear. Now young Hamlet determined to kill the murderer of his father, he was looking for the chances to avenge. He plotted a plan and warns his friend Horatio and the Guard Marcellus that he pretends to madness, and swears them to secrecy.

Dubious Hamlet and his famous speech of deliberation ‘to be or not to be’, he rejects Ophelia, whom he loves more than anyone. On the other hand, Polonius, Ophelia’s father is working for Claudius as spy. Meanwhile, the young Hamlet welcomes a troupe of visiting players, and arranges a performance of a play ‘the mouse trap’ about fratricide, which Claudius breaks off, in completely fearful and with guilty temperament, when the player Lucianus appears to murder his uncle by pouring poison in his ear. Hamlet refrains from killing Claudius while he is at player, but stabs Polonius through the arras in his mother’s closet. Claudius sends Hamlet to England with sealed orders that he should be killed on arrival. However, Hamlet outwits him, somehow, returning to Denmark, having arranged the deaths of his old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who were his uncle’s agents.

Ophelia became insane after the rejection and then the death of her father, and is found drowned. Her brother Laertes, having returned from France, is determined to avenge his sister’s death. They fight in her graveyard where Ophelia is to be buried. Claudius arranges a fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes, giving Laertes a poisoned foil; an exchange of weapons results in the death of both Combatants. Gertrude drinks a poisoned cup intended for her son, and the dying Hamlet succeeds in killing Claudius.

Some Important Extracts from the Play

O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
(Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 2

Neither a borrower nor a lender be, 
For loan oft loses both itself and friend, 
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
(Polonius, Act 1 Scene 3)

...though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom 
More honoured in the breach than the observance.
(Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 4)

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
(Marcellus, Act 1 Scene 4)

That one may smile and smile and be a villain.
(Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5)

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy.
(Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5)

Brevity is the soul of wit.
(Polonius, Act 2 Scene 2) 

Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.
(Polonius, Act 2 Scene 2) 

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
(Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2)

O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! 
(Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2)

To be, or not to be, that is the question.
(Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 1)

The lady protests too much, methinks.
(Gertrude, Act 3 Scene 2)

How all occasions do inform against me, and spur my dull revenge. 
( soliloquy by Hamlet Act 4 Scene 3)

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: A fellow of infinite jest.  
(Hamlet, Act 5 Scene 1)

If it be now, 'tis not to come: if it be not to come, it will be now: if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.  
(Hamlet, Act 5 Scene 2)

The rest is silence. 
(Hamlet, Act 5 Scene 2)

Goodnight, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
(Horatio, Act 5 Scene 2)