Narrator: What if the ghost of your murdered father appeared on the castle battlements, visible only to you and a few trusted guards? What if this spirit claimed he was poisoned by his own brother—the man who now wears his crown and has married his wife, your mother? And what if this ghost charged you, his son, with the monumental task of avenging his "foul and most unnatural murder"? This is the impossible burden placed upon Prince Hamlet, a dilemma that plunges him and the entire kingdom of Denmark into a spiral of madness, betrayal, and death.

The play Hamlet is a cornerstone of Western literature, but to truly grasp its depths, one must understand the world that created it. In CLIFFSCOMPLETE Shakespeare’s Hamlet, edited by Sidney Lamb with commentary by Terri Mategrano, readers are given a comprehensive guide not just to the play’s intricate plot, but to the historical, intellectual, and social forces that shaped Shakespeare's tragic masterpiece. The book unpacks the layers of meaning, revealing why this story of a grieving prince continues to resonate with audiences over 400 years later.

Narrator: To understand Hamlet, one must first understand the world of Early Modern England, a time of immense change and deeply held beliefs that are alien to the modern mind. Shakespeare’s audience lived in a universe they believed was divinely ordered. They subscribed to Ptolemy's geocentric model, where the Earth was the center of everything, and society was structured by a "Great Chain of Being." This hierarchy placed God at the top, followed by angels, kings, nobles, commoners, animals, and so on. To kill a king was not just a political crime; it was an act against God that disrupted the entire cosmic order, unleashing chaos upon the world. This context is essential, as it frames Claudius's murder of his brother not as a simple power grab, but as a sin that has caused the entire state of Denmark to become "rotten."

The physical world of Shakespearean theatre was just as unique. The plays were performed in open-air theatres like the famous Globe, a space that Shakespeare himself invested in and helped build. The story of the Globe is itself a drama. When the lease on their original playhouse expired, Shakespeare's acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, dismantled the building timber by timber, ferried the materials across the River Thames, and reconstructed it as the Globe Theatre in 1599. This was the stage where Hamlet’s existential questions would first echo. Tragically, in 1613, during a performance of Henry VIII, a theatrical cannon misfired, setting the thatched roof ablaze and burning the iconic theatre to the ground. This history of creation and destruction mirrors the themes of the plays performed within its walls, showing how the very stage was intertwined with the drama of the era.

Narrator: The play opens not with royal fanfare, but with a sense of deep unease on the cold, dark battlements of Elsinore castle. The guards are terrified, having twice seen an apparition resembling the recently deceased King Hamlet. When the ghost finally appears to Prince Hamlet, it confirms the kingdom’s darkest fears. The official story was that the king was bitten by a serpent while sleeping in his orchard. But the Ghost reveals the horrifying truth: the "serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown."

In a chilling account, the Ghost describes how Claudius, his own brother, crept up to him during his afternoon nap and poured a lethal poison, a "cursed hebona," into his ear. The poison worked with terrifying speed, curdling his blood and covering his body in a leprous crust. With this revelation, the Ghost issues a terrible command: "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder." Yet, it comes with a crucial and confounding caveat: Hamlet must not harm his mother, Gertrude, but leave her to the judgment of heaven. This dual command places Hamlet in an impossible moral position. He is tasked with killing a king, an act that defies cosmic law, while simultaneously navigating his complex feelings for a mother he sees as complicit. Burdened by this knowledge, Hamlet vows to feign madness—to put on an "antic disposition"—in order to investigate the Ghost's claims and hide his deadly intentions.

Narrator: Haunted by the Ghost's command but plagued by doubt, Hamlet needs irrefutable proof of Claudius's guilt before he can act. His "antic disposition" allows him to observe the court, but he devises a more ingenious trap. When a troupe of traveling actors arrives at Elsinore, Hamlet sees his chance. He will use the power of theatre to expose the truth. He arranges for the actors to perform a play called The Murder of Gonzago, but with a crucial addition: a short scene he has written himself, which depicts the exact circumstances of his father's murder by poison.

As the court gathers to watch, Hamlet provides running commentary, his eyes fixed on Claudius. The tension builds as the play-within-a-play unfolds. When the actor-murderer pours poison into the ear of the sleeping actor-king, Claudius's composure shatters. He leaps to his feet, crying out, "Give me some light. Away!" and storms out of the hall. For Hamlet, this explosive reaction is the confirmation he desperately needed. The Ghost was telling the truth. Claudius is a murderer. In this moment, Hamlet's famous declaration is proven true: "The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king." He now has the certainty to proceed, but this knowledge will not simplify his path; it will only accelerate the tragedy.

Narrator: Armed with the truth, Hamlet's path to revenge becomes anything but clear. His certainty leads not to swift justice, but to a cascade of tragic consequences. The first and most pivotal mistake occurs in his mother's chamber. Following the play, Hamlet confronts Gertrude, furiously condemning her hasty and incestuous marriage. As their argument escalates, he hears a noise from behind a large tapestry, or arras. Believing the eavesdropper is Claudius, Hamlet draws his sword and, in a moment of rash fury, stabs through the fabric. When he pulls the tapestry back, he finds not the king, but the meddling advisor Polonius, who lies dead at his feet.

This impulsive act of violence is the point of no return. Polonius's death sets off a chain reaction of sorrow and vengeance. His daughter, Ophelia, already reeling from Hamlet's cruel rejection, is driven into true madness by her father's death at her lover's hand. Her subsequent drowning is a profound tragedy. Meanwhile, her brother, Laertes, returns from France consumed by a burning desire for revenge. Unlike Hamlet, who philosophizes and hesitates, Laertes is a man of action, willing to "cut his throat i' th' church." Claudius, ever the manipulator, seizes this opportunity, channeling Laertes's raw grief and rage into a deadly plot against their common enemy: Hamlet.

Narrator: The play's final act sees all the threads of revenge, deception, and tragedy converge in a bloody spectacle. Claudius and Laertes devise a seemingly foolproof plan to eliminate Hamlet under the guise of a friendly fencing match. The plot is threefold: Laertes will fight with a sharpened sword, not a blunted one; the tip of his sword will be coated in a lethal poison; and as a backup, Claudius will offer Hamlet a poisoned cup of wine to drink from in celebration.

The duel begins, and the court watches, unaware of the treachery. In a shocking turn, Queen Gertrude, wishing to honor her son's success in the match, drinks from the poisoned cup intended for Hamlet. As she collapses and dies, the plot unravels. Laertes succeeds in wounding Hamlet with the poisoned blade, but in the ensuing scuffle, their swords are exchanged, and Hamlet wounds Laertes with his own poisoned weapon. As he dies, Laertes confesses the entire plot, crying out, "The king, the king's to blame." Finally, with his own death imminent and the truth revealed, Hamlet fulfills the Ghost's command. He forces Claudius to drink the rest of the poisoned wine and stabs him with the poisoned sword. In a matter of minutes, the entire royal family lies dead. The stage is littered with bodies, a testament to how the pursuit of revenge has consumed everyone, leaving the kingdom of Denmark for a foreign prince, Fortinbras, to claim.

Narrator: As CLIFFSCOMPLETE Shakespeare’s Hamlet so clearly illuminates, this play is far more than a simple revenge tragedy. It is a profound and timeless exploration of human consciousness itself—a deep dive into the nature of grief, the burden of morality, the paralysis of thought, and the catastrophic consequences of violence. Hamlet's ultimate tragedy is not merely that he dies, but that in his tortured quest to cleanse the world of a single evil, he becomes an agent of its total destruction, taking the innocent and the guilty down with him.

The enduring power of Hamlet lies in its refusal to offer easy answers. It leaves us in a state of profound ambiguity, questioning the very nature of justice and the price of action. The play challenges every person who encounters it to look inward and ask: when faced with a world that is "out of joint," what is the right way to act, and what is the true cost of setting it right?