The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Hamlet is Shakespeare s longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature, with a story capable of seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others. The play seems to have been one of Shakespeare s most popular works during his lifetime and still ranks among his most-performed. It has inspired writers from Goethe and Dickens to Joyce and Murdoch, and has been described as the world s most filmed story after Cinderella . The protagonist of Hamlet is Prince Hamlet of Denmark, son of the recently deceased King Hamlet, and nephew of King Claudius, his father s brother and successor. The play opens on a cold night on the ramparts of Elsinore, the Danish royal castle. The sentries Bernardo and Marcellus and Hamlet s friend Horatio encounter a ghost that looks like the late King Hamlet. They vow to tell Prince Hamlet what they have witnessed… This is a detailed summary of the play, re-told in todays language.
