Hamlet Quiz

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601. It is widely considered Shakespeare's greatest work and one of the most important plays in the history of Western literature and theatre. The play follows Prince Hamlet as he grapples with his uncle Claudius's murder of his father (the King of Denmark), Claudius's subsequent marriage to Hamlet's mother Gertrude, and the ghost of his father's demand for revenge. Hamlet's psychological complexity - His famous philosophical brooding, his "feigned madness," his relationships with Ophelia and Horatio - Has made him one of literature's most analyzed and debated characters.

Key Characters and Scenes in Hamlet

The major characters of Hamlet include: Prince Hamlet (the Danish prince - Intellectual, melancholic, and increasingly unstable as the play progresses); King Claudius (Hamlet's uncle who murdered the previous king and married Gertrude); Queen Gertrude (Hamlet's mother who has married Claudius, to Hamlet's disgust); Ophelia (a young noblewoman who loves Hamlet and ultimately descends into madness and drowns after her father Polonius is killed); Polonius (the verbose, self-important chief counselor who is accidentally killed by Hamlet); Horatio (Hamlet's loyal friend and the only major character to survive the play); and Laertes (Ophelia's brother who seeks revenge for his father and sister's deaths).

Hamlet is famous for its soliloquies - Extended internal monologues in which Hamlet debates philosophical questions with himself. The most famous is "To be, or not to be" (Act 3, Scene 1) - A meditation on suicide, suffering, and the fear of death and what comes after. Other famous lines include: "To thine own self be true" (Polonius's advice to Laertes), "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" (Gertrude watching the play-within-a-play), and "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio" (Hamlet holding a skull in the graveyard scene). The play ends in a bloodbath: Gertrude drinks poisoned wine intended for Hamlet; Laertes and Hamlet wound each other with a poisoned sword; Hamlet kills Claudius; and Hamlet dies from his wound. Test your knowledge - Also try our Romeo and Juliet quiz and our poetry quiz.