English 26

RL:7 Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or
live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each
version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare
and one play by an American dramatist.)

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlett is instructed to enact on his uncle Claudius. Claudius had murdered his own brother, Hamlet's father King Hamlet, and subsequently seized the throne, marrying his deceased brother's widow, Hamlet's mother Gertrude.

Until the 1930s, the evaluation of Hamlet was mostly a continuation of the nineteenth century approach to the character of its tragic hero. After Bradley's Shakespearean Tragedy was published in 1904, an entire generation of critics remained obsessed with Hamlet's delay in killing Claudius. They blamed the whole tragedy on the fact that it took the Prince too long to act on his revenge. They never acknowledged the basic premise that Hamlet was a sweet and noble prince, that Claudius was a treacherous villain, and that the tragedy of Hamlet lay in the fact that a "good" character was destroyed because of an "evil" usurper.