Hamlet Navigator

Navigation:

David Tennant as Hamlet
2009 film


Mel Gibson as Hamlet
1990 film


Laurence Olivier as Hamlet
1948 film


Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet
--1899--

Act 1, Scene 1:
If you just want to start reading, here's the place to start. Explanatory notes and illustrations are in the margins.

Scene Index:
Links to the scenes of the play, with short summaries of each scene.

Search Engine:
Search all of the Hamlet Navigator site.

Notable Quotes in Hamlet:
Each quote is briefly explained and linked to the text, so you can see the quote in context.

Detailed Scene Summaries:
In these summaries I have tried to tell the story of the play, and provide links to key passages in the text.

The Cast of Characters:
Annotated links to all appearances of a character and all mentions of that character by other characters.

Hamlet's Character:
Annotated links to passages that illustrate aspects of Hamlet's complex character.

Themes:
Annotated links to passages particularly relevant to significant themes.
Also:

Frequently Asked Questions about Hamlet:
A Q&A guide to A.C. Bradley's justly famous Shakespearean Tragedy.

"Hamlet and His Problems":
T.S. Eliot's very famous (and very snotty) essay, in which Eliot defines "objective correlative" and declares that Hamlet "is most certainly an artistic failure."

"The Oedipus-Complex as an Explanation of Hamlet's Mystery":
Ernest Jones' extremely influential essay.

Pages from Coleridge's Lectures and Notes on Shakspere and Other English Poets,
in which the great Romantic poet describes Hamlet as one who thinks too much.