Hamlet' s friends were anxious about him and came to look for him. They found Hamlet kneeling down and looking up at the dark sky praying to God. Hamlet noticed them coming to him. He stood up and sincerely asked them not to tell anyone what had happened that night. They all aGREed and made a firm promise not to tell anyone about it, swearing on Hamlet' s sword.That very night Hamlet decided to pretend that he had gone mad in order to have a better chance to kill Claudius. He decided not to tell his plan to any of his friends except Horatio .Since Hamlet saw the ghost, he had often thought of his dead father and of his promise to the ghost. He became sadder each day. He was not a young, merry prince as he used to be. Before his father' s death, he was interested in many things, such as books, art, music and plays. But now he gave them all up. To everyone, he seemed to act very strangely. He became rude to everyone in the castle and behaved like a mad man.He hardly ever spoke to Ophelia , a beautiful lady whom he had deeply loved. Before, they would talk happily and take walks in the woods near the castle. He would talk to her so sweetly and gently that Ophelia was deeply in love with him. But now he was quite different. Therefore, Polonius, Ophelia' s father, did not want his daughter to love Hamlet anymore because of his strange behavior.
One day Hamlet came to Ophelia, who was knitting in her room, and spoke wildly to her. He appeared half-naked, wearing a dirty shirt with no hat on his head. She gave back all the letters and valuable rings that she had received from Hamlet."I will not meet you anymore," she said to him. Hamlet left her, feeling even more miserable.She told her father everything that had occurred in her room. When Polonius heard this from his daughter, he believed he knew what had made Hamlet go mad. He thought that Hamlet had gone mad because of his love for Ophelia . Polonius went to Claudius and Gertrude to let them know what caused Hamlet's madness. He told them that the love affair between Hamlet and Ophelia was the true cause of his madness.Claudius always doubted what he heard from his men. He commanded two men who used to be Hamlet' s friends when they were children to find out the true reason why he had been acting so strangely recently. He also asked Polonius to arrange an unexpected meeting of the two lovers so that they could carefully observe Hamlet' s behavior.
Hamlet' s two old friends met him when he was saying some strange things to himself alone in the hall of the castle. They begged him to tell them the true cause of his madness. But he would not tell them anything, and instead made fools of them.One day when Hamlet was unhappy and worried by the memory of the ghost and the promise he had made, a group of actors came to visit him. They were the same players that Hamlet used to enjoy seeing. He welcomed them. Then they acted a short play for him.It was a sad story about a good king who was poisoned to death by his brother. And this man became king and married the queen. They played it so well, with tears in their eyes, that the scene seemed real. While Hamlet was watching them, he felt very angry with himself. He said to himself, "Those players can cry for the sad king whom they have never met. But in my case I have done nothing at all for my poor father who was killed by my uncle Claudius. What a coward I am!"When the play was over, he thought of a good plan. He decided to have them play it once again in front of the king and queen the next day. He also asked them to add a few lines of his own to the play so that he could make the play more like what had happened to his father. Hamlet said to himself, "If Claudius is really guilty, his face will turn pale while he is watching the play. Then I will know that what the ghost told me is true. I will watch his face very carefully."
Friday, November 28, 2008
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