Summary and Analysis of Hamlet

Hamlet by William Shakespeare is a great play with much meaning and depth behind it. This play is the story of young Hamlet, the son of a great king that has now deceased. His mother has married his uncle and his uncle has taken his throne. Hamlet continues to grieve while everyone else seems to have forgotten about this great loss. Then the older Hamlet approaches the younger Hamlet in the appearance of a ghost. This ghost tells Hamlet that his uncle actually killed him and that his death was no accident. The ghost then asks Hamlet to avenge his death. Hamlet agrees to do so, but this ultimately drives him insane.
"that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! " I think that this quote is a good example of Hamlet's beginning to go insane. This ultimate truth drives him crazy.
He thinks up elaborate plots to kill his uncle, the king. Meanwhile, the king struggles with why his cousin is so insane. Some theories are for grief of his dead father and of his unrequited love of Ophelia. Through some sneaking around, we find out that although he was really in love with Ophelia, this is not the ultimate reasoning behind his madness. Things really heat up when Hamlet has the actors perform a play that mirrors the actions that his uncle takes in order to kill Hamlet's father. Claudius, the uncle then finds out that Hamlet must know about his trecherous act and orders to have Hamlet killed when he goes back to school in Britain. However, Hamelt never makes it to Britain due to pirates. Hamlet returns and is challenged to a fencing match by Laertes because Hamlet accidently kills his father Polonious, and is partly responsible for Ophelia's suicide. Little does he know that Laertes and Claudius are planning to poison him during the match and take his life. This plan however fails and leads to the death of Laertes, Hamlet, Claudius, and Gertrude in the end.
Throughout the play, Hamlet struggles with his true identity, and his true home
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." This quote describes the fact that Hamlet knows that there is something wrong in Denmark, whether its because of Claudius's unjust role as king or because of his confusion of his real home.
However, the main theme and meaning in this novel is the inability to act. Hamlet, even though he is given many many opportunities to kill Claudius, he fails to do so on many occasions and shows us actually following through with certain actions is more difficult than it may appear.