ACT 5 丹麥王子 -- 哈姆雷特之悲劇 林薈馨

Place: Graveyard Characters: 2 Gravediggers Hamlet Horatio Laertes King-Claudius Queen-Gertrude

Question of the moral legitimacy of suicide under theological law The rumors that are going around that Ophelia had killed herself and the age old tale of rich being able to do as they please comes up between the gravediggers. They talk to each other about if she had been a commoner there would be no question, she wouldbe buried in non blessed ground.

Equalizing effect of death and decomposition: great men and beggars both end as dust Hamlet picks up a skull, and the gravedigger tells him that the skull belonged to Yorick, King Hamlet’s jester. Hamlet tells Horatio that as a child he knew Yorick and is appalled at the sight of the skull. He realizes forcefully that all men will eventually become dust, even great men like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. Hamlet imagines that Julius Caesar has disintegrated and is now part of the dust used to patch up a wall.

Place: Elsinore Castle Characters: Hamlet Horatio King Queen Laertes Osric Fortinbras

The next day at Elsinore Castle, Hamlet tells Horatio how he plotted to overcome Claudius’s scheme to have him murdered in England. He replaced the sealed letter carried by the unsuspecting Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, which called for Hamlet’s execution, with one calling for the execution of the bearers of the letter—Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

 Shakespeare Made Easy (modernized by Alan Durband)  丹麥王子哈姆雷特之悲劇 ( 莎士比亞著 梁實秋譯 ) 