Summary of william shakespeare plays

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  • Hamlet

    Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet at Adelphi, 1899

    Synopsis and plot overview of Shakespeare's Hamlet

    TL;DR (may contains spoilers): Hamlet sees his dead dad's ghost, pretends to go crazy with revenge, actually goes crazy with revenge (debatable), and everyone dies.

    Hamlet Summary

    The ghost of the King of Denmark tells his son Hamlet to avenge his murder by killing the new king, Hamlet's uncle. Hamlet feigns madness, contemplates life and death, and seeks revenge. His uncle, fearing for his life, also devises plots to kill Hamlet. The play ends with a duel, during which the King, Queen, Hamlet's opponent and Hamlet himself are all killed. 


    More detail: 2.5 minute read

    Act I

    Late at night, guards on the battlements of Denmark's Elsinore castle are met by Horatio, Prince Hamlet's friend from school. The guards describe a ghost they have seen that resembles Hamlet's father, the recently-deceased king. At that moment, the Ghos

    William Shakespeare

    English playwright and poet (1564–1616)

    "Shakespeare" redirects here. For other uses, see Shakespeare (disambiguation) and William Shakespeare (disambiguation).

    William Shakespeare[a] (c. 23[b] April 1564 – 23 April 1616)[c] was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

    Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratf

  • summary of william shakespeare plays
  • Shakespeare's Plays

    Because Shakespeare's plays are written to be acted, they are constantly fresh and can be adapted to the place and time they are performed. Their language is wonderfully expressive and powerful, and although it may sometimes seem hard to understand in reading, actors can bring it to levande life for us. The plays provide actors with some of the most challenging and rewarding roles ever written. They are both entertaining and moving. 

    In the first Folio of 1623, the earliest edition of Shakespeare's collected plays, they are divided into Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. Over time, these have been further divided into Romances which includeThe TempestThe Winter's TaleCymbeline, and Pericles. The term ‘Problem Plays’ has been used to include plays as apparently diverse as Measure for MeasureHamletAll's Well that Ends Well and Troilus and Cressida

    In his history plays, Shakespeare sometimes had the same character appear over and ov