The ghost of the King of Denmark walks the castle battlements at night, and he has a message for his son: he was murdered, by his own brother, who is now married to the queen and sitting on the throne. What follows is history's most scrutinized study of doubt, delay, and revenge, as Prince Hamlet feigns madness, stages a play to catch a murderer's conscience, and talks himself in circles around the one act he cannot bring himself to commit — until the entire court collapses around him in a single, devastating final scene. Written around 1600, Hamlet remains the most quoted, most performed, and most argued-over play in the English language.
