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Hamlet
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Hamlet (1948)
Watch William Shakespeare's tragic eponymous protagonist bemoan the unweeded garden that is the world
Watch the protagonist in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet consider killing his king, uncle, and stepfather Claudius
Famous performance Hamlet (1996) Hamlet (1990) John Gielgud Playbill headlining Edwin Booth in the title role of an 1863 performance of Hamlet lithograph poster for Hamlet The Singer Foure as “Hamlet,”
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Hamlet (1948)
Hamlet (1948) Holding Yorick's skull, Hamlet (played by Laurence Olivier) contemplates death in the film adaptation of Hamlet (1948).

Hamlet

fictional character
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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History

Hamlet, central character in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The character’s problematic nature has lent itself to innumerable interpretations by actors and critics. Hamlet’s story was centuries old at the time that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, about 1599–1601. Hamlet corresponds to the figure of Amleth, whose story is narrated in the Gesta Danorum, Saxo Grammaticus’s late 12th-century history of Denmark. But the character’s famous hesitation—his reluctance or unreadiness to avenge his father’s murder—is central and peculiar to Shakespeare’s...

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