Hamlet Act I, II and scene i of Act III
Bernado, Marcellus, and Horatio have all seen the ghost of Hamlet, the late King. He appears to be haunting the castle and the area that they are standing guard over with a purpose. But what purpose is it? The men try to get the ghost to speak to them but their efforts are fruitless. Is this ghost a sign of foreboding for the Kingdom, for Prince Hamlet, or for their own futures? What else would a ghost be haunting for except nefarious reasons and as a warning to all who come into contact. The men resolve to tell Prince Hamlet of what they saw, perhaps the ghost will speak to him. After all the ghost resembles their dead King and Prince Hamlet was his son...
The King now is Claudius, he descended to the throne with the death of King Hamlet. He was the brother of the King and has chosen to marry his brothers widow, Gertrude. Prince Hamlet is still in mourning from the loss of his father, even though everyone else is celebrating the win over the King of Denmark that happened prior to the former King's death.
Hamlet decides that life is not fair. His mother and new father want him to stay here instead of going back to school But staying home only reminds him of his father's death and his mother remarrying his uncle. He contemplates suicide and thinks it would be easy except what would happen to him after he went through with it...? It is then that Horatio tells Hamlet about seeing his fathers ghost. Hamlet decides he needs to go tonight and see if the ghost appears again and what it has to tell him.
Unbeknownst to Hamlet at that time, a girl named Ophelia is being warned away from him by her older brother. He says that Hamlet will break her heart and is too far above her in class but Ophelia knows that all she must do is get him to fall in love with her. She listens to her brothers warnings,but secretly continues to hold out hope that her and Hamlet will be together. Because of the feelings Hamlet has professed for her she simply cannot believe that he does not love her too.
Hamlet goes with his friends that night to meet the ghost. The ghost is indeed his father and tells a grim tale of betrayal and murder, his own. This is news to Hamlet, he did not know his father was murdered and does not know how to react. The ghost calls for him to extract vengeance on his uncle for his fathers murder. Hamlet begins to plot and go mad thinking about it.
Claudius and Gertrude have been plotting on how to pull Hamlet out of his depression. They invited two of his friends from school to come to attempt to cheer him up. They arrive and are sent to find Hamlet and turn him into himself again. Then Polonius enters, he is an underling of the King. The ambassadors have returned from Norway with reports that the former King of Denmark's son is still attempting to avenge his fathers death and take back his country. He also has insight about Hamlet. He thinks that Hamlet has been acting so strangely because he is in love with Ophelia. They come up with a plan to see firsthand if this is the reason for Hamlet's strange behavior.
In another part of the castle Hamlet now sees his friends from school and asks them why they are there. They reply that they are just visiting but Hamlet knows the King and Queen sent for them because of his behavior. A visiting theatre troupe is performing in the castle and Hamlet asks them to perform a play the next night about murder in hopes to trap his Uncle, now father, into some sort of guilt about his father King Hamlet's death.
Gertrude and Claudius are excited about Hamlets involvement in getting the players to put on a play that evening. They hope this means that he is over his grief and is getting better. However, Hamlet is in the next room contemplating his own existence "To be or not to be, that is the question.." he is trying to decide if he should take his own life. His father is dead, murdered by his uncle, and his mother remarried to the murderer. He sees no point in living. Ophelia then approaches Hamlet and tells him she wishes to give back all the things he gave her to show his love. The King, Queen, and P and underling to the King are all watching as this interaction takes place. Hamlet appears to be irrational and out of his mind. He tells Ophelia that he never gave her any tokens of his love, and admits to loving her but not loving her all at the same time. He insults her and she walks away. P says he thinks there needs to be further investigation, and the King and Queen are left unsure of what to do about Hamlet.