History Theatre / Hamlet

* AlasPoorYorick: The {{Trope Namer|s}}.

* CatchTheConscience: {{Trope Namer|s}}.

* GetTheeToANunnery: The TropeNamer.

* GoodNightSweetPrince: The {{Trope Namer|s}}.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The TropeNamer. Claudius and Laertes are killed by their own poison; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern deliver their own death warrant, not realising that Hamlet altered the document before his escape by replacing his name with theirs.
--> '''Laertes:''' Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric,
--> I am justly killed with mine own treachery.

* TheOphelia: Another {{Trope Namer|s}}.

!!TropeNamers for:
* AlasPoorYorick
* BadDreams
* BeAllMySinsRemembered
* BrevityIsWit
* CatchTheConscience
* CountryMatters
* CruelToBeKind
* GetTheeToANunnery
* GoodNightSweetPrince
* HoistByHisOwnPetard
* LikeAWeasel
* TheOphelia
* PlayingGertrude
* SufferTheSlings

* GoodnightSweetPrince

* GoodnightSweetPrince: The {{Trope Namer|s}}.

''Hamlet'' is [[WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]]'s best-known play (if not, ''RomeoAndJuliet'' is tied with it), and certainly his [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic most over-analyzed]]. It is one of the most influential works of literature ever written.

!!TropeNamer for:

* GoodNightSweetPrince

* A two-minute 1900 film, ''Le Duel de Hamlet'', showed the duel between Hamlet and Laertes, and may be the first filmed adaptation of the play. As this production starred Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet, this means the first movie Hamlet was a [[GenderFlip Gender Flipped]] version.

* ''TheLionKing'' is a rather loose adaptation by {{Disney}}. Minus the DownerEnding and KillEmAll, obviously.

* The 1983 [[{{SCTV}} Bob and Doug MacKenzie]] adventure ''StrangeBrew''. Max von Sydow has taken control of Elsinore Brewery after killing his brother. Hamlet is actually [[GenderFlip a girl]]. Bob and Doug are essentially good-guy versions of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Oh, and there's a horde of {{Mind Control}}led hockey players, one of whom is Horatio. [[CanadaEh It's Canadian. Don't ask.]]
* An expansion of the {{MMORPG}} ''{{VideoGame/Mabinogi}}'' is switching from adapting CelticMythology to this. Whether it's gonna be one major patch or a series remains to be seen. It is now live on both Korean and NA servers. Still no word on whether or not it's a series or a patch, [[spoiler:but the CelticMythology is still in force near the end of the Hamlet storyline.]]

* AlasPoorYorick: The TropeNamer.

* AntiHero: Hamlet, ranging from III and IV. He acts rudely to many who (may) mean him no harm, kills Polonius for spying on him (though he seemed to think it was Claudius hiding and watching) and has Guildenstern and Rosencrantz sent to death (it is arguable what are their personal intentions over them spying for Claudius, making Hamlet's actions to them be justifiable [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation to varying degrees]]).

* {{Badass Boast}}: Before Hamlet and Laertes' duel. Laertes accuses Hamlet of mocking him. Hamlet's answer: "No, by this hand."

* CatchTheConscience: TropeNamer.

* {{Foil}}: Hamlet has several. Most notable are Fortinbras, Horatio and Laertes. Before they fight, Hamlet (mockingly and very ironically) refers to himself as a foil to Laertes, thus making this play a possible TropeNamer. Also the swords which they are using are called foils making that line a {{Pun}}.

* GoodNightSweetPrince: The TropeNamer.

* LikeAWeasel: The TropeNamer. Polonius is like this ''all the time''. Osric, too.

* TheOphelia: Another TropeNamer.

* ShowWithinAShow: ''The Murder of Gonzago''. (TropeNamer for CatchTheConscience.)

* {{Tragedy}}: One of {{Shakespeare}}'s four major tragedies.

* A 1996 film starring and directed by KennethBranagh. This is a highly lavish, cinematic full-text[[hottip:*:with the exception of a few transposed lines, and thus clocking in at around 246 minutes long]] version set in the 1800s, which includes {{BRIAN BLESSED}} (as the Ghost) and a FallingChandelierOfDoom. With KateWinslet as Ophelia. Oh, and RobinWilliams as Osric, and Billy Crystal as the gravedigger. It's essentially ''Hamlet'' as an EpicMovie.

* {{Character Filibuster}}/{{Just Bugs Me}}: Through the character of Hamlet talking to a performer, Shakespeare tells people about his pet peeves in acting.

** Polonius is the master of this trope. Appropriately enough, his last words are, "O! I am slain!" It has been assumed he says that due to the difficulty it would of been for the audience to confirm the death of a character behind a curtain.

* PleaseShootTheMessenger: Claudius famously sends Hamlet off with a message, which says to kill the person holding it. Hamlet manages to escape his companions Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and gives them the message to deliver instead.

* ShootTheMessenger: Claudius famously sends Hamlet off with a message, which says to kill the person holding it. Hamlet manages to escape his companions Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and gives them the message to deliver instead.

* AdultChild: Hamlet is apparently 30 if the gravedigger scene is any indication. He doesn't act like it. Maybe he's a late bloomer?
** Many, though not necessarily all, scholars think that he's actually in his late teens or maybe early twenties.

* Another 1990 version is a filmed version of the play starring Kevin Kline.

** Discussed when Hamlet considers murdering Claudius while Claudius is praying, which Hamlet worries would send him to Heaven.

** [[http://users.elite.net/lkfaunt/DJHamlet.html/ The Dick and Jane version.]]

** [http://users.elite.net/lkfaunt/DJHamlet.html/ The Dick and Jane version.]]

** ''[http://users.elite.net/lkfaunt/DJHamlet.html The "Dick and Jane" version]].

* A 1980 BBC production starring DerekJacobi and directed by Rodney Bennett. This is an almost full-text production, made as part of the BBC's complete Shakespeare series. Also notable for featuring PatrickStewart as Claudius and Lalla Ward (Romana #2 in ''DoctorWho'') as Ophelia.

* StylisticSuck: A spoileriffic dumb show followed by a series of tedious [[HeroicCouplet heroic couplets]]. This may be Hamlet's fault, since he rewrote bits of it, and was more concerned with trying to CatchTheConscience of Claudius than with coming up with a truly decent play.

* {{Irony}} - in a LongList to Ophelia about all the things he hates about women, Hamlet says he dislikes women pretending not to know things in front of men. Ophelia often has to resort to pretending to know nothing to try and pacify Hamlet or in an attempt to avoid further humiliation such as in Act 3, Scene 2 where he makes crude jokes in front of the whole court. Ashamed, Ophelia says, ‘I think nothing’ which instead fuels more lewd comments. The irony appears lost on Hamlet.

* EmoTeen: Hamlet, the original emo kid, dresses all in black and pontificates about suicide. Also spoiled and resents his mother and step-dad. The slight hitch is in the Gravedigger scene, where it's stated that Hamlet is actually somewhere in his 30s. This means either (A) Hamlet is too old to act like this, adding to the theory that he's crazy, or (B) Hamlet isn't 30 and [[WritersCannotDoMath Shakespeare made another mathematical error]]. [[WildMassGuessing Shakespeare scholars have suggested]] that the Gravedigger's line was thrown in at the insistence of Richard Burbage, the actor who originally played the lead role and was probably unwilling to play a teenager. Or maybe Shakespeare could do maths just fine, but the gravedigger can't.

Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, whose uncle Claudius has succeeded the throne after Hamlet's own father mysteriously passed away. Hamlet receives evidence that Claudius murdered the late king to seize power, and decides to exact {{Revenge}}, covering his behavior by presenting a facade of ObfuscatingInsanity. As the play progresses, though, it becomes ambiguous as to whether Hamlet's really faking his madness. Complicating matters are the presence of a number of other characters: Ophelia, the object of Hamlet's affections; Polonius, her father and royal chancellor; Gertrude, Hamlet's mother who has now married her brother-in-law; and Claudius himself, who is well aware that he has stolen the throne from Hamlet[[hottip:*:Typical rules of primogeniture say that the king's son takes the throne after him, even if the king has a brother]] and is scheming to remove him from the picture.

Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, whose uncle Claudius has succeeded the throne after Hamlet's own father mysteriously passed away. Hamlet receives evidence that Claudius murdered the late king to seize power, and decides to exact {{Revenge}}, covering his behavior by presenting a facade of ObfuscatingInsanity. As the play progresses, though, it becomes ambiguous as to whether Hamlet's really faking his madness. Complicating matters are the presence of a number of other characters: Ophelia, the object of Hamlet's affections; Polonius, her father and Chancellor to the king; Gertrude, Hamlet's mother who has now married her brother-in-law; and Claudius himself, who is well aware that he has stolen the throne from Hamlet[[hottip:*:Typical rules of primogeniture say that the king's son takes the throne after him, even if the king has a brother]] and is scheming to remove him from the picture.

Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, whose uncle Claudius has lately succeeded the throne after Hamlet's own father passed away. Hamlet receives evidence that Claudius murdered his brother to seize power, and decides to exact {{Revenge}}, covering his behavior by presenting a facade of ObfuscatingInsanity. As the play progresses, though, it becomes ambiguous as to whether Hamlet's really faking his madness. Complicating matters are the presence of a number of other characters: Ophelia, the object of Hamlet's affections; Polonius, her father and Chancellor to the king; Gertrude, Hamlet's mother who has now married her brother-in-law; and Claudius himself, who is well aware that he has stolen the throne from Hamlet[[hottip:*:Typical rules of primogeniture say that the king's son takes the throne after him, even if the king has a brother]] and is scheming to remove him from the picture.

Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, whose uncle Claudius has lately succeeded the throne after Hamlet's own father passed away. Hamlet receives evidence that Claudius murdered his own brother to get the throne, and decides to exact {{Revenge}}, covering his behavior by presenting a facade of ObfuscatingInsanity. As the play progresses, though, it becomes ambiguous as to whether Hamlet's really faking his madness. Complicating matters are the presence of a number of other characters: Ophelia, the object of Hamlet's affections; Polonius, her father and Chancellor to the king; Gertrude, Hamlet's mother who has now married her brother-in-law Claudius; and Claudius himself, who is well aware that he has stolen the throne from Hamlet[[hottip:*:Typical rules of primogeniture say that the king's son takes the throne after him, even if the king has a brother]] and is scheming to remove him from the picture.

* The {{wuxia}} film "Legend of the Black Scorpion," which is basically Hamlet [-IN FEUDAL CHINA!-] The most interesting difference is that the Gertrude stand-in is the stepmother of the Hamlet stand-in, and is actually the woman he was in love with before his father stole her away. She's also a lot more of a MagnificentBastard.

* Parodied in ''LastActionHero'', casting Arnie as Hamlet and turning him into a TheAhnuld. HilarityEnsues.

* Another 1990 version is a filmed version of the play starring KevinKline.
* A 1996 film starring and directed by KennethBranagh. This is a highly lavish, cinematic full-text[[hottip:*:with the exception of a few transposed lines, and thus clocking in at around 246 minutes long]] version set in the 1800s, which includes {{BRIAN BLESSED}} (as the Ghost) and a FallingChandelierOfDoom. With KateWinslet as Ophelia. Oh, and RobinWilliams as Osric, and BillyCrystal as the gravedigger. It's essentially ''Hamlet'' as an EpicMovie.