A Synopsis of Hamlet

By Scott Bartelson, Management Associate

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is home from school to mourn the death of his father,
King Hamlet, who has died two months earlier. Hamlet is disgusted by the marriage of
his newly widowed mother, Queen Gertrude, to his Uncle, King Hamlet’s brother,
Claudius, who now has the throne.
Shortly thereafter, a ghost has appeared to guards on nightly watch as well as
Hamlet’s good friend, Horatio, who thinks the spirit has a likeness to the former King
Hamlet. When prompted to speak by Horatio, the ghost will not. Horatio asks Hamlet to
wait for the ghost and see if it will speak to him. The ghost of his father beckons Hamlet
to follow him and reveals that his brother Claudius poisoned him in the ear. Hamlet
vows to avenge his father’s murder.
Meanwhile, Laertes, son to the King’s advisor Polonius is set to return to France.
Before he leaves, he tells Ophelia, his sister, to be weary of Hamlet’s affections towards
her. Polonius gives Laertes advice on how to act abroad and orders Ophelia to stay away
from Hamlet.
Hamlet’s sanity begins to be questioned by all. Claudius and Gertrude are both
concerned; Polonius suggests it is Ophelia’s rejection of his advances. Claudius and
Polonius decide to spy on Hamlet and Ophelia. Claudius further employs Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern, two childhood friends of Hamlet, to spy on him further. Hamlet
quickly realizes their intentions.
A troupe of players happens to be in town and Hamlet utilizes the actors to
determine the validity of his father’s murder. He will have them perform the very act of
murder, killing a king through poison in the ear, which the ghost has claimed. He asks
Horatio to watch Claudius’ reaction throughout the play. While the court is watching,
Claudius is enraged and leaves the play convincing Hamlet that he is the murderer.
Hamlet comes upon Claudius in the chapel, kneeling down to pray. He considers
killing him then and there, but since Claudius is in mid-prayer, and will therefore go to
heaven if he dies, Hamlet decides to wait until Claudius is committing some sin, so that
he will go to hell like Hamlet’s father before him.
Hamlet meets Gertrude in her room and an argument ensues. When he hears
Polonius who is hiding behind the curtain shout for help, he stabs him thinking it is
Claudius. The ghost appears to Hamlet to refocus him on the task of killing Claudius.
Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, whose father’s lands were seized by the late King,
decides to head to Denmark. Claudius demands that Hamlet, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern head for England. Claudius has sent a letter with them ordering Hamlet’s
execution during the trip. While at sea, however, Hamlet discovers his planned murder
and switches the orders, causing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to be executed. Hamlet
returns to Denmark.
Meanwhile back at Elsinore, Ophelia has gone mad with grief. Laertes returns
from France and learns it was Hamlet who has killed his father, Polonius. Claudius
suggests that Laertes duel with Hamlet and poisons the tip of Laertes foil for a fatal
blow. If Laertes loses the duel, Claudius will put poison into a drink for Hamlet.
Gertrude enters and announces that Ophelia has drowned.
 In the graveyard, Hamlet reminisces on a friend of his whose skull he has found.
When the processional arrives with Ophelia’s corpse, Laertes and Hamlet argue. A duel
is scheduled.
During the fight, Gertrude accidentally drinks from the poisoned chalice and dies.
Hamlet is wounded with the poisoned sword, but in a scuffle, the foils are switched and
Laertes is also wounded with the poisoned foil. In dying, Laertes confesses Claudius’ plot
to kill Hamlet. Hamlet stabs Claudius and Hamlet dies asking Horatio to tell his story.
The Norwegian forces arrive at Elsinore, and Prince Fortinbras seizes control of
Denmark.
José García Villa
José García Villa was a Filipino poet, literary critic, short story writer, and painter. He
was awarded the National Artist of the Philippines title for literature in 1973, as well as
the Guggenheim Fellowship in creative writing by Conrad Aiken.
José Garcia Villa was born in Manila in 1908. He attended the University of the
Philippines, but he was suspended in 1929 after publishing a series of erotic poems,
titled “Man-Songs,” in the Philippines Herald Magazine. That same year, he won a short
story contest through the Philippines Free Press and used the prize money to travel to
the United States, where he studied at the University of New Mexico.
From New Mexico, Villa moved to Greenwich Village in New York City. There, he became
the only Asian poet in a community that also consisted of E. E. Cummings, W. H.
Auden, and other modernist poets. In 1933 his Footnote to Youth: Tales of the
Philippines and Others (Charles Scribner’s Sons) became the first book of fiction by a
Filipino author published by a major United States-based press.
Villa also continued to publish in the Philippines, and his poetry collections Many Voices
(Philippine Book Guild) and Poems (The Philippine Writers’ League) appeared in 1939
and 1941, respectively. In 1942 he published his first poetry collection in the United
States, Have Come, Am Here (Viking Press), which was a finalist for the 1943 Pulitzer
Prize. He went on to publish several more poetry collections in the Philippines, including
Poems in Praise of Love (A. S. Florentino, 1962), and two in the United States, Selected
Poems and New (McDowell Obolensky, 1958) and Volume Two (New Directions, 1949).
Villa was the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including a Guggenheim
Fellowship, a Philippines Heritage Award, a Poetry Award from the American Academy of
Arts and Letters, a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, and a Shelley Memorial Award. In
1973 he was named a National Artist of the Philippines, and he also served as a cultural
advisor to the Philippine government. He died in New York City on February 7, 1997.

Paz Márquez-Benítez
Paz Márquez-Benítez was a Filipino short-story writer, educator and editor. Her career
as a woman educator as well as her contributions as a writer are seen as an important
step within the advancement of women in professional careers as well as in the
development of Philippine literature. She was also a beauty queen.
Tall and elegantly attired in full terno, she was a familiar figure on the campus of the
pre-war University of the Philippines. She was Paz Marquez Benitez, beloved mentor to
the first generation of Filipino writers in English. Inspiring many students who later
became literary luminaries, she had an enduring influence on the emergence and
development of Philippine literature in English.
Born to the prominent Marquez family of Quezon Province, Marquez Benitez belonged
to the first generation of Filipinos trained in the American educational system. She
was a member of the first freshman class of the University of the Philippines, graduating
with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. She taught at the University’s English
department from 1916 to 1951, acquiring a reputation as an outstanding teacher.
Among her students were Loreto Paras Sulit, Paz Latorena, Bienvenido Santos, Manuel
Arguilla, S.P. Lopez and National Artist Francisco Arcellana, who later emphatically
declared, “She was the mother of us all!”
Among ALIWW’s prized exhibits are the journals of Paz Marquez Benitez, which are
inscribed in two hard-bound volumes. The entries, written by hand in both pencil and
ink, date from 1924 and extend for an as yet undetermined number of years. Of special
interest to literary scholars are her notes on the tentative plot and setting of her short
story, “Dead Stars.” This story, first published in 1925 and regularly anthologized since,
is considered the first modern short story written in English by a Filipino.

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, author, editor, and literary critic who is
best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the
macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism and Gothic fiction in
the United States, and of American literature.
Edgar Allan Poe (born January 19, 1809, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.—died October 7,
1849, Baltimore, Maryland) American short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor who is
famous for his cultivation of mystery and the macabre. His tale “The Murders in the Rue
Morgue” (1841) initiated the modern detective story, and the atmosphere in his tales of
horror is unrivaled in American fiction. His “The Raven” (1845) numbers among the
best-known poems in the national literature.

Manuel Arguilla
MANUEL E. ARGUILLA (1911-1944) was an Ilocano who wrote in English. He was best
known for his short story "How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife." which received
first price in the Commonwealth Literary Contest in 1940.
Most of his stories depict life in Barrio Nagrebcan, Bauang, La Union, where he was born
in 1911. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Education in 1933 at the University of the
Philippines. He became a member and later the president of the UP Writers' Club and
editor of the Literary Apprentice. He married Lydia Villanueva, another talented writer,
and they lived in Ermita, Manila.
Arguilla taught creative writing at the University of Manila and worked in the Bureau of
Public Welfare as managing editor of the Welfare Advocate until 1943; afterwards, he
was elected to the Board of Censors. He secretly established a guerilla intelligence unit
against the Japanese during World War II. In August 1944, Manuel Arguilla was
captured and executed by the Japanese.

Project ni Ping (A Filipino Short Film) written by GABRIEL SINOHIN

It is about a student who is a working student and is always sleeping in class. The
teacher always gets mad to him without knowing that that student is always working
late at night and he doesn’t have time to have a rest because he needs to work for
himself to have a money to study. The lesson that I learned from the short film is your
ability to achieve your dreams is not measured by your state in life. If you want your
dream no one and nothing can stop you from achieving your dream.