William Shakespeare captivated the public in the fifteen hundreds with his tragic play Hamlet, which follows the narrative of a young prince who must decide when and how to enact revenge on his father’s murderer – his uncle. Hamlet has made history as a classic tale of revenge, displaying conflicting human emotions and feelings in order for the audience to connect and empathize with the characters and instilling a momentous amount of influence on the world and works for centuries to come. The work itself has a legendary playwright and a rich antiquity, a surplus of inspirations and themes, a thrilling tale with complex characters and analyses, and a lasting influence on the world today. With every great work, arise a talented creator and a …show more content…
David Cope, former professor at the University of California and novelist, in “Shakespeare Adapts Chaucer: Troilus and Cressida” believes three of Shakespeare’s inspirations were the works of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Trolius and Cressida and Parliament of Fowls, and Plutarch’s Parallel Lives. Most of Shakespeare’s plots, references, and mythology come from these works, which are based on history, culture, and society. Dr. Michael Delahoyde at Washington State University in “HAMLET”, further dives into history and asserts the plot of Hamlet had been influenced by previously devised works, Ur-Hamlet, possibly composed by Thomas Kyd in the fifteen hundreds, and Amleth, a Scandinavian play written by Saxo Grammaticus in the twelve hundreds. In Shakespeare’s personal life, royalty influenced him as part of the King’s playing company, and he often wrote specific plays to indulge his majesty. Shakespeare also lost his son, Hamnet, and his father, which may have been the spark of grief and despair Shakespeare needed to begin scripting Hamlet’s character. Based on these influences, the themes of Hamlet are dark and complex. Audrey Tinkham, professor and lecturer at the University of Arizona, argues in his presentation “William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” the main themes are “Revenge, Religion & the Otherworldly, Disease and Corruption, Appearance vs. ‘Reality’, Fortune, Fate, Providence, the Impossibility of Certainty, Mortality, and the Complexity of Action” – premises which carry weight and intricacy in the