ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Early on we learn that Fortinbras’s father, the previous King of Norway, was killed by King Hamlet in battle some years before the events of the play.

Detailed explanation-2: -The ghost of the king appears before his son, Prince Hamlet, and tells him that his own brother, now his converted stepfather, has killed him, pouring into his ear the contents of an ampoule of henbane (Act I, scene 5).

Detailed explanation-3: -Before the play even begins, Hamlet’s father, the king of Denmark, has died. Hamlet has returned home for his father’s funeral, which is followed soon after by Gertrude, his mother, getting married to the king’s own brother, Claudius, which Hamlet identifies as: ‘’But two months dead, nay, not so much, not two.

Detailed explanation-4: -Before the players begin Hamlet speaks to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and suggests he knows that they have been spying on him. When the king is poisoned in the play, Claudius storms out and Hamlet and Horatio’s suspicions are confirmed.

Detailed explanation-5: -The play opens on the ramparts of Elsinore Castle in Denmark during a changing of the guard. The old king, Hamlet’s father, has died. The king’s brother Claudius has replaced him, stealing Hamlet’s rightful place on the throne. He has already married Hamlet’s mother.