Hamlet

Hamlet

1. Before the play starts:

   • Death of Old Hamlet, the former king of Denmark
   • Threat of invasion by Fortinbras of Norway
   • Queen Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, has remarried her brother in law, Claudius, after the death of her husband Old Hamlet the recently dead king.
     • Marrying a brother in law in the C16th is seen as incestuous