Perhaps the most influential work of English drama, William Shakespeare's Hamlet is a timeless tragedy about conflicting loyalties, madness, betrayal, and terrible revenge. This Penguin Shakespeare edition has been edited by T.J.B. Spencer and includes an introduction by Alan Sinfield. "To be or not to be - that is the question." Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. When young Prince Hamlet confronts the ghost of his father on the walls of Elsinore Castle, he is burdened with a terrible task: to kill King Claudius, Hamlet's uncle, whom the ghost accuses of murder. As he wrestles with his conscience, Hamlet pretends to be mad while plotting brutal revenge, which alienates him from his mother, Queen Gertrude, and drives away his beloved Ophelia. Yet the act of madness brings Hamlet dangerously close to reality and wreaks havoc among both the guilty and the innocent. This book includes a general introduction to Shakespeare's work.