Once upon a time ...

in Denmark there was a prince called Hamlet. 

One day Hamlet’s father, the king, 

dies suddenly and Hamlet is very sad. 

After this, Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, gets married again very quickly. 

She marries her husband’s brother, Claudius, and Claudius is now the king!

One night, Hamlet’s friend, Horatio, tells him that there is a ghost in the castle. It is the ghost of Hamlet’s father!

‘Claudius killed me with poison! Hamlet, you must punish Claudius for me!’

Hamlet is confused. He doesn’t know if he believes the ghost and he doesn’t know what to do.

Hamlet now acts very strangely. He is mean and angry, and he upsets his girlfriend, Ophelia. 

‘Go away! Leave me alone!’ 

One day a group of actors come to the castle and Hamlet makes a plan...

He asks the actors to change their play.

The new play will show a king poisoned like Hamlet’s father.

‘With this play I will catch the king.’ 

When Claudius watches the play he looks very worried and runs away. Hamlet sees him and he knows the truth.

Claudius is very worried about Hamlet now and makes a plan with Ophelia’s brother, Laertes.

‘You will fight him and we will put poison on the sword and in his drink too.’

Laertes and Hamlet fight. Laertes cuts Hamlet, but in the fight Hamlet takes Laertes’ sword and cuts him with it too!

‘Here, Hamlet, drink this.’ Hamlet´ s mother says

‘No, thank you, Mother. I’m not thirsty.’  Hamlet says

‘No, don’t!’ said the king while Hamlet´ s mother is drinking.

‘It was him! He poisoned us all!’ Laertes discovers

Finally, Hamlet knows he must stop Claudius. 

‘Aargh! Have this and this!’ 

All the royal family are now poisoned and Hamlet tells his friend that there must be a new king.

FINALLY...

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-uponAvon, in England.

Before 1590 he left Stratford and went to London, the capital city of England.

Shakespeare worked in London as an actor and then started writing plays and poems.

He loved language and invented new words and expressions that we still use today. 

He died on 23rd April in 1616.

His plays and poetry are still popular today.

SPECIAL THANKS TO MY FANTASTIC STUDENTS: 

-Mario

-Lucía

-Adriana

-Daniela

-Marco

-María

-Manuel

-Maximilian

-José Pedro

-Javier G.

-Ana Saray

-Jairo

-Álvaro

-Carlos

-Javier A.

-Celia

-Giovanni

-Pedro

-Javier H.

-Hugo

The text was taken from the British Council: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/short-stories/hamlet                                    

The text was read and illustrated by 1 ST ESO students from IES Gerena.   

  April 2021