What can I say about Hamlet that hasn't been said. We recently finished reading it for grade 12 english. Of the Shakespeare that I have read in school, it is my favourite. I loved the ambiguity in the plot. The ending, while everyone died, wasn't clean cut. Sure, the rivalries came out in the open and people got revenge on the people that they wanted to kill, but there were so many questions that were left to interpretation that I really liked.
We had an essay test for Hamlet and one of the topics that we could write about was the ambiguity. We were brainstorming and I got to talking with one of my friend's about Ophelia's death, and together we came up with so many different scenarios that could have taken place, all stemming from one speech made by the Queen. For an author to be able to spark that much discussion from a few lines is pretty incredible. I also have a bit of a thing for endings that don't work out perfectly for the protagonist. This play is a tragedy; I think you can figure out the rest.
Hamlet, the play and the character, is just so quotable. I never realized just how many famous Shakespearean quotes come from this play, but there you go; learn something new every day. I would like to see this play performed one day. It would be interesting to see which parts were removed for the sake of condensing the play to less ridiculous lengths.