A brief introduction to Hamlet "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark," is a play written by William Shakespeare between 1599 and 1601. It deals with a wide range of topics spanning from love, death, religion, faith, incest, ghosts, madness, and at the start of everything, the most ancient archetype of rivalry of them all: sibling rivalry. (If this doesn't sell the play to you, nothing will!) The play is set in the castle of Elsinore, Denmark. Prince Hamlet must avenge his father, who ha