William Shakespeare - Hamlet is the son of the King of Denmark. When Hamlet's father dies, his uncle Claudius becomes king and marries Hamlet's mother (Gertrude). Hamlet's father appears as a ghost and tells Hamlet that he was murdered by Claudius. Hamlet is not sure that the ghost is really his father. He gets some travelling actors to perform a play which shows the murder of a king in the same way Hamlet's father said he was killed.