Deseret Book Version of Hamlet

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Prince Hamlet has returned home from BYU to find that his father has died and his mother has married his father’s brother. He cannot accept this, since this means his mother will have to choose between her husbands in the next life—she of course cannot be sealed to both of them. Polonius, his father’s old friend, tries to convince Hamlet that everything will be taken care of by God and he shouldn’t worry about it, but this doesn’t help Hamlet. He sees his father’s ghost in a vision, and his father tells him that he must find a way to get his mother to promise she will never be sealed to another man.

Hamlet spends much of the next several months reading scriptures, trying to figure out the answer to the question of marriage in the next life and about the state of his mother’s soul and his father’s eternity. Is he sealed to one of them? To both of them? He is not sure that he wants to live anymore and gives the famous soliloquy, “To be sealed or not to be sealed.” Polonius is concerned about Hamlet’s mental state and tells his daughter, Hamlet’s former girlfriend, to stay away from him. He talks to Hamlet’s mother and tells her he thinks Hamlet might need to be fasted and prayed over, but by then, it’s too late and Hamlet has decided to convert to another church altogether. He doesn’t want anyone to be sealed if he has to face such confusion. Polonius’s daughter makes the wise choice of going off to college herself so she can find a more worthy priesthood holder to marry and Hamlet’s friend Laertes takes Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with him to join her.

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