Hamlet: What If?

There are an infinite amount of what-ifs in history. What if the soldier that had Hitler in his scopes actually shot and killed him a bit earlier? What if one party in the Cold War actually attacked and initiated World War III? What if the Titanic steered clear of the iceberg? What if the Mayflower capsized? What if John Wilkes Booth was exposed on his way to Ford’s Theatre? What if the people of Pompeii evacuated the area of the volcano? What if Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were stranded on the moon, left to starve to death or commit suicide and Richard Nixon had to read his pre-written speech?
These events are usually referred to as fixed points in time. If these points were ever disturbed, then history would change dramatically. William Shakespeare writes his stories in the most exciting scenario possible. If any other point in one of his stories timelines are different, it changes the course of the entire story and ultimately makes it less exciting. Shakespeare knew this and tried to make his stories capture the viewer’s attention. In his play, Hamlet, Claudius committed regicide against his brother, the king, Hamlet’s father. This started off the entire play. When the King is killed, Hamlet is forced into a state of depression. To top it off, his mother, the Queen Gertrude, married Claudius prematurely after the King’s death, crowning Claudius as the new king of Denmark. This, of course, made Hamlet quite depressed.
“But two months dead! Nay, not so much, not two.
So excellent a king, that was to this
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on; and yet, within a month-
Let me not think on't! Frailty, thy name is woman!”
(I, ii, 342-350)
Now, what if Gertrude did not marry Claudius? The Queen was the only one of royalty, and whomever