1. The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark

2. A. Background One of the four great tragedies Seneca and the Revenge
Play
3. Renaissance Concepts
The great chain of being
King as great wheel and
as microcosm

3. A. Background (continued)
Some definitions:
Tragic hero:
Tragic flaw:
Tragedy:
Comedy:

4. B. Structure of the Play Five Acts – the 9th grade plot map
2. Three Plot Threads
Ghost story all climax in
Detective story Act III
Revenge story

5. C. Setting Denmark / Elsinore-microcosm of world
King = microcosm of Denmark (world)
(I,v,42; I,v,74-75; III,iii,12-24)
3. Denmark as prison (II, ii, 260)
-->corrupt
World as garden of Eden
(I,ii, ; I,v,38)

6. D. Major Themes Justice vs. Revenge (Eddie Polec story)
2. Illusion vs reality
Ghost or devil
“seems”
Actors (II,ii 555)
King or murderer
Prostitute / make up imagery (III,I,59; III, I, 152; V, i, )

7. D. Major Themes ( continued)
The honest man in the corrupt society
4. Father – Son archetype
Ghost  Hamlet
Past  Present

8. D. Major Themes ( continued)
Biblical Level—a new Paradise Lost and Regained
(Hamlet as “savior’ figure—sent by heavenly
[ghostly] father)
6. Death—the final contagion
a. to be or not to be
b. all fathers must die
c. worm food imagery
d. gravediggers’ scene
and Yorick
e. final scene and poisonings
f. a play completely about death

9. Characters Hamlet—perhaps the most complex in English drama
a. Renaissance man
b. Madness?
c. Tragic flaw
d. Philosophical
e. Noble heart

10. E. Characters
Claudius:
3. Gertrude:
4. Polonius:

11. E. Characters Ophelia Laertes: 7. Fortinbras: Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern:

12. F. Imagery and Symbolsim
Garden imagery
Disease, contagion, poison
Harlots and make up
Death imagery