AKA THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET HAMLET BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

SHAKESPEARE/ HAMLET BACKGROUND Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in 1600 – 1602; published 1603 – 1604 Its sources include a German play Hystorie of Hamblet, Francois de Belleforest’s Histories Tragiques, and an earlier play from the 1500s titled Hamlet which scholars call Ur-Hamlet Set in Denmark, probably because a play set in England about how poorly the royal family is behaving wouldn’t fly too well

ENGLAND IN EARLY 1600S Queen Elizabeth (best monarch EVER) dies in 1603 James VI of Scotland named king (name gets changed to James I of England with the title) Elizabeth Thrifty Glamorous Witty Complete Englishwoman VS James Spendthrift Goggle-eyed Thick tongued Foreigner

MAJOR CHARACTERS Hamlet – Prince of Denmark The Ghost of Hamlet’s Father Gertrude – Queen of Denmark; Hamlet’s mother Claudius – new King of Denmark; Hamlet’s uncle and now stepdad

MINOR CHARACTERS Polonius – Claudius’ right hand man (chief counselor) Ophelia – Polonius’ daughter; Hamlet’s girlfriend Laertes – Polonius’ son; kills Hamlet in Act V Rosencrantz and Guildenstern – childhood friends of Hamlet; ploys for Claudius Horatio – fellow student with Hamlet; loyal friend Fortinbras – Prince of Norway; foil to Hamlet

BASIC PLOT Hamlet’s father, King of Denmark has recently died Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, quickly marries her dead husband’s brother, Claudius Hamlet’s dead father appears as a ghost, tells Hamlet that he has been murdered by Claudius, and asks Hamlet to avenge his death Hamlet spend the rest of the play trying to decide whether or not to kill Claudius

THEMES Revenge – Hamlet wants it, Claudius wants it, Laertes wants it Real vs. Imagined – Ghost, Hamlet’s madness Mystery of Death – throughout whole play from Ghost to graveyard scene, to suicide, to final act of bloodbath Nation as a Diseased Body – Denmark is diseased (royal family mirrors the state)

MOTIFS Incest – Gertrude marries brother-in-law Ears and Hearing – poison in the ear; words being used to convey information as well as deception Misogyny (hatred of women) – From Hamlet’s perspective towards Ophelia and Gertrude Death and Suicide – Ghost, Ophelia, Polonius, Gertrude, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, Claudius, Hamlet, basically anyone with a name

SYMBOLISM Ghost – spiritual consequence of death Yorick’s skull – physical consequence of death Ophelia’s purposeful flowers

TRULY SHAKESPEAREAN Play-within-a-play – What’s the purpose? Disguises – Hamlet’s “madness” Asides – What’s the purpose?

WORKS CITED Bradbrook, M. C. "Shakespeare and the Use of Disguise in Elizabethan Drama." Oxford Journals | Humanities | Essays in Criticism Web. 28 Nov Hamlet: William Shakespeare. New York, NY: Spark Pub., Print. Lowers, James K.., and James Lamar Roberts. Hamlet. Lincoln (Nebraska): Cliff's Notes, Print. Martin, Reed C., and Austin Tichenor. Reduced Shakespeare: the Complete Reader's Guide for the Attention-impaired (abridged). New York: Hyperion, Print.