HAMLET

Dramatic Structure & Terminology

GUSTAV FREYTAG’S DRAMATIC STRUCTURE

SHAKESPEARE’S TRAGEDIES

Gustav Freytag’s Dramatic Structure

Act I – Exposition (setting, characters, mood

developed, inciting incident)

Act II – Rising action

Act III – Climax (and Complication)

Act IV – Falling Action (means to a solution)

Act V – Catastrophe (Resolution)

Foreshadowing

Verbal irony• pun

Foil character

Double entendre

HAMLET LITERARY TERMS

DRAMA terms

Soliloquy

Aside

OTHER terms

Allusion

Metaphor

VERBAL IRONY

The use of vocabulary to describe things in a way

other than it seems. (similar to sarcasm)

Clear as mud

“I am too much in the son”

DRAMATIC IRONY

When the audience

knows something that

the players don’t know.

Hamlet is playing at

being crazy.

FOIL CHARACTER

DOUBLE ENTENDRE

A word or phrase open to two interpretations, one of which is usually risqué or indecent.

An expression or term open to more than one interpretation

EXAMPLES OF OXYMORON

Deafening

silence

Same difference

Pretty ugly

Act naturally

Seriously funny

Two words of contradictory meaning are brought together.

Nobody goes to that

restaurant, it’s too crowded.

Save money by spending it.

The beginning of the end.

What a pity that youth must

be wasted on the young. -George Bernard Shaw

EXAMPLES OF PARADOX

MaDnEsS

ReVeNgE

THE PLAY

Write the name of your mother and father on a

piece of paper

Underneath write the name of an uncle on your

father’s side (or if you don’t have one, choose a close

male friend of the family)

Now cross out your father

Draw an arrow from your mother to the uncle

This is Hamlet

The Prince of Denmark and

our protagonist

A reflective and thoughtful

young man who has studied at

the University of Wittenberg

Hamlet is often indecisive and

hesitant, but at other times

prone to rash and impulsive acts

About 17 years old

HAMLET

The King of Denmark

Hamlet’s uncle, and the play’s

antagonist

Claudius is shrewd and

manipulating. Claudius assumes

control of the kingdom at the

death of his brother.

He also convinces his

brother’s wife to marry him,

probably to consolidate his

control in Denmark.

CLAUDIUS

Queen of Denmark

Hamlet’s mother, recently

married to Claudius

The question of why Gertrude

marries so soon after her

husband’s death one of the

most important questions in

the play.

What do you think?

GERTRUDE

Before the play begins, King

Hamlet dies while sleeping in his

garden

He appears in the play as a ghost.

Is he the ghost of Prince Hamlet’s

father, a demon that has taken the

late king’s form to wreak havoc in

the kingdom, or a figment of Prince

Hamlet’s diseased mind?

KING HAMLET

Prince Hamlet’s close

friend

Studied with the

Prince at the University

in Wittenberg

Horatio is loyal and

helpful to Hamlet

throughout the play

HORATIO

Lord Chamberlain of Claudius’

court. The King’s principle advisor

A pompous, conniving old man

Polonius appears to have risen to

power by skillful manipulation,

however, he suffers from

overconfidence.

Hamlet enjoys exposing him as a

fool.

Father of Laertes and Ophelia

POLONIUS

Polonius’ daughter and a

beautiful young woman.

Prince Hamlet’s love

interest, but their relationship

is a secret at the start of the

play.

She is not of royal birth and

is not deemed a suitable

match for the Prince.

OPHELIA

Polonius’ son, Ophelia’s brother

A young man who spends much

of the play away from court

enjoying the pleasures of France

Passionate and quick to action,

Laertes is clearly a foil for the

reflective Hamlet.

Laertes is the greatest

swordsman in all of Denmark.

LAERTES

Another foil of Prince Hamlet

The Prince of Norway, whose

father (also named Fortinbras)

was killed by King Hamlet when

Prince Fortinbras was a child..

Now that King Hamlet has

died, Fortinbras longs to avenge

his father’s death and regain

the land his father lost in battle.

YOUNG FORTINBRAS

ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN

Two slightly bumbling courtiers, former friends of Hamlet from

Wittenberg, who are summoned by Claudius and Gertrude to

discover the cause of Hamlet’s strange behavior