Introduction To Shakespeare and Hamlet
Shakespeare: Born April 23rd, 1564 / Died April 23rd, 1616
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Key terms relating to his life:
-Stratford
-Lord Chamberlain’s Men
-London
-King’s Men
-The Globe
-First Folio
-Puritans
-The Plague
-Histories
-7 Lost Years
-Comedies
-Ovid’s Metamorphosis
-Tragedies
-Groundlings
-Patrons
-Anne Hathaway
-The Curtain
-The Rose
-blank verse
-prose
-First Quarto
-Second Quarto
-37 plays / 154 sonnets / 2 narrative poems
-Queen Elizabeth 1st
-King James 1st
-Susanna, Hamnet, Judith
-Richard Burbage / Christopher Marlowe
-Holinshed’s Chronicles
-Lords and Ladies
-John and Mary
-The Swan
-iambic pentameter
-soliloquies
Ben Johnson, a famous English poet, wrote this quote about Shakespeare: “He was not of an age, but for all time.”
Hamlet was written around 1601. This is about the middle of Shakespeare’s writing career.
Hamlet is set in Elsinore, a small city in Denmark.
The source for the story of Hamlet comes from a 12th century Danish monk named Saxo Grammaticus.
Shakespeare uses Grammaticus’ version of the story of “Amleth”, but changes many key details to make the story
his own (especially the ending).
Key themes in Hamlet include things such as murder and the consequences of murder (mental, physical, and
spiritual), betrayal, friendship and loyalty, destroyed and rejected love, madness and sanity, appearance versus
reality, relations between men and women, the rights and duties of kingship, poison and corruption, procrastination
and motivation, family pressures, fate, destiny, and the purpose of life, depression, and justice and revenge.
We never learn Hamlet’s age in the play, but by using hints from the original Quarto editions we can assume he
could be as young as 16 or as old as 30.
Remember that the concepts of fate and destiny were very real and important in Shakespeare’s time. People truly
felt that they may not completely be in control of their own destinies. Also remember that a majority of
Shakespeare’s audience believed completely in ghosts and the supernatural world.
Remember that Hamlet is a tragedy. It was written to end badly. Take note of all of the things that go wrong for
Hamlet in the play. Shakespeare never really gave him a chance.
By genre, Hamlet is as much a revenge play as it is a tragedy. Revenge plays followed a simple structure that is
still seen in many of the violent movies, TV shows, and comics of today. A typical revenge plot would involve:
a) A hero, usually informed by a ghost of an injury or crime that needs to be revenged. The hero had to be
justified for seeking this revenge – the audience had to feel empathy and sympathy for the protagonist.
b) The opponent of the hero, or antagonist, needed to be equal to the hero in stature and cunning so that the
battle would be evenly matched, thus creating drama.
c) The hero accepting the challenge to revenge and beginning to plot it.
d) The hero confronting the villain and overcoming obstacles standing in the way of revenge.
e) The revenge finally being achieved in a bloody and horrifying manner.
Frequently, revenge plays would also include the following:
1) a play within a play
2) a protagonist who pretends to be insane in order to enact his revenge
3) a love interest for the hero who becomes an obstacle in the way of the revenge
4) an atmosphere of gloom and terror, often with supernatural elements
5) one or more subplots that would distract the hero from his one true purpose
Because Hamlet follows this genre so closely it is often referred to as a “revenge tragedy”.
Hamlet follows the “Five-Act Structure” that was very common in Shakespeare’s time. This structure looks
something like this:
Act 1: Exposition / Introduction of setting, characters, and situation / The Motivating Incident
Act 2: Rising Action – numerous events leading to the climax
Act 3: The Climax – the most exciting part of the play
Act 4: Falling Action or Denouement – numerous events leading to the conclusion
Act 5: Conclusion and (maybe) Resolution – all mysteries are solved, for better or worse