STAGE 2 Hamlet William Shakespeare Introduction This ungraded summary is for the teacher’s use only and should not be given to students. The story Prince Hamlet is the son of the late King Hamlet of Denmark, who dies before the start of the play. After King Hamlet’s death, his brother, Claudius, becomes king and marries King Hamlet’s widow, Gertrude. Prince Hamlet is very sad at the death of his father and cannot accept the marriage of his mother and Claudius. the play suddenly and runs out. While alone, Claudius Two guards at the King’s castle have recently seen confesses the murder to God. the ghost of the dead King Hamlet. They summon Prince Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, then tries to reason Hamlet’s friend, Horatio, to come and see this ghost. with Hamlet while Polonius spies on them from The next morning Horatio tells Prince Hamlet about it. behind a curtain. Hamlet hears Polonius and kills him That night Hamlet goes to the castle and speaks to through the curtain, thinking that he is Claudius. the ghost of his dead father. He learns that King Claudius killed his father by putting poison in his ear while he was Claudius then sends Hamlet off to England with asleep. Prince Hamlet promises the ghost that he will Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Claudius gives the two take revenge on Claudius and kill him. friends a secret letter for the King of England asking him to kill Hamlet. Hamlet plans to show Claudius’s guilt by starting to behave like a madman. In response to Hamlet’s When Polonius’s son, Laertes, returns from France, ‘mad’ behaviour, Claudius, Gertrude and their advisor he is enraged by the news of his father’s death and Polonius, ask Hamlet’s childhood friends, Rosencrantz wants to kill Hamlet. His sister, Ophelia, goes mad and and Guildenstern to spy on him and find out why he is kills herself by jumping in the river. Hamlet returns alive from England after finding behaving so strangely. In the past, Hamlet had a romantic relationship with the letter with orders to kill him. Claudius and Laertes Polonius’s daughter, Ophelia. However, she has now make a plan to secretly kill Hamlet in a friendly fight been told to avoid Hamlet by both her father, Polonius by putting poison on a sword. Claudius also prepares and her brother, Laertes, who has gone to France. some poisoned wine for Hamlet to drink. After learning about his father’s murder, Hamlet The sword fight between Laertes and Hamlet visits Ophelia but acts strangely and is unable to begins. Hamlet is offered the poisoned wine but he speak to her. Ophelia then gives her father, Polonius, refuses and instead his mother, Gertude, drinks some a love letter from Hamlet. Polonius tells Claudius and dies. Laertes stabs Hamlet with the poisoned and Gertrude about it and says that Hamlet’s love for sword. Ophelia may have driven him mad. stabs Laertes, who dies. Hamlet then stabs and kills Hamlet then picks up the same sword and Claudius and Polonius spy secretly on a subsequent Claudius. Hamlet’s friend, Horatio, wants to drink the meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia to try to find wine and die too. However, just before Hamlet dies, out what is wrong with him. Hamlet says wild things he begs Horatio to stay alive in order to tell the true and upsets Ophelia. After listening to this strange story of what has happened. conversation, Claudius tells Polonius that Hamlet represents a threat to him and he plans to send him away to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Before going to England, Hamlet convinces some actors to change a play and re-enact King Hamlet’s death in front of Claudius, in the hope of making him break down and admit to the murder. Claudius stops 60 STAGE 2 Hamlet Pre-reading activity Who’s who in Hamlet? 1 Match the names of the characters from Hamlet with the descriptions. a N Prince Hamlet b N King Claudius c d N Queen Gertrude N Polonius e f N Laertes N Ophelia g N Rosencrantz and Guildenstern 1 is the new King of Denmark and the brother of the dead King Hamlet. 2 was married to King Hamlet but is now married to his brother, King Claudius. 3 is the son of the dead King Hamlet. 4 is a young woman who loves Prince Hamlet. She is the daughter of Polonius and the sister of Laertes. 5 are Prince Hamlet’s friends from his school days. 6 is an adviser to King Claudius and the father of Laertes and Ophelia. 7 is the son of Polonius and the brother of Ophelia. 2 Which of the above characters says these things at the beginning of the play? Write in the names. a ___________________ b ___________________ ‘Think of me as your father now. Come with me, everyone. We will drink to my new family!’ ‘My father, the greatest man in Denmark, has gone. The man who’s taken his place is no better than an animal.’ 3 Do you think these two characters will have a good relationship? Why / Why not? To the teacher Aim: To help students understand the relationship relationship between King Claudius / Prince Hamlet between the main characters in the play (uncle / nephew), Queen Gertrude / Prince Hamlet Time: 30 minutes (mother / son), Laertes / Ophelia (brother / sister)? Organization: Give out a copy of the worksheet Then ask students to complete section 2. Check to each student or pair of students. As a class go the answers as a class and encourage students to through the pronunciation of the characters’ names speculate why Prince Hamlet and King Claudius will and ask students to guess if they are male or female. have a bad relationship. Don’t tell students whether Go through any unknown vocabulary in the answers their ideas are correct or not at this point – they will e.g. adviser. Then ask students to match the names find out when they read the play. with the descriptions. Check the answers as a class. Key: 1: a 3, b 1, c 2, d 6, e 7, f 4, g 5 Next, ask students questions to establish the main 2: a King Claudius, b Prince Hamlet relationships between the characters e.g. What is the 3: They won’t have a good relationship 61 © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS PHOTOCOPIABLE STAGE 2 Hamlet While reading activity What happens next? PRINCE HAMLET YES NO YES NO YES NO YES NO runs away to France and marries Ophelia. goes mad, jumps into a river and dies. kills King Claudius one night when he is asleep. dies when he has a sword fight with Laertes. KING CLAUDIUS sees the ghost late at night and becomes very frightened. asks the King of England to kill Hamlet. tries to kill Hamlet by pushing him down the stairs. tells Laertes about his terrible secret. dies when Hamlet gives him poisoned wine to drink. QUEEN GERTRUDE learns about her husband’s terrible secret and runs away to England. learns about her husband’s terrible secret and kills him. dies when she drinks some poisoned wine by accident. becomes very angry with her son and stops talking to him. LAERTES goes to England with Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Hamlet. becomes very angry when he learns about his father’s death and plans to kill Prince Hamlet. sees the ghost one night and learns about the murder of King Hamlet. takes his sister Ophelia to France so she can’t marry Hamlet. To the teacher Where: At the end of Act 3 students in pairs to decide, without looking at the Aim: To encourage students to predict the rest of the play, what happens to the four characters. development of the story Go through feedback as a class. Correct predictions Time: 40 minutes are not important, although it may be interesting for Organization: Give one copy of the worksheet to students to keep their worksheets and see whether each pair of students. Go through the predictions as or not they guessed right. a class and check any unknown vocabulary. Ask the PHOTOCOPIABLE © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 62 STAGE 2 Hamlet After reading activity Character grid Put a tick or a cross in each of the boxes in the table. HAMLET CLAUDIUS GERTRUDE POLONIUS LAERTES OPHELIA angry frightened honest strong weak kind simple clever quiet selfish To the teacher Aim: To encourage students to reflect on the group a copy of the grid. Ask the students to discuss characters in the play the characters in their groups and put a tick or a Time: 30–40 minutes cross for each adjective. They could also add a few Organization: Write the names of the six characters notes in the grid about their ideas. For feedback, on the board. See how much students can remember choose three of the characters that generated the about each character. Then go through the meaning most debate and go through the answers from the and pronunciation of the adjectives as a class. different groups as a class. Encourage students to Ask students to give examples of how an angry, compare their ideas and justify their answers with frightened, honest etc. person might behave. reference to the play. Put the students into small groups and give each 63 © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS PHOTOCOPIABLE