Early Life
 Was born in Stratford-on-Avon on April 23, 1564.
 Came from a large, wealthy family
 Left formal education when he was 14 years old.
 Married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582.
 William was 18 and Anne was 26- and pregnant!
Scandalous!
 The couple had three children; Susanna, Hamnet &
Judith. Hamnet died when he was 11 years old.
 Shakespeare left his family to find work in London.
 In London, Shakespeare became an actor and playwright for
the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
 When he retired, Shakespeare had written 37 plays.
 Shakespeare died on April
23, 1616.
BANK!
 If Shakespeare’s material had been copyrighted (can’t
copy without paying a fee to the author), his heirs
would be making $15,000,000 a year.
 Many believe Hamlet to be Shakespeare’s most
successful play.
 Over 300 adaptations dating from as early as the 1930s
have been recorded as being adaptations of
Shakespeare’s plays.
Shakespeare-created
phrases
 Shakespeare created many words that we now use
commonly, in some cases creating them outright and in
others, combining words in new combinations (such as
“bedroom”).
 Break the ice
Eating me out of house and home
Heart of gold In a pickle
Knock! Knock! Who’s there?
Laughing stock
Love it blind
Not slept one wink
Own flesh and blood
A sorry sight
Wear my heart on my sleeve
The Globe
 Opened in 1599; Shakespeare’s company regularly
performed there.
 Polygonal shape with as many as twenty sides.
 The “hell” at the bottom was a
space for devils and others to
emerge.
 The roof or covering was called
“the heavens”.
 Plays in The Globe were performed during the day.
 A banner would fly to tell the people what play was
being performed.
 There were few props on stage. The stage was set by
the audience’s imagination.
 Much like today, wealthy theater goers would sit in the
more expensive seats.
 The cheapest area of The Globe was the pit. This was
located right in front of the stage without seats or a
roof. The people that stood in these crowded areas
were called “groundlings”.
 Acting was not considered respectable in Elizabethan
times so all women’s parts were played by males.
Hamlet
 Full title: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
 Author: William Shakespeare
 Genre: Drama; Tragedy
 Time & Place Written: London, England 1600-1602
Hamlet Basics
 Protagonist: Hamlet
 Conflict: Hamlet feels a responsibility to avenge his
father’s murder by his uncle Claudius, but Claudius is
now the king and thus well protected. Moreover,
Hamlet struggles with his doubts about whether he can
trust the ghost and whether killing Claudius is the
appropriate thing to do.
 Setting: The late medieval period; Denmark
Hamlet
 The Prince of Denmark, the title character, and the
protagonist. About thirty years old at the start of the
play, Hamlet is the son of Queen Gertrude and the
late King Hamlet, and the nephew of the present
king, Claudius. Hamlet is bitter and full of hatred for
his uncle’s scheming and disgust for his mother’s
remarriage.
Gertrude
 The Queen of Denmark, Hamlet’s mother, recently
married to Claudius. Gertrude loves Hamlet deeply,
but she is a shallow, weak woman who seeks
affection and status more urgently than goodness or
truth.
Claudius
 The antagonist of the play and the new king of
Denmark. Claudius is the “smiling, damned villain”
of the piece, a devious, lustful, and corrupt politician
and master manipulator of people and circumstances.
Despite the darkness in his soul, his seemingly
genuine love for Gertrude and his pangs of
conscience over his crimes add a more sympathetic
dimension to his personality.
The Ghost
 The Ghost - The specter of Hamlet’s recently
deceased father. The ghost, who claims to have been
murdered by Claudius, calls upon Hamlet to avenge
him.
Polonius
 The Lord Chamberlain of Claudius’s court (chief
advisor), a pompous, conniving old man. Polonius is
the father of Laertes and Ophelia.
Ophelia
 Ophelia - Polonius’s daughter, a beautiful young
woman with whom Hamlet has been in love. Ophelia
is a sweet and innocent young girl, who obeys her
father and her brother, Laertes.
Laertes
 Polonius’s son and Ophelia’s brother, a young man
who spends much of the play in France. Passionate
and quick to action, Laertes is clearly a foil for the
reflective Hamlet.
Fortinbras
 The young Prince of Norway, whose father the king
(also named Fortinbras) was killed by Hamlet’s
father (also named Hamlet). Now Fortinbras wishes
to attack Denmark to avenge his father’s honor,
making him another foil for Prince Hamlet.
Horatio
 Hamlet’s close friend, who studied with the prince at
the university in Wittenberg. Horatio is loyal and
helpful to Hamlet throughout the play.
Rosencrantz &
Guildenstern
 Two slightly bumbling messengers, former friends of
Hamlet from Wittenberg, who are summoned by
Claudius and Gertrude to discover the cause of
Hamlet’s strange behavior.
Literary Elements in Hamlet
 Act
A major unit of a drama, or play.
Hamlet has five acts.
 Scene
A subdivision of an act in a play. Each
scene usually takes place in a specific
setting and time.
 Stage Directions
Instructions written by a playwright
that describes the appearance and
actions of characters as well as the sets,
props, costumes, sound effects, and
lighting for a play
Drama
 A story written to be performed by actors before an
audience.
Protagonist
 The central character in a literary work about whom
the main conflict revolves.
 Hamlet is the protagonist.
Antagonist
 A person or a force in society of nature that opposes
the protagonist.
 The reader is generally not meant to sympathize with
the antagonist.
Aside
 In a play, a comment that a character makes to the
audience, with other characters on stage do not hear.
 Asides usually reveal what the character is thinking or
feeling.
Soliloquy
 A dramatic device in which a character alone on stage
reveals his or her private thoughts and feelings as if
thinking aloud.
Character
 An individual in a literary work.
 Main characters are central to the story and are
typically fully developed.
 Minor characters display few personality traits and are
used to help develop the story.
Character types
 A character who shows varied and sometimes
contradictory traits is a round character.
 A character who reveals only one personality trait is a
flat character.
 A dynamic character changes during the story.
 A static character remains the same throughout the
story.
Conflict
 The struggle between opposing forces
External Conflict
 External conflict exists when a character struggles
against some outside force.
 Man vs. Man
 Man vs. Nature
 Man vs. Society
Internal Conflict
 An internal conflict takes place within the mind of a
character who is torn between opposing feelings or
goals.
Irony
 A contrast between expectations and reality, or
between what is expected to happen and what actually
happens.
 Situational irony occurs when the actual outcome of a
situation is the opposite of what is expected.
 Verbal irony happens when a person says one thing but
means another.
 When the audience knows more than one of the
characters, dramatic irony is being used.
Plot
Theme
 The main idea or message of a story that expresses a
general statement about life.
 Theme cannot be summed up in one word.
Themes in Hamlet
 The impossibility of certainty
sure?
How do we know for
 The complexity of action
How is it possible to takes
reasonable, effective,
purposeful action?
 The mystery of death
What is out there after we die?
 The nation as a diseased body How do the lives of the
royalty effect a nation?