Hamlet
By
William
Shakespeare
Tragic hero
• A tragic hero has the potential for
greatness but is doomed to fail.
• He makes some sort of tragic flaw, and
this causes his fall from greatness.
• Realizes he has made an irreversible
mistake
• Faces and accepts death with honor
• Meets a tragic death
Tragic heroes are:
•
•
•
•
Born into nobility
Responsible for their own fate
Endowed with a tragic flaw
Doomed to make a serious error in
judgment
Hamlet Prince of Denmark
• Shakespeare's Hamlet is one of his
most popular tragedies.
• Death, suicide, murder, graves
• Ghost—question afterlife
• No traditional Christian comfort or
justice.
• But the message is ultimately
one of hope.
Idea for theme
• Watch how Hamlet -- who
starts by wishing he were dead
-- comes to terms with life,
keeps his integrity, and strikes
back successfully at what's
wrong around him.
Relevant for Today
• Hamlet leaves us with the
message that life is indeed worth
living, even by imperfect people
in an imperfect world.
On a sheet of paper …
•
•
•
•
Write down your name
Write down your mother's name
Write down your father's name
Write down your paternal uncle's name
• To connect to the play, cross out your father's
name. He just died.
• Draw a line connecting your mother's name to
your uncle's. A month has passed. Your mother
has just married your uncle.
• The issue of Gertrude's marriage to Hamlet's
uncle surfaces immediately in the first words
Hamlet speaks in the play: “A little more than
kin and less than kind” (1.2.67).
• Notice whether Claudius and Gertrude's
marriage was politically or romantically
motivated and whether Gertrude took
played a part in the death of King Hamlet.
Written around 1601
Published in 1603
Setting: Denmark
• A remake of an already popular
play—Ur-Hamlet
• Based in turn on historical fiction
Amleth, Prince of Denmark 1185
• Based in turn on an episode from the
Dark Ages: the lawless, mightmakes-right 7th century era.
Motifs and Important
Topics
• Pay attention to how the play begins:
with a question
• The blurring of appearance and reality
is a motif in this play
• Important Topics: fate, supernatural,
family, tragic hero, justice.
Character List
• Hamlet: The Prince of Denmark. About 30
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,
Cladius.
•Claudius: The King of
Denmark, Hamlet’s uncle,
and the play’s antagonist
• Gertrude: The Queen of
Denmark, Hamlet’s
mother, recently
married to Claudius
• Polonius: The Lord
Chamberlain of
Claudius’ court; father
of Laertes and Ophelia
• Horatio: Hamlet’s close
friend, who studied with
him at the university in
Wittenberg
• Ophelia:
Polonius’s
daughter, who
obeys her father
and her brother,
Laertes. Hamlet
has been in love
with her.
• Laertes:
Polonius’s son
and Ophelia’s
brother
• Fortinbras: The young Prince of
Norway, whose father the king (also
named Fortinbras) was killed by
Hamlet’s father (also named Hamlet).
• The Ghost: The specter of Hamlet’s
recently deceased father
• Marcellus and
Bernardo: Officers
who first see the
ghost and who call
Horatio to witness it.
Marcellus is present
when Hamlet first
encounters the ghost.
• Francisco: A soldier and guardsman at
Elsinore (the castle)
• Reynaldo: Polonius’s servant, who is sent
to France by Polonius to check up on and
spy on Laertes