HAMLET
Dramatic Structure & Terminology
GUSTAV FREYTAG’S
DRAMATIC STRUCTURE
S H A K E S P E A R E ’ S T R AG E D I E S
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)
HAMLET LITERARY TERMS
Foreshadowing
Verbal irony
• pun
DRAMA terms
 Soliloquy
 Aside
OTHER terms
Foil character
 Allusion
Double entendre
 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
E X A M P L E S O F OX Y M O RO N
 Deafening silence
 Same difference
 Pretty ugly
 Act naturally
Two words of contradictory meaning
are brought together.
 Seriously funny
EXAMPLES OF PARADOX
 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
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
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
CLAUDIUS
 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.
GERTRUDE
 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?
KING HAMLET
 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?
HORATIO
 Prince Hamlet’s close friend
 Studied with the Prince at the
University in Wittenberg
 Horatio is loyal and helpful to
Hamlet throughout the play
POLONIUS
 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
OPHELIA
 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.
LAERTES
 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.
YOUNG FORTINBRAS
 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.
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