2. By William Shakespeare
Hamlet By
William Shakespeare

3. 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
Ask yourself: What is Hamlet’s flaw?

4. Tragic heroes are: Born into nobility Responsible for their own fate
Endowed with a tragic flaw
Doomed to make a serious error in judgment

5. 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.
full of dead bodies, murder, suicide, disease, graves, and talk about death. And there is no traditional Christian comfort or promise of eventual justice or happiness for the good people.
You can be a hero.

6. 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.
As you read the play, …
In Hamlet, Shakespeare holds up a mirror to nature, showing us ourselves.
If this were an action-movie, Hamlet might be entirely sympathetic, and his enemies altogether despicable; however it's characteristic of Shakespeare's tragedies that our sympathies are divided.
The audience comes away from Hamlet liking the prince very much. He is a thinker, and he is funny. We see into his own mind and discover him to be genuine and sincere. We admire him for resisting the evil around him.
But he begins the play with a nasty, bitter outlook on life. If you do not like everything about today's teenaged goth culture (wearing black, being clever and disrespectful, playing with people's feelings, complaining that life seems meaningless and empty), you may not like the Hamlet whom we meet at the beginning We see him as both stupid and mean when he kills Polonius.

7. Relevant for Today
Hamlet leaves us with the message that life is indeed worth living, even by imperfect people in an imperfect world.
Hamlet is the first work of literature to look squarely at the stupidity, falsity and sham of everyday life, without laughing and without easy answers. In a world where things are not as they seem, Hamlet's genuineness, thoughtfulness, and sincerity make him special.
Hamlet is no saint. But unlike most of the other characters (and most people today), Hamlet chooses not to compromise with evil.

8. 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
(paternal = father’s side)
(If you do not have an uncle, write the name of a godfather or a male who acts as an uncle to the family)

9. 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.

10. 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, might-makes-right 7th century era.

11. 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.

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. The Ghost: The specter of Hamlet’s recently deceased father
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.

16. 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