1. HAMLET THE STORY OF A MAN WHO CAN’T MAKE UP HIS MIND

2. Hamlet The malcontent, the mad, the melancholy Dane

3. Gertrude Hamlet’s mother — a grave disappointment: “What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me?”

4. Old Hamlet (Hamlet’s father) A ghost with a mission for Hamlet: “If thou didst ever thy dear father love — Revenge his most foul and unnatural murder.”

5. Claudius Hamlet’s uncle: “A little more than kin and less than kind.”

6. Polonius A conniving advisor and father: “To thine ownself be true…”

7. Ophelia Lover, sister, and daughter: “I do not know, my lord, what I should think.”

8. Laertes Ophelia’s brother and a bit of a hothead: “To cut his throat i’ the church! I will do’t.”

9. Horatio A scholar and Hamlet’s friend: “Good night sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!”

11. Iambic pentameter An iamb is a metrical foot that consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one — daDUM. Penta- means five. Meter refers to a regular rhythmic pattern in poetry. So iambic pentameter is a kind of rhythmic pattern that consists of five iambs per line, almost like five heartbeats: daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM.

12. Reading Shakespeare: Iambic pentameter But, soft! What light through yon der win dow breaks? It is the east and Jul iet is the sun.