Word of play hamlet

●The kind of play : tragedy

●The physical word of play

• time : the approximately situated in the late medieval or Renaissance time periods.

• place : Elsinore Castle in Denmark

• Duration : 4-hour

• view : Hamlet is a 1990 drama film based on the Shakespearean tragedy of the same name directed
by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Mel Gibson as the eponymous character. The film also features Glenn
Close, Alan Bates, Paul Scofield, lan Holm, Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Dillane, and Nathaniel
Parker. It is notable for being the first film from Icon Productions, a company co-founded by Gibson.

• atmoshpire : The many secrets in Hamlet create an atmosphere of mystery and conspiracy.
Claudius is tortured by the guilty

Secret of his brother’s murder. Polonius sends Reynaldo to spy on his son Laertes, and spies on
Hamlet himself. The Ghost hints that Gertrude and Claudius may have been having an affair.

• circumestance : Hamlet Seen Solely as the Victim of External Difficulties With his father dead and
his mother remarried to his enemy, Hamlet has no one to turn to for help; therefore, he is totally a
victim of circumstance.

▪︎environtment : It is primarily set in and around Elsinore Castle in Denmark, where Prince Hamlet
wrestles with a moral dilemma.

●The central Theme

Friendship, madness, and revenge.

●characters :

•hamlet:

Hamlet is the main character of the play. He is the Prince of Denmark, whose father has recently
died. His mother has remarried his father’s uncle, and Hamlet begins the play in a mournful state.

•Claudius: Claudius is the late king’s brother who is now married to Hamlet’s mother. Through the
ghost of Hamlet’s father, it becomes evident that Claudius is guilty of his brother’s murder.

•Gertrude : Gertrude is Hamlet’s mother and the new wife of Hamlet’s uncle. Hamlet is disgusted
with his mother for marrying his uncle so quickly after Hamlet’s father’s death. Although Gertrude
had no part in the murder of Hamlet’s father, she never questioned his sudden death or gave a
second thought about marrying his brother.

•Polonius : As the chief advisor to the king, Polonius has no small view of himself. Polonius takes
great pride in his involvement in the affairs of the kingdom and even volunteers himself to do
“detective work” when Hamlet seemingly descends into madness.
•Laertes : Laertes is the son of Polonius and brother of Ophelia. He sees himself as responsible for
his sister’s safety, especially concerning her purity. He is also absent for some major events of the
play, including his father’s murder, as he travels abroad in Paris.

•Ophelia : Ophelia is the naive and innocent daughter of Polonius, the sister of Laertes, and the love
interest of Hamlet. She is under the impression that Hamlet loves her and intends to marry her;
however, once Hamlet begins his act of “madness,” Ophelia is his first victim.

•The Ghost : The ghost is primarily responsible for setting Hamlet on a path of personal destruction
from the start of the play. Even though the ghost cannot physically do anything, he manipulates
Hamlet to do exactly what he wants: avenge his death.

•Fortinbras : Fortinbras is similar to Hamlet in rank but opposite in nature. He is a prince of Norway
who is marching on Denmark. He is also seeking revenge for his father; however, he is calculated in
his approach. When he arrives in Denmark by the end of the play, he easily overtakes Denmark since
Hamlet has already killed the entire royal family.

•Horatio : Horatio is one of Hamlet’s closest friends and his only friend who does not abandon him
during the play. Hamlet’s father’s ghost actually appears to Horatio before anyone else, likely
because he knew that he had to go through Horatio first to get to Hamlet.

•Rosencrantz and Guildenstern :

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are childhood friends of Hamlet who do not visit Hamlet of their own
volition; instead, they are summoned by the king and queen to distract Hamlet from his depressed
state. Hamlet recognizes immediately that these two “friends” are merely opportunists, following his
uncle’s orders.

•Osric

•Voltimand and Cornelius

•Marcellus and Bernardo

•Francisco

•Reynaldo

The primary characters in Hamlet can be divided into two major groups:

○Hamlet’s family and friends

○Ophelia’s family

The only outlier is Fortinbras, and his tie to the story is his desire to avenge his own father, who
Hamlet’s father killed in battle.

●plot : Young Hamlet returns home from university to discover the world-shattering news that, not
only is his father (Old Hamlet) newly dead, but that his mother, Gertrude, has married Old Hamlet’s
brother, Claudius, and that Claudius is now king.The resultant instability has also led to threats of
invasion by a solider from a neighbouring state, Fortinbras.

● sources : Hamlet is based on a Norse legend composed by Saxo Grammaticus in Latin around 1200
AD. The sixteen books that comprise Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum, or History of the Danes, tell
of the rise and fall of the great rulers of Denmark, and the tale of Amleth, Saxo’s Hamlet, is recounted
in books three and four.

The structure of drama

Hamlet is structured in five acts

Act 1: Prologue

The setting is Elsinore Castle, in Denmark. The former king of Demark has died, and a group of
soldiers tell his son, Prince Hamlet, that they believe they saw his ghost. Hamlet later sees the ghost
and it is indeed his father. Hamlet learns the king was poisoned by Hamlet's uncle (the king's
brother), who has since married the queen and is now the new king.

Act 1: Conflict

Hamlet feels that he must seek revenge on his father’s behalf. However, he struggles with the
authenticity of the “ghost” and is indecisive about his course of action.

Act 2: Rising Action

Claudius hires two of Hamlet’s old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to spy on the prince.
Polonius, the chief counselor to Claudius, also spies on Hamlet. Polonius’s daughter, Ophelia, had
been courted by Hamlet, but he now seems to reject her, perhaps in an effort to convince Claudius
he is mad. Throughout the rising action, Hamlet tries to figure out if Claudius truly killed his father.
When he hears a group of actors is coming, he requests that they act out a play that depicts a king
being poisoned in the ear. This mimics the way the ghost claims he was killed. Hamlet thinks if
Claudius reacts, it will prove his guilt.

Act 3: The Climax

Claudius leaves the play and goes to pray forgiveness for killing Hamlet's father. Hamlet overhears
this and wants to kill him. However, he thinks if he kills him while he is praying, Claudius will go to
heaven.

Act 4: Falling Action

Hamlet speaks to his mother about how disgusted he is that she is married to Claudius. Hamlet
accidentally kills Polonius and is banished to England. Claudius includes a letter to the King of
England that orders Hamlet’s execution. Hamlet escapes and comes back to Denmark. Ophelia,
crushed by Hamlet’s apparent disdain and the death of the father, has drowned herself. Hamlet is
challenged to a fencing match by Laertes, Ophelia’s brother, who blames Hamlet for the deaths of his
sister (Ophelia) and his father (Polonius).

Act 5: Denouement

At the match, Laertes poisons the tip of his sword. Claudius poisons a cup and tries to get Hamlet to
drink from it. Hamlet refuses and Queen Gertrude drinks from it instead. Laertes stabs Hamlet. They
grapple, and Laertes is stabbed by his own sword and also poisoned. Hamlet makes Claudius drink
from the poison cup and then stabs him with the poisoned sword. In the end, only Horatio is left to
tell the story. Fortinbras, King of Norway, arrives to find the royal family dead and claims Denmark.

Figurative language:

Personification:

And yet, within a month

(Let me not think on ’t; frailty, thy name is woman!)

A little month, or ere those shoes were old

With which she followed my poor father’s body,

[…] married with my uncle. In his speech, Hamlet personifies his mother's frailty, cursing her
weakness and attributing it to her womanhood. It is not enough to call his mother a frail person,
instead he laments that frailty itself is a woman and is therefore the incarnation of womanhood.