Date post: | 17-Jan-2016 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | beverly-oliver |
View: | 239 times |
Download: | 0 times |
HAMLET
Dramatic Structure & Terminology
GUSTAV FREYTAG’S DRAMATIC STRUCTURE
SHAKESPEARE’S TRAGEDIES
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)
Foreshadowing
Verbal irony• pun
Foil character
Double entendre
HAMLET LITERARY TERMS
DRAMA terms
Soliloquy
Aside
OTHER terms
Allusion
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
EXAMPLES OF OXYMORON
Deafening
silence
Same difference
Pretty ugly
Act naturally
Seriously funny
Two words of contradictory meaning are brought together.
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
EXAMPLES OF PARADOX
MaDnEsS
ReVeNgE
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
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
HAMLET
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.
CLAUDIUS
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?
GERTRUDE
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?
KING HAMLET
Prince Hamlet’s close
friend
Studied with the
Prince at the University
in Wittenberg
Horatio is loyal and
helpful to Hamlet
throughout the play
HORATIO
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
POLONIUS
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.
OPHELIA
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.
LAERTES
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.
YOUNG FORTINBRAS
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