William Shakespeare

The Globe Theatre•Shakespeare

became so successful that he, with the Burbages, founded his own theatre

• http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/virtualtour/stage/

Hamlet

Prince of Denmark

Background• Arguably Shakespeare’s best play

because of its accessibility• Written around the turn of the

seventeenth century (1600 or so)• Teen angst! Only he’s thirty. • Family issues• Can’t make a decision• Feels powerless over his own life

Background• The story takes place at Castle

Elsinore, Denmark• Old King Hamlet, Hamlet’s father,

has just died under sudden and mysterious circumstances

• Almost immediately afterward, Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, took the throne and married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude

Hamlet

Tragic Hero- a character in literature that has a tragic flaw, which ultimately leads to his or her destruction

Tragic Flaw (Hamartia)- characteristic ultimately leading to the tragic hero’s destruction

THEMES

•Suicide•Murder•Poison•Decay

And Kingship!• Who gets to be one?• What makes a good one?• What does it mean to truly have “kingship”?

Terms to know:

• Blank verse:

• Iambic Pentameter:

Iambic Pentameter is the most common form of verse in the English Language.

unrhymed, iambic pentameter

verse of five feet per line, with stress on the second beat of each foot.

Log #1

Act 1 Scene 1: Comment on the “Who’s there?” scene—what mood is conveyed by the characters? What information do we find out and what seems strange about this? How would an audience be affected by this beginning? Why would Shakespeare begin his scene like this? Use specific lines to justify your response.

Citing Shakespearean Text: Poetry

In the text: To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

In your paper:“To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the

rub;/ For in that sleep of death what dreams may come”

Citing Shakespearean Text: Prose

In the text:There's another: why may not that be the

skull of alawyer?

In your paper:“There's another: why may not that be

the skull of a lawyer?”

If quoting more than three lines:

Hamlet weighs life against suicide in his most famous soliloquy,

To be or not to be, that is the question:Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortuneOr to take arms against a sea of troubles…

subsequently talking himself out of either decisive course.