Hamlet Study Guide: Understanding the Tragic Hero's Journey and Family Dynamics, Study notes of Painting

Download Hamlet Study Guide: Understanding the Tragic Hero's Journey and Family Dynamics and more Study notes Painting in PDF only on Docsity! HAMLET By William Shakespeare STUDY GUIDE 1200 Anastasia Ave Coral Gables, Fl 33134 Directed and Adapted By: Paul Tei Cast of HAMLET Pete Rogan:, Horatio, Claudius, the Ghost (Dead King, Hamlet’s father) and Polonius Todd Durkin: Hamlet Yvonne Gougelet: Ophelia and Gertrude Scott Genn: Laertes Ken Clement: Fight Coordinator HAMLET for an Action Driven Audience This one hour version of Hamlet focuses on the action of the main characters. While we have omitted portions of the play, the main issues still remain. Hamlet deals with concerns such as suicide, depression, deceit, betrayal and ultimately revenge. Although this play is over 400 years old, the conflicts of these characters are still relevant today. Hopefully our approach will prompt students to do further reading and open their eyes to the world of Shakespeare (and theatre in general) and help them to realize that it isn’t as “stuffy” as they might have thought. During a Performance, Watch and Listen for This: Honor and Revenge: How many times in the play does Hamlet have the chance for revenge? How many times does he act honorably? After a Performance, Talk About This: Oaths, Obedience and Swearing: There is an unusual amount of swearing, formal promises and obeying in this play. Why does this happen so often in this play? What does it mean to give one's word? To swear? To formally state your obedience? Words Invented by Shakespeare and Used for the First Time in This Play: Amazement Besmirch Excitement Buzzer Film Hush Outbreak Pander Remorseless Find for yourself where they appear in the play! Can you spot them in performance? Do they mean what you thought they meant? NOTES: Who's Who in HAMLET King Hamlet: Dead when the play starts, he appears as a ghost. Horatio: He is Hamlet's school friend. Hamlet: Son of King Hamlet recently returned from college for his father's funeral and his mother's marriage. Claudius: The new King. His brother died and he married his sister-in-law rather hastily. Gertrude: She wants her son to stop mourning his father and visit awhile. Polonius: Claudius's closest advisor at court. Father of Laertes and Ophelia. Laertes: At the beginning of the play he wants to go to France. Ophelia: Hamlet's girlfriend and obedient to her father. Dead King HAMLET HORATIO CLAUDIUS LAERTES HORATIO GERTRUDE HAMLET Brothers Uncle/Stepfather Brother & Sister Married Widowed Advisor to Claudius CLAUDIUS POLONIUS OPHELIA Dating Best Friend Father Mother/ Aunt Father HAMLET: The Whole Story It is the middle of a very cold night on the battlements of Elsinore. Bernardo relieves a fellow soldier on guard. For two nights he and another soldier have seen a ghost while on their watch. They've asked Horatio, a scholar who has returned from the University at Wittenberg, to join them and to confront it. As they talk, the ghost appears again, and they recognize the recently deceased King Hamlet, dressed for war. It stalks away without responding. We discover that Denmark is preparing for war. King Fortinbras of Norway had earlier challenged King Hamlet to single combat. Not only did King Hamlet kill King Fortinbras, he seized his lands, which should have been inherited by his son, Young Fortinbras. We also learn that Young Fortinbras has raised an army of mercenaries to recover what his father had forfeited. The ghost returns while they are talking, and Horatio tries to speak with it. Before the ghost might answer, a rooster crows, and it hastily leaves. They decide to tell Prince Hamlet, the King's son, believing that the ghost will surely speak to him. Inside the castle the following day, Claudius, dead King Hamlet's brother, addresses an assembly. Although Denmark has been in mourning for King Hamlet's death, Claudius has become King and married the recently widowed Queen Gertrude, his sister-in-law. Claudius thanks everyone who has "freely gone with this affair along." He then dispatches ambassadors to the new King of Norway, who is Young Fortinbras' uncle. Claudius allows Laertes, the son of court councilor Polonius, to return to France. Both Gertrude and Claudius try to persuade Hamlet to end mourning his father's death, and remain at Elsinore rather than return to University at Wittenburg. Hamlet acquiesces. Claudius decides to celebrate Hamlet's decision with toasting and cannon fire. Alone, Hamlet shares his feelings with the audience. The guards interrupt Hamlet, who tell him of their ghostly encounter of the night before. Hamlet questions them closely and asks them to keep the encounter secret. He agrees to join them that night to speak to the ghost, whose presence indicates all is not well. Ready to depart for France, Laertes bids his sister Ophelia farewell. He advises her not to lose her heart to Hamlet, whose affections she may not trust. She agrees to follow her brother's advice but challenges him to practice what he preaches. Their father, Polonius, enters and hurries Laertes aboard ship with copious advice. He then asks Ophelia what she and Laertes were talking about and forbids Ophelia from talking to Hamlet. She promises to obey. That night, Hamlet does indeed see his father's ghost. The ghost beckons to Hamlet and he follows. When Hamlet is alone with the ghost, King Hamlet reveals that while everyone believes he died of natural causes while sleeping, he was actually poisoned by his brother, Claudius. He fades away, asking Hamlet to remember him. Horatio and the guards find Hamlet and all are sworn to secrecy. Polonius sends his servant Reynaldo to France to spy on Laertes. A very frightened Ophelia enters and tells her father about a distressing encounter with Hamlet. Shakespeare, William (1564-1616), was an English playwright and poet. He is generally considered the greatest dramatist the world has ever known and the finest poet who has written in the English language. Shakespeare has also been the world's most popular author. No other writer's plays have been produced so many times or read so widely in so many countries. Many reasons can be given for Shakespeare's broad appeal. But his fame basically rests on his understanding of human nature. Shakespeare understood people as few other artists have. He could see in a specific dramatic situation the qualities that relate to all human beings. He could thus create characters that have meaning beyond the time and place of his plays. Yet his characters are not symbolic figures. They are remarkably individual human beings. They struggle just as people do in real life, sometimes successfully and sometimes with painful and tragic failure. Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays, which have traditionally been divided into comedies, histories, and tragedies. These plays contain vivid characters of all types and from many walks of life. Kings, pickpockets, drunkards, generals, hired killers, shepherds, and philosophers all mingle in Shakespeare's works. In addition to his deep understanding of human nature, Shakespeare had knowledge in a wide variety of other subjects. These subjects include music, the law, the Bible, military science, the stage, art, politics, the sea, history, hunting, woodcraft, and sports. Yet as far as scholars know, Shakespeare had no professional experience in any field except the theater. Shakespeare was born to what today would be called middle-class parents. His birthplace was the small market town of Stratford-upon-Avon. Shortly after he married at the age of 18, Shakespeare apparently left Stratford to seek his fortune in the theatrical world of London. Within a few years, he had become one of the city's leading actors and playwrights. By 1612, when he seems to have partially retired to Stratford, Shakespeare had become England's most popular playwright. Shakespeare has had enormous influence on culture throughout the world. His works have helped shape the literature of all English-speaking countries and of such countries as Germany and Russia. Shakespeare also contributed greatly to the development of the English language. He freely experimented with grammar and vocabulary and so helped prevent literary English from becoming fixed and artificial. Shakespeare's influence on language has not been limited to writers and scholars. Many words and phrases from Shakespeare's plays and poems have become part of our everyday speech. They are used by millions of people who are unaware that Shakespeare created them. For example, Shakespeare originated such familiar phrases as fair play, a foregone conclusion, catch cold, and disgraceful conduct. As far as scholars can tell, Shakespeare also invented such common words as assassination, bump, eventful, and lonely. Many people can identify lines and passages as Shakespeare's even though they have never seen or read one of his plays. Examples include "To be, or not to be," "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears," and "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" SHAKESPEARE: THE BARD Shakespeare's genius as a poet enabled him to express an idea both briefly and colorfully. In his tragedy Othello, for example, he described jealousy as "the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on." In the tragedy King Lear, Shakespeare described a daughter's ingratitude toward her father as "sharper than a serpent's tooth." Besides influencing language and literature, Shakespeare has affected other aspects of culture in the English-speaking world. His plays and poems have long been a required part of a liberal education. As a result, Shakespeare's ideas on such subjects as heroism, romantic love, and the nature of tragedy have helped shape the attitudes of millions of people. His brilliant portrayals of historical figures and events have also influenced our thinking. For example, many people visualize Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Cleopatra as Shakespeare portrayed them, not as they have been described in history books. GABLESTAGE Joseph Adler Producing Artistic Director BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2005 ~ 2006 Barbara Friedson Garrett Denise Kk. Ehrich Chair Vice Chair Greta Shulack Secretary Florence Anderson Jay Morton-Levinthal Jo Anne Chester Bander Lee Osiason Marlene Berlow Phillip Parker David A. Coulson Sybil Pulver James C. Cunningham, Jr. Ruth Robles-Schlossberg Stephen A. de Kanter Judith Schalit Evelyn Isaia Roz Stuzin Chaim Katzman Gene C. Sulzberger Ali Mahallati Steven M. Weinger Penny Z. Marlin Dr. Aizik Wolf STAFF Carlos Roriguez Technical Director Ikatherine Able Dianne Rosenberg General Mdanager Company Manager Daniel Sagram Kendra Kasuba Box Office Manager Box Office