Hamlet

Act I: KEY ELEMENTS

Potential literary devices:

Metaphor

Simile

Personification

Allusion

Hyperbole

Foreshadowing

Dramatic irony

Antithesis

Epithet

Comic relief

Prose

Verse

Iambic Pentameter

Soliloquy

Foil

Catharsis

Poetic justice

Hamartia

Deus ex machina

Potential Themes:

Action verse in action

Poison corruption, and Death

Loyalty

Immorality verse consequence

Appearance verse reality

Revenge

Honour

Role of women

Spying

Madness

“This bodes some strange eruption to our state”

This is Foreshadowing because Horatio senses that the ghosts appearance is a warning of something bad to come.

The theme is Poison, corruption, and death because Horatio is reacting to the appearance of the ghost, which he sees as a warning signal something unnatural that hints at corruption or danger within the state of Denmark.

“A little more than kin, and less than kind”

This is antithesis because Hamlet is speaking about Claudius, who has become both his uncle and stepfather ( more than kin), yet Hamlet feels emotionally distant and resentful toward him (less than kind).

The contrast between more than kin and less than kind highlights Hamlets disgust and conflicted feelings, making this a sharp and clever use of antithesis

The theme is loyalty

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”

Literary device: Metaphor because The word rotten isn’t meant literally, it’s a metaphor for moral and political decay within Denmarks ruling circle, especially implicating Claudius crime and the corrupt court surrounding him

Theme: Poison, Corruption, and Death

“…meet it is I set it down, / That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain”

This is a Dramatic irony because The audience knows Claudius is a murderer, but many characters in the play do not. Claudius smiles and plays the role of a kind king and loving stepfather, but is secretly a villain.

Theme: Appearance vs reality

“As I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on…”

this is Foreshadowing because Hamlet is telling the audience (and Horatio/Marcellus) that he plans to pretend to be mad (put an antic disposition on).

Theme: Appearence VS reality

Soliloquy: character speaks there thoughts out loud usually when there alone on stage

Switch from Verse to Prose is due to…

1. To indicate characters of low status

2. For informal comedic and domestic scenes

3. To indicate familiarity, secrecy, or conspiracy between characters

“Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind”

This is Antithesis because the line contrasts the value of the gift (rich) with the emotional reality behind it (prove unkind). It highlights how external value becomes meaningless without genuine intention.

Theme: appearance vs reality

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks”

The queen is being too outspoken: she doesn’t know her place.

This is a Dramatic Irony because The audience knows the play is meant to mirror Gertrudes own actions, so her statement carries a deeper, unintended meaning.

Theme: Appearance vs Reality

“Let me be cruel, not unnatural. I will speak daggers to her but use none”

This is a

Why does Shakespeare switch from verse to prose? He wants to indicate familiarity, secrecy and conspiracy between characters

“when sorrows come,they come not single spies/but in battalions

This is personification

“where the offence is let the great axe fall”

This is a metaphor

It’s also an irony because Claudius said it

Hamlet said “I loved Ophelia” after she died, this says that Hamlet actually did love Ophelia

Hamlet is affected by Yorick because she is a court jester, this made hamlet realize that even people full of life become nothing when dead

“If this had not been a gentlewomen, she should have been buried out o’ Christian burial”

This says if Ophelia wasn’t pretty or rich she wouldn’t have been buried at the church

Hamlet has Rosencranz and Guildenstern killed because they were not loyal to him

“I have a bad feeling in my heart”

This is foreshadowing