hamlet

  • Hamlet - the main character, emo, arrogant, a thinker, not a doer

  • Claudius - king, Hamlet’s uncle, killed the king and married the queen

  • Gertrude - the queen

  • The Ghost - Hamlet senior, could be real or simply a figure of Hamlet’s imagination because we do not really know if Hamlet is acting crazy or if he is crazy. 


  • Polonius - Lord Chamberlin, a councilor, or advisor, to Claudius, and the father of Ophelia and Laertes. Spies and assumes a lot

  • Reynaldo - Servant of Polonius

  • Laertes - son of Polonius and sister of Ophelia. Goes to France to most of the story. Warns Ophelia about Hamlet and then in the end acts as a foil to Hamlet. 

  • Ophelia - Hamlet’s girlfriend. Not virtuous, had sex with Hamlet. Goes crazy. Kills/drowns herself. 


  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - Hamlet’s friends from school. The

  • Horatio -  Hamlet’s closest friend and most trusted confidant. One of the rare people who actually has an opinion instead of agreeing with everything Hamlet is saying. Wants to drink from the poisoned wine to commit suicide in the end, but Hamlet tells him to live and tell the story. 

    • Horatio is about to tell Hamlet’s story. Shakespeare is portraying himself. 

  • Fortinbras - The Prince of Norway. A young leader motivated to conquer foreign lands, make a name for himself, and avenge his father’s death at the hands of Hamlet’s own father, Fortinbras is Hamlet’s opposite in every way.

    • Very much a doer, not a thinker. After Hamlet meets him he is motivated and says “my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth” like as if he did something there. My guy stop thinking and start doing. I thought I was the overthinker. Jeez 

  • Yorick - the dead royal jester. Hamlet picks up his skull and says his famous monologue. Then, a pair of gravediggers take his skull.

  • Osric - wealthy, landowning courtier. He is the one who delivery Claudius Laertes’ decision regarding their bet (saying that Laertes is now his subject) and he is the judge at the duel between Hamlet and Laertes. 

    • At the end, he also informs Hamlet that Fortinbras has returned after attacking Poland. Beefore Hamlet dies, he kind of implies that Fortinbras will be the next heir to the throne of the Danish court. 


Murder of Gonago - the play that Hamlet put to try to see if the ghost was true or if Hamlet was just imagining things. 

  • Player one - Player King 

  • Player two - Player Queen

  • Lucianus - Hamlet, Nephew to player King 



  • Marcellus - Danish Solider. Said the famous line “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark".

  • Bernardo -Danish Solider

  • Francisco - Danish Solider

  • Voletmand - Danish Courtier sent to Norway as an ambassador by Claudius to prevent invasion by Fortinbras.

  • Cornelius - a courtier at Claudius's court sent with Voletmand 

  • Captain - the capitan of Fortinbras’ army

  • Doctor of Divinity - the priest. He is the one who calls out Ophelia on her purity and questions her virtue when she is being buried (because she had sex and also killed herself, and you don’t get a nice ceremony but Ophelia did because she comes from a wealthy family. )

  • English Ambassador - comes in the end to tell the Danish court that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. 

  • Lamound - the guy who rides horses. Claudius thinks he is similar to this guy.

  • Claudio - tells Claudius that Hamlet returned to Elsinore. 

  • Gravediggers - kind of clowns, add comedic sense to the tragedy, show up at the beginning of act 5 at Ophelia’s funeral. 

  • Pirates -hijack Hamlet’s ship to England (where he would have been killed) and somehow bring him back to Elsinore. This is one of the moments where something is done for the plot to continue. 

  • Denmark - where the story takes place 

  • Germany - where Hamlet went to school. 

    • Wittenberg 

  • France - where Laertes goes to study 

  • Norway - where Fortinbras is from 

  • Poland - the country Fortinbras wants to attack 

  • England - where Hamlet is getting sent to. 

  • Elsinore - Denmark’s Caslte

  • Anaphora - repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a sentence 

Epistrohpe - repetition of a word or phrase at the end of a sentence 


  1. Antithesis - a rhetorical device in which two opposite words are used in order to create a contrast. 

    1. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

    2. My only love sprung from my only hate. 


  1. Chiasmus - when one clause is the reverse of another. 

    1. Ex: Do I love you because you are beautiful, or are you beautiful because I love you? 


  1. Amplification - adding more or extra words in order to increase the meaning/effect, to exaggerate, to amplify. 

    1. Ex: Instead of saying “The dog is an excellent breed,” you amplify and say “The dog is an excellent breed, full of intelligence, loyalty, and overall healthfulness.”


  1. Eponym - a word or name based on a famous person. 

    1. Ex: Sandwich, Fahrenheit, Achilles’ heel


  1. Analogy - compare something to something unrelated to EXPLAIN it. Metaphors also compare, but don’t explain. 

    1. Ex: Time is money, use it wisely

    2. Ex: Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’ll get


  1. Occupatio (paralipsis) - emphasizing something by pretending to pass over it. 

    1. Ex: I am not even going to mention the rumors about his personal life

Prolepsis - Speaking of something happening in the future as if it already happened. A figure of anticipation. 

  1. Ex: Oh, I am a dead man. 

  2. Ex: Two brothers and their murdered man.


  1. Hyperbole - An exaggerated statement. 

    1. Ex: I have told you a million times! 

Litotes - Understating something, using a double negative to affirm a positive. 

  1. The test was not bad = the test was good. 


  1. Dramatic Irony - The audience knows something that the character doesn’t

Situational Irony - When the opposite of what is expected happens. 

Verbal Irony - Saying something you do not mean. NOT sarcasm because sarcasm is meant to mock, while irony is not. 

  1. Juxtaposition - Put two contrasting words or ideas together. 

    1. The Rich and the Poor. 


  1. Hypophora - Asking a question and then answering it. 


  1. Invective - being mean 


  1. Zeugma - one word applies to 2 different things with different meanings 

    1. Ex: My heart and my car are broken. 

Syllepsis - one word applies to 2 different things with different meanings 


  1. Anecdote - incorporating personal experience into a text. 


  1. Satire - indirect criticism 


  1. Lampoon - uses satire but more directly and you understand it clearly rather than having to know the context behind it. 

Parody - making fun of something using humor and making your own version. The purpose is to make fun. 


  1. Metonymy - Using something closely related to a thing to describe that thing. 

Synecdoche - Using a literal part of something to describe that thing as a whole. 


  1. Inductive reasoning - specific to general 


  1. Deductive reasoning - general to specific. 


  1. Syllogism - If a→b and b→c then a→c, a form of deductive reasoning 

    1. Ex: People are nervous then they lie. You appear nervous. So, you must be lying. 

Enthymeme - a shorter version of syllogism. Does not go in too much detail and jumps straight to a conclusion without considering everything point by point. 


  1. Reductio ad Absurdum - shows that the conclusion is ridiculous and therefore refutes it. 


Syntactical Elements 

  1. Cumulative - Independent clause first and dependent second. 

Periodic - Dependent clause first and independent second. 

Loose - Independent clause first and dependent second. 

  1. Polysyndeton - using a bunch of FANBOYS 

Asyndeton - without FANBOYS

  1. Parallelism - using the same grammatical structure separated by commas. 


Logical Fallacies 

  1. Hypothesis contrary to the fact - when you use a real-world situation to affirm a false statement 

    1. Lebron won this game, which means in 2028 he will beat them again. 


  1. Nonsequitur - means “does not follow” in Latin. Does not follow a line of reasoning, the evidence does not support the conclusion. 

    1. All trees are tall. All tall things are yellow. Therefore, all trees are green. 

    2. Ex: Tyles likes gardening. So, Tyler loves vegetables → he actually doesn’t


  1. Red herring - diverting from the argument to distract from the actual concern. 

    1. Ex: why were you speeding? My wife is in the hospital! → Okayyy, so why were you speeding? 


  1. Begging the question - Using your claim as your evidence to arrive to a conclusion. 

    1. Ex: I like romance novels because they are so enjoyable to read. 

    2. Ex: Murder is wrong because killing is wrong. 


  1. Equivocation - A logical fallacy where a key word/phrase is used in more than one meaning and therefore confuses the argument and the conclusion. 

    1. Ex: Who broke the printer? Someone here did. → confusing, ambiguous 

    2. Ex: All trees have barks. All dogs bark. So, all dogs are trees. → same word, 2 meanings 


  1. False analogy - Making analogies but without sufficient evidence to connect the two. 

    1. Ex: Soccer is like tennis. They both involve a ball. 


  1. Faulty dilemma - making it seem like you either have a “this or that” option. 

    1. Ex: would you rather be alone with a bear or a man? 


  1. Generalization fallacies  

Dictio simpliciter - “saying without qualification.” A fallacy in which a circumstantial generalization is taken as a universal truth and used in an argument. 

hasty generalization - you make a stupid generalization. 


  1. Post hoc ergo propter hoc - Assuming that an event must have been a cause of another event just because it happened earlier. 


  1. Slippery slope - Take a minor event and turn it into a huge catastrophe. 

    1. If you fail your exam tomorrow, no college will accept you, you will not get a job, and end up homeless. 


  1. Straw man - misinterpreting hte argument to help your side. 

    1. Ex: “we should eat less beef because it requires huge water, land, and emits a lot of carbon.” vs “Oh you want all of us to be vegetarian or what?”


  1. Poisoning and well - Discrediting the opponent before the argument even starts to make others not want to listen to them. 

Ad hominem - Attacking the person and not the argument.


  1. Counterlogical Appeals 

Appeal to pity (ad misericordiam) - Trying to convince someone your argument is true by appealing to emotions. 

Appeal to authority - trying to convince someone your argument is true because of who you are, or because everybody does it, or because someone credible does it. 

Appeal to fear - Trying to convince someone by making them scared. Ultimatums and all. 


  1. Snob appeal - Using flattery and extra tricks to get you to support the argument but not by the strength of the argument. 


  1. To quoque - “Well you do this too, so why are you telling me otherwise”