British Literature – Mr. Maite

Name:_____________________
Date:______________________

Study Guide for Hamlet

EXPLANATION: This study guide to William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is designed to help you focus upon some of the principal ideas, themes, and techniques in the play. Use the space provided to record pertinent passages and take notes.

1. blank verse/ prose

2. the “mole of nature”

3. Motifs (running imagery)

a. illness and disease (I, i, 9-10)

b. animals

c. blood

d. harlotry

e. un-weeded gardens

f. hell and the devil

4. illusion vs. reality (what seems as opposed to what is) (I, i – the ghost)

5. the “arena of the mind”

6. Hamlet’s inductive logic

7. the “antic disposition” (madness)

8. the “fallen world”

9. death “out of grace”

10. the incestuous marriage

OTHER IDEAS TO WATCH FOR

1. Fortinbras’ function in the play

2. Polonius’ function in the play (and his characterization)

3. the “play within the play”

4. Does Hamlet love Ophelia?

5. primogeniture

6. the Elizabethan view of women

7. drinking and its effects

8. the chivalric man vs. the renaissance man