Hamlet:

Structure
 Revenge drama

A wrong received

˅
Struggle to achieve revenge

˅
Satisfaction/revenge
 Main structural features

• Delays/procrastinations
• Symmetry and symmetrical plot elements
 Troilus and Cressida (I.iii.)
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre
Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line of order;
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the other ....
....O! when degree is shak’d,
Which is the ladder to all high designs,
The enterprise is sick. How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns sceptres laurels,
But by degree stand in authentic place?
 Five acts – five soliloquies (or six?)

«To be or not to be»

Act I Act II Act III Act IV Act V

Twenty scenes

I: I: I: I: I: II: II: III: III: III: III: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: V: V:
i ii iii iv v i ii i ii iii iv i ii iii iv v vi vii i ii
 Symmetry

Act I Act II Act III Act IV Act V

Court Court Court

Deception Deception Deception
Ghost Ghost «Ghost»
 Symmetrical plot elements

Hamlet (prince) – Old Hamlet Young Fortinbras (prince) – Old Fortinbras

(old king) (old king)
˅ ˅
Uncle/brother (present king) Uncle/brother (present king)
 Symmetrical plot elements

I: I: I: I: I: II: II: III: III: III: III: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: V: V:
i ii iii iv v i ii i ii iii iv i ii iii iv v vi vii i ii

Old Hamlet beating the vs. Young Fortinbras returning

‘Polacks’ (beginning) from fighting the ‘Polacks’
 Symmetrical plot elements

I: I: I: I: I: II: II: III: III: III: III: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: V: V:
i ii iii iv v i ii i ii iii iv i ii iii iv v vi vii i ii

Old Hamlet’s duel with Hamlet’s duel with

Old Fortinbras = potential Laertes = potential
trigger of conflict solution to conflict
 Symmetrical plot elements

I: I: I: I: I: II: II: III: III: III: III: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: V: V:
i ii iii iv v i ii i ii iii iv i ii iii iv v vi vii i ii

A kind of wedding vs. A kind of funeral

 Symmetrical plot elements

I: I: I: I: I: II: II: III: III: III: III: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: V: V:
i ii iii iv v i ii i ii iii iv i ii iii iv v vi vii i ii

Polonius (and Claudius) Polonius behind arras in

vs.
behind arras closet scene
Symmetrical characters/ʽdoubles’

• Hamlet and Laertes

• Old Hamlet and Claudius
• Old Hamlet and Old Fortinbras
• King of Norway and Claudius
• Hamlet and Young Fortinbras
 Triangles

• Claudius- Old Hamlet - Gertrude

• Claudius - Hamlet - Gertrude
• Claudius - Old Hamlet - Hamlet
• Gertrude- Ophelia - Hamlet
• Hamlet - Rosencranz - Guildenstern
• Hamlet - Laertes - Claudius
• Hamlet - Laertes - Ophelia
• Hamlet - Ophelia - Polonius
 Triadic subplot: responses to a slain father

Fortinbras Leartes Ophelia

Forbearance Revenge Suicide

Hamlet?
 ‘There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be
now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it
be not now, yet it will come – the readiness is all’ (V, ii).
 Frames/framing

• The theatre: A globe within a globe

• The Ghost
• Polonius framing Laertes
• Claudius (Polonius and Laertes)
framing Hamlet)
• Hamlet framing Claudius
• Hamlet framing Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern
Other structural elements

• Playing/acting
• Silence
• Humour
 Humour/comic relief

Reynaldo: Polonius on brevity + Hamlet on the dead

«light scene» fishmonger’s scene Polonius

I: I: I: I: I: II: II: III: III: III: III: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: IV: V: V:
i ii iii iv v i ii i ii iii iv i ii iii iv v vi vii i ii

Hamlet’s introduction to the Gravedigger’s Osric

play within the play scene
 Interplay (creative tension)
between …

Nar
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