Hamlet: A Tragic Revenge Story, Exercises of Theatre

Download Hamlet: A Tragic Revenge Story and more Exercises Theatre in PDF only on Docsity!

Students material for Hamlet

We hope this is useful to prepare for the show by The Play Group. This is version 1.3 of the students worksheet. Click on the icon to check for the latest version. We hope you will find these exercises and activities helpful to prepare your students for the show.

2. Simple summary of the story

Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark who lives in Elsinore Castle. When the play opens he is very sad and angry because his father King Hamlet has died. Also, his mother Queen Gertrude has married Claudius, his father’s brother (Hamlet’s uncle). Claudius has become the new King but Hamlet does not like him or trust him. One night Hamlet and his best friend Horatio see a ghost, who looks very similar to the dead King. The ghost tells Hamlet that he was murdered by his brother Claudius, by pouring poison in his ear while he was sleeping in his garden. The ghost asks Hamlet to kill King Claudius. Hamlet pretends to be mad so that Claudius does not suspect that Hamlet knows his terrible secret. Polonius works at the Royal Court and has a beautiful daughter called Ophelia and a son named Laertes. Ophelia is in love with Hamlet but is confused by Hamlet’s strange behaviour. The King is also very suspicious. A theatre company arrives at Elsinore Castle for the Coronation of King Claudius. Hamlet asks the actors to perform the ghost’s story on stage, featuring the murder of King Hamlet with poison. When he sees the performance, Claudius is shocked, so he stands up and runs out of the court. This proves to Hamlet that Claudius really did kill his father. In the middle of the night, Hamlet goes to see his mother in her bedroom. The queen is afraid of Hamlet and she screams. Hamlet sees somebody hiding behind a curtain. Thinking it must be his uncle, King Claudius, Hamlet kills him, but then realises the person he has killed is not Claudius, but Polonius, who works for the King. Polonius’ daughter Ophelia goes mad, walking around the castle singing strange songs and talking to herself. Finally, she jumps off the castle tower into a river and drowns. Her brother, Laertes is very angry, because he thinks Hamlet has killed his father and caused his sister such a tragic condition.

With the help of Laertes, King Claudius plans to kill Hamlet. His idea is to organise a duel between Hamlet and Laertes, but Laertes will use a poisoned sword and poisoned wine. Later in the castle, Laertes and Hamlet meet for the duel. But accidentally, the Queen drinks the poisoned wine that Claudius intended for Hamlet. When they fight, Hamlet and Laertes are both wounded with the poisoned sword. Just before Laertes dies, he tells Hamlet that King Claudius planned to kill him with the poisoned sword. Hamlet attacks Claudius and forces him to drink the poisoned wine. In the end, everybody dies, including King Claudius and Queen Gertrude, together with Laertes and Hamlet.

3. Advanced summary of the story

On a dark winter night, a ghost walks the walls of Elsinore Castle in Denmark. Discovered first by a pair of watchmen, then by the scholar Horatio, the ghost resembles the recently deceased King Hamlet, whose brother Claudius has inherited the throne and married the king’s widow, Queen Gertrude. When Horatio and the watchmen bring Prince Hamlet, the son of Gertrude and the dead king, to see the ghost, it speaks to him, declaring ominously that it is his father’s spirit, and that he was murdered by his brother, Claudius. Ordering Hamlet to revenge the man who usurped his throne and who married his wife, the ghost disappears with the dawn. Prince Hamlet devotes himself to avenging his father’s death, but, because he is contemplative and thoughtful by nature, he delays, entering into a deep melancholy and even apparent madness. Claudius and Gertrude worry about the prince’s strange behaviour and attempt to discover its cause. They ask a pair of Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to watch him. When Polonius, the pompous Lord Chamberlain, suggests that Hamlet may be mad with love for his daughter, Ophelia, Claudius agrees to spy on Hamlet in conversation with the girl. But though Hamlet certainly seems mad, he does not seem to love Ophelia: he orders her to enter a nunnery and declares that he wishes to ban marriages. A group of traveling actors comes to Elsinore. Their presence gives Hamlet an idea to test his uncle’s guilt. He asks the players to perform a scene closely resembling the way Hamlet imagines his uncle to have murdered his father, so that if Claudius is guilty, he will surely react. When the moment of the murder arrives in the theatre, Claudius leaps up and leaves the room. Hamlet and Horatio agree that this proves his guilt. Hamlet goes to kill Claudius but finds him praying. Since he believes that

from the blade’s poison. Hamlet then stabs Claudius through with the poisoned sword and forces him to drink the rest of the poisoned wine. Claudius dies, and Hamlet dies immediately after achieving his revenge. At this moment, a Norwegian prince named Fortinbras, who has led an army to Denmark and attacked Poland earlier in the play, enters with ambassadors from England, who report that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Fortinbras is shocked by the terrible sight of the entire royal family lying sprawled on the floor, dead. He moves to take power of the kingdom. Horatio, fulfilling Hamlet’s last request, tells him Hamlet’s tragic story. Fortinbras orders that Hamlet be carried away in a manner befitting a fallen soldier.

4. Picture story (on next page)

The story of Hamlet in words and pictures.

7. The characters of Hamlet (GRID)

These are some of the main characters ( personaggi ) in Hamlet. Can you find these characters them? Hamlet is shown for you. CHARACTER LIST: Hamlet, Guildenstern, Rosenkrantz, Ophelia, Claudius, Laertes, Polonius, Horatio, Ghost , Gertrude, Fortinbras, Elsinore Some of these characters will not be seen during the show. Can you imagine which? I think it will be ___________________________________________ or _________________________ Because _________________________________________________

m o n i g c a m u b e h t n i

t i w x u e s e v a o h o t n

q e a h i g n o w i p a i w a

u s p^ o^ l^ o^ n^ i^ u^ s^ h u b e t

f e n r d f o x l i e r d i g

o f l^ a e f j p k u l h a^ p^ e

r o a p n s f o n r^ i^ s^ c^ e^ r

t i e y s q w r e h a m l e t

i f r u t f t g^ h^ o s t a x^ r

n d t s e a p o^ i^ r^ f^ y^ u^ t u

b z e x r c v b n a m w d e d

r o s e n k r a n t z q^ i^ r^ e

a s d f g h f k l i k l u n a

s e r t e^ l^ s^ i^ n^ o^ r^ e^ s^ o^ p

8. True or false

Some of the following statements are not correct. Which are they?

9. Towers of destiny

These are different ways the characters die during the play. We have done the first one for you (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who were executed when they arrived in England). And only Horatio, who survived the final scene, died of old age! Draw lines to show where the characters destiny lies!

10. A murder story

This is your chance to be a detective. You will need all your skills to re-create this terrible murder!

11. Mad world

This is a famous song by Tears for Fears and Gary Jules ORIGINAL SONG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ZvPSpLxCg

TRUE… OR FALSE?

Hamlet is not a popular play. Claudius is Hamlet’s son. Shakespeare was not only a writer but also an actor. At the end of Hamlet, all these people are dead: Hamlet, Queen Gertrude, Laertes, Ophelia, King Claudius. During Shakespeare’s time, women were not allowed to act on the stage. In the play, Hamlet is 22 years old. The story of Hamlet takes place in Sweden. Most theatre performances of Hamlet use 25 litres of stage blood.