| Position in the play | Prince of Denmark, title character and protagonist who drives the plot of tragedy |
| Wittenberg | Before his father’s death, he was a student of philosophy at Wittenberg university. A university in northern Germany, where Luther drew up his 95 theses. |
| Adjectives | Melancholy, bitter, cynical, reflective, thoughtful, often indecisive and hesitant, at times rash and impulsive. Pensive, introspective. |
| Avenging Son | Unlike his father whose name he shares, Hamlet is not a hero in a marital mould like his father. He looks weak as a avenging son, alongside Laertes and Fortinbras. |
| Questionable hero? | Is his cruelty to Ophelia and his mother justifible because the world has driven him mad? |
| Morally compromised | Is he morally compromised by his decision to send Claudius to hell, not just kill him and his role in sending R&G to his death in England? |
| Crippled | Crippled by his introspection and the images in his “minds eye” his grief and revulson at his mother’s remarriage. |
| Triumph? | Does he triumph at the end or is he merely complicit in a botched assassination attempt? Is there truth in Fortinbras’ epigraph “as a soldier.. Likely, had he been put on/ To have proven most royally” |
Hamlet
November 9, 2019