Week Seven - Three Act Structure and Character Development

               Following the Three Act Structure, for a plot development, I have decided to write about Hamlet, a play by Shakespeare that has been recreated into a movie a couple of times, the latest being in 2000. The protagonist is quite obviously Hamlet, who develops through the three act structure. The events that occur in Act I that lead to the action in Act II are as follows:

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       Hamlets father is murdered

·         Hamlet’s uncle marries Hamlet’s mother and becomes king to the throne

·         Hamlet discovers, through the ghost of his father that his father has been murdered by his uncle

·         He swears to take revenge for his father’s murder

Following the second criterion in a three-act structure, it is the second act that is the longest and where most of the things happen that changes the protagonist and everyone surrounding him. As Hamlet is the longest of Shakespeare’s plays there is quite a lot going on that effects Hamlet and everything around him. That is the reason the movie is so long as it had to encompass the true essence of the movie, Tragedy. So the events that cause equilibrium in the third act are as follows:

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              Hamlet is unsure of Claudius’s guilt that’s why he decides to act mad, so that he may find out what truly is going on around the castle

·         Hamlet figures out that Ophelia (the women he loves) has betrayed him and is working with her father and Claudius to spy on him. He is distraught by the betrayal of his one and only love, and quite harshly dismisses her.

·         He is greeted by his friends from University who claim to have come visited him in Elsinore, but being rather suspicious, he finds out that even his friends have joined Claudius to betray him and he starts to lose faith in everyone.

·         Hamlet, with the Help of his only true friend, makes a plan to make Claudius confess his crime so that Hamlet could be sure that he is killing the right man, and not just because he had an encounter with an apparition.

·         The play in put on and Hamlet does discover that it is truly Claudius that had murdered his father.

·         Hamlet kills Polonius that strikes up the revenge between him and Polonius’s son Laertes, and causes Ophelia to go mad.

·          Hamlet loses Ophelia as she drowns in the river, due to her now psychologically disturbed mind.

In the third act of this structure, Hamlet has now comes to terms with what is happening and prepares for a match that is going to bring about a completely new change in the country, having lost everyone that he cared about. It does not include his mother because he feels betrayed by her the most as he thought she loved his father the most and marrying Claudius was an act of betrayal to his father. The sequences of events that bring about this are as follows:

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      Hamlet prepares to fight a dual with Laertes, who has already been recruited by Claudius to kill Hamlet, his anger at him working like a charm for Claudius’s plan.

·         The dual is fought and Hamlet is injured by Laertes’ poisoned sword

·         Before dying he kills Laertes and his father.

·         As there is no heir to the throne left, Fortinbras, prince of a captured land, becomes king.

The second principle that I would be writing about is the Character Design. I would be continuing to discus Hamlet, as it is one of many favourite plays and I find it has a very dense and intense plot and grand character design.

The protagonist of the movie is obviously Hamlet. He appears to be dressed in mostly clack garments as he is shown to be in a state of mourning for his deceased father and the union of his mother with his uncle which he sees as a form of betrayal to himself and to his father. He starts acting as if he has gone mad so that he can dig deeper into his fathers murder without anyone growing suspicious of his antics. He is depressed and unsure of his actions, and there is no one he can trust, and there is a speculation that perhaps he was not just acting mad. As for his interaction with the others, acting under the influence of madness, he usually talks in nonsensical ways with everyone, but because he is so clever he is still able to pick out when Ophelia tries to mislead him and so does his two friends from University. It is however quite funny to know, as a reader that in his nonsensical dialogue he is actually making fun of people or being humorously satirical.

Hamlet and his act of madness

 The antagonist of the play is Claudius, uncle of Hamlet who has married him mother and now in sitting on the throne of Denmark. His appearance is usually quite grand, one befitting a king of course. He is always seen as elegant and strong, but very kind and gentle to everyone. He wants to know why Hamlet is acting like he has gone mad, as he is too clever to plan into his trap and is trying to find out what hamlet is planning. He tries to recruit everyone close to Hamlet to help him in finding out what is up with him, showing everyone that his only concern is for Hamlet. He tries to kill him but is unsuccessful, till the very end. He is the main reason that started the chain of events due to him killing his brother. As he wants the throne he is quite friendly and understanding to everyone, but does not care for anyone but himself. He put son an act, however, he is far from genuine.

Claudius

The dialogues are usually in prose, which the high end language used by the people of the high, rich society. It is an elegant form of addressing people and shows a sort of elegance in the way a person is brought up. However, while Hamlet changes his tone of voice when he starts acting as if he has gone mad, Claudius further uses it in a more grander style to show the people of the court that he is genuine and strong enough to be worthy of the throne.

There are several characters that fall into the category of being oversimplified. Polonius for one is shown as a really eager courtier of Claudius. He is shown with no real personality, doing what the king wants him to do without thinking about how anyone might be affected by it. That is why it was so easy for Hamlet to fool Polonius with his antics. His university friend are also shown as quite naïve, who are ready to do as the king wants them too, but are also silly enough to tell Hamlet that Claudius had sent them to spy on him. They have no idea what is going on in the court and that is what gets them killed in the end.

Polonius