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 seem to love Ophelia: he orders her to enter
his father’s death, but, because he is a nunnery and declares that he wishes to
contemplative and thoughtful by nature, he ban marriages.
delays, entering into a deep melancholy and
A group of traveling actors comes to
even apparent madness. Claudius and
Elsinore. Their presence gives Hamlet an
Gertrude worry about the prince’s strange
idea to test his uncle’s guilt. He asks the
behaviour and attempt to discover its cause.
players to perform a scene closely
They ask a pair of Hamlet’s friends,
resembling the way Hamlet imagines his
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to watch him.
uncle to have murdered his father, so that if
When Polonius, the pompous Lord
Claudius is guilty, he will surely react. When
Chamberlain, suggests that Hamlet may be
the moment of the murder arrives in the
mad with love for his daughter, Ophelia,
theatre, Claudius leaps up and leaves the
Claudius agrees to spy on Hamlet in
room. Hamlet and Horatio agree that this
conversation with the girl. But though
proves his guilt. Hamlet goes to kill Claudius
Hamlet certainly seems mad, he does not
but finds him praying. Since he believes that
killing Claudius while in prayer would send in France, returns to Denmark in a rage.
Claudius’s soul to heaven, Hamlet decides to Claudius convinces him that Hamlet is to
wait. Claudius, now frightened of Hamlet’s blame for his father’s and sister’s deaths.
madness and fearing for his own safety, When Horatio and the king receive letters
orders that Hamlet be sent to England at from Hamlet indicating that the prince has
once. returned to Denmark after pirates attacked
his ship en route to England, Claudius
creates a plan to use Laertes’
desire for revenge to secure
Hamlet’s death. Laertes will
fence with Hamlet in innocent
sport, but Claudius will poison
Laertes’ blade so that if he
draws blood, Hamlet will die. To
ensure Hamlet’s death, the king
also decides to poison a goblet,
which he will give Hamlet to
drink should Hamlet score the
first or second hits of the match.
Hamlet returns to the vicinity of
Elsinore just as Ophelia’s funeral
Hamlet goes to confront his mother, in is taking place. Sad with grief,
whose bedroom Polonius has hidden behind he attacks Laertes and declares that he had
a tapestry. Hearing a noise from behind the in fact always loved Ophelia. Back at the
tapestry, Hamlet believes the king is hiding castle, he tells Horatio that he believes one
there. He draws his sword and stabs through must be prepared to die, since death can
the fabric, killing Polonius. For this crime, he come at any moment.
is immediately sent to England with
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. However, The sword-fighting begins. Hamlet scores
Claudius’s plan for Hamlet includes more the first hit, but declines to drink from the
than banishment. He has given Rosencrantz goblet offered him by the king. Instead,
and Guildenstern sealed orders for the King Gertrude takes a drink from it and quickly
of England demanding that Hamlet be put dies, killed by the poison. Laertes succeeds
to death. in wounding Hamlet, though Hamlet does
not die of the poison immediately. First,
After learning of her father’s death, Ophelia Laertes is cut by his own sword’s blade, and,
goes mad with grief and drowns in the river. after revealing to Hamlet that Claudius is
Polonius’s son, Laertes, who has been staying responsible for the queen’s death, he dies
from the blade’s poison. Hamlet then stabs poisoned wine. Claudius dies, and Hamlet
Claudius through with the poisoned sword dies immediately after achieving his
and forces him to drink the rest of the 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.
5. Make a ghost
How to make a simple ghost!

1. Cut the handles off the white plastic shopping bags.

If there are coloured markings or logos on the bags,
cut them off too.

2. Leave the bottom of the bag intact, then cut strips.

3. Inflate a white balloon. Tape the plastic bags around

the balloon in a circle. You can also hang the ghost as a
decoration.

4. Using a black marker pen, draw the eyes and mouth

on the balloon. You now have a great ghost which can
fly really well!
6. The skeleton
Materials needed: scissors, glue, cardboard, cord, 8 paper fasteners (fermacampioni) for each
skeleton.

1. First glue the photocopy to a piece of cardboard.

2. Then cut out the bones. Attach the legs, arms and hands to the torso to make a skeleton
puppet.

3. Put a cord through his head to make him dance!

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

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

Some of these characters will not be seen during the show. Can you imagine which?

I think it will be ___________________________________________ or _________________________

Because _________________________________________________
8. True or false
Some of the following statements are not correct. Which are they?

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.

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