Characterization in the Drama HamletThe aim of this essay is to enlighten the reader about the characters in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet - whether they are three-dimensional or two-dimensional, dynamic or static, etc. . .The genius of the bard is revealed in his characterization. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt in Literature of the Western World examine Shakespeare's universal appeal resulting from his "sharply etched characters": Every age, from Shakespeare's time to the present, has found in him something different to admire. All ages, however, have recognized his supreme talent for inventing clearly engraved characters; it often happens that long after we have forgotten the exact story of a play, we remember its characters with absolute vividness. (2155-56) Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar in "Hamlet: A Man Who Thinks Before He Acts" comment on the Bard's propensity for complete Hamlet characters: "We feel that they are living beings with problems eternally human” (62). Hamlet has over 20 characters with speaking roles; in the trades of the king to the gravedigger; and in 20 different scenes; and with differentiation in speech, actions, etc. between each individual character. Where can one find such a variety of characterizations? This aspect of the playwright is highlighted by Robert B. Heilman in “The Role We Give Shakespeare”; he says that this variety is “striking and possessed by many men at odds with one another, because of the innumerability of the parts” (10). The play begins with the changing of sentries on a guard platform at Elsinore Castle in Denmark. Recently, the spectral resemblance of a dead... in the middle of a paper......e. Essays on Shakespeare. Ed. Gerald Chapman. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965. Levin, Harry. General introduction. The Shakespeare by the River. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line nos. Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. “Shakespeare.” Literature of the Western world. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992. Wright, Louis B. and Virginia A. LaMar. “Hamlet: a man who thinks before he acts.” Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Ed. Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar. N.p. : Paperbacks, 1958.