Cartoon, Graphics, and Comic Summaries

Analyzing Shakespeare can be difficult, especially if you are trying to analyze one of the plays in your first time reading it.

To assist your comprehension of Hamlet, and thus your analysis of it, I have included several simplified (and visual) versions of it.

Stick Figure Hamlet
www.stickfigurehamlet.com
This is detailed by scene and has some of the original language.



Cartoon Summary
This summary is a little more generalized, but is still effective.

16. Alone, Hamlet berates himself. If the player can work up that much emotion about a literary character, why can't Hamlet do something about his father's murder? The play will test Claudius: if he reacts, he's guilty (the play is similar to the murder); if he doesn't, the ghost is an evil spirit.

60 Second Shakespeare
www.bbc.co.uk/drama/shakespeare/60secondshakespeare/themes_hamlet.shtml
This is a tabloid summary of Hamlet.



Sparknotes Summary
...Enough said.


AbsoluteShakespeare Summary
The summary is fairly concise.


Shmoop Summary
This summary is completed scene by scene. It is quite lengthy, but well done.


Animatied Movie of Act One
This movie was made as part of a project in a high school English classroom.




Animated Movie of Play
Sparknotes now makes movie overviews. This would be an excellent starting place, but be sure to check out some of the more detailed summaries afterward.


60 Second Recap of Hamlet Video
This is funny, short, and very informative. The website describes themselves as such: "60second Recap® aims to break this cycle of canonical irrelevance. We want to help teens (yes, teens of all ages!) engage with literature. We want to help them see it not as some chore to be endured, but as -- dare we say it? -- the gift of a lifetime. How? Through the language of our time -- the language of video. Video that's focused, engaging, informative ... and short enough to hold just about anyone’s attention."