Shakespeare (Advanced) Reference Sheet

Whether and how to avenge his father's murder by his uncle Claudius

That Claudius murdered King Hamlet by pouring poison in his ear

The Mousetrap (formally 'The Murder of Gonzago')

Hamlet uses it to catch the conscience of the king

Whether it is nobler to endure suffering or to take action against it, contemplating life and death

She goes mad after Hamlet rejects her and kills her father Polonius, and she drowns

Hamlet, Laertes, Gertrude, and Claudius all die; Fortinbras arrives to claim the throne

Hamlet's loyal friend and confidant; the sole survivor who tells Hamlet's story

That he will become Thane of Cawdor and then King of Scotland

She goads Macbeth into action, questions his manhood, and plans the details of the assassination

Lady Macbeth's guilt-driven madness as she sleepwalks, trying to wash imagined blood from her hands

Malcolm's army camouflages with branches, fulfilling the witches' prophecy that seemed impossible

Macduff, who was 'from his mother's womb untimely ripped' (born by caesarean section), fulfilling the prophecy

Unchecked ambition leads to moral corruption, tyranny, and self-destruction

Iago, motivated by jealousy, resentment at being passed over for promotion, and possible racism

A handkerchief that Othello gave Desdemona, which Iago plants on Cassio

Jealousy — Iago ironically warns Othello about the very passion he is cultivating in him

He takes his own life after discovering Desdemona was innocent

The destructive power of jealousy and the manipulation of trust

He divides his kingdom among his daughters based on flattery, banishing Cordelia who speaks honestly

Goneril and Regan betray him; Cordelia remains loyal despite being banished

Stripped of power and shelter, he descends into madness during a storm, gaining insight into suffering

He speaks truth to Lear through wit and riddles, pointing out the king's folly when no one else dares

Cordelia is executed; Lear dies of grief holding her body. The kingdom passes to Edgar and Albany

Edmund deceives Gloucester into rejecting loyal Edgar, mirroring Lear's misjudgment of his daughters

Viola disguises herself as a man (Cesario), creating a love triangle with Orsino and Olivia

A magical flower juice applied by Puck causes characters to fall in love with the wrong person

A mischievous fairy servant of Oberon who causes comic chaos with the love potion

Witty adversaries who are tricked into admitting their love for each other

Mistaken identity, wordplay, love and marriage, disguise, and a happy ending with reconciliation

Olivia's pompous steward who is tricked by Maria and Sir Toby into humiliating himself

154

14 lines: three quatrains (ABAB CDCD EFEF) and a final couplet (GG) in iambic pentameter

A shift in argument, tone, or subject, typically before the final couplet in a Shakespearean sonnet

Urging the Fair Youth to marry and have children so his beauty will be preserved

The beloved's beauty surpasses summer and will be immortalized through the poem itself

An unidentified woman addressed in Sonnets 127-154, depicted with dark features, representing complicated desire

Shakespearean: 3 quatrains + couplet (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG); Petrarchan: octave + sestet (ABBAABBA + CDECDE)

A metrical pattern of five pairs of unstressed-stressed syllables per line (da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM)

A speech where a character speaks thoughts aloud while alone on stage, revealing inner feelings to the audience

When the audience knows something that the characters on stage do not

A character weakness or error in judgment that leads to the hero's downfall

Hamlet's may be indecision; Macbeth's is ambition

A brief remark by a character intended for the audience but not heard by other characters on stage

Unrhymed iambic pentameter — Shakespeare's primary verse form for noble characters

The Lord Chamberlain's Men, later the King's Men (under James I)

The open-air playhouse built in 1599 on the south bank of the Thames, home to Shakespeare's company

Boy actors (young men), as women were not permitted to perform on the English stage

It burned down during a performance of Henry VIII when a cannon prop set the thatched roof on fire

Audience members who paid a penny to stand in the yard in front of the stage