ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


Shakespeare Videos 51 videos

As You Like It
10350 Views

We're not sure if good ol' Shakespeare would endorse The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, but that's not going to stop us from hosting themed viewing...

Features of a Shakespearean Tragedy
3214 Views

What are the features that make a Shakespearean tragedy? Where do they show up in plays like Othello, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet? This video help...

Hamlet
104306 Views

In the world of Shakespeare, pretty much everyone either dies or gets married. Hamlet and co. got the short end of that stick.

See All

Shakespeare's Hamlet 4 Indirect Characterization 94 Views


Share It!


Description:

What is indirect characterization, and how does Shakespeare use it to describe his main characters? 

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

Thank you We sneak in Shakespeare's hamlet indirect characterization alas

00:09

shmoop what is indirect characterization And how does shakespeare use

00:14

it to describe his main characters Direct characterization is when

00:18

we're explicitly told things about the characters indirect is when

00:22

we're forced to kind of for things based on their

00:25

actions and mystery like the mystery behind what people actually

00:29

think and feel runs runs throughout the play So for

00:33

example what we know about hamlet Not that much really

00:36

We know that he's interested in going back to school

00:38

kind of thinks of himself as part of the world

00:40

of ideas still he's definitely angry at claudius but he

00:44

doesn't know if claudia's did it or not He seems

00:47

to be uncomfortably interested in his mom's sexuality So there's

00:50

this edible reading right A kill your father married your

00:53

mother thing where he seems to have this uncomfortable attracted

00:55

to her don't really know how he feels about ophelia

00:58

either We know that he seems to be getting along

01:01

with her and then over the course of the play

01:03

he starts getting really nasty to her and kind of

01:05

shaming her but we don't know exactly what his end

01:08

goal is and we don't Know exactly why that transformation

01:10

takes place As for claudius we don't really he seems

01:14

tto legitimately love gertrude but we're not really sure about

01:16

that He's not as antagonistic to hamlet as he sometimes

01:19

presented wants able to get over it but he does

01:21

kind of feel bad for hamlet in a way So

01:24

so he's also a totally conflicted character much like gertrude

01:27

right We don't know whether gertrude actually was complicit in

01:29

the plot that her that her previous husband was killed

01:33

We don't know whether she's deliberately being a bad parent

01:35

to hamlin or she just is messing up like parents

01:39

do ophelia ethereal We know that she's kind of used

01:43

as a pawn She seems to like hamlet at the

01:45

outset Again we're not totally sure and then she seems

01:48

to be very hurt by him what's actions and then

01:49

she goes crazy for totally unexplained reasons but then she

01:54

dies Thanks it's All these are these are the main

01:58

characters in the play and we're just not given clear

02:01

descriptions of what they think and feel even though they're

02:03

sometimes give us soliloquies What is indirect characterization And how 00:02:12.573 --> [endTime] to shakespeare Use it to describe his main characters

Related Videos

A Tale of Two Cities Summary
75858 Views

Meet Charles Darnay, the nobleman who spends more time on trial and in prison than attending balls and drinking expensive wine. Don't feel too bad...

Beowulf
113100 Views

Written in Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries, Beowulf is an epic poem that reflects the early medieval warri...

Brave New World
79224 Views

Brave New World is supposed be an exciting book about a negative utopia and the corrupt powers of authority. So where’s the big car chase? What's...

Dracula
27348 Views

What is Dracula really about? Just Count Dracula? Or is there more to it than vampires? This video addresses some major ideas in Bram Stoker’s cl...

Dracula: Father of the Modern Vampire
17557 Views

There are plenty of famous vampires that send chills up our spines, but Dracula was and still is the king of them all. No one else can touch him. N...