Characterization within the play HamletThe purpose of this essay is to enlighten the reader regarding the characters in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, whether they are three-dimensional or two-dimensional, dynamic or static, etc. The Bard's genius 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 ability to invent sharply etched characters; it often happens that, long after we have forgotten the exact story of a play, we remember the 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 penchant for well-rounded characters in Hamlet: “We feel that they are living beings with problems that are perennially human” (62). Hamlet has more than 20 characters with speaking roles; in occupations from king to undertaker; and in 20 different scenes; and with a differentiation in language, actions, etc. between every single individual character. Where else can you find such a wide variety of characterizations? This aspect of the playwright is emphasized by Robert B. Heilman in “The Role We Give Shakespeare”; he says that this variety is “graspable and possessable by many men who disagree with each other, due to the innumerability of the parts” (10). The drama begins with the changing of sentries on a guard platform at Elsinore Castle in Denmark. Recently the ghostly likeness of a dead man... in the center of the paper... and." Essays on Shakespeare. Ed. Gerald Chapmann. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965. Levin, Harry. General Introduction. The Riverbank Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. hamlet/full.html No lines nn.Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. “Shakespeare.” 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." Ed. Don Nardo: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar: Paperbacks, 1958.