Shakespeare the storyteller

We're seeing the Ambroise Thomas opera HAMLET on Saturday, an HD simulcast from the Met (the best arts bargain in the country!), so I decided to read the play. I haven't read it in, well, decades. And it's the first time I've read Shakespeare for no reason but pleasure in even longer.

I re-discovered what a fine STORYTELLER the Bard is. Hamlet, in fact, has "textbook" dramatic structure and follows the storytelling paradigm I teach in my class. Here's the breakdown:

THE HOOK. A strange ghost has been appearing at the castle.
THE COMPLICATION/INCITING INCIDENT. The ghost tells Hamlet his father was murdered by his own brother, the new King, and that Hamlet should get revenge.
CALL TO ACTION. Hamlet decides to feign madness as part of his plan to get revenge.
PLOT PT, END OF ACT ONE. Hamlet devises a scheme to trap the conscience of the king, using a troupe of actors passing through.
MIDPT TWIST. Hamlet confronts his mother and accidentally kills Polonius, father of Orphelia, whom he loves.
LOW PT, END OF ACT TWO. Hamlet learns that Orphelia committed suicide.
RESOLUTION. The King's trap for Hamlet backfires, and Hamlet manages to kill the King before dying himself.

Yet another example of how powerful the paradigm of beginning-middle-end storytelling is! Hamlet is a textbook example of the paradigm. I had forgotten. The red part of the diagram above is based on David Mamet's take on structure. I love its elegance.