The+Tropes+of+Hamlet

The TV Tropes wiki is a useful tool to discover devices that have become common in stories (the site originally started out discussing TV shows, hence the name, but has since expanded into all other mediums of storytelling). The site lists and discusses tropes, which the site defines as story components or elements that have become standardized through decades of use. On its //Hamlet// page, it gives a short description of the play along with a list of the tropes in the play. We can use these tropes to find common components between //Hamlet// and other stories, as well as give us more insight into the play. For instance, the site lists Horatio as an "Agent Scully" character. Like Agent Scully from the X-Files, Horatio is a person of logic who always tries to apply reason to things that make absolutely no sense. From this, we can become more comfortable with Horatio's character since we have a more contemporary character to compare him to. Likewise, plot devices can be catagorized into tropes. Claudius' death is considered a "Rasputinian Death." Much like the death of the Russian monk, Claudius is given a complicated, convoluted death. We can compare this to other characters' deaths, such as Dumbledore in //Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince// or Vigo the Carpathian from //Ghostbusters 2.// The website has an extensive list of tropes and also breaks down a show or book or etc. by its tropes. Feel free to look around or maybe add something, since it is a wiki.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Hamlet

-Dylan Hill, Hour 7