When reading one of William Shakespeare's plays, a reader might notice how well the story flows, one event leading to another. However, all of Shakespeare's tragedies share a common backbone of structural elements: exposition, complication, rising action, climax, falling action and the catastrophe, or denouement. Hamlet is no exception to this; each structural element is portrayed in order throughout the play. The climax of Hamlet occurs when Hamlet confronts Gertrude in her chamber, and in a mistaken fury kills Polonius. The entire play leads up to this point, and this event sets things into action that eventually lead to Hamlet's and others' deaths.

The exposition of Hamlet is in Act I, when the guards outside Elsinore castle seek out and confront a mysterious apparition in the form of the late King Hamlet. The mood of the entire scene is very dark and dreary, which sets the tone for...