Hamlet Plot Theory

Rachel Bilderback

Professor Lake

5 April 2014

Richard Tyre’s Six Point Plot Pattern in Hamlet and Boy in the Summer Sun

Richard Tyre explains in his essay You Can’t Teach Tolkien that almost every work of fiction that involves a journey contains six different plot points that follow a certain pattern. Tyre begins by explaining the popularity of the Lord of the Rings books, which has to do with multiple journeys. Tyre says, “Ask each member of the class to name the novel or long fiction or biographical story that is their special favorite” (19). Tyre continues, “Put the titles on the board and then step back amazed because you have just discovered that except for two or three choices every story has the same six plot elements in the same order” (19). Tyre suggests that in almost any work of fiction will have these six plot points. Hamlet and Boy in the Summer Sun are both examples of works of fiction that can put Tyre’s six point plot theory to the test.

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the story of a young prince who is mourning the loss of his father. After he finds out his father has been murdered, he seeks out the killer so that he can get revenge on him. Boy in the Summer Sun is a short story written by Mark Schorer. Boy in the Summer Sun tells the story of a young man named Will who begins to suspect the girl he loves, Rachel, is in love with another man named Max. Throughout the story Will is searching for the truth about how Rachel feels about Max. Hamlet and Boy in the Summer Sun have different plots; however, both plots almost perfectly follow Richard Tyre’s six plot points just as he suggests they will in his essay You Can’t Teach Tolkien, which shows similarities in the seemingly different works.

Richard Tyre’s fi...

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By using Richard Tyre’s six point plot system in analyzing these two works it can help the reader to read into the characters motives and achievements. Tyre states that Tolkien even says that, “because he was not limited to the dull restrictions of common place realism he could make his version of the universal trip more imaginatively intense and real” (19). These six plot points allow a reader to take a different perspective and look at the works from there. The six plot points also show that seemingly unrelated works and their characters have a lot more in common that what is perceived by simple reading them. Richard Tyre’s essay proves that in most works of fiction that involve a journey “those who hunt for treasure must go alone, at night, and when they find it, they must leave some of their blood behind, and the treasure is never what they expected” (19).