Hamlet: A Tragedy of Failure William Shakespeare's, Hamlet is a tragedy of failure, the failure of a man placed in circumstances and faced to deal with them successfully. Shakespeare uses different techniques to develop the characters in Hamlet. Throughout the play dramatic irony is used by allowing the audience to view the true actions of the characters before the characters disclose them. Shakespeare toys with the idea of appearances versus reality in the play, among these are Claudius, the play within the play, and Rosencrantz and Guildernstern. Hamlet's father, the king of Denmark, has suddenly died. Claudius, Hamlet's uncle, hastily marries Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, and