The World of the Word

I mentioned briefly in class the fact that plays present us with a world that relies heavily on the spoken word. After reading the first act of "Hamlet" again this idea was reinforced in my mind yet again by what I read. Granted, my thoughts on this are largely in reference to a play being compared to a film (being a filmmaker myself). As opposed to a film, where a character is defined more by what they do, characters are defined more by their words. For example, by the end of act 1 we know that Hamlet is going to take revenge because he comes right out and says it.