Similarly, the opening to ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’ uses equally dramatic devices to establish the mood and key themes of the play. Vindice, holding the skull of his murdered betrothed, mutters “Faith, give revenge her due”, immediately establishing the aims of the protagonist in an intense soliloquy which, combined with his verbal assault on the moral debauchery of the court which whilst informing the audience of the corrupt state of the play’s setting, also must have been incredibly entertaining to watch. The fact that Vindice overlooks the court during his soliloquy suggests a moral aloofness that he possesses over the other characters in the play, which could be taken as the hamartia which will inevitably lead to his downfall during his pursuit for revenge. The shared context of the two plays also allows us to draw comparisons. Both plays are set in foreign countries to escape accusations of treason by writing about such corruption within an English court. During the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods the absolute monarch was the role model for the entire populace, and if the monarch was to make an error of judgement the consequence would ripple outwards, a point well made in both plays by the respective moral failures of the new King Claudius in ‘Hamlet’ and the Duke in ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’.
Both protagonists are also in direct opposition to the establishment and can be seen as the ‘underdog’, a position which creates an element of sympathy from the audience and can be used by the authors to portray the protagonists as figures of moral standing of higher prestige than that of the established courts, however as the play continues the endless pursuit of revenge will inevitably colour the audience’s views of the two main characters.
The fact that all characters present in the opening scene of ‘Hamlet’ agree to seeing the ghostly figure helps Shakespeare establish one of the key themes of the play; appearance and reality. The audience had undergone a process of distinguishing between truth and illusion by listening to the arguments about the ghost, but as he appears, their investigative tendencies are approved of, which encourages further questioning to take place throughout the play, helping Shakespeare to get his audience to question the authority figures within the court.
Unlike in ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’, the audience must wait until the second scene of ‘Hamlet’ to be introduced to the protagonist. The opening speech by Claudius gives him an air of political astuteness required of a monarch. In addressing the military and political crisis threatening Denmark, Claudius appears to be advocating a more diplomatic approach in contrast to the old king’s militaristic one. He already speaks as if he was a monarch, using the third person pronoun as “and our whole kingdom be contracted in one brow of woe” to show unity of mourning within the kingdom at the old king’s murder. During the speech Claudius attempts to justify his marriage to Gertrude, whilst also using the danger of conflict with Norway to unify the court. The speech appears to be carefully constructed, as a statesman-like speech should be. However this connotes a sense of deception by Claudius in that his prepared speech is intended to have a specific effect, and this causes the audience to be watchful of him.
Hamlet’s entrance increases the atmosphere within the second scene greatly. Months after the death of his father he is still fully dressed in black, and one can interpret this as a continued quest for justice, or simply a comment on his fractured mental state. Gertrude and Claudius’ attire are more normal for the time, but Gertrude’s white dress is ironic, as it is supposed to symbolise purity. Hamlet’s outfit immediately separates him from the rest of the court, and the audience can easily pick him out as a possible malcontent, with reference to his ‘inky garbs’ and ‘nighted colour’ furthering this assumption.
The use of an aside by Shakespeare is an effective way to convey Hamlet’s private feelings to the audience, as, in responding to Claudius’ naming of Hamlet as ‘my son’, he replies ‘a little more than kin, and less than kind’, indicating that he shares no feelings of kindness towards his uncle. He continues by wittily responding to Claudius’ question as to how ‘the clouds still hang on you?’ by saying ‘not so my lord, I am too much i’th’sun.’ This intelligent response showcases Hamlet’s intelligence, and possibly encourages the audience to listen to him with more seriousness, as his careful and clever remarks suggest that he will be an essential informant of the play’s goings on to the audience.
As Hamlet responds to the Queen’s request for him to stay in Denmark and not leave for Wittenberg, he replies with the pronoun ‘you’, instead of ‘thou’, a subtle adjustment by Shakespeare which shows Hamlet’s current state of relations with his mother, in that he would rather address her formally rather than as if they were close family members. Alternatively, he may have chosen this choice of pronoun in order to show respect to the Queen.
The soliloquy from Hamlet which follows the King and Queen’s exit is strongly emotional and more fragmented than Claudius’s, showing that it is less rehearsed and founded more on his raw emotions, giving a sign to the audience that his speech can be more trusted. It is similar to that of Vindice’s in ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’, another comparison which demonstrates the effectiveness of soliloquies in enabling the audience to achieve a great understanding of the characters’ motives. As Hamlet says “‘Tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed, things rank and gross in nature” he is alluding to his current views on the state of Denmark. His comparison via classical allusions of Claudius and his father as “that was to this Hyperion to a satyr” shows further his contempt for Claudius’ abilities as king, and further demonstrates Hamlet’s scholarly abilities. He continues the classical references by describing Claudius as “no more like my father than I to Hercules”, leading the audience to question Claudius’ character despite his impressive speech at the beginning of the scene. Hamlet also places some focus of his anger at his mother, personifying frailty as “thy name is woman” and continuing to say “a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer”. Hamlet finishes his speech with a powerful statement warning that the marriage “is not, not it cannot come to good”, but ending by stating “but break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue” – demonstrating his inability to challenge his uncle at this moment in time.
To conclude, both plays rely heavily on dramatic setting and costume to allude to certain aspects of the instability of their respective states. Furthermore, dramatic devices such as the aside and the soliloquy enable the audience to gain an indispensible view of the state of mind of the key characters within the play, whilst also leaving them with enough questions and mystery to be entertained for the remainder of the performance.
by
cityben100 (student)
