'A' Level students are considering cutting out the first scene from their production of Hamlet - What would be your argument for keeping the scene?

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Scene one or scene one?

‘A’ Level students are considering cutting out the first scene from their production of Hamlet. What your argument be for keeping the scene? Explain your reasons and why you consider it to be important and how it adds to the overall dramatic effect of Act one and to the rest of the play.

The play begins with the changing of the guard on a cold, winters, night at the castle of Ellsinore where the guards are talking about a ghost Bernardo thinks he has seen, with Horatio, a scholar and friend of Prince Hamlet. The short sentences increase the dramatic tension. Horatio is sceptical but the ghost appears again and Horatio is soon won over to its reality. The men liken the appearance of the ghost to the late King Hamlet and wonder whether it is an omen. The men believe the ghost will speak to Prince Hamlet, the dead king’s son, and agree to tell him about it.

This scene is important to the rest of the play for several reasons. It allows Horatio to give background information. It gives the historical background of the play, introduces the main characters and the ghost it also provides an atmosphere of death, tension, suspense and uncertainty. The audience is aware from the beginning that this is a revenge tragedy and will have certain expectations of what is likely to occur in the play.

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The information on the historical background is brief but important to explain the setting of the play .The guards are on watch in a castle at night suggesting the possibility of invasion or war. The audience learn they are Danes “Friends to this land

                                        And liegemen to the Dane”

The longer speech of Horatio in the middle of the scene is significant as it occurs after the disappearance of the ghost and its reappearance. In separating these two events it emphasises the reappearance. The longer speech also provides a lull in the tense, short opening lines of dialogue. ...

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