Thus immediately and with minimum words and using fragments of conversation. Shakespeare establishes the mood of anxiety and red. The unexplainable mystery of the ghost of king Hamlet generates an atmosphere of unease and confusion.
In the opening scene we get acquainted with Horatio who is Hamlet’s closest and most trusted friend. Throughout the play Horatio appears as a calm and objective observer and gives a good dramatic contrast and balance to the impulsive reckless and unpredictably and melancholy Hamlet. It is only much later in the play in Act One Scene Two that we come across Hamlet. Therefore the only sections of the play sets the scene for Hamlet’s entry and also serves to emphasise the way he is set apart from other characters.
Act Three Scene Two comes midway through the play. It is the scene in which Hamlet is determined to ‘catch’ the conscience of the king. He has carefully arranged the play in such a way and introduced certain lines if Claudius is guilty he would be caught unaware and would reveal his guilt. The earlier part of the scene where Hamlet is instructing the players shows Hamlet’s knowledge of the theatre. It also reflects Shakespeare’s annoyance with players who over act and “tear a passion to tatters to very rags to split the ears of the groundlings”. This was common practice in Elizabethan times when players made exaggerated gestures words and actions that destroy the subtlety and deeper meaning of the play. It appears as if Hamlet is expressing everything that Shakespeare wants to say about the theatre and acting. Hamlet says that the play “Hold, as it were the mirror up to nature”. Which is what all scholars and critics talk about Shakespeare’s plays that his plays are a reflection of nature. The earlier part of the scene is in prose. Shakespeare uses prose as an indicative of the lower social rank of the players.
This scene explores the theme of appearance and reality. The play within the play which Hamlet calls “the Mousetrap” has a plot that is very close to what happened in the royal court of Denmark. Hamlet is greatly excited as the play begins. He interprets every action and the words of the players for Ophelia and even anticipates the actions. Even Ophelia comments on this fact “you are as good as a chorus, my lord” “you are keen, my lord, you are keen.”
Claudius appears to be quite uneasy even before the climax. He enquires anxiously “have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in it?” and Hamlets reply that “they do not but jest, poison in jest. No offence in the world” is a pointed remark which reveals to the audience that Claudius suspects that he is being targeted. It is very appropriate that Claudius who is nothing but a lying politician and a murderer could be revealed through the deception of play acting. It serves to emphasise the fact that every thing about Claudius is deceptive. The deal Claudius is very different from the appearance of a concerned step father and capable king.
Hamlet asks his mother how she finds the play especially the Dukes wife who speaks at length about her loyalty and love at faithfulness to her husband. Gertrude remarks to Hamlet about this that “the lady doth protest too much, me thinks”. This also reveals the falseness and the hypocrisy of both the lady in the play and Gertrude both pretended to be loyal to their husbands but within two months of their husband’s death they married another man.
The scene where the player “pours the poison in the kings ears” is too much for Claudius. He calls out for lights “give me some light. Away!” when the performance breaks up Hamlet is overcome with excitement. He overcomes that Claudius is guilty and exclaims “I will take the ghosts words for a thousand pounds”. He turns away from Horatio to taunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and then Polonius. Throughout the scene Hamlets behavior seems to be on the brink of hysteria, his excitement is almost too much to be contained. His jokes are constant wild and troubled and he shows no restraint in using vulgar and coarse language. All of these show his extreme excitement. Guildenstern reports that the king “is in his retirement marvelous distempered” and “the queen your mother is in most great affliction of spirit” has summoned Hamlet.
At the end of this scene Hamlets excitement is such that his language seems almost as melodramatic as the language of Lucianous in the play. The images that he uses “witching time of night, when church yards yawn, and hell it self breeds out contagion to this world” shows the extent of evil and decay that has corrupted the Danish court. He is determined to speak bluntly to his mother. He will be cruel to her but not unnatural. By using the words ‘unnatural’ and ‘hypocrites’ towards the end of the scene Hamlet is classifying both Claudius and Gertrude. Claudius was unnatural because he seduced his brothers wife and Gertrude was both unnatural and hypocrite because she married her husband’s brother and betrayed her loyalty for her husband.
Act Five Scene Two presents a fitting conclusion for the play. It provides a solution to the plot by concluding the revenge that Hamlet had set out to do right from the beginning of the play. At the end of the play we find that there more dead bodies on the stage then alive people this is in keeping with feature of Revenge Tragedy. The last scene is melodramatic terrifying spectacle and it contains the moral of the play that it is never wise or right to take another human life.
The final scene provides the ‘Catharsis’ which is an emotional purification according to Aristotle’s principles of tragedy. The whole of the play presented Hamlet as a melancholy young man unable to do the task that was laid upon him but in the beginning of Act Five Scene Two we see Hamlet as a changed person. He no longer mentions the ghost at all which shows that he is no longer controlled by what the ghost had said to him. In this scene we see a very matured mellowed Hamlet who excepts the will of god philosophically. He tells Horatio that he is convinced that “there is a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will” and “there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow”.
At this scene we are made completely aware of the wickedness of Claudius. Hamlet confides in Horatio about how he had found the letter with instructions from Claudius to the king of England that “No leisure bated, no, not to stay the grinding of the axe, my head should be struck off”. Later in the same scene Laertes publicly condemns Claudius that with the “unbated and envenomed” sword he has struck Hamlet and that there is “no medicine in the world can do the good. In thee there is not half an hours life.” Laertes openly declares that for all the tragedies that has happened “the king, the king is to blame”
In the last scene we see Hamlets generosity of spirit. He begs for Laertes forgiveness and blames his madness for having killed Polonius. He tells Laertes “let my disclaiming from a purposed evil free me so far in your most generous thoughts that I have shot my arrow over the house and hurt my brother.” Hamlet therefore shows humility in excepting his mistake which again shows the greatness of his character. In doing so we are made aware of the great sense of loss through the death of Hamlet and this increases the impact of the tragedy because we are aware of Hamlets immense capacity for good and how all that is so tragedically cut short. Hamlet meets his end not by a fair fight but through cheating and trickery. He is wounded with a poisoned sword by Laertes. Thus the corruption in the Danish court and the sense of decay and evil in the Royal court over powers Hamlet.
There is also the contrast between the greatness of Hamlet and the wickedness of Claudius as Hamlet shows greater concern generosity and humility in the last scene. Claudius becomes more and more “confirmed in his wickedness” he not only plots with Laertes so that Hamlet can be wounded by the poisoned sword but also arranges for the wine to be poisoned and in the last scene justice is served because Hamlet “forces the king to drink” “here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, drink off this potion.”
Horatio represents peace and order in the last scene and to the very end he remains faithful to Hamlet. The theme of friendship and loyalty is evident when Horatio is almost determined to lie for his friend “I am more an antique Roman than a Dane. Here’s yet some liquor left.” But Hamlet charges him with the sacred duty of clearing his wounded name and requests him “absent thee from felicity awhile, and in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, to tell my story.”
In the final scene all the loose ends of the story are tied together. The question of who would rule Denmark after Hamlet’s death is settled by Hamlet himself who nominates Fortinbras “but I do prophecy the election lights on Fortinbras. He has my dying voice.” Horatio’s touchy farewell to his friend “Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!” expresses the feelings of the audience. We are made forcefully aware of Hamlet’s nobility and the play comes to a fitting end when Horatio explains to the shocked court all the events that had led to the final tragedies. Fortinbras’ words about Hamlet “for he was likely, had he been put on, to have proved most royal. Brings the play to dignified conclusion young Fortinbras recovers the land lost by his father to old Hamlet and in Addition he also gains the throne of Denmark.
The play Hamlet is the longest of Shakespeare’s plays. It is the tragedy of a young man who is unable to be decisive. Hamlet dies because of the fatal flaw in his character but at his death we are left with an intense feeling of loss because Shakespeare has shown us through the several scenes all the true greatness of this promising young man. Hamlets love and loyalty towards his parents is great. The sense of injustice and the great evil that was done to his father made him almost unbalanced but what was unbearable to him was the betrayal of his mother by marrying his wicked uncle. At the end of the play we are left with a feeling of sadness and grief for a brilliance young man who was treacherously killed by wickedness.