Shakespeare again starts to increase the tension by making the character Francisco seem afraid.
“Tis bitter cold and I am sick at heart”
In this quote from hamlet, Shakespeare makes the character Francisco seem frightened and shivery. He shows this by saying ‘tis bitter cold’. Then Shakespeare goes on to say ‘I am sick at heart’, this makes Francisco seem depressed and now petrified. I think that barnardo and Francisco are afraid because they are unaware of what they are guarding and because of the ghost stories that are going around about the witching hour.
Shakespeare now relaxes the audience and the tension level goes down.
“Not a mouse stirring.”
Shakespeare’s techniques’ of language and tension are very creatively engineered because now he uses the key to every horror film. By making the audience feel relax and calm, Shakespeare starts his scare combo. First of all he relaxes the audience to make them unaware of the shock their about to feel. He makes their heart rate and tension level zigzag by making it decrease then increase and so on. This method was first used by Shakespeare and is still used today by the best horror film creators there are.
Shakespeare again makes a tense atmosphere by repeating line 1.
“Who is there?”
Shakespeare repeats line one now to break the relaxed atmosphere. He makes the audience feel nervous and uncertain about who is going to appear. By using the question. ‘who is there?’ He makes the audience think, is it a ghost? Or why cant they see? Shakespeare reuses darkness as a convention of horror films, writers and directors use darkness to make the audience feel tense and nervous, and so does Shakespeare. Francisco is unsure, unaware and frightened of who might be there. this effects let off an heart stopping suspension and tension of into atmosphere of the audience.
Shakespeare now relaxes the audience and the tension level goes down.
“Friends to this ground” and “and liegemen to the Dane”
Both of these quote’s from Shakespeare’s hamlet. On lines 14 and 15 both relax the audience. Again Shakespeare uses the scare combo; this is relaxing the audience to prepare them for the shock. ‘Friends to this ground’ by saying this Horatio is telling Francisco that they are on the same side. And by saying ‘And liegemen to the Dane’ also means that they are on the same side. Both of these quotes are like passwords telling each other that they are on the same army.
Now Shakespeare starts to build up tension on page 64, line 21.
“What, has this thing appeared again tonight?
The word ‘thing’ tells the audience that what the guards are talking about is not human; this suggests that it could either be a witch or a ghost. And ‘again’ means that this thing before. This scares the audience because their not sure if they will see this supernatural being appear again. The audience may be expecting it to come because its night and its close to witching hour.
Once more Shakespeare calms the audience and settles the tension level.
“I have seen nothing”
Shakespeare relaxes the audience again by using the quote “I have seen nothing” this is a very good device because it relaxes the audience in different ways Shakespeare is now manipulating the luring them into his trap, so that he can frighten them. Barnardo says this to show that the ghost has not appeared yet.
Shakespeare gives us information about how many time the ghost has appeared this is a great way to make the audiences tension level rise.
“Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us.”
This quote gives us information about how many times the guards have seen the ghost appear. It says that it appeared twice, the writer uses the word ‘dreaded’ to describe encounter with the ghost.
