Shakespeare had used this idea because during the Elizabethan time, people thought a well-organised garden showed man’s control over nature thus every thing was in the order they should be in. On the other hand, an unweeded garden symbolised exactly the opposite.
Since the Queen has married again soon after the death of King Hamlet, she was considered by Hamlet to be sick and a disease, which was another key theme in the play. The quote ‘O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourn’d longer’ showed Hamlet was comparing the Queen to a beast and saying that a beast incapable of rational thought processes would have mourned longer if its partner had died. Of course if the Queen was sick and diseased, then the entire country must also take the blame and suffer for it. We can see this from the scenes where Hamlet deserted Ophelia and denied his love for her. These created the atmosphere of not been loyal and corruption.
Shakespeare has used many techniques in Hamlet to make this play more effective to the audience. One of these was the use of Hyperbole as the quote ‘So excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr,’ showed an over exaggerated comparison between Hamlet’s father and Claudius. Hyperion was the glorious sun god of classical mythology and a satyr was a lustful mythological creature, half-man and half-goat. Therefore, the above quote has shown the audience how different was King Hamlet from King Claudius and also how highly Hamlet thinks of his father in the play. It also showed a sense of doom of Denmark as a good King was replaced by a foul King.
By the uses of imagery, Shakespeare will have created an image relevant to the context to the audience. One example was ‘Fie on’t, ah fie,’tis an unweeded garden That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature.’ from Hamlet’s first soliloquy. This has created an image that will explain more than words to the audience of a garden full of weeds leaving the audience with a meaning of chaos.
In addition, Hamlet constantly repeats the idea of ‘Within a month’ nears the end of his soliloquy to emphasise his dislikes of such a marriage and the distrust of his uncle. This has an effect on the audience, instantly getting the audience to be on Hamlet’s side and creates a negative feeling towards Gertrude. This technique is called repetition where by constantly repeating an idea to get the audience to remember them.
There were many metaphor in the first 2 scenes, one of which was ‘My father’s brother – but no more like my father Than I to Hercules.’ from Hamlet. In here, Shakespeare has chose to compare how different King Hamlet was to King Claudius just like how different was Hamlet to Hercules. This was a very effective way to show the audience because the main idea was set out very clearly in terms of their differences.
During the first scene, one of the guard said ‘Tis now struck twelve.’ A time of night associated with magic and the dead. Shakespeare has chosen this deliberately to increase the suspicion and fear in the audience because on a 16th century stage, there wouldn’t be any special/lighting effects as most of the plays were performed during day time. So the only way to tell the audience was to act or say it out. From these, tension was increased for the audience through many short dialogues between the characters and when the guards spoke of something that they couldn’t name, a ‘thing’, ‘a dreaded sight’ and ‘apparition’, a sense of gloom and doom was created.
On a 20th century, the way of presenting tension would be completely different through the uses of technology and costumes. Actors might be able to perform with sound effects and red/blue stage lightning to help them passing along information to the audience. However, in the Elizabethan times, such technology was available, therefore Shakespeare’s only choice was to use short sentences/phrases to create the tension from the dialogues spoken from the actors.
The first 2 scenes of Hamlet were very important to the play as a whole because most of the relevant information was presented to the audience and like any other plays, this is where the audience gets to know each individual character in terms of their personality and relationships with other characters. The information receiver by the audience here will help me to judge what will happen later on in the stage and thus fully understand the play.
Some of the main characters are Hamlet, Horatio, Claudius, Gertrude and the ghost (King Hamlet). The idea of the ghost was very popular in the Elizabethan times because that period was considered as the dark ages where witches and wizards and all other paranormal phenomenal appeared when night falls. This is why Shakespeare has used the idea of the ghost in many of his plays to make it more attractive and appealing to the audience during the time.
Hamlet was a very indecisive character in the play. The audience could clearly see that as whenever Hamlet got a chance take his revenge, he always thought about what would happen after, and therefore miss the opportunity one after another. A very good example of this was when Claudius was praying to God asking for forgiveness for what he has done. Hamlet was on the perfect spot to kill him but he didn’t because during the Elizabethan times, people were very superstitious and believed if a person has prayed to God, his/her sin would have been forgiven and therefore, go to heaven if murdered/died. On the other hand, the person who murdered him/her would go to hell. Hamlet was trying to give what Claudius deserves for what he has done, so if he killed him when he was praying, Claudius would go to heaven instead of hell. The idea of indecisiveness acted like a device that constantly builds up tension and then suddenly destroys them which would keep the audience’s interests in the play. This carries on in the play until the last scene where Hamlet finally got his revenge.
More insight is gained about Hamlet’s feelings at the beginning of the play in his soliloquy, which begins ‘O that this too too sullied flesh would melt,’ This was one of many lines that had an image in it relates to the rotting of Denmark’s politic due to the King’s murder and the usurpation of the throne. This image continued throughout the play and helped to show the state of Denmark was becoming weak due to its illegitimate King. The atmosphere created here would be corruption and doom.
Claudius, another main character in the play was the one who murdered King Hamlet. His relationship with Hamlet was uncle and nephew in front of the other characters. He was very careful about his every move and Hamlet’s every move, in some cases, he even sent out spies to spy on Hamlet to find out what he was up to. He was also very cunning and greedy and that was what set him out on to the murdering of the previous King. The reason why he didn’t murder Hamlet earlier was because he doesn’t want to make Gertrude sad, as she was Hamlet’s mother. However, as the play progressed, Claudius decided to kill Hamlet without letting Gertrude know because Claudius felt Hamlet knew too much and was up to something, therefore he must die. During the play, Claudius never confronted Hamlet publicly due to the nature of kingship and was always plotting something behind the back. A good example of this was when he used the love of Laertes to his father Polonius against Hamlet in an open foul duel. The relationship between Hamlet and Claudius covers the atmosphere of tension between the two characters as one day; this tension would results in a huge battle between them as the epilogue of the play.
Hamlet’s good friend Horatio was the most sensible person in the play. This character was a model of friendship and can always be trusted to give sensible advice and an honest opinion. Sometimes he was not so much a character as a choric figure, giving necessary information to the audience. This was like a communication link between the actors and the audience to make sure that the audience stays on track of what was going on in the play.
Queen Gertrude played an important role in the play because on one side, she has her son, Hamlet and on the other, it was her new husband, Claudius. She must manage to calm things down between these two rivals whenever there was tension. This helped the play to progress tension after tension and thus keeps the audience’s interest in the play. Gertrude herself in the play was very much of a confused character due to the relationships between her son and her new husband.
The ghost was the primary mover of the play; it was the main reason why Hamlet begins to plot against Claudius. The ghost tells the audience what the play was about and how it should end; this gave the audience a basic idea so the audience doesn’t get lost anywhere in the play. The ghost also constantly reminds the audience about the key plot of the play whenever it talks to Hamlet.
In conclusion, the first two scenes of Hamlet gave the audience a look into the events, which the play begins from, and the basic plot of the story. An insight into Hamlet’s characteristics and feelings/opinions about the speedy marriage of Gertrude and Claudius were also given. The effectiveness of these scenes can perhaps be seen when the main story of the play has started to move in just two scenes and the audience was already interested when a suspicious murder has happened. I think this play from Shakespeare was very successful because it not only showed revenge and violence but had also shown the essence of a human being through the atmospheres of guilt, hatred and regret presented to the audience. These different atmospheres contributed to the different themes in Hamlet. E.g. Hatred inside Hamlet leads to his madness seen by other characters through his actions.
