Comment on the dramatic significance of any three scenes in Hamlet?

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Name: Hussein

Class: SR. 4F

Subject: Hamlet coursework

Q.1 Comment on the dramatic significance of any three scenes in Hamlet?

Ans. Hamlet is the most complex but also the most entertaining of all Shakespeare’s plays. It deals with the central character Hamlet a young man who is of an intellectual thoughtful and philosophical nature. The play is about how this young man is asked to do an action that is beyond him. The ghost of his beloved father appears to him and enjoins him the sacred task of avenging his murder. This is an action that the morally good Hamlet finds difficult to do.

                The opening scene in almost all of Shakespeare’s plays includes minor insignificant characters whose purpose is to set the tone of the play, to introduce some of the main themes, and to prepare us for the entrance of the protagonist. The scene with its darkness the bitterly cold night the stillness and silence with the “not a mouse stirring” sets an eerie tone which catches the attention of the audience.

                The imagery of sickness and disease which runs though out the play is introduced when Fransisco complains of being “sick at heart” thus the theme order and disorder and the idea that “time is out joint” is subtly introduced. The scene also provides a sense of mystery, tension and fear which captures the audiences attention. We are not immediately told who or what has been responsible for the tension, but Marcellus only says “what, has this thing appeared again tonight?” Horatio has been invited by the two guards men since he is a scholar and a sceptic and therefore would provide a reasonable explanation for “this dreaded sight” and “this apparition“the appearance of the ghost is a warning of something “strange eruption in the state” and the audience is forewarned that all is not right in the state of Denmark. The ghost is none other than King Hamlet. “It is in the same figure like the king that is dead”

                The appearance of the ghost shocks all of them especially Horatio. He has lost his skepticism. He interprets the ghost’s appearance as a bad omen for Denmark. The ghost does not speak to Horatio which indicates that his purpose and object is not to meet Horatio. Horatio recognizes the ghost in the same armour that he wore “when he the ambitious Norway combated“. The reference to the death of old Fortinbras of Norway at the hand of the old king Hamlet of Demark is important. Horatio mentions this as the “combat” in which our valiant Hamlet fore saw this side of our known world esteemed him “did slay this Fortinbras.“ This background is important because it introduces the important notion of a son avenging his father’s death.

                The movement of the ghost is described in two ways. He is called “majestical” and immediately after Horatio says that it started “like a guilty thing”. This establishes the ambiguous nature of the ghost. We cannot be sure if the ghost is for good or bad or both and the irony lies in the fact even after the play has ended. We have no answer to this. If the ghost hadn’t appeared Hamlet would not have faced the conflicts and dilemmas that he encountered. Which means that there would have been no necessity for the play Hamlet. Therefore it is a good thing that the ghost came and revealed the truth. On the other hand the revelation placed upon Hamlet the impossible task of avenging his father which is the end lead to his death. Therefore it was a bad thing. The ghost vanishes when the cock crows. The last part of the scene where Horatio describes with beautiful poetic imagery the morning who is like a traveler “In russet mantle clad walks  over the dew of yon high eastward hill” shown how light and colour replace the darkness and shadow of the earlier part of the play. It is only in the last few lines that there is the mention of “young Hamlet” and the decisions to “Impart what we have seen tonight” because the three men are sure that “This spirit dumb to us will speak to him”

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                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 ...

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