Explore the ways Shakespeare creates tension in the opening two scenes of Hamlet
Explore the ways Shakespeare creates tension in the opening two scenes Shakespeare creates a lot of tension in the opening two scenes, by starting act one, scene one, with short sentences and questions, such as, "Who's there?" So the audience can tell that the characters are feeling edgy about something at the start. These short sentences carry on until line 20, it gets the audience involved from the start, you're straight into the play, and there is no big introduction. It begins the play at midnight when it is very cold, which it itself is very spooky and is like the witching hour "Tis now struck twelve." "Tis bitter cold." The characters start to talk about a ghost that they've seen, and you can sense fear from them "touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us" Once the ghost enters there is a lot of tension, especially as the ghost doesn't speak, which makes it even more spooky. The ghost creates mystery for the audience. The ghost says nothing despite the valiant efforts on the parts of Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo. Suspense is created when the audience are ignorant as to the purpose of the ghost. The tension carries on all the way through the first scene. With the audience being able to see the ghost, but not being able to hear it. In scene two there is a lot of tension going on between the family. Hamlet dislikes his mother and claudius. Claudius is the
Hamlet is a play that deals with the theme of revenge. How might the response of a modern audience differ from that of An Elizabethan audience?
Hamlet Coursework Marie Edmunds Title- Hamlet is a play that deals with the theme of revenge. How might the response of a modern audience differ from that of An Elizabethan audience? William Shakespeare wrote hamlet, the play has a revenge tragedy genre. The play very closely follows the dramatic conventions of revenge in Elizabethan theatre. All revenge tragedies originally came from the Greeks. Then came Seneca who was very influential to all Elizabethan tragedy writers. Seneca created all the rules and ideas for revenge play writers in the Renaissance era, which included William Shakespeare. Hamlet has nearly all revenge conventions, which makes it a typical revenge play. We find out from the start, that the play will involve revenge. Hamlet sees a ghost which is his father ' I am thy fathers spirit' He tells Hamlet it was his brother Claudius who killed him and he tells hamlet to get revenge for him by killing Claudius ' revenge his foul and most unnatural murder'. It is quite obvious that Hamlet's father had suffered a violent death as he uses words such as 'foul' here the ghost is talking about his death. There is also clearly a sexual aspect of the play. This shown by Claudius marrying Hamlet's mother Gertrude. The ghost tells Hamlet that is why Claudius killed him. Hamlet though does delay his revenge right till the end of the play. This is a normal convention
Tis the infirmity of his age; yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself(TM) (Act 1.1 290-291) Discuss the portrayal of King Lear(TM)s character in the first act of King Lear.
''Tis the infirmity of his age; yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself' (Act 1.1 290-291) Discuss the portrayal of King Lear's character in the first act of King Lear. 'King Lear' was written by the world-renowned English playwright William Shakespeare in the years 1604-1605. It is one of Shakespeare's most tragic plays where both good and evil characters suffer horribly and die grisly deaths. The play tells the story of an old King whose irrational behaviour leads to his downfall and his road to redemption. In the first act of the play King Lear is portrayed as an arrogant man who basks in his own self importance and expects only praise and assent from his peers. His decision to give away his kingdom to his daughters before his death while keeping the title of King shows that he values words and titles over power and authority. What makes this decision worse is his choice of dividing his kingdom: awarding the finest portion to the daughter that answers the question "which of you shall we say doth love us most?" the best. Lear disregards his older daughters' previous actions but accepts their hyperbole filled proclamations of love blindly, while taking offence for his youngest and favourite daughter's plain and truthful answer. His choice to disown her and split the kingdom between the older two prove to be a foolhardy decision which leads to his fall from
The Collector by John Fowles - From a novel to a play script, pages 31,32,33,34,35. Act 2, scene 1
Ilaria Cacciamani Coursework The Collector by John Fowles From a novel to a play script, pages 31,32,33,34,35. Act 2, scene 1 Cottage near Lewes. Early morning. Sound of an larm watch. Frederick already woken up, moving on stage. A door in the middle of the stage to represant the cellar door. He knocks on the door. Frederick:[knocking on the cellar door], [shouting] Please get up! Waits, open the door and goes in the cellar, onto the other part of the stage with Miranda's bag. Light goes on. Miranda sitting on an arm chair, staring at Frederick. Frederick: I hope you slept well. Miranda: [coldly and not violent] Where is this? Who are you? Why have you brought me here? Frederick: I can't tell you. Miranda: I demand to be released at once! This is monstrous! [both keep staring at each other] Get out of the way. I'm going to leave. [walks straight towards Frederick, towards the cellar door] [Frederick not moving, Miranda gets close to him] Get out of the way. Frederick: You can't go yet. Please don't oblige me to use force again. Miranda: [fierce look to Frederick] I don't know who you think I am. If you think I'm somebody's rich daughter and you're going to get a huge ransom, you've got a shock coming. Frederick: I know who you are. It's not money. [expression to show that he did not know what to say], [excited, nervous], [Miranda staring at him], [funny
Comment on the dramatic significance of any three scenes in Hamlet.
Q. Comment on the dramatic significance of any three scenes in Hamlet. Act 1 Scene 1 Act 3 Scene 2 Act 5 Scene 2 Ans. Shakespeare's tragedies revolve around a person of social or intellectual status whose life is ruined by one great mistake or a tragic flaw. Hamlet reveals Shakespeare's gift for dramatic characterization and brilliant poetic imagery. Shakespeare truly understands the human mind and sympathises with the problems an individual faces. This he does through his powerful language and striking visual imagery. Shakespeare wrote the play around the turn of the 17th century Elizabethan London was full of intellectual and artistic ideas, Hamlet is probably one of Shakespeare's most studied and popular plays. Loosely based on Danish history, the play most likely has its origins in Histories Tragiques. The atmosphere was politically turbulent and dangerous. When Shakespeare wrote Hamlet he was already very experienced and a master of poetic techniques and stagecraft. He began to attempt radical new ways of engaging his audience. Hamlet's popularity is due to his artistic exuberance, rich and varied incidents, characters and language. We observe Hamlet's decoration of love for Horatio and his friend's tender fare well. Shakespeare's heroes have preoccupation with self and are introspective in nature. His tragic heroes are haunted by their conscience seeking their
Look again at Act one in both texts (The Tempest and Translations') ; compare and contrast the two plays especially in regard to language and communication. Bear in mind the unit is entitled 'Broken Communication'.
Look again at Act one in both texts; compare and contrast the two plays especially in regard to language and communication. Bear in mind the unit is entitled 'Broken Communication'. 'The Tempest' begins with a enormous storm and signifies a great change for the people of the island, but we do not learn until later on in the play that it is Prospero who has caused the storm so that the characters on the ship will be brought to the island. The opening scene is very dramatic and shows the inner turmoil and change that will occur for the characters involved, whereas it is also quite confusing for the audience as we are not aware of what significance the storm has, and what has caused it until later. Characters run frantically about in this scene and we are unaware of their purpose; the audience is not communicated well at the beginning as we are left uninformed of the situation. Just as in 'Translations' where there is also a lack of communication as Manus is trying to get Sarah to talk but as she is unable to talk she cannot express her feelings and thought to him clearly and so the communication between the two has been broken. Manus says, "Soon you'll be telling me all the secrets that have been in that head of yours all these years". When Prospero tells Miranda the story of where he came from and how he used to be the Duke of Milan but was usurped by his brother, he asks
How does Hamlet present its female characters
How does Hamlet present its female characters? Hamlet is said to be one of the most discussed works of literature in the world. Shakespeare has generally presented strong women in his plays; for example Lady Macbeth, Portia and Rosaline. This may have been influenced by his personal life, as his wife Ann Hathaway, was eight years his senior. However the women in Hamlet have weaknesses, both Gertrude and Ophelia show compassion and neither are ruthless in their attitudes and actions, however ruthlessness is not always a strength in women. Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's most complicated characters, but ironically he sees no complexity in the people around him especially the female characters of this play. Hamlet's complexity makes him a very interesting character and this reflects upon the rest of the play, giving it grounds to be one of the most discussed works of literature ever, this also reflects in the way Shakespeare presents the other characters to us. Hamlet sees his mother, Gertrude, from the beginning of the play as no more than an adulteress, but I believe that these views are a result of jealousy of Claudius. In his first soliloquy he remarks more upon his mother's new marriage than the recent death of his father and I think that it is not his father's death which has affected him but the remarriage of his mother to his uncle; "Would have mourn'd longer, - married
Hamlet - Key Themes
Hamlet might well claim to be Shakespeare's most famous play because of its language and the charm of its central character. Shakespeare wrote some thirty-eight plays. Taken individually, several of them are among the world's finest written works, taken collectively, they establish Shakespeare as the foremost scholarly talent of his own Elizabethan Age. The play "Hamlet" is one of the most well-known revenge tragedies of the world. The play revolves around the themes of revenge. Shakespeare is one of the most respected and inspiring writers in the field of English Literature and several of his works have been widely adored. Even though the background of the play is Denmark, it's concepts and concerns are about Elizabethan England. Shakespeare through this play establishes into the reader, the essence of good and bad, right and wrong, and teaches us to distinguish between one's appearances and his true realism. Hamlet, is essentially a philosophical scholar who avoids indulging in any kind of action. Hamlet, being a scholar also shows an understanding of the essence of a complete man. He shows a vivid understanding on the subject and defines the Divinity in man when he exclaims, "What a piece of work is man." Shakespeare has given plentiful descriptions of Hamlet's madness. Even though his madness is "crafty" it has been formed of disjointed thoughts leading to a disjointed
It can be argued that the central concern of King Lear is the nature of a particular form of evil: anger. Aristotle defined anger as: ... an impulse
The central concern of tragedy has always been to explore the nature of evil in the world; both its existence and the nature of particular types of evil and their effect. If we are to find the meaning of Shakespeare's tragedies, we must examine how men looked at the problem of evil in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Much of the philosophy which under-pinned the English Renaissance can be traced to the ideas of Aristotle. It can be argued that the central concern of King Lear is the nature of a particular form of evil: anger. Aristotle defined anger as: ... an impulse, accompanied by pain, to a conspicuous revenge for a conspicuous slight directed without justification towards what concerns oneself or towards what concerns one's friends. Aristotle argued that anger always arises from injured self-esteem, from some slight inflicted upon the individual directly or indirectly, there being three kinds of slighting possible: contempt; spite; and insolence. Since a man expects to be respected by his inferiors, he expects those to respect him to whom he is superior in birth, capacity goodness or anything else. Furthermore, he expects those whom he has treated well, as well as those whom he is now treating well, to respect him. According to Aristotle, then, the man who is slighted by those who he thinks ought to respect him and feel grateful toward him is the more easily
Compare the way in which Shakespeare presents Hamlet's 'antic disposition' to the way Ophelia's madness is presented to us in Act IV.
Compare the way in which Shakespeare presents Hamlet's 'antic disposition' to the way Ophelia's madness is presented to us in Act IV. In Hamlet, Shakespeare incorporates a theme of madness with two characters: one truly mad, and one only acting mad to serve a motive. To be able to compare true madness with feigned madness, we must first understand the term 'madness'. The Oxford English Dictionary defines madness as 'mentally ill or deranged, having a disordered mind, a person acting wildly or foolishly.' Minski's book of psychiatry defines madness as 'a mental deficiency or sub-normality where the patient is handicapped by an intellect of intelligence that is inadequate for the ordinary needs of everyday life.' It goes on to say that 'as with other illnesses, patients with mental illnesses have symptoms. They include phobias, apprehensions, suicidal feelings, insomnia, and loss of intellect, loss of energy, unpleasant delusions and hallucinations.' With these definitions, we can now analyse the disposition of both Hamlet and Ophelia and have an informed view of the differences and similarities that arise between the two characters. Hamlet's so called madness begins near the beginning of the play, far sooner than Ophelia's insanity. It begins when he encounters the ghost of his father, and learns that Claudius murdered his father. The ghost asks to speak to Hamlet alone,
