Evaluate the effectiveness of scene 1 in Hamlet, as an opening to the play

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English Coursework                March 2008

Evaluate the effectiveness of scene 1 in Hamlet, as an opening to the play

The play Hamlet was written in 1601 by William Shakespeare and is possibly one of the most popular revenge tragedies of all time. Hamlet strongly follows the conventions used in most revenge tragedies and consists of a secret murder, ghost visitation, plotting, madness, violence and catastrophe. However, Shakespeare makes Hamlet distinctive by diverting it from the typical revenge tragedy tradition and asking lots of moral and ethical questions. The story consists of the murder of Hamlet’s father, King Hamlet by his brother Claudius, who after killing his brother marries his brother’s wife Gertrude and takes the throne. The play then follows Hamlet trying to prove his uncle’s crime and getting his revenge on him.

During Elizabethan times, revenge tragedies were incredibly common and many people would go to watch them in the theatre. As Hamlet is a play, and was first seen on a stage it would have had to have been dramatic and exciting to entice the audience. In Elizabethan theatre, there was generally just a bare stage with no props, or artificial lighting. There were also no female actors and all plays would have been performed in the daytime. Therefore, it is important for the opening scene of Hamlet to be effective as although the play starts at midnight, it would have been performed in broad daylight. Thus, we must ask the question does Shakespeare make this play good theatre?

To begin with, we must look at the very beginning of scene one. The scene starts at midnight with a guard, Francisco, at his post and another guard, Bernardo goes up to him. The dark atmosphere is introduced when Bernardo says “Who’s there?” instead of Francisco saying it. Having two professional soldiers acting very twitchy and nervous and getting their lines muddled is a very effective way of beginning the play. Under ordinary circumstances the guard on duty would challenge the person approaching, but instead the dialogue is reversed. The tension is then increased when both soldiers have a conversation consisting of incredibly short responses. Shakespeare also makes the introductory scene tense by splitting the iambic pentameter between two characters to suggest urgency and speed up the flow as though the speakers are finishing each others lines

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“HORATIO         Friends to this ground

MARCELLUS                                 And liegemen to the Dane”

On stage the lines would have been said straight after each other increasing the speed of the dialogue and creating a sense of anxiety.

The Ghost also plays a large part in making the first scene effective. The play starts with many hints about the Ghost which the audience would pick up as a forewarning of something strange going on. The characters describe the Ghost as a “dreaded sight” and an “apparition” to create a sense of there being something unknown and also add to the ...

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