Hamlet Coursework

At the begining of the play, we find Denmark at war with Norway and a kingodm mourning over the death of the king, Old Hamlet. Brother of the previous king, Claudius, now rules the kingdom after marrying Old Hamlets wife, Gertrude not even two months after the death. This war creates a tense atmosphere, the guards seem nervous and it almost seems as if the new king is unable to run a kingodm properly as the guards do not even know if the norweigians have infiltrated the castle. 'Who's there?', this quote is an example of just how unaware the guards are and as it is the first line in the play we get the feeling that the norwegians could be in the castle at any minute. Act one scene one shows Bernardo and Francisco on a gun platform on the battlements of the castle, disussing how quiet and cold it is, that is until Horatio shows up and Marcellus show up to talk about the ghost. They become doubtful of seeing the ghost again and seem afraid of it, 'Tis but our fantasy'. Few people trust the new king, which sends the kingdom into a sense of panic and worry as instead of planning for war the new king only has partying on his mind. As well as having fun, Claudius seems to act in a suspicous way, calling Hamlet unmanly for mourning so long aswell as insulting him one minute, and the next praising him for being noble and asks Hamlet to think of Claudius as a father, which makes the audience see the new king as manipulativeand cruel. Hamlet is sent into a rage and compares how Old Hamlet was Hyperion in comparison to Claudius who is called a satyr. In Hamlets first sololoquy, we see early on how Hamlet is feeling. Hamlet is depressed and shows his disgust about his mothers hasty marrige, noting how the shoes gertruede wore to his fathers funeral were not worn out before her marriage to Claudius. Hamlet also explains how deseriable sucide is, wishing his skin to 'melt', but suicide is a sin. This urge for suicide shows the audience that the death is better than living with such pain. When Hamlet and the ghost meet, the ghost uses assonance, 'That incestous, adulterate beast, with witchcraft of his wit, traitorous gifts, o wicked wit and gifts'. The impact of assonance gives the ghost a more frightening image and would come across as more of a dangerous, powerful character. Disregarding of the danger of the ghost, Hamlet feels obliged to follow it because it claims the appearence of his dead father and Hamlet is eager for answers and he has nothing to lose. The guards however do not seem as brave and try to disuade Hamlet from following it '...It may tempt you towards the flood, my lord...' The ghost is neither good nor evil, but because of the earlier comparision to a Hyperion, some may see the ghost as more good than evil. However, the ghost later asks for revenge and is perhaps not as good as Hamlet expained. Like Hamlet, the ghost is also in pain 'Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night' suggesting that although technically dead, the ghost (if it is Old Hamlet) is still alive and wishes to

rest. There is an example of dramatic irony when Hamlet finds it was murder which was the cause of Old Hamlets death, this is used to keep the audience in suspence. Later on Hamlet demands Horatio and Marcellues not to reveal what happened and are made to promise not to know of any future strange behaviour by Hamlet.

Alex Stokes