Hamlet (2)
Act I scene i
The imagined time span of this scene is four to five hours but it lasts about ten minutes on stage and is remarkably effective in atmosphere, introducing background facts and some themes. The nervous, anxious yet everyday tone of the exchanges of the guards as they speak of the cold contrasts with their concerns about the Ghost and its manifestation for which we have been carefully prepared. The difference between this world and the supernatural is therefore established from the start and pervades the whole play because of the potency of this scene on stage. The guards think that the Ghost might herald conflict between Denmark and Norway (here the political situation is sketched in) but we may sense that is is a warning of another kind of more personal turmoil as it resembles Hamlet's father. Another theme is appearance and reality which is also introduced here. The first few lines of the play are broken and abrupt and seem to be about much more than a change of watch even though the mention of a mouse is domesticated.
The Ghost has been seen before: "What, has this thing appeared again tonight" and the leitmotif of repetition of incidents and words has its first occurrence: firstly the trope of the mouse returns as Claudius calls Gertrude that nickname and Hamlet uses it for his play and secondly the Ghost will recall the original murder. There is conflict of opinion between the men over the apparition as the rational, sceptical scholar, Horatio, claims it is "fantasy". This doubt pre-empts ours and introduces the fact that current opinion was divided about spectres: the Ghost could be an illusion, a phantom seen as a portent of danger to the state; a spirit come from the grave because of something left undone; a soul come from Purgatory by divine permission or, importantly, a devil disguised as a dead person in order to lure the living into mortal sin. This latter is a real possibility and Hamlet must obtain proof before killing his uncle.
Now is the moment for the entrance of a Ghost which cannot speak until it is spoken to and Horatio is chosen as he could probably address it in appropriate Latin to exorcise it. The elder Hamlet was an admirable figure and a soldier so that the men think that he comes to warn of a return of an earlier war: they are anxious about what they ought to make of the event. There is twenty-four hour, seven days a week, preparation for battle and wordly concerns now dominate as the Ghost has not spoken and they must deduce the most likely explanation. The conflict between old Hamlet and his rival Fortinbras whom he killed (the motif of fathers and sons will recur throughout) had as its base a binding agreement and the loser was obliged to surrender his portion of land. Horatio's learned language is legally complex and may be problematic to follow on stage but it is clear that there is unfinished political business and that use of language is a pre-occupation of the drama. The young Fortinbras is collecting an army of adventurers to avenge his father and is to be a shadowy contrast to Hamlet in this theme of revenge. Denmark is threatened and Horatio believes this is the urgent reason for the military preparations, the re-arming and the careful watches: the Ghost is therefore "A mote ... to trouble the mind's eye", a speck of dust but still ominous, like the unnatural and horrific events presaging the assassination of Caesar, which even the scholar makes striking and frightening. The tumult in the world of man, the microcosm, is reflected in the universe, the macrocosm: there is a correspondence and relationship between them often giving rise to omens of disaster.
On the second entrance of the Ghost, Horatio is determined to "cross it" [cross its path] whatever the cost and reiterates: "Speak to me" but it remains silent. It could be a tormented spirit and so he offers "ease and grace" or it could know something of state affairs and so he begs it to give them warning to avoid trouble or it could have some treasure taken by force and hidden in the earth which it needs to reveal but nothing he says is effective. They are worried that they have angered it but it is more likely that the cock-crow recalled it and Marcellus fills in popluar beliefs about Christmas Day. This introduces a religious colour aa well as giving current beliefs and the passage of time during the scene. Horatio's speech about dawn with its personification and melodious poetry is equivalent to modern lighting effects and the scene ends with the decision to tell Hamlet to whom the Ghost will surely speak: this builds up tension which carries us through the next scene, indoors in the castle, and fixes the strange events on the battlements in our minds. It is a quiet but arresting opening and fills in the political backgound whilst introducing several themes, the main being the contrast between this world and the next.
Act I scene ii
This scene, with its long political and personal speeches is dominated by the memory of the Ghost on the battlements and the hero who is to meet it; the resulting suspense holds the audience through these discourses. It is a council meeting and Hamlet's displacement is obvious, hinting at but not developing the theme of usurpation of the throne. Claudius' first lines are conciliatory but contain a warning against overdone mourning : the language is elaborate with alliteration: "delight and dole", oxymoron and paradoxes: "defeated joy", "one auspicious and one drooping eye". The contrasts of mirth and sorrow, funeral and marriage point to his hypocritical reluctance to boast of his seduction of and wedding to "our sometime sister [in-law]". He stresses that he has been supported by the councillors, "Your better wisdoms", before moving on to foreign affairs. Young Fortinbras, having a weak opinion of the "worth" of Denmark's military strength has acted unilaterally, despite the "bands of law" of the treaty, to gather forces, believing the enemy to be preoccupied with internal matters; Claudius has therefore written to the sick uncle to intervene and prevent his going further with his intentions and sends messengers to Norway. Young Fortinbras is established as a fervent avenger and a loyal son and Claudius as an efficient ruler in a time of trouble.
The King then turns, not to Hamlet, who is usually seated in stage performance at a distance, but to Laertes with the informal "thou" suggesting affection and, aimiably, offers him permission for whatever he asks. There is another instance of the father and son theme when Polonius is mentioned and described, in courtly language, as close to the throne. Yet it is clearly a normal family relationship as the old man is reluctant to let his son return to France, which he left to attend the coronation. Laertes is a young man, sane in mind and having extrovert intentions.
By contrast, Hamlet, when finally approached as "cousin" [a term for any close relative] is melancholy and withdrawn, having as his first words a bitter pun: "A little more than kin but less that kind" [closer to you than mere relative because in one way you are now my father but not kindly in feeling towards you]. Another pun that he is too much in the sun/son shows how out of tune he is with the court and makes us wonder how he will deal with the Ghost in this introverted mood. Already we sense him to be a complicated character, full of ambiguities and subtleties. His mother begs him to respond more cheerfully, ending with a banal commonplace: "all that live must die ..." He then picks up her word "seems" and stresses the honesty of his mourning and "inky cloak", using anaphora [repetition of the initial word of a line: "Nor"] to give his speech resonance and touching on the theme of acting a stage role: "a man might play". He is aware of and states the inexpressible intensity of his own inner mood: "that within which passeth show", the rhyme with "woe" emphasisng the claim.
Claudius' tone is at first placatory and persuasive as he rationally suggests that grief must have "some term" [period of time] but that it is natural for sons to lose fathers. He then changes tack with a "But" and rebukes Hamlet for "obstinate condolement" [sorrow] which refuses to restrain itself and his language becomes harsher and more critical: "impious", "unmanly", unfortified", "unschooled", "peevish opposition", "fault", "absurd" - the list is long. The manner and content are severe but do cause the audience to ask if Hamlet's grief is excessive and if there may be another explanation, which we soon come to realise is the shamefulness of his mother's behaviour rather than the death of his father or usurpation. Claudius makes sure he knows he is "the most immediate to our throne" and promises him a father's love as he needs to be careful about retaining the support of the court and prevent Hamlet starting a faction against him. The speech serves its purpose as we need to realise that it is an unfit Hamlet who is to meet the Ghost. Neither the King nor Queen wishes him to return to university but it is his mother's plea that wins: "I shall in all my best obey you, madam" [in the way I think best]. His surrender is not therefore a "gentle and unforced accord" but Claudius, the consummate politician, takes it for the trigger of a celebration despite the fact that behind all this is the fact that marriage with a deceased husband's brother was not permitted without a special dispensation. He uses any opportunity to cover up his sins.
The first of the four great soliloquies: "O, that this too too solid flesh would melt" shows Hamlet's disgusted and depressed state of mind before meeting his father's Ghost. He wishes he could commit suicide and sees the world as a post-lapsarian garden full of weeds and its activities as "weary, stale, flat and unprofitable". The vision of "things rank and gross in nature" seems connected with the shameless speed of his mother's marriage to such an unworthy man. He idealises his father, a Hyperion, and the love between him and his wife in an unrealistic hyperbole, claiming that he would not allow the winds to "Visit her face too roughly." He generalises from this that all women are frail and this extension is later apparent in his treatment of Ophelia. His mother's hypocrisy shocks him and her lack of mourning, marrying beforen her tears were finished, puts her lower than a beast. He is obsessed with the physicality and sexuality of the affair and stresses the "incestuous sheets", ending with the simple, almost monosyllabic: "It is not nor it cannot come to good" which lingers in our minds as a prophecy of tragedy. It is important to note that he does not yet know of the adultery or the murder: the hasty re-marriage of his mother has been sufficient to cause this psychic collapse. Although this is not explained overtly, we recognise through the language, imagery, broken syntax and variety of sentence forms indicating powerful emotion that he is suffering from: a fixation about his mother's behaviour; a sense that all he believed in has been destroyed; a nausea and disenchantment with life in general and with women in particular; an unsettled mind and soul which means that his later madness is not wholly an act.
His eyes are, presumably, filled with tears as he does not immediately recognise his old friend, Horatio, but he recovers himself and we have a glimpse of Hamlet as he must have been when his life was normal: a student, courteous, warm, sociable, intelligent and quick-witted. It is a problem in tragedy to show the hero as he was before the fall as only can then the dimensions of the collapse be appreciated. His loyalty will not allow Horatio to call himself a "truant" and instantly draws the men's attention to the Danish court's habit of drunkeness: he later refers to this as "a custom/More honoured in the breach than in the observance" (I,iii,16) [a habit which would be more honourable if it were neglected than if it is observed]. He mentions it here as an example of the impropriety and shamefulness of the Head of State and his entourage and his tone is bitter when he corrects Horatio: "I think it was to see my mother's wedding." The domestic detail of the use of the cold meats is savage and sarcastic as if economy took precedence over decorum. His obsession cannot be concealed and he can visualise his father, a statement which unnerves and startles Horatio. The emphasis in the simple, monosyllabic sentence: "He was a man, take him for all in all" [considering everything, even his faults, he had the essential attributes of a good man] introduces one of the main themes of the drama, a definition of what is a man and what makes a man honourable. When he says he will not see his like again, he gives Horatio his opening to speak of the Ghost, which he does, straightforwardly yet gently. He asks Hamlet to "Season [his] admiration for a while" [moderate his amazement] so that he can give a factual and correct account with all the necessary details. This description has the further dramatic function of reminding us of the weird apparition in the middle of scenes concerning the court and of filling in anything we may have missed. The night was huge and empty: "dead vast" and the Ghost armed from head to foot, "cap-a-pe" for battle; it is the soldier father that is stressed and he changes tense to the present at "appears" as the recollection grows more striking in his mind - yet he continues to be as objective as a typical scholar could. He is not without emotion as he recreates the men's fear on the first occasions and his own role, accepting fully that this was Hamlet's father: "these hands are not more like" - he does know how the father looked in life.
Hamlet, though troubled by the tale, checks on the information and asks rational and relevant questions testing any loop-hole, such as whether or not they saw the face but is satisfied when they say that the spectre has its "beaver" up [the movable part of helmet]. Horatio feels it is their duty "writ down" [prescribed] to inform Hamlet, who is finally convinced by the detail and accuracy. He is not so much enquiring into his friend's trustworthiness but wondering about ghosts in general and why this phenomenon should happen. His speech has a characteristic pattern of repetition: "Very like, very like" and his alert curiosity keeps bringing further questions to his mind. The disagreement between the men as to how long the Ghost stayed adds realism; in such a mood of amazement and fear there would not be accord as to how far one could count during its presence. Hamlet is now desperate to meet the spirit to discover the truth and its motive for appearing here: he will speak to it "though hell itself should gape", an apposite image as the place of damned souls was often pictured as inside a monstrous mouth. Part of his disquiet, as we have seen, is the necessity for silence and he begs them to continue to keep the matter secret even while they dwell on it mentally: "Give it an understanding, but no tongue"; he needs help from trusted friends in the matter although he is in control and efficient in handling the news, despite his troubled soul. Affectionately and gratefully, he bids them farewell and makes arrangements for the meeting, which holds us in suspense throughout the next scene. When alone, he gives vent to his sense that the appearance of the Ghost in armour means there has been "foul play" and is impatient but able to contain himself whilst waiting to investigate. The idea that "Foul deeds will rise" despite all attempts to conceal them is a powerful theme in this play and in Greek drama: there is a hidden evil in the state, not merely in the household, and it will be revealed by providential means before it can be eradicated.
Continue to Hamlet page 3 by clicking here
To go to the Home Page with list of other texts click here
Act I scene i
The imagined time span of this scene is four to five hours but it lasts about ten minutes on stage and is remarkably effective in atmosphere, introducing background facts and some themes. The nervous, anxious yet everyday tone of the exchanges of the guards as they speak of the cold contrasts with their concerns about the Ghost and its manifestation for which we have been carefully prepared. The difference between this world and the supernatural is therefore established from the start and pervades the whole play because of the potency of this scene on stage. The guards think that the Ghost might herald conflict between Denmark and Norway (here the political situation is sketched in) but we may sense that is is a warning of another kind of more personal turmoil as it resembles Hamlet's father. Another theme is appearance and reality which is also introduced here. The first few lines of the play are broken and abrupt and seem to be about much more than a change of watch even though the mention of a mouse is domesticated.
The Ghost has been seen before: "What, has this thing appeared again tonight" and the leitmotif of repetition of incidents and words has its first occurrence: firstly the trope of the mouse returns as Claudius calls Gertrude that nickname and Hamlet uses it for his play and secondly the Ghost will recall the original murder. There is conflict of opinion between the men over the apparition as the rational, sceptical scholar, Horatio, claims it is "fantasy". This doubt pre-empts ours and introduces the fact that current opinion was divided about spectres: the Ghost could be an illusion, a phantom seen as a portent of danger to the state; a spirit come from the grave because of something left undone; a soul come from Purgatory by divine permission or, importantly, a devil disguised as a dead person in order to lure the living into mortal sin. This latter is a real possibility and Hamlet must obtain proof before killing his uncle.
Now is the moment for the entrance of a Ghost which cannot speak until it is spoken to and Horatio is chosen as he could probably address it in appropriate Latin to exorcise it. The elder Hamlet was an admirable figure and a soldier so that the men think that he comes to warn of a return of an earlier war: they are anxious about what they ought to make of the event. There is twenty-four hour, seven days a week, preparation for battle and wordly concerns now dominate as the Ghost has not spoken and they must deduce the most likely explanation. The conflict between old Hamlet and his rival Fortinbras whom he killed (the motif of fathers and sons will recur throughout) had as its base a binding agreement and the loser was obliged to surrender his portion of land. Horatio's learned language is legally complex and may be problematic to follow on stage but it is clear that there is unfinished political business and that use of language is a pre-occupation of the drama. The young Fortinbras is collecting an army of adventurers to avenge his father and is to be a shadowy contrast to Hamlet in this theme of revenge. Denmark is threatened and Horatio believes this is the urgent reason for the military preparations, the re-arming and the careful watches: the Ghost is therefore "A mote ... to trouble the mind's eye", a speck of dust but still ominous, like the unnatural and horrific events presaging the assassination of Caesar, which even the scholar makes striking and frightening. The tumult in the world of man, the microcosm, is reflected in the universe, the macrocosm: there is a correspondence and relationship between them often giving rise to omens of disaster.
On the second entrance of the Ghost, Horatio is determined to "cross it" [cross its path] whatever the cost and reiterates: "Speak to me" but it remains silent. It could be a tormented spirit and so he offers "ease and grace" or it could know something of state affairs and so he begs it to give them warning to avoid trouble or it could have some treasure taken by force and hidden in the earth which it needs to reveal but nothing he says is effective. They are worried that they have angered it but it is more likely that the cock-crow recalled it and Marcellus fills in popluar beliefs about Christmas Day. This introduces a religious colour aa well as giving current beliefs and the passage of time during the scene. Horatio's speech about dawn with its personification and melodious poetry is equivalent to modern lighting effects and the scene ends with the decision to tell Hamlet to whom the Ghost will surely speak: this builds up tension which carries us through the next scene, indoors in the castle, and fixes the strange events on the battlements in our minds. It is a quiet but arresting opening and fills in the political backgound whilst introducing several themes, the main being the contrast between this world and the next.
Act I scene ii
This scene, with its long political and personal speeches is dominated by the memory of the Ghost on the battlements and the hero who is to meet it; the resulting suspense holds the audience through these discourses. It is a council meeting and Hamlet's displacement is obvious, hinting at but not developing the theme of usurpation of the throne. Claudius' first lines are conciliatory but contain a warning against overdone mourning : the language is elaborate with alliteration: "delight and dole", oxymoron and paradoxes: "defeated joy", "one auspicious and one drooping eye". The contrasts of mirth and sorrow, funeral and marriage point to his hypocritical reluctance to boast of his seduction of and wedding to "our sometime sister [in-law]". He stresses that he has been supported by the councillors, "Your better wisdoms", before moving on to foreign affairs. Young Fortinbras, having a weak opinion of the "worth" of Denmark's military strength has acted unilaterally, despite the "bands of law" of the treaty, to gather forces, believing the enemy to be preoccupied with internal matters; Claudius has therefore written to the sick uncle to intervene and prevent his going further with his intentions and sends messengers to Norway. Young Fortinbras is established as a fervent avenger and a loyal son and Claudius as an efficient ruler in a time of trouble.
The King then turns, not to Hamlet, who is usually seated in stage performance at a distance, but to Laertes with the informal "thou" suggesting affection and, aimiably, offers him permission for whatever he asks. There is another instance of the father and son theme when Polonius is mentioned and described, in courtly language, as close to the throne. Yet it is clearly a normal family relationship as the old man is reluctant to let his son return to France, which he left to attend the coronation. Laertes is a young man, sane in mind and having extrovert intentions.
By contrast, Hamlet, when finally approached as "cousin" [a term for any close relative] is melancholy and withdrawn, having as his first words a bitter pun: "A little more than kin but less that kind" [closer to you than mere relative because in one way you are now my father but not kindly in feeling towards you]. Another pun that he is too much in the sun/son shows how out of tune he is with the court and makes us wonder how he will deal with the Ghost in this introverted mood. Already we sense him to be a complicated character, full of ambiguities and subtleties. His mother begs him to respond more cheerfully, ending with a banal commonplace: "all that live must die ..." He then picks up her word "seems" and stresses the honesty of his mourning and "inky cloak", using anaphora [repetition of the initial word of a line: "Nor"] to give his speech resonance and touching on the theme of acting a stage role: "a man might play". He is aware of and states the inexpressible intensity of his own inner mood: "that within which passeth show", the rhyme with "woe" emphasisng the claim.
Claudius' tone is at first placatory and persuasive as he rationally suggests that grief must have "some term" [period of time] but that it is natural for sons to lose fathers. He then changes tack with a "But" and rebukes Hamlet for "obstinate condolement" [sorrow] which refuses to restrain itself and his language becomes harsher and more critical: "impious", "unmanly", unfortified", "unschooled", "peevish opposition", "fault", "absurd" - the list is long. The manner and content are severe but do cause the audience to ask if Hamlet's grief is excessive and if there may be another explanation, which we soon come to realise is the shamefulness of his mother's behaviour rather than the death of his father or usurpation. Claudius makes sure he knows he is "the most immediate to our throne" and promises him a father's love as he needs to be careful about retaining the support of the court and prevent Hamlet starting a faction against him. The speech serves its purpose as we need to realise that it is an unfit Hamlet who is to meet the Ghost. Neither the King nor Queen wishes him to return to university but it is his mother's plea that wins: "I shall in all my best obey you, madam" [in the way I think best]. His surrender is not therefore a "gentle and unforced accord" but Claudius, the consummate politician, takes it for the trigger of a celebration despite the fact that behind all this is the fact that marriage with a deceased husband's brother was not permitted without a special dispensation. He uses any opportunity to cover up his sins.
The first of the four great soliloquies: "O, that this too too solid flesh would melt" shows Hamlet's disgusted and depressed state of mind before meeting his father's Ghost. He wishes he could commit suicide and sees the world as a post-lapsarian garden full of weeds and its activities as "weary, stale, flat and unprofitable". The vision of "things rank and gross in nature" seems connected with the shameless speed of his mother's marriage to such an unworthy man. He idealises his father, a Hyperion, and the love between him and his wife in an unrealistic hyperbole, claiming that he would not allow the winds to "Visit her face too roughly." He generalises from this that all women are frail and this extension is later apparent in his treatment of Ophelia. His mother's hypocrisy shocks him and her lack of mourning, marrying beforen her tears were finished, puts her lower than a beast. He is obsessed with the physicality and sexuality of the affair and stresses the "incestuous sheets", ending with the simple, almost monosyllabic: "It is not nor it cannot come to good" which lingers in our minds as a prophecy of tragedy. It is important to note that he does not yet know of the adultery or the murder: the hasty re-marriage of his mother has been sufficient to cause this psychic collapse. Although this is not explained overtly, we recognise through the language, imagery, broken syntax and variety of sentence forms indicating powerful emotion that he is suffering from: a fixation about his mother's behaviour; a sense that all he believed in has been destroyed; a nausea and disenchantment with life in general and with women in particular; an unsettled mind and soul which means that his later madness is not wholly an act.
His eyes are, presumably, filled with tears as he does not immediately recognise his old friend, Horatio, but he recovers himself and we have a glimpse of Hamlet as he must have been when his life was normal: a student, courteous, warm, sociable, intelligent and quick-witted. It is a problem in tragedy to show the hero as he was before the fall as only can then the dimensions of the collapse be appreciated. His loyalty will not allow Horatio to call himself a "truant" and instantly draws the men's attention to the Danish court's habit of drunkeness: he later refers to this as "a custom/More honoured in the breach than in the observance" (I,iii,16) [a habit which would be more honourable if it were neglected than if it is observed]. He mentions it here as an example of the impropriety and shamefulness of the Head of State and his entourage and his tone is bitter when he corrects Horatio: "I think it was to see my mother's wedding." The domestic detail of the use of the cold meats is savage and sarcastic as if economy took precedence over decorum. His obsession cannot be concealed and he can visualise his father, a statement which unnerves and startles Horatio. The emphasis in the simple, monosyllabic sentence: "He was a man, take him for all in all" [considering everything, even his faults, he had the essential attributes of a good man] introduces one of the main themes of the drama, a definition of what is a man and what makes a man honourable. When he says he will not see his like again, he gives Horatio his opening to speak of the Ghost, which he does, straightforwardly yet gently. He asks Hamlet to "Season [his] admiration for a while" [moderate his amazement] so that he can give a factual and correct account with all the necessary details. This description has the further dramatic function of reminding us of the weird apparition in the middle of scenes concerning the court and of filling in anything we may have missed. The night was huge and empty: "dead vast" and the Ghost armed from head to foot, "cap-a-pe" for battle; it is the soldier father that is stressed and he changes tense to the present at "appears" as the recollection grows more striking in his mind - yet he continues to be as objective as a typical scholar could. He is not without emotion as he recreates the men's fear on the first occasions and his own role, accepting fully that this was Hamlet's father: "these hands are not more like" - he does know how the father looked in life.
Hamlet, though troubled by the tale, checks on the information and asks rational and relevant questions testing any loop-hole, such as whether or not they saw the face but is satisfied when they say that the spectre has its "beaver" up [the movable part of helmet]. Horatio feels it is their duty "writ down" [prescribed] to inform Hamlet, who is finally convinced by the detail and accuracy. He is not so much enquiring into his friend's trustworthiness but wondering about ghosts in general and why this phenomenon should happen. His speech has a characteristic pattern of repetition: "Very like, very like" and his alert curiosity keeps bringing further questions to his mind. The disagreement between the men as to how long the Ghost stayed adds realism; in such a mood of amazement and fear there would not be accord as to how far one could count during its presence. Hamlet is now desperate to meet the spirit to discover the truth and its motive for appearing here: he will speak to it "though hell itself should gape", an apposite image as the place of damned souls was often pictured as inside a monstrous mouth. Part of his disquiet, as we have seen, is the necessity for silence and he begs them to continue to keep the matter secret even while they dwell on it mentally: "Give it an understanding, but no tongue"; he needs help from trusted friends in the matter although he is in control and efficient in handling the news, despite his troubled soul. Affectionately and gratefully, he bids them farewell and makes arrangements for the meeting, which holds us in suspense throughout the next scene. When alone, he gives vent to his sense that the appearance of the Ghost in armour means there has been "foul play" and is impatient but able to contain himself whilst waiting to investigate. The idea that "Foul deeds will rise" despite all attempts to conceal them is a powerful theme in this play and in Greek drama: there is a hidden evil in the state, not merely in the household, and it will be revealed by providential means before it can be eradicated.
Continue to Hamlet page 3 by clicking here
To go to the Home Page with list of other texts click here
