The Opening Scene of Shakespeares Play Hamlet - Essay Example

?Hamlet Paper. 4. In retrospect, the reader often discovers that the first chapter, the opening scene of a drama introduces some major themes of the work. Write an essay about the opening scene of Hamlet and explain how it functions in this way. The opening scene of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Prince of Denmark seems, at first sight, to be a very slow and somewhat irrelevant prelude to the real action which follows. The main hero, who gives his name to the play, does not even appear in this scene, and the characters who do appear, are mainly low status soldiers. The scene directions at the very start of the play describe the setting as “Elsinore. A platform before the castle” (Act I, Scene 1, opening directions). This setting emphasizes the exclusion of the people in this scene from the important and royal people who are tucked up inside the castle. It is as if the author is leading the audience gently up to the castle from a long distance and forcing them to pause and reflect on the time and place before tackling the main characters and plot. As the scene develops, however, it gradually becomes clear that this opening scene is setting down some markers for what is to come. It does this by drawing attention to three main themes which are: loyalty to the monarch, the difference between fantasy and reality, and the dread of some impending but unknown evil. The opening lines of the play are evidently an exchange between two guards, Bernardo and Francisco, who are changing places because it is time for one to finish his shift, and the other one to start. They speak to each other robustly and yet also respectfully, and it is clear that they both are in service to a monarch since Bernardo shouts out “Long live the king!” (Act I, Scene 1, line 3) as a means of identifying who he is. Both Bernardo and Francisco define themselves by their duty of loyalty to the king, and although they take their jobs seriously, it seems to be a life of hardship, because Francisco complains of the cold and of the fact that he is “sick at heart.” (Act I, Scene 1, line 8). This same declaration of loyalty to the king is repeated when Horatio and Marcellus appear, declaring that they are “friends to this ground/And liegemen to the Dane.” (Act I, Scene 1, line 8). The Dane is a reference to the king of Denmark, since kings were often referred to simply with the name of the country they ruled, and it is Shakespeare’s way of making it clear to the audience that the action takes place in this foreign country of Denmark. The loyalty of these men to the Danish throne is not in the least questioned but an element of doubt creeps in when it becomes clear that the ghostly apparition in front of them is “In the same figure, like the king that’s dead” (Act I, Scene 1, line 41). This reference informs the audience that there has been a recent changeover in the kingship, and that the soldiers have not yet adjusted to the new king’s reign. Bernardo says “Looks it not like the king?” (Act 1, Scene 1, line 43) and does not use a phrase like “the old king”, or “the former king”. This suggests he is still loyal to the old king and thinks of him automatically as the rightful monarch. The soldiers ask Horatio, who is addressed as a scholar, meaning that he has more education and status than the ordinary soldiers, to speak to the ghostly figure, and Horatio too, reveals his fondness and respect for the dead king, whom he refers to “the majesty of buried Denmark.” (Act I, Scene 1, line 48). In this case the usage drives home the message that if the fate of the whole country is tied up with the fate of the king. This little exchange injects an element of suspense into the scene, because the audience is bound to be wondering what happened to the old king, and who is now ruling Denmark in his place. These questions are left hanging in the air, so that the whole topic of kingship acquires an aura of uncertainty. Further information about the dead king is given by Horatio, who presumably knew him, and fought with him perhaps on the battlefield, because he remembers the armor that he wore in wars with the Norwegians and the Poles. Horatio fills in the history of “our last king” (Act I, Scene 1, line 80), and describes the potential danger from the son of a man whom the old king killed in battle. This son, called “young Fortinbras” is described as being “Of unimproved mettle, hot and full” (Act I, Scene 1, lines 95-96), and busy putting together a rag-tag army in Norway, with which to exact revenge on the house of Hamlet. The scene therefore sketches out what a precarious position the new king now is in, and by implication also the whole land of Denmark, and interprets the ghost as a relic of the old king’s protective presence, sent to encourage the soldiers in their vigilance. In this reading, from the point of view of the soldiers, there is continuity between the generations of kings, and this is a positive message. The soldiers set up a whole series of unvoiced questions about the current king Claudius, who is not mentioned by name in the scene, but emerges later as the villain of the piece. This is an instance where silence speaks louder than words, because one would normally expect due reference to the reigning king, but the soldiers do not give him that respect. They gloss over his existence and speak only of the old king, and the old king’s son, both of whom are called Hamlet. Given this connection, it is possible to read the title of the play in two ways: one of them referring to the tragedy of the young, fatherless Hamlet who has lost his inheritance to Claudius, and the other of them to the old king Hamlet, who cannot rest in his grave because of the injustice done to him by that same Claudius. The loyalty of the soldiers appears to shift from the old king directly to the young Hamlet, since they resolve to go and inform him about the appearance of his father’s Ghost, rather than inform the current king. This is a clue that Hamlet is the rightful king, and not Claudius, his uncle. The soldiers appear to believe that the rightful kingship will be restored, one way or another, and interpret the ghost as a good sign. This is not the only interpretation of what is happening on the battlements, however. The whole scene is imbued with uncertainty and questioning. This is no doubt due partly to the fact that the scene takes place at night, and so the characters cannot clearly see any approaching persons, or indeed ghosts. The soldiers refer to the ghost as “this thing” (line 21), “this dreaded sight” (line 25) and “this apparition” (line 28) because they are not too sure whether what they have seen is real or imaginary. The soldiers are genuinely afraid because they have sense a supernatural power at work and cannot understand it. The ghost is at one and the same time familiar, because it resembles their beloved king, and frightening, because it appears to come from beyond the grave. This supernatural element inspires both awe and fear. Horatio seems to think that it is all just their imagination because he reassures them saying “Tush, tush, ‘twill not appear.” (Act I, Scene 1, line 29) They embark on a retelling of their story, and this really does seem like a traditional ghost story, which everyone knows is fantasy, but which people tell each other to give each other a bit of an artificial shock, enjoying the feeling of fear as a form of entertainment. Horatio is a man of the world, and not easily shaken by the imaginings of castle guards. Shakespeare lets the audience get into this expectant frame of mind as Bernardo starts off his narrative in the traditional way with a description of the time and place when it happened, and the surrounding sights and sounds that are the backdrop to the action that will follow. The story which Bernardo tells, is interrupted with the entrance of the Ghost, however. This highlights the ghost’s unpredictable and uncontrollable nature and lets the audience know for sure that it is not just a figment of the men’s imagination. The men view this figure with a mixture of fear and wonder, and their emotions are only more confused when they realise that it does indeed resemble the dead king. The soldiers wonder what it is, but Horatio, who has more education, and certainly more experience of the world, speculates on what it means. From his point of view, as a noble participant in the life of the court, and a friend of Hamlet, the question of the Ghost’s nature is less of a problem. He accepts the evidence of his eyes without question, and his concern is that he wants to find out what its significance is. Using logical thinking skills, rather than emotional reactions, he guesses that if it really is an emanation from the past, and even perhaps the spirit of the dead king, then the best person to help work out the mystery is the young Hamlet. This common sense approach sets up the rest of the play’s action. It also usefully introduces the main character, Hamlet, and the key motivation for Hamlet’s behavior throughout the rest of the play. Horatio’s message ensures that Hamlet is encouraged to set out on a mission to follow up the suspicious elements in the death of his father and seek revenge. Horatio is the character who bridges the social distance between the lowly castle guards and the distracted young Prince Hamlet, and he helps the audience to understand the deeper significance of what is happening. The feeling of unease, and dread of approaching disaster, that this scene creates, starts even in the first words with Bernardo’s question into the dark: “Who’s there?” (Act I, Scene 1, line 1). He does not recognize Francisco, and later also he is not certain who Marcellus and Horatio are. The scene is full of questions, as the men wonder about the nature and purpose of the ghost. Horatio senses that there is a sinister purpose behind the Ghost’s appearance: “This bodes some strange eruption to our state.” (Act I, Scene 1, line 69) Horatio injects a level of symbolism into the scene when he interprets the crowing of the cock as a symbol that relates to the ancient, possibly pagan, celebration of the coming of the light. Marcellus embellishes it with a mention of the way that the crowing of the cock is linked in Christian symbolism with the moment of the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ. It is interesting that Shakespeare does not mention a much more common connotation of the cock crowing in Christian scriptures: the crowing of the cock is a clear reference to the denial of Jesus by his disciple Peter, and his ultimate betrayal and murder. It could be that Shakespeare uses this imagery consciously, and wants the audience to think of this parallel with betrayal for themselves, so that they are drawn into the mystery and start working on their own theories about what the Ghost means. Horatio agrees with Marcellus, but he has reservations since he says “So I have heard and do in part believe it.” (Act I, Scene 1, line 165). Horatio’s qualified agreement sets up a tension which is then carried on as the rest of the cast is introduced in the following scenes. The audience is therefore not sure whom to believe, and whether to interpret the appearance of the ghost as a comforting or worrying sign. The plan which was hatched on the ramparts, to bring news of the Ghost to Hamlet is followed up in the next scene, and once again, instead of a standard narrative of what the men saw, there is an unexpected twist: Hamlet pre-empts their story with visions of his own saying to Horatio “My father!- methinks I see my father!” (Act I, Scene 2, line 184) and when pressed, he then confesses that he sees in his mind’s eye. Hamlet confirms the feeling of dread and danger that the others felt before him, when he listens to the tale and concludes that all is not well and that there is some foul play at work. (Act I, Scene 2, lines 244-255) The very first scene of Shakespeare’s Hamlet turns out, therefore, not to have been an irrelevant preamble at all, but rather a subtle introduction to the forthcoming plot. It gives notice in subtle ways that this will be a tale of murdered kings and a struggle for rightful succession, and it will involve ghostly fore-warnings, and increasing fear and dread as the sins of Claudius work themselves out on the whole royal family. What appears to be real and true, turns out to be dastardly and false. The plot unfolds as a resolution of the mystery, which reveals the criminal acts of the current king, but does not in the end bring the young Prince Hamlet to his rightful place on the throne, and this unhappy ending is what makes the play a tragedy. All of the fundamental tensions of the first scene are resolved: the loyalty question with regard to the Hamlet family is answered by removal of them all and the installation of young Fortinbras on the throne; the tension between fantasy and reality is eased because the ghost presumably rests more easily now that Claudius has been punished by death in his turn, and the dread of future evil is removed since Fortinbras sits unchallenged and secure at the start of a new phase in the history of the Kingdom of Denmark. [2312 words] References Shakespeare, W. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In S. Lawall and M. Mack (Eds.), The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Volume C. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001, pp. 2828-2918. Read More