Hamlet again :: essays research papers

panorama i The play opens in the breathless of dark on the walls of Elsinore Castle. Gloom, uncertainty and anxiety hang over the kingdom of Denmark, the low words spoken coming as the sentinels challenge, "Whos there?" In ill-judged order we l pinnulen from the guard of the night watch that the long-time mogul of Denmark, " experienced village" or "Ur-Hamlet," died mysteriously just two months earlier, that his sidekick, Claudius, has taken the throne, and that Claudius has get married the dead kings wife, Queen Gertrude. The members of the watch, including Prince Hamlets loyal friend Horatio, are further appall over the recent appearance of a ghost who resembles Hamlets late father, and they designing to tell Hamlet about this disturbing apparition. (Jump to the text of Act I, Scene i)Scene ii The play now shifts to the royal court of tycoon Claudius and his new wife, Queen Gertrude, as we first see Hamlets uncle dealing competently with affair s of state. In this, he is advised by his chief counselor, Polonius, and the King has a cordial exchange with his ministers son, Laertes. Hamlet, however, remains in the background, a gloomy figure muttering resentful asides. Claudius rejects Hamlets request to return to college at Wittenberg, and urges him to desert his "unmanly" mourning for his father. When the royal entourage departs, Hamlet speaks a soliloquy about his resentments toward his stepfather, his mother, and their incestuous marriage. Horatio and his cohorts arrive and tell the prince about the ghost they induct seen. Hamlet vows to observe it himself. (Jump to the text of Act I, Scene ii)Scene triadThe scene is comprised of an exchange among Polonius, his son Laertes and his daughter, Ophelia. The young maiden Ophelia reveals to her father and brother that Prince Hamlet is "madly" in love with her. Both Polonius and Laertes strongly condemn her about any romance with a prince of the realm, parti cularly one who seems to be mentally unbalanced. (Jump to the text of Act I, Scene iii)Scenes iv-v Back at the walls of the castle, the tint of Hamlets father speaks to his son directly and urges him to follow him to a one-on-one encounter. Hamlet has misgivings, but he obeys and the ghost then confirms that he is, in fact, the dead King. He also discloses that he was the victim of a murder, that Claudius poured poison into his ear while he was asleep.