Act 1 - Scene Summaries

Act 1 - Scene Summaries

1. Act 1 Sc 1

   • two guards spot the dead King Hamlet's ghost whilst on watch on battlements of castle
   • superstition > context of elizabethan era and Christian audience
   • supernatural - present at outset as in most RT's > gradual release of information about ghost
   • eludes to corruption/something wrong in Denmark > foreboding
     • "this bodes some strange eruption of our state"
   • the guards (Hamlet's friends) deicde to tell Hamlet what they've seen

2. Act 1 Sc 2

   • starts with Claudius' grandeouse speech about his brother and then qucikly after the war with Norway
     • speech seems rehearsed/fake > fake grief?
     • fixes everyone he mentions with prefixes
     • continued use of 'we' or 'the Dane'(the Danish people) and talking for the Danes to descirbe his opinion/actions >
       • "our whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe"
   • trying to convince Hamlet to let his father's death go
   • relates to theme of discerning apperance from reality > whether actions of other are true > most prevelant at end when Horatio tells Hamlet about ghost
   • Hamlet implies Gertrude's greif = fake
     • "seems? I know not seems"
   • Hamlet agrees to stay home not go to uni > unhappy about it
   • Hamlet's first solliquy
     • complains about not being able to kill himself > religion doesn't allow it
       • talks about wanting not to exist so he doesn't have to see his mother's 'vile' incest
         • "melt/ thaw and resolve itself into dew" [about his physical being]
   • gets told by horatio about his dad's ghost and all agree to watch again for it that night

3. Act 1 Sc 3

   • Laertes' lecture to Ophelia on Hamlet and keeping her honour
     • said Hamlet only sees her as plaything
     • tone = rehearsed & belittling > doesn't let her talk > emphasises her female inferiority
     • Shakespeare uses blank verse over iambic pentameter > emphasises Laertes role of pragmatist who values correctness over feelings
       • shows contrast to Hamlet's speech > very lofty and heavy-hearted
         • scene also starts to show his similarities to Hamlet
   • Polonious lectures both Laertes and Ophelia
     • way he talks to Laertes shows obsession with social ettiquette
       • compare and contrrast to Claudius and Hamlet's interactions
     • way he talks to Ophelia = typical view of daughters/women > property
       • didn't see Hamlet marrying Ophelia (bringing money/power to family) so he tells her to stop seeing him
       • teases/twists everything Ophelia says > shows his view of her opinions as worthless
         • "Affection? Puh!"
         • "Do you believe these tenders as you call them?"
   • Opehlia's dillema = point of scene yet we don't see her being able to express her true feelings of Hamlet
     • remains dutiful daughter
       • I shall obey, my lord

4. Act 1 Sc 4

   • Hamlet, Marcellus and Horatio waiting on battlements for ghost as planned
   • hears trumpet sound
     • Hamlet comments bitterly on the King's revelry and drinking of wine
       • says how it makes Denmark a joke to other countries
         • says how people often judge a man of great power by his 'smallest mole of nature'
       • Hamlet showing his preoccupation with disparity of reality vs. appearance
         • New King seems great and powerful but has weakness for wine and revelry
   • Hamlet sees ghost
     • Hamlet doesn't know whether it's d fatherangerous or not but identifies it as his father
       • goes after it even after being warned against it by Horatio and Marcelus
       • "bring with thee airs from Heaven or blasts from Hell..."

5. Act 1 Sc 5

   • Ghost tells Hamlet he is father and is now cursed to walk Earth for a period of time
     • connotations to religous imagery > purgatory
       • "Till the foul crimes dome in my days of nature are burnt and purged away
   • tells Hamlet he must avenge murder before he will give any details
     • introduces Hamlet's moral dillema between keeping father's 'honour' through killing Claudius and his religous beliefs that it's wrong to kill
       • 'eye for an eye' would have seemed barbaric to Renassiance audience > Hamlet's inner conflict makes audience sympathetic
   • Old Hamlet tells story of Claudius killing him and seducing Queen
     • "adultours and incestuous beast!"
   • ghost leaves telling Hamlet to 'Remember me' after telling Hamlet to leave mother alone
     • "nor let thy soul contrive against thy mother aught"
   • Hamlet makes Horatio and Marcellus take an oath not tell anyone what they've seen
   • Ghost introduces itaelf with sympathy from Elixabethan audience > taken everything he has
   • murder of a king = alarming to Elizabethan audience > King= Divine Power on Earth > Henry VIII had put himself as Head of Chruch (God's rep)