Presentation of Hamlet in Act 2 Scene 2 and 3 in William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Presentation of Hamlet in Act 2 Scene 2 and 3 in William Shakespeare's Hamlet

It is hard to determine the intentions of William Shakespeare when he

wrote "Hamlet" without looking at the social, historical and ethical

context in which it was conceived. From the cover notes found within

the 'Longman Literature' edition, we can deduce that it is

Shakespeare's most well known play and, written during the year 1602,

it was one of his later works. At this time, revenge was a very

popular theme for plays and there is evidence if this in the vast

number of plays about revenge that were written at the start of the

seventeenth century.

Throughout the play, Hamlet is shown as being a planner and this is

highlighted with his organisation of the dumb show and the play within

a play in act three, scene two. He gives the players clear

instructions as to the performance of the play, an adaptation of "The

murder of Gonzago" which Hamlet uses to try to prompt a reaction from

his Uncle, the king. At the end of the performance, Hamlet sees the

play as a success and he orders music, "Ah, ha! Come, some music…"

However, dramatic irony is used at this point because the audience can

see that Hamlet's plot has backfired because the king is "red with

choler" and although there is now no doubt that the king was

responsible for the unprovoked murder of Claudius, Hamlet's father,

Hamlet underestimates the extent of the King's anger and does not

realise the danger that he is in.

It is to my belief that William Shakespeare intended the seventeenth

century audiences to see Hamlet's ostensibly excessive planning as a

negative feature of his character beca...

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... society who an excessive amount of time thinking about matters that

would benefit most from a prompt reaction. Evidence for this becomes

apparent at the end of the play when many of the characters (including

Hamlet) die due to this particular trait; had Hamlet killed the king

sooner, he would not have slain Laertes who would not have killed him,

Ophelia would not have committed suicide and Gertrude would not have

been poisoned. Fortinbras is a direct contrast to Hamlet as he has a

much more 'direct' style of leadership. William Shakespeare emphasises

this with Fortinbras' army marching through Denmark on their way to

Poland and theoretically conquest and glory. The reality is, however,

that he is sending thousands of men to their deaths in the space of

time Hamlet is taking to engineer the death of just one man: Claudius.