Hamlet Act 1

Christine Witmer
12-1
Hamlet, Act 1 Analysis

The tragedy of “Hamlet” does not take very long to get off the ground, even in the start of Act 1. I believe Shakespeare chose to begin his play in this way so he could immediately capture the attention of the audience. Back in Shakespeare’s time, the theatre was not as it is today. With the poor people crammed into the hot, cramped space before the stage, standing, it was probably easy for them to be distracted. By starting the play with the appearance of a ghost, the reader (or watcher) is automatically thrown into the kingdom of Denmark and the interesting turn of events that the members of the palace are going through.
Shakespeare also requires the audience to pay total attention to the play by making it as complex as possible. Not only does Hamlet feel sad about the recent death of his father, but he is angry with his uncle and mother, even though he seems to truly love his mother. On top of that, his love interest, Ophelia, is being encouraged by her father and brother to stay as far away from Hamlet as possible. All of this is combined with the recent appearance of the ghost of Hamlet’s father. If this play was just a simple plot, the audience would quickly loose interest. Shakespeare knows exactly how to work the crowd to now allow them to loose interest for the duration of the performance.
In conclusion, Shakespeare was such a great story teller that he has the ability to keep people entertained, even for the total length of the play, which I believe is about four hours. For this reason, Shakespeare is one of the greatest literary masters of our time.