1st act issues of Hamlet
What issues are introduced in the first act of Hamlet? The opening act of Hamlet is essential for the purposes of outlining the main issues or themes of the piece as well as revealing the plot, characters and mood of the play. Act I of Hamlet is successful in outlining all of these aspects. Most importantly Act one introduces many key issues of the play such as appearance versus reality or "playing roles", whether in fact the story is a revenge tragedy, clashes of certain people's ideas, problems that must be resolved in addition to the theme of action versus inaction. The quite centrally important of appearance versus reality is dealt with in Hamlet's first appearance on stage in scene two. Hamlet emerges, still dressed in his mourning clothes with a melancholy face while showing his contempt for Claudius to whom he directs many dry and sarcastic remarks. Gertrude asks Hamlet why it seems his fathers' death has troubled him for so long to which Hamlet replies "I have that within which passes show". Hamlet, by this statement implies that most people only pretend to grieve and do so by using "all forms, moods, shapes of grief...for they are actions a man might play". These people only ac
This type of thoughtfulness is evident in Act one for when old Hamlet's ghost tells young Hamlet that Claudius is the murderer Hamlet measures carefully in his mind the validity of the accusation instead of instantly going passionately forth to seek his revenge. This clash of ideas is so strong that it in fact acts as a stimulant for much of the action that follows in the play. He may have come to this conclusion by reasoning that ghosts are unnatural and only appear if they have unfinished business which proxies that something unnatural has already taken place. To start with it's hard to label Hamlet as a protagonist, and even harder to identify him as the hero of the play. Other than the fact that the play is set in Denmark rather than in a hot climate as most revenge tragedies are, there is not anything to outwardly suggest that the play is atypical of the style. Action versus inaction is a central theme to the play and therefore is an issue that Shakespeare introduces during the first act. The first scene presents at least two strong pre-monitions. We are told in the first act that a morally wrong act has been committed (in this case murder) and the protagonist of the play (Hamlet) is told to revenge that act and see what he can do to equal the prior crime. Problems are presented in addition to clashing ideals, central themes and a unique way of presenting and performing his chosen genre. Horatio believed in logic rather than ghosts for Marcellus tells of Horatio saying; 'tis but our fantasy, and will not let belief take hold of him". Hamlet has a distinct lack of resolve which most probably stems from his personality which is uncertain of everything that he becomes unable to commit to any type of action. t is if they are grieving and put on clothes for those meant to be in grief whereas Hamlet feels within what the outward appearance is suppose to inwardly symbolise. However, most of the first act is devoted to developing the series of unfortunate events that shape the woeful trap that Hamlet and those around him are to eventually stumble into. Shakespeare makes sure this is a main theme by making practically every character in the play guilty of this contradiction. After the third time the ghost has walked Horatio concludes that "This bodes some strange eruption to our state".
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