Discuss Shakespeare's use of context in Hamlet. What does it contribute to your understanding of the values presented by Shakespeare in the play?
             "Context": the range of personal, social, historical, cultural conditions in which a text is responded to and composed.
             "Values": To assign worth to a text
             Shakespeare's work often contains a variety of contexts and we will definitely find that these contexts are associated with the values present in Hamlet. The different contexts includes personal, social, cultural, political and spiritual. To understand these values we need to be constantly challenging ourselves with bright ideas about these concepts in Hamlet.
             With economy and grace Shakespeare sets his mood, introduces his major characters, presents his background information, begins his exploration of the play's major themes, and sets his plot, all within two short scenes. The only major plot strand not established in this section is that of Hamlet's relationship with Ophelia, who appears in the following scene. Other than that omission, the first two scenes introduce all the major strands that will occur throughout the play.
             Hamlet's inaction and procrastination is a main issue in the personal context. He intellectualises over what the right thing is and is not a man who yields to passion. Being a man of thought and reason his inactions are contrasted by Laertes' and Fortinbras' leadership qualities showing Shakespeare's value of action. Hamlet's father, the king of Denmark, has died suddenly. The dead king's brother, Claudius, marries Hamlet's mother and swiftly assumes the throne, a throne that Hamlet expected would be his upon the death of his father. Hamlet's father's ghost confronts Hamlet and tells him that his death was not natural, but instead was murder. Hamlet swears revenge. But rather than swoop instantly to that revenge, Hamlet pretends to be insane stil...