Month: November 2015

‘The Dread of something after death’ is one of the lines from Hamlet’s soliloquy ‘to be or not to be.’ The phrase is about Hamlet’s fear of death and what comes after it. Just before this line, Hamlet was talking about how death would be a relief, which means now he is contradicting himself. This section is mainly about how Hamlet would welcome death, but he also fears it. He goes onto say that people’s own minds make them cowards. This is contradicting Hamlet himself as he is brave in body and mind, apart from when he lets his thoughts wonder to things such as death and destruction. Hamlet doesn’t seem to be able to decide how he feels about certain things which makes people think that he is insane.

Why was the play so rejected at the time?

This question lead to an enquiry which was found to disprove the statement in the question as the play Titus Andronicus was very popular in the time at which it was written and played. The play was not rejected but simply did not meet its commercial potential, meaning the money invested was not overrun by the profit made from it. The play was criticised majorly for the severity of violence but was still watched with full audiences regularly. Throughout time critics have quite harshly stated that Titus Andronicus was one of the worst playwrights by the best writer. The play was so brutally criticised due to its lack of structure and uninspiring tone, but on the stage was performed exotically and with exaggerated scenes of unthinkable violence. The predominant reason for its popularity of the time is that in the Elizabethan era males took the large percentage of the theatre up, due to the role of the average woman, which was a ‘housewife’ role which was to provide comfort in her home for her children and husband, therefore spent the majority of her time in their home. This was he perfect audience for his play, as males thrive of gore and violence. The theatre was so male orientated that there were no actresses but simply young males dressed up as women, it was also like this for coloured actors, there were none.

William Shakespeare was a man of the stage, who took part in the most spectacular plays, which were exotic and ‘over the top’, because of this, Titus Andronicus was seen as a play to be performed not merely to be read in black and white. It should involve action and intensity which simply reading does not posses, therefore was popular on the stage but not a commercially.

Before Titus Andronicus was written a gentleman called Thomas Kyd released a play called ‘The Spanish Tragedy’ as in the Elizabethan era revenge tragedies were widely popular, William Shakespeare reacted to this with Titus Andronicus, using his youthful techniques but Includes speeches which are very formal. The play was seen as an apprentice piece, to boost his understood skills as a writer, the play was shocking at the time as it was a strictly Christian society, due to this Titus Andronicus and it’s murderous routine would have been frowned upon by many, also contributing to its commercial failure.

This is the very last scene in Hamlet. This is the scene in which almost everyone dies. The scene starts with a messenger (Osric) telling Hamlet and Horatio that Claudius has put a bet on a fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes. Hamlet agrees to the match and it begins. Hamlet gets two hits on Laertes at which point Claudius puts a pearl of poison in a goblet of wine just in case Hamlet wins. The tide then turns and Laertes strikes Hamlet with his sword (his sword has poison on the tip of it) and then they get into a scuffle. During this Hamlet picks up Laertes sword and strikes Laertes. On the side, Gertrude has just picked up the goblet of wine with poison in it and drinks it (she doesn’t realise it has poison in it). Gertrude then collapses and tells them that the drink is poisonous, she then dies. Hamlet then forces Claudius to drink the poisonous wine and then Claudius dies. Laertes then apologies to Hamlet for poisoning him and then he dies. Horatio picks up whats left of the wine and is about to drink it when Hamlet stops him. Hamlet tells Horatio not to kill himself so that he can tell Hamlet’s story. Hamlet then dies (Horatio doesn’t drink the wine). Then Fortinbars enters and looks around in shock. He tells Horatio that the orders have been carried out (Hamlet forged the letter to the English king. He put in it that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern should be killed at once, which they were). Fortinbars then orders four captains to carry Hamlet’s body outside while simultaneously cannons are being fired. The scene then ends and that is how Hamlet concludes.

This scene is the scene in which Ophelia is buried. It starts off by a gravedigger digging a grave and singing while he is doing it. Hamlet and Horatio enter and Hamlet basically starts telling the gravedigger to stop singing. The gravedigger refuses to tell Hamlet and Horatio who’s grave he is digging when suddenly Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, a Priest and a few others enter along with a coffin. Hamlet and Horatio step aside so they can’t be seen and they listen to the congregation. Hamlet realises that Ophelia is in the coffin and appears just as Laertes jumps into the grave to say one last goodbye. Hamlet then also jumps in and Laertes starts to fight Hamlet. Once they brake apart Hamlet starts telling everyone that he loved Ophelia more than anyone has ever loved someone before. Horatio and Hamlet then exit. Claudius then tells Laertes to calm down and wait for the right moment for him to kill Hamlet. They then all exit.

During this scene, Claudius and Laertes discuss how they are going to kill Hamlet. They have just received a letter from Hamlet telling them that he’ll be home soon as he has cancelled his trip to England. Claudius tells Laertes that he has heard great things about how good Laertes is at fencing. Laertes says that he will put a dab of deadly poison on the tip of his sword so that when he marks Hamlet with the sword, it will kill him. They then make a back up plan which involves Hamlet drinking a poisonous drink. Gertrude then enters telling Claudius and Laertes that Ophelia (Laertes sister) has drowned in a brook. Laertes exits to mourn the death of his sister but he says that once he has done that, they will start making the plan together. They then all exit.