When Elizabethans went to see Hamlet, their experience would have been hugely different compared to the experience today Essay Example For Students

When Elizabethans went to see Hamlet, their experience would have been hugely different compared to the experience today Essay When Elizabethans went to see Hamlet, their experience would have been hugely different compared to the experience somebody today would get if they saw a modern-day performance. The play would have been performed in the round, inside an open-air theatre. The audience would stand, smoke, drink, and talk and shout throughout the performance. On stage, no scenery would set the scene; scene changes were shown by the last two sentences, of an actor, containing last word rhyming couplets. Lighting was limited à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" performances took place at mid-day, so the only light was natural. Elizabethans had to be prepared to use their imagination when going to see Hamlet, and they would expect to participate. One way of showing their use of imagination and participation is how they had to imagine the sexuality of a character. All the Elizabethan actors were male. Men would be the only people allowed to perform on stage playing both sex roles. Elizabethans were Proto-Catholics and so Hamlets actions and sins greatly fascinated and disturbed them. The church taught that revenge, suicide and murder were sins no matter how they came about and in no circumstance were to be tolerated. It is repugnant on theological grounds, since Christian orthodoxy posits a world ordered by divine Providence, in which revenge is a sin and a blasphemy, endangering the soul of the revenge. Internet quote à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Hamlet and the four Humours. Hamlet was a great sinner to the Elizabethan audience, who would have been horrified to see him plot to and kill the king. The Divine Right of Kings made his many sins seem worse to them. He was planning to and eventually does kill Claudius, his own mothers husband and his new stepfather, but Hamlet was also killing the King who they believed had been appointed to the throne by God. This was complicated by the fact that Hamlet was planning to kill a king who had killed a king! Is this revenge or justice? It added an extra dimension to the play, intensifying Hamlets actions and adding to the audiences horror. The church taught Elizabethans that after murder is committed the murderer would be sent to Hell. Hamlet went against God because he was a murderer and therefore a sinner, resulting in Hamlet going to Hell and shocking but at the same time scaring the Elizabethans. Although Hamlet would have been condemned by the audience he would have still kept close contact with them through his five major soliloquies, which helped the audience read his mind and sympathize with him. The impact of Hamlet would have been a great one in its time. All the great sins of the play Hamlet; people plotting against their family, having incestuous relationships, seeing and speaking to ghosts, committing adultery and betrayal, and torturing and murdering people, were intriguing to Elizabethan audiences. Hamlets sins provided the audience with mystery and therefore made the tragedy appealing. The Elizabethans attitudes towards  Hamlet were different to modern approaches to the play. The Elizabethans believed in The Four Humours, A traditional theory of physiology in which health, mind and character was dependant upon the balance of four fluids in your body, and four elements. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦but essential to interpreting Elizabethan drama, especially the late-16th century genre known as the comedy of humours cf. Ben Jonson. Finally, an illustrative quotation from the final lines of Shakespeares Julius Caesar V.v.74-76, in which Antony eulogizes Brutus: His life was gentle, and the elements so mixd in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, This was a man! Website found on MSN search engine Shakespears plays. Therefore, the Elizabethans believed that Hamlet acted upon his Humours. The main Humour they believed he had was black bile, which gave him a Melancholic temperament and an introspective, sallow, thin, gluttonous, lazy, sentimental personality. His element was Earth and his remedy Cold and dry conditions. They believed that what ever happened was due to fate and the four humours, so Hamlet was just walking the path of fate to his own death. The first stage of him showing his Humours is when he appears to go mad. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦madness i.e. melancholy brought about by a humoral imbalanceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Website found on MSN search engine Hamlet and Humours. Modern attitudes towards the play Hamlet have a more realistic air. We now know that you act upon your instincts, and you decide your own fate. Our ideas of psychoanalysis give us an advantage over the Elizabethans; we understand how and why Hamlet acts the way he does, because we know more about how the human brain works and traumas that may drive us into actions without us understanding our own real motives. The main soliloquies of Hamlet give us a window into his soul. Hamlets motives and ideas become clearer through soliloquies. His motive throughout the play is to get revenge for his fathers murder. When the actors put on a play Hamlet realizes that he has to get revenge. What would he do Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears This soliloquy shows a lot about Hamlets character. It shows his passion for revenge, Hamlet As A Victim Of His Humanity EssayHis believe shows how his delay is a manifestation of his own fear of getting hurt. A fine, pure noble and highly moral person, but devoid of that emotional strength that characterizes a hero, goes to pieces beneath a burden that it can neither support or cast offà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦The impossible is demanded of him-not the impossible in any absolute sense, but what is impossible for him. Goethes view was one of Hamlet being too good for his world: too sensitive, too poetical, and too philosophically speculative. Goethe How he twists and turns, trembles, advances and retreats, always being reminded, always  reminding himself, and finally almost losing sight of his goal, yet without ever regaining happiness! Here we see Hamlet being viewed upon as a young man who has to cope with his fathers unexpected death, being visited by his fathers ghost and becomes horrified to find out that his father was murdered by his brother, Hamlets uncle. He becomes even more terrified to hear that he must seek revenge. Goethe believes that the impact of this on Hamlet is one of sadness and amazement, he swears not to ever forget his beloved father and feels lonely and isolated. This view of Hamlet is a very positive one, in the sense that Hamlet has to go through many things alone, and is therefore depressed. Medical minded Interpretations are that Hamlet has an excess of a depose tissue around his heart hence his reference to having trouble breathing. Others believe Hamlet could be physically ill, or maybe even insane. Dover Wilson believed that Hamlet carried out the murder as soon as he was able to, while E.E.Stoll believed that the delay of the murder was a convention because without a delay there would be no play. Another possible view of Hamlet is that of a man who thought things through instead of acting upon first reactions. This view is a positive view of Hamlets inaction. Hamlet could be seen as a man who does not react upon his first instincts and therefore keeps himself out of trouble. An example of this is when Hamlet is about to kill Claudius but sees him at prayer and so does not kill him. This is one of the positive things, which came about due to his thoughtfulness. If he had killed Claudius at prayer then he would have gone to Heaven as he was repenting his sins, but Hamlet wanted Claudius to go to Hell for murdering his father. Therefore, Hamlets thinking saves Claudius from Heaven and that is what Hamlet wanted. The Elizabethans would not have analyzed the play because they only saw the plays as entertainment. They would have viewed Hamlet as a sinner as he went against the church, which played a big part in their lives. Many of Hamlets actions and thoughts would have shocked the Elizabethan audience. Examples of this are when Hamlet considers suicide and when Hamlet plans to get revenge and murder his stepfather, Claudius. In my view Hamlet was everyman, a normal man, who took his fathers death badly and so rebelled against his mothers marriage to his uncle. This, I think, is the turning point for Hamlet, for after the marriage he turns to revenge, madness and murder. My opinion is that Hamlet is drawn to questions with no actual answer, most of which are related to death. His wild speeches and pointed innuendoes upset and surprise the people around him. Although Hamlet is a prince he never, for a moment, ceases to be conscious of his rights as heir  to the throne. Therefore I can understand how the play can be seen not as a drama but of a play of duty and self-denial. I believe that Hamlet thinks too much about what action he should take and this is the reason for all the tragic murders and suicides Ophelia. Hamlets a philosophically minded prince who delays action because of his lack of knowledge. He is appointed the difficult task of correcting an injustice that he can never quite have sufficient knowledge of. Hamlet does not realize that his thoughtfulness is gradually turning everybody against him, for everybody soon realizes what he is thinking and what he is about to do. An example being when Claudius realizes that Hamlet is going to kill him and arranges for Hamlet to be sent away accompanied by his own friends who have indeed turned against him? The play as a whole shows the difficulties of knowing the truth about others à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" their states of sanity, truths, lies and loves. It is about the difficulty of living in the world of other people. The play has many regular references to death and has been compared to Dostoievskys Stavrogin because the play is also centered on death and Hamlet fears and is feared by those around him. In my opinion Hamlets constant thinking and lack of action causes all the deaths in the play. These could easily have been prevented if he had taken action and not been such a weak person.