Hamlet Act 1
The play opens as a change of guards occurs outside the castle of the Danish King in Elsinore. Barnardo, a soldier, replaces the guard at midnight. He is soon joined by Marcellus, another soldier, and Horatio, a scholar and a friend to Hamlet. The soldiers have brought along Horatio to bear witness to a strange specter that has visited the patrolling soldiers twice before on the preceding nights. They tell Horatio of the Ghost that bears a resemblance to the recently deceased King, but Horatio is skeptical. Just as the soldiers are giving further details of the Ghost, it appears before them all. Horatio is stunned by the Ghost but he notes that the King’s Ghost wears the same armor as he did in life during his battle with the Norwegians. Horatio attempts to speak to the Ghost but it departs quickly.
The soldiers are relieved to have someone verify their account of the Ghost, and Horatio confesses that the sight of the King’s Ghost is a poor omen for their country. The soldiers ask him why their country is preparing for war, and he tells them about the rumors he’s heard about the political affairs. The dead King Hamlet had defeated the King of Norway, Fortinbras, in war and so had gained his lands and titles. Now, Fortinbras’s son, who bears the same name, has gathered an army and threatens war unless the seized lands are restored to him. The Ghost reappears, and Horatio attempts to speak to it. The Ghost leaves at the sound of the rooster’s crowing, and the three men decide to inform Hamlet about his father’s Ghost.
Claudius, the reigning King of Denmark, addresses his court. He explains that he mourns for his brother and King's death, but that his grief is tempered with the joy of marriage. He has married Gertrude, the recently widowed Queen, and then he turns to the discussion of the complications with Fortinbras. He commands two of his countrymen to bear a letter to the current head of Norway, who is the young Fortinbras’s uncle, and charges him to put an end to the designs of his nephew. As the men depart with the missive, Claudius addresses Laertes, the son of Polonius, advisor to the throne. Laertes asks to return to Paris, and the King readily grants his assent. The King then turns to address Hamlet and asks him why he is still marred by grief. Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude chimes in and tells Hamlet to shed the mourning clothes for death is a natural thing that visits all living things. Hamlet claims that his mourning clothes reflect but a little of his true grief. Claudius criticizes Hamlet for his continued mourning for his father and calls it unmanly. He wishes to have Hamlet stay at Elsinore, and Hamlet accedes. Claudius and the other courtiers depart leaving Hamlet behind.
Hamlet soliloquies the grief he feels for the death of his loving father, and the anger he experiences at his mother’s quick remarriage. He calls her bond with Claudius incestuous, but his thoughts are interrupted with the entry of Horatio with the two soldiers. Hamlet greets Horatio fondly and hears his account about the Ghost with great surprise. The soldiers tell him how the Ghost seems to come nightly at the same hour, wearing the garb of a warrior and bearing a sad visage. Hamlet is disturbed by the news but resolves to see the Ghost for himself that very night.
Laertes completes his preparations to return to Paris and speaks to his sister, Ophelia. He asks her to write to him continually and cautions her about her attitude towards Hamlet. He reminds her that Hamlet’s life is not his alone and that it belongs to the kingdom of Denmark. Although his confessions of love to her may be true, he could not fulfill them if they did not align with the interests of the state. Their conversation is interrupted by the entry of Polonius, who shares with his son some last words of wisdom before asking him to rush away. Laertes departs with a last of caution to Ophelia, and Polonius asks Ophelia about her recent interactions with Hamlet. Ophelia tells her father that Hamlet has confessed his affection for her in a most honorable way, but Polonius dismisses those vows as the words of a young and lustful man. He too cautions her to maintain a distance from him.
Hamlet accompanies Marcellus and Horatio on the platform where the Ghost was last sighted. They hear trumpets from the castle a little after midnight, and Hamlet explains that the trumpets celebrate the King’s drinking. He discusses how this ritual of drinking has given his countrymen a poor reputation. The Ghost appears, and Hamlet is shocked to see the image of his father, and he entreats the Ghost to speak. The Ghost points to the ground further away and motions for Hamlet to follow him, but Hamlet’s companions prevent him from following. They express their concern for his safety, but Hamlet confesses that he values his life very little. He threatens them with violence and rushes after the Ghost after they relent. The other two follow Hamlet.
The Ghost speaks urgently to Hamlet and tells him that it is the spirit of his father who is trapped in purgatory repenting for his sins. He commands Hamlet to prepare for revenge and claims that he had been murdered by his brother, who now wears his crown. He explains how Claudius had won the lustful Gertrude with vile words and gifts, and later used Henbane poison on him. He asks Hamlet to seek revenge on Claudius, but to spare his mother, who will be judged by the gods. The Ghost departs, and Hamlet loudly proclaims that he would forget all things before he forgot that one truth. Marcellus and Horatio come onto the scene. They ask Hamlet about what had transpired, but Hamlet only commands them to swear to never mention the events of the night. He makes them swear it by his sword and tells them that their silence should hold even if his actions appeared insane, which they were likely to do. The other two swear by his sword while the voice of the Ghost echoes through the night commanding the men to swear.
Analysis
Hamlet, like several other plays written by Shakespeare, reflects the unease the people of England experienced about the succession of the throne. Queen Elizabeth had no apparent heir, and the only individual with a legitimate claim was James of Scotland, the son of the Queen of Scots. Hamlet begins with the death of a beloved King, whose throne is inherited by his brother rather than his son. The soldiers in the first scene of the play express their anxiety at this power shift and seek to understand the political affairs through Horatio, who is Hamlet's close friend and scholar. The appearance of the Ghost serves as an omen of tragedy both for the audience as well as the characters of the play, and so functions as an internal foreshadowing of tragedy. Horatio recognizes this and compares the appearance of the Ghost to the ghosts that appeared in ancient Rome before the murder of Julius Caesar.
Horatio's character aids in establishing the legitimacy of the Ghost's appearance, since the audience views Horatio as a rational character, unlike the pair of superstitious watchmen. Horatio is introduced as a skeptical and logical individual as he attempts to convince the guards that the Ghost is in their imagination and thus it will not appear. The second scene presents a worrying picture of the political condition of the royal court. Shakespeare creates an aura of wrongness through the character of Claudius, who speaks of balance and stability, but whose speech is marred by contradictions. This picture of Claudius is further clouded as he admonishes the grieving Hamlet for mourning his dead father.
Hamlet refuses to play along with Claudius's farce of a stable court, and by doing so sets himself apart as a character with a higher moral standing. In Hamlet's first soliloquy, Shakespeare introduces misogyny as a motif through the words " Frailty, thy name is woman." The readers see Hamlet lose faith in women due to his mother's hasty marriage with the brother of her deceased husband. This motif is further developed in Hamlet's interactions with Ophelia. More importantly, Hamlet's first soliloquy focuses on the idea of suicide, and it remains an important question that continues to be brought up throughout the play. The play establishes the world as a place of suffering that one cannot leave on their own due to the Christian belief that suicide leads to damnation.
