"Hamlet" Act 1, Scenes 1-2

Mysterious death! The ghost of the dead king! Potential war! A marriage that feels incestuous but technically is not! Let’s just say that there is a lot to unpack here. Within just the first two scenes of Hamlet, Shakespeare sets up his play with events that can only result in chaos, leaving me to wonder what could possibly happen in the upcoming pages.

Let’s begin with Scene 1. On a spooky night outside of the Elsinore Castle in Denmark, a sentinel named Bernardo takes over as watchman, relieving Francisco from his post. He is joined by Marcellus, another watchman, to stand guard on the gun platform. The pair urges Horatio to come watch as well to see the ghost which they claim to have seen for the past two nights. Although Horatio believes that the apparition “‘tis but our fantasy” (1.1.23.), ‘tis not. The ghost of King Hamlet emerges from the fog, frightening the trio and proving Horatio’s claims to be incorrect. As Horatio says, the ghost seems to be an ominous warning that “bodes some strange eruption to our state” (1.1.69). From personal experience (a limited selection of scary movies), I have only seen ghosts appear when something has disturbed/awoken them for their creepy dwellings or when something about their death has led them to haunt their surroundings. To me, this indicates that something about the king’s death was shady, and my feelings on this are further reinforced by his brother’s swift marriage to his wife.

Jump to scene 2. I’m sorry… but WHAT?! MARRIED to his dead brother’s WIFE (might I add only 2 months following his death.) Personally, this gives me what I would call the ick. I find it exceedingly weird that instead of mourning the death of his brother, Claudius focuses on pursuing his widow. I also find it odd that Hamlet is not given the throne upon his father’s death, but it is instead conveniently bestowed upon Claudius who quickly married Hamlet’s mother. Suspicious, wouldn’t you say? I have no trust in Claudius at this point in the play because of his strange actions following his brother’s death as well as his anger towards Hamlet for still mourning his father, calling it “unmanly grief” (1.2.94). How. Rude.

Hopefully you are just as suspicious as I am following scenes 1 and 2 of Hamlet!

Some questions to noodle on: What do you think of Claudius’ marriage to Gertrude? How do you think Hamlet will feel when he goes to see his father’s ghost? What role do you think Horatio will play in the upcoming scenes?