Act 1 Scene 1 Flashcards
Setting of Elsinore castle
Elsinore is a thirteenth-century Danish castle that is the site of the main action of the play. It significant because Shakespeare uses the castle to create suitable location for a play with themes dealing with treachery and revenge, a play in which it seems almost impossible for the revenging hero to know exactly what is true and what is not.
setting of Elsinore castle 2
it is a symbol of imprisonment both imposed and self-imposed, it captures the state of oppression, as it is tied to obtaining power for which many characters strive.
Explanation of Elsinore’s symbolism.
Although the setting is driven by imprisonment, the state of oppression affects some characters within the play, like Ophelia while on the other hand there are characters like Horatio that are not affected. The castle oppresses some characters because every character that comes into contact with imprisonment will somehow end up suffering in some major way. Characters that suffer oppression are Hamlet, Claudius and Gertrude, and Ophelia.
Interpretation
In Kenneth Branagh’s version of Hamlet, Ophelia is heavily targeted in the play as she is mistreated by the male characters specifically from the scene where Hamlet drags her all around the room. Hamlet drags her all around the room. Which comes to show that Ophelia is oppressed in her love for Hamlet. At the same time she is oppressed by her family as well, Laetres and Polonius her father. Ophelia is beyond control of her own life, her family were the ones to decide what she can do and not do. As a father Polonius goes overboard with the whole lecture towards Ophelia about Hamlet’s mind.
oppression/imprisonment
Hamlet is oppressed in a way that he wants to do the unthinkable and kill Claudius but he is restricted from doing so.
Horatio is the only person that is free from the castle’s imprisonment because he was never attached to it, he is only attached to Hamlet, he is on the other side of the picture.
The feeling of imprisonment in one’s mind or body can either be direct or indirect as the setting of Elsinore castle is seen to affect the characters within the play.
The setting within the play marks the superficiality of the feeling of imprisonment, the states of oppression, and the will of free men. Setting is a fundamental piece which is used to create the plot, as the characters within it are alongside.
