Hamlet Act 1.1 and 2

      Hamlet’s first soliloquy, one seems to notice, is saturated in melancholy phrases and words that really paints the picture for how Hamlet is feeling about the death of his father and the fact that his mother is now marrying her brother in law. Hamlet immediately gives the audience the impression of his deep sadness with his first phrase saying, “O, that this too, too sullen flesh would melt...” Hamlet’s deep anguish that he expresses in this soliloquy is obviously for his the death of his father, who is also named Hamlet. Young Hamlet seems to really love his father and he truly is depressed about the death of his father. This phrase displays the unbearable pain that Hamlet is in by wishing that his “sullen flesh would melt.” The death of Hamlet’s father, also named Hamlet, has brought young Hamlet to a position in his immature life that no child should be in as young as Hamlet. Hamlet wishes to just “melt” away the pain that now seems to entrap him.

      Shakespeare’s opening scene of his popular play Hamlet consists of four men who are standing outside the castle on a guarding platform in the middle of the night. First of all, the fact that the opening scene is taking place outside of a scary castle in the middle of the night truly sets the stage for a ghost story. Secondly, these men are talking about how the past two nights they have seen a ghost appear to them while they were guarding the castle. Then, as the men continue to talk and say goodnight to each other and after one of the men actually retires to his chamber, the ghost appears to them and they want it to speak; however, it does not. This opening really sets up the stage for what actually seems to be a ghost story.