the players in hamlet (1 Viewer)

[Nelly_04]

does anyone know whats the importance of the players and the play-within-a-play in hamlet?

 

[Loz#1]

The play within the play at Elsinore was designed by Hamlet to catch the conscience of Claudius. Or in other words, it was just another example of Hamlet's procrastination and fatal flaw.

 

[+:: $i[Q]u3 ::+]

the play within a play is a metatheatrical device that Stoppard uses to question his audience. Remember the 60s was all about existential philosophies - uncertainty about where people were going in life, having no God, religion, country etc to help them. Ros and Guild feel helpless in being unable to control their destiny (note the dramatic irony of the play's title.. we KNOW that they'll die no mater what!), and stoppard's audience will relate to this - they know that they'll die (death is the only surety... there's another quote somewhere) but nothing else is certain.

in contrast, the players accept their inability to control their situation and destiny
Guild: Who decides?
Player: Decides? It is written.
And yet because they accept that they can't do anything, they seem more confident in life. Is Stoppard saying something to his audience about Existential philosophies??

The otehr thing with players is that it accentuates the reality/illusion theme. Ros and guild are on the bare stage believing it's the real world. We know that they're experiencing an illusion... (so do the players actually)... so is the 'real world' as we know it an illusion as well?? think of it in terms of movies like the matrix =)

hope that helps..

 

[Gregor Samsa]

I think the 'play-within-a-play' can be seen as a technical innovation, or at least one of the earliest examples of a 'meta-reference' in the theatre. 'The Madness Of King Gonzago' serves as a plot device (The play is the thing, wherin I'll catch the conscience of the king), and perhaps also symbolises Hamlet's philosophical procrastination, in that the play is an indirect action contrary to an immediate revenge.

The Players are also a means of adding humour to the tragic plot, and the dialogue (And that of Polonius in these scenes) also creates an ironic juxtaposition with Hamlet's soloioquising..

Polonius-The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical [A reference to Marlowe's 'The Tragical History Of Doctor Faustus] tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene indivisible, or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and liberty, these are the only men. [Act II, Scene II, Lines 392-97]

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Originally posted by +:: $i[Q]u3 ::+
Ros and Guild feel helpless in being unable to control their destiny (note the dramatic irony of the play's title.. we KNOW that they'll die no mater what!), and stoppard's audience will relate to this - they know that they'll die (death is the only surety... there's another quote somewhere) but nothing else is certain.

Which links to Stoppard's play as an appropriation, the line 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead' being contained within Hamlet itself, and an echo of their being 'trapped' within the text, an absurdist universe, essentially;

Ambassador-The sight is dismal;
And our affairs from England come too late:
The ears are senseless that should give us hearing
To tell him his commandment is fufill'd,
That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead,
Where should we have our thanks? [Act V, Scene II, Lines 359-63]

Player-Most things in our experience end in death. [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead]

 

[Nelly_04]

Thanks heaps...that was really helpful