Edward Ii - Exposition of Act I Scene I

To be able to access the true essence of the introductory scene and figure out its significance, its imperative to have proper understanding of what meaning the exposition in its description has in its holds. An exposition in a play is the means used by the playwright as a tool to provide certain background details concerning the characters’ histories, setting and theme, which serves the purpose of aiding the reader towards having a proper comprehension of the play by placing before him the summarized events of the play and thus giving him chances to anticipate developments and turns in the drama in the read further ahead which can either have the consequential results of drawing in the reader’s interest by making it easier for him to feel reasons to get attached to the play or simply drive off far even the little initial interest he started off with.
Marlowe in Edward II attempts to make quite the adept use of its first scene which serves the efficient use as an expository scene with all that it has to give out to add up to the reader’s knowledge to help in his better understanding of future events.

His exposition scene (constituting of Scene I of Act I) starts off giving the impression of an abrupt start with Piers Gaveston reading out the letter from the King to whose response he has returned back to London from his Exile in France.There surfaces a need of possession of knowledge over the historical records pertaining to King Edward I, Edward II-his son and the entity identified as Gaveston for discovery of reasons to have led to such a situation encountered in the opening scene and complete understanding of it. This requirement sees its eventual fulfillment over the course of the scene where it gets revealed that the reason for Gaveston’s spoken of exile to France had been the King- Edward I’s concerns over his son’s playmate- Gaveston being too much of a pernicious influence on young Edward, which drove him to decide on the former’s exile in his attempt