setting of Hamlet

Nama : Ismawati Fadilah
Nim : 1125030134
Kelas : IV/D
SETTING & PINT oF VIEW oF HAMLET

A. Setting Of Time
The story of Hamlet is set in the late middle ages (14th and 15th centuries, or 1300 to 1499). Hamlet have set the play in places and periods ranging from Elizabethan England to nineteenth century Europe to twenty-first century New York City, where Gertrude and Claudius run a high-powered New York corporation and the ghost of Old Hamlet appears on security televisions in the company's offices. The fact that this setting somehow works is a testament to the universality and relevance of the play's themes.
B. Setting of Place
Act 1, Scene 1: Elsinore. A Platform Before The Castle. In the dead of night, with francisco, a soldier, who is standing guard, when he is relieved by bernardo, an officer. It isn’t long before bernardo is joined by his fellow officer, marcellus, who has brought with him hamlet’s friend, horatio, who doubts that the castle is haunted by a ghost as the officers claim. Bernardo begins to relate the marvel anew when the ghost, in the likeness of denmark’s former king, appears and just as quickly vanishes. Horatio speculates as to the meaning of the ghost with respect to denmark’s fate when the ghost reappears, makes as if to disclose a secret, only to disappear with the crowing of a rooster. The three men resolve to inform prince hamlet of their strange and ominous encounter as the morning dawns in denmark.

Act 1, Scene 2: A Room Of State In The Castle.
Having discharged cornelius and voltemand, his couriers, on a diplomatic mission to norway (to curb the warlike posturing of norway‘s nephew fortinbras), king claudius attends to domestic affairs; namely, giving laertes, a youth claudius is sympathetic to, his blessing and permission to leave for france and persuading hamlet to stay in elsinore as opposed to letting him return to wittenberg where he is a student. On both counts, king claudius gets his way and to show his pleasure he orders preparations be made for a bout of drinking and celebration latert that night.
Alone, still unable to come to terms with his mother’s second marriage (to his uncle, King claudius), hamlet broods and curses his fate only to be interrupted by horatio, his friend, and the officers marcellus and bernardo. They exchange pleasantries and then horatio tells hamlet of the marvel he had witnessed: namely of the ghost and of the ghost’s likeness to hamlet’s deceased father. The officers corroborate the incredible story. Thrilled, hamlet resolves to see the ghost for himself. He tells his friends to keep the matter a secret and that he will join them.
Act 1, Scene 3: A Room In Polonius' House.
Laertes is about to depart for france. Before he departs he counsels ophelia, his sister, to be wary of hamlet’s romantic advanced, arguing that ophelia may be giving hamlet’s words too much credence on account of hamlet’s lofty status (hamlet is the prince of Denmark, after all). Ophelia retorts that laertes ought not to preach virtue while being a libertine himself. They part when their father, polonius, scolds laertes for delaying his departure, which departure polonius then proceeds to delay himself with a sermon concerning the proper conduct and deportment that a man ought to be mindful of when abroad. By and by, laertes departs but the preaching continues as polonius ferrets out what was said between brother and sister. Polonius then picks up right where laertes had left off. Indeed, polonius takes the preaching up a notch, forbidding his daughter henceforth to talk, much less to meet, with hamlet, likening hamlet’s advances as a trap.
Act 1, Scene 4: The Platform.
At around midnight, hamlet joins horatio and marcellus on the castle platform when, within the castle, trumpets sound, signifying the start of the drinking and banqueting that king claudius had earlier made the night’s agenda. Hamlet repudiates the celebration, calling it an indulgence that discredits denmark in the eyes of other nations. He meditates upon nature of evil, of how a physical defect can inexplicably be its cause when the ghost appears. Hamlet addresses it, calling it king, father, royal dane. The ghost beckons hamlet to follow. Horatio and marcellus dissuade hamlet, going so far as to bodily restrain the prince. Hamlet frees himself and warns horatio and marcellus to desist lest they suffer his wrath. Hamlet follows the ghost.

Act 1, Scene 5: Another Part Of The Platform.
Having followed the ghost to a remote part of the castle platform, hamlet demands the ghost to reveal its mystery. The ghost obliges and hamlet is amazed, shocked, and vindicated to learn that he is to avenge the ghost. He learns that the ghost is his father’s murdered spirit which is in a state of unrest and that his uncle is the cause. As dawn approaches, the ghost reminds hamlet to exact vengeance on claudius but to spare his mother, to let heaven (or guilt and conscience) avenge gertrude. Meanwhile, horatio and marcellus look for hamlet and when they find him they are dying to know what had passed between hamlet and the ghost. Hamlet refuses to tell and moreover he demands that they swear by his sword not to reveal what they have seen and heard tonight. The ghost echoes hamlet’s demand and horatio and marcellus swear that they will not tell.
Act 2, Scene 1: A Room In Polonius' House.
We are in polonius’ house as polonius, the busybody, instructs his servant, reynaldo, on what he—reynal do is to do before delivering the money that laertes is expecting from his father. Reynaldo, polonius says, is to dissimulate someone who has a passing acquaintance of laertes and under that pretext enquire about for laertes and slander him. Reynaldo is reluctant to do this, but polonius assures him that slandering his son in public is the only way to a get a true report of his son’s reputation. Reynaldo leaves, acknowledging his duty. Soon thereafter, ophelia bursts into her father’s room, relating an unsettling encounter she had just had with prince Hamlet. Apparently, the prince had appeared before her in a state of utter dishevelment, giving her the impression that he was in extreme duress. Although ophelia avers that she could not determine the cause, polonius concludes that it could be no other than unrequited love and decides to take up the matter with the king lest the unstable mind of the prince undermines the well-being of the kingdom.
Act 2, Scene 2: A Room In The Castle.
Claudius and gertrude, the king and queen, have commissioned courtiers rosencrantz and guildenstern, hamlet’s childhood acquaintances, to keep hamlet company. Anon, polonius, the lord chamberlain, enters the scene and informs the king and queen that he has found out the cause of prince hamlet’s distemper and proposes to give proof, but not before the king and queen give audience to cornelius and voltemand who have returned from norway with good news.
The news is good indeed: fortinbras has turned his aggression against poland and he only requires that denmark permit his troops to march through her en route to poland. Pleased with the news, claudius dismisses the ambassadors from norway and turns to the business of his disgruntled nephew. After much beating about the bush, polonius produces a document. It is a love letter from hamlet to ophelia. Polonius avers that the cause of hamlet’s distemper can be no other than his injunction forbidding ophelia to reciprocate hamlet’s affections. To prove it, polonius proposes to engage the prince directly while the king and queen hide and observe. The scheme is agreed to and is carried out by and by.
Meanwhile hamlet finds himself in the company of rosencrantz and guildenstern whose sudden appearance and over-the-top chumminess strikes the prince as disingenuous. His suspicion proves to be right as rosencrantz and guildenstern confess that their visit is actually a performance of a duty as commissioned by the king and queen. Without going into specifics, hamlet expounds on his existential disillusionment, the unhappy tenor of which is interrupted, however temporarily, by the appearance of a troop of traveling actors. Hamlet welcomes the actors. He escorts them to the city gate where they are all greeted by polonius. Recalling their earlier encounter, hamlet baits and humors polonius with a reference to ophelia when, out of the corner of his eyes, hamlet sees an actor whose face is familiar. Hamlet accosts the actor and entreats him to recite aeneas’ speech to dido, which speech hamlet had once before witnessed the actor perform. The speech involves the fall of troy, exemplified by the instant when pyrrhus slaughters priam.
The actor performing it weeps, so moving is the speech. Polonius finds its length unbearable, however, and as a result he is at odds with hamlet. It’s not the only thing for which the two are at odds, however. Indeed, hamlet finds polonius’ manners and attitude with respect to the actors needlessly condescending and tells him so. Alone again, hamlet is incredulous at the discrepancy he had just witnessed. Doesn’t his real-life predicament warrant a passion astronomically more intense than the make-believe passion that was just just demonstrated? The discrepancy is so startling that hamlet accuses himself of being a coward, a kitchen wench, and whatnot only to compose himself and arrive at a course of action that would erase any doubts as to the ghost’s substantiality. He will stage a play depicting a king’s murder at the hands of the king’s brother. And if uncle claudius betrays a guilty conscience, vengeance will have its day.
Act 3, Scene 1: A Room In The Castle.
Distressed to hear, that despite their best efforts guildenstem had failed to get at the source of his nephew’s distemper, claudius eagerly becomes an accessory to another one of polonius’ spying schemes. This time ophelia is to confront hamlet and to dissimulate a spurned lover. The trap is sprung, but what follows--a scathing diatribe of humankind in general--is so far off from what polonius believes to be the source of hamlet’s distemper, that claudius, fearing for his own safety, decides to send hamlet to england at once, arguing that a change of scenary would do his nephew good. However, polonius, who still believes that unrequited love is the source of hamlet’s distemper, despite all the evidence to the contrary, dissuades claudius, insisting that he—polonius should be allowed to spy on hamlet one more time before the decision is acted upon.
Act 3, Scene 2: A Hall In The Castle.
Hamlet is making final preparations for the play that he had conceived for the express purpose of provoking the king when polonius appears to announce that the King and Queen would be in attendance soon. Hamlet takes a moment to confide in horatio. They will both keep a close eye on the king for how he reacts to the play will determine the credibility of the ghost and of its claims. By and by the king and queen emerge and with them ophelia, polonius, and rosencrantz and guildenstern.
The play begins with a prologue that depicts a king and a queen in love which love is cut short by the poisoning of the king by the king’s rival who then proceeds to woo the widowed queen. Claudius questions hamlet if he thinks the play is in good taste, and hamlet replies that the play is make-believe, that any spectator whose conscience is free would take no offense. The play proper begins and again a king and a queen in love is depicted. They are discussing the nature of their love, the king resigned to the inevitability of his mortality and the probability that his queen would take another husband were he to die before her.
The queen rejects the king’s supposition, arguing that her faith to her first husband is for all time and that any queen who would take a second husband is committing an act equal to killing her first husband. Suddenly king claudius rises, demands that lights be turned on, and then flees the scene. Hamlet is ecstatic and prances about only to be censured by rosencrantz and guildenstern. They tell him that he is report to his mother, a message seconded by polonius.
Act 3, Scene 3: A Room In The Castle.
King claudius urges rosencrantz and guildenstern to make preparations for their departure to england where they are to escort hamlet. Alone, the king tries to pray. However, is it possible, he asks himself, to ask for and be granted forgiveness when he is yet in possession of those things he had gained as a result of his crimes? He doesn’t think so, but out of desperation he tries to pray anyway. Almost simultaneously, hamlet, who is enroute to his mother’s room, espies his uncle in the act of praying. He has a mind to kill his uncle only to suspect that he might be doing his uncle a favor. Indeed, as his uncle has done to his father, so hamlet would do to his uncle..

Act 3, Scene 4: The Queen's Closet.
Polonius hides behind an arras as hamlet appears before his mother. The mother castigates the son, but the son is remorseless. Indeed, the son is critical of the mother, in turn, which upsets her to the extent that she decides to end the conference there and then. Hamlet bars gertrude from doing her will, however, alarming her. Her distress is felt by polonius who in a panic betrays his concealment. Hamlet draws his rapier and slays the spy, suspecting and hoping it is the king. Discovering the slain body to be polonius, hamlet pities the old fool and proceeds with the business at hand. He is determined to convince gertrude that her having wed claudius is a betrayal of the worst kind. Hamlet is merciless as he elaborates on her crime when the ghost, the spirit of his dead father, appears and reminds hamlet that his mother is to be spared. Hamlet acknowledges, baffling gertrude to whom the ghost is a figment of hamlet’s imagination. Hamlet assures her that he is not mad, and that his words and conduct will eventually show themselves to be unimpeachable. Dragging polonius’s body away and informing gertrude that he is slated to leave for england as per the king’s command, hamlet bids his mother adieu.
Act 4, Scene 1: A Room In The Castle.
Speaking with gertrude, Claudius discover the extent of hamlet’s deeds. He immediately commissions guildestem to find hamlet, to be gentle with him, and to recover polonius’ corpse. Claudius assures gertrude that the matter will be handled delicately and with tact, sparing the Royal.
Act 4, Scene 2: Another Room In The Castle.
Having found hamlet, rosencrantz and guildenstern demand the whereabouts of polonius’ dead body. Hamlet is offended that he, the son of a king, the next in line to denmark’s throne, must answer to the king’s servants whose groveling ways he cannot abide. Needless to say, their demand is denied. Rosencrantz and guildenstern persist, however, informing the prince that the king requires his immediate presence.
Act 4, Scene 3: Another Room In The Castle.
Hamlet is brought before the king and is directly questioned as to the whereabouts of polonius’ corpse. Hamlet replies with a riddle and as the riddle is elaborated and embellished upon it yields the location of the corpse. Not finding any of this funny, the king informs hamlet that he is to leave for england--and at once. Hamlet complies and they part, suspecting the worst others.
Act 4, Scene 4: A Plain In Denmark.
Fortinbras is leading his norwegian army to poland via denmark. He dispatches a captain to apprise the danes of his presence and to secure free passage through denmark as previously agreed upon. Meanwhile, hamlet and rosencrantz and guildenstern, who are presumably on their way to the board a ship on the danish coast, espy the norwegian army in the distant. Moreover, they encounter the captain to whom hamlet directs an inquiry as to the purpose of the norwegian army. The captain’s reply is tinged with chagrin as he explains the foolishness of the enterprise that the army, of which he is a part, is engaged in. They part amicably and hamlet is left to wonder.

Act 4, Scene 5: Elsinore. A Room In The Castle.
At horatio’s entreaty, ophelia is permitted to appear before the queen. As horatio had reported, with great concern, ophelia’s mind is in a state of wild flux. The king and queen conclude that, overcome by grief at her father’s death, ophelia has succumbed to madness. As she leaves, closely attended by horatio, the royal couple reflect on the sadness of it all when there is a great uproar. Laertes storms into the castle and demands retribution. Laertes vows that his father’s ignoble death will be avenged one way or the other. Claudius confronts laertes and tries to reason with him when ophelia reappears.
Act 4, Scene 6: Another Room In The Castle.
Sailors arrive to deliver Horatio a letter. The letter is from Hamlet. As per the letter, Horatio is to take the sailors to the king to whom they will deliver letters from Hamlet. Apparently, while at sea, Hamlet had been taken captive by pirates for whom Hamlet is to do a good turn. (The pirates have spared Hamlet's life.) The letters delivered, as fast as he can, with the sailors as his guide, Horatio is to rendezvous with Hamlet.
Act 4, Scene 7: Another Room In The Castle.
Claudius has swayed laertes to believe that hamlet is their mutual enemy when a letter arrives. The letter is from hamlet who writes that he has returned to denmark all alone the inexplicability of which he will explain when face to face. Claudius is flummoxed but laertes is grimly pleased as he would like nothing better than to personally see to hamlet’s reckoning. Gathering himself, claudius cooks up a scheme whereby his nephew’s murder will be accounted an accident. Laertes is more than happy to do his part. They have all but sealed their villainy with a notarized contract when gertrude appears. She has bad news. The bough of a willow tree upon which ophelia had clambered on had given way, plunging ophelia to the brook below where, though for a time it seemed as if ophelia were in her natural element, the water overwhelmed her, dragging her to the depths. Ophelia is dead. She has drowned.
Act 5, Scene 1: A Churchyard.
Two clowns are digging a grave when the 1st clown objects to the work that they are doing, arguing that the body for which that they are digging the grave for had drowned itself when alive. Consequently, he argues, as befitting christian law, consecration should be denied the drowned body. The 2nd clown is doubtful at first, but then he too finds the objection valid, conceding that people of rank and status (ophelia is referred to as a gentlewoman) can get away with things that normal folks could only dream of doing. They console themselves with a bit of sophistry that elevates their lowly status to a level equal to history’s first gentleman and gravedigger: adam. And to top it off, they decide to refresh themselves with drink which the 2nd clown is only too happy to go and fetch.The 1st clown continues to dig, singing all the while. The singing attracts hamlet and horatio, who are nearby. Hamlet is astounded that the clown could be so irreverent while performing such a grave and solemn task. Horatio posits that custom must have made it so.
Intrigued, hamlet engages the clown, plying one question after another, most of which the clown avoids answering by grotesquely twisting the meaning of the questions. An exception is the identity of skull that the clown has dug up. It is yorick’s skull. Hamlet recalls yorick, his father’s jester with whom hamlet as a child had laughed and cavorted. The thought that yorick’s fate is everyman’s fate, including alexander’s (the great) and julius caesar’s, fascinates hamlet. He is thus absorbed when a funural processing approaches. Among the procession is laertes who objects to the sparseness of the funeral rites. The priest urges laertes to be content, arguing that the deceased would’ve been denied all funeral rites had the king not interceded and had the church had its way. Aggrieved, laertes jumps into the grave and mourns for ophelia. Suddenly, hamlet emerges and he too, mourning for ophelia, jumps into the grave.
Act 5, Scene 2: A Hall In The Castle.
Hamlet tells horatio that he was uneasy and couldn’t go to sleep on the eve of the pirate attack. It was providence, hamlet says, that compelled him to sneak up on the slumbering guildestem to unseal and read the king’s written commission. The commission read that england, in service to denmark and her king, was to chop off the king’s nephew’s head. It was providence again, hamlet says, how he had the wherewithal to pull off the forging of a new commission in which he, in the name of the king, compelled england to chop off the heads of rosencrantz and guildenstern. Having related this, hamlet asks horatio if he isn’t now justified to kill claudius in cold blood if he so wished to which horatio cautions the prince that he hasn’t much time before claudius discovers the sabotage and its ramifications. At this point, they are interrupted by osric, a courtier, who they recognize as a breed of lackeys which seems to be sprouting and thriving. He has come to speak on behalf of laertes who wishes to engage hamlet on a friendly bout of swordplay. The king has wagered that hamlet will triumph. Will lord hamlet participate, or no? Hamlet decides to participate despite feeling ill at ease.At the swordplay venue, hamlet apologizes to horatio.
The apology is sincere as hamlet had always admired horatio (and had even been a little jealous of him) on account of which hamlet had continuously practiced at swordplay, an art at which laertes is reputed a master. Laertes accepts hamlet’s apology but with reservations. Hamlet is satisfied with the reply and they begin. Hamlet scores a hit, inspiring claudius to offer him a drink. Hamlet refuses the drink (for now) which drink gertrude takes up in honor of her son. The swordplay continues and again hamlet scores a hit. Incensed, laertes unsportingly wounds hamlet, and this leads to a brawl-like struggle during which hamlet takes possession of laertes’ sword and wounds him in turn. Inexplicably, the queen collapses.
The king attributes it to the blood spilled when laertes wounded hamlet and vice-versa. But the queen blames it on the drink. I've been poisoned, she says, before dying. There is a general stir to identify the villian when laertes tells hamlet that the wounds that they had afflicted on one another are fatal, that the sword that hamlet is holding is envenomed. Laertes begs hamlet for forgiveness and reveals that the man behind it all is the king. In a heartbeat, hamlet pounces on claudius and stabs him. For good measure, claudius is made to drink the poisoned wine.

With his death imminent, hamlet imparts his last will and testament to horatio: remember me. Meanwhile, fortinbras and ambassadors from england arrive and behold the horiffic scene. Horatio promises them a just account. Fortinbras orders that hamlet’s body be carried away with all honors.
C. Point Of View
Shakespeare as the author of the play is telling the story through a third person omniscient narrative, he "sees all," knowing all the thoughts of all the characters. This narrative allows for a level of intimacy for each of the characters, something by which the audience can synthesize and comprehend the action of the play. However, none of the characters in the play have this viewpoint.