THE PLAY
WITHIN THE PLAY OR MOUSE TRAP
The most striking quality of Hamlet is his
philosophical nature and his intellectual depth. In Act III and Scene II,
Hamlet conceives the plan of staging a play called “The Murder of Gonzago” and
inviting the king and the queen besides the courtiers to see it. His motive in
staging the play is to seek a verification of the story of his father’s murder
as narrated by the Ghost of his father. He has been entrusted the duty of
avenging his father’s murder by his father’s Ghost. However, he has doubts
about the genuineness of the Ghost and Claudius’s crime as he says:
“The
Spirit that I have seen
May
be a devil; and the devil hath power
T’ assume a pleasing shape.”
He wishes to have proof before taking
revenge. So, he arranges a play for the confirmation of the guilt of Claudius:
“The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”
On the day of staging the play, Hamlet
advises the players of “The Murder of Gonzago” to “suit the action to the
words, the word to the action” so that they may not “overlap the modesty of
nature”. He then seeks the help of Horatio to watch the king’s feelings while
the play is staged. Thus he advises him:
“Give him heedful note;
For I mine eyes will
rivet to his face,
And, after, we will both our
judgments join
In censure of his
seeming.”
The dumb show is the prelude to the actual
staging of the play. Hamlet chooses to sit at Ophelia’s feet rather than next
to the Queen partly to encourage the idea that his madness is caused by
disappointed love but mainly because he could not watch the king’s face if he
sat next to the royal pair. Yet it is surprising that the King does not betray
his feelings while watching the dumb show of “The Murder of Gonzago”. Some
critics feel that Claudius, being lost in his conversation with the Queen has
missed the dumb show.
The dumb-show is followed by the actual play.
“The Murder of Gonzago” with its deliberately artificial style, full of
repetitions and circumlocutions gives an air of some important things
happening. As the play proceeds, words of the Player Queen show the dreadful
clarity:
“In second husband let me be
accurst!
None
wed the second but who killed the first.
…
A second time I kill my
husband dead,
When second husband kisses me
in bed.”
After the exit of the player queen, Claudius
appears to be coward. When Claudius asks the title of the play, Hamlet replies
tauntingly. “The Murder of Gonzago”. It is a veiled threat of which king is
perfectly aware. When Luciana enters Hamlet’s comment that he is “nephew to the
king” is taken as another threat and Claudius suspects that Luciana’s lines
have been written by Hamlet himself. So Claudius watches for the second time
the re-enactment of his crime and is about to reveal himself when Hamlet makes
the following comment.
“You shall see anon how the murderer gets the
love of Gonzago’s wife.”
The king rises, “freighted with false fire”.
The Ghost’s story is confirmed. Hamlet is now left alone with Horatio. He is
excited of having discovered the truth. He says to Horatio:
“O good Horatio, l’ll take the Ghost’s
word
For a thousand pound. Didst
perceive?”
Thus the situation leads to the crisis of the
play. Hamlet has to act now. But when he gets the opportunity to carry out the
task, he fails to act as he finds Claudius at prayer. In his soliloquy, he
justifies his lack of action by saying that if he kills Claudius who is at
prayer, his soul would enjoy the pleasures of heaven instead of suffering and
tortures of hell. So, he decides to kill him:
“When
he is drunk asleep, or in his rage;
Or in th’ incestuous
pleasure of his bed.”
To sum up, the play emphasizes Hamlet is of
procrastinating nature. It throws light on the irresolute nature of Hamlet. The
play within the play shows him as a pigeon-livered man who shrinks from action
on moral grounds. The play-within the play further helps the dramatist to
reveal his own theories of play acting. Hamlet acts as a mouth-piece of Shakespeare.
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