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Sagun Dogra posted an Question
June 27, 2021 • 03:18 am
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15 points
15 points
- UGC NET
- English
Kindly list some plays which are plays within plays
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Sapare bhavani bai![best-answer]()
While Shakespeare’s techniques are insanely influential to thousands of writers since the rediscovery of his work, some of the techniques that are credited to Shakespeare didn’t solely come from within the mind of the greatest writer who ever lived. One of these techniques would be the concept of a play within a play, which Shakespeare used in several of his works including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and, most importantly, Hamlet. Even though Shakespeare had used this “play within a play concept in several of his works, it is important to note that he wasn’t the first to use such technique, or even come up with the idea for Hamlet in the first place. Some scholars argue that Thomas Kyd was the first to use this device in his play entitled The Spanish Tragedy in around 1587. Although it is not of much importance to this essay, it is important to note also that Kyd is said to have written a now lost first version of Hamlet (that was titled Ur-Hamlet) and that it is possible that Shakespeare may have drawn inspiration from this now lost early work. Now that the origins of the play within a play concept have been introduced, now let’s see how the inclusion of this literary device effects the play. The play that takes place within Hamlet is referenced as “The Murder of Gonzago” and its inclusion in a way shows both a flashback to something that wasn’t shown in Hamlet, but also directly affects the plot, and also is used to try and obtain an admission of guilt. In an article by Gillian Woods, Woods argues that “we never see the crime on which the tragedy centres. Instead, the murder we do witness – right in the middle of the action – is showily theatrical” (1). In a way, “The Murder of Gonzago” is used as an allusion to the reasons why the events in Hamlet are taking place. Hamlet stages this play so that we may see how Claudius comes to power and takes his deceased brother’s wife as his own. I feel as though the inclusion of this fake play into the plot of Hamlet, in a way, changed up the usual method of storytelling where you take the story and tell it from start to finish. Hamlet starts in the middle, has a supposedly fictional play that is to be interpreted as the intended “beginning” of Hamlet, and then finishes in the expected chronological fashion. The inclusion of “The Murder of Gonzago” was mainly intended by Hamlet to get Claudius to confess to his crime, which was the poisoning and subsequent murder of Claudius’ own brother. Woods writes that “tension mounts as Claudius ignores the barbed content of the dumb-show… but the play itself horrifies him” (1). She then points out his further distress when she writes that “When the poison is malevolently described and poured into the sleeping king’s ear, Claudius abruptly stops the production…” as “…the performance of crime is too much to bear for a guilty spectator” (1). Even though Claudius makes no public confession, Hamlet can tell that he is distressed about the actions depicted in the mock play and feels that now he can take his father’s ghost’s words as the truth. Even though Hamlet doesn’t obtain a public admission of guilt by his uncle, the reaction that his uncle has towards the production is enough to spur Hamlet to seek revenge for his father’s death, as that is the main goal that drives Hamlet throughout the rest of the play. While some may feel as though the literary device of a play within a play can be a lame or lazy attempt at adding early details pertinent to the action late in the play, I feel as though the way the “Murder of Gonzago” was executed in Hamlet was a creative new way to shift the sense of storytelling and the methods of doing so. I also felt that without this mock play, we wouldn’t get any of the background information that was necessary to fully understand why the events in Hamlet were taking place. Also, without this mock play, Hamlet wouldn’t have seen Claudius’ reaction to it, with his reaction validating the Ghost’s words and also spurning Hamlet to avenge his father’s death. Without the mock play, it would be extremely difficult to fully explore the play that Shakespeare had written not only in this particular play, but also in several others he created.