Tone & Mood
The tone and atmosphere in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet make significant contributions to the play through establishing the mood and state of mind of the characters. In the very first scene of the play, Marcellus says “who’s there!” on a dark, gloomy night. This demonstrates that the guards on edge, full of anxiety, and a bit fearful because of a ghost that looks like the Old King has been seen wandering the castle battlements each night. The ghost’s presence is not uplifting but an omnipotent sign that there is “something rotten in the state of Denmark”. Throughout the play, the tone is dark, uncertain, introspective, and tortured due mainly to the protagonist of the play, Hamlet and further attributed by the other characters as well. Through Hamlet’s perturbed and deeply disturbing soliloquies concerning mortality, betrayal, and the futility of life, he establishes a somber atmosphere in which we see the world through his perspective. What’s more, is this tone is intensified in complexity and obscurity as Hamlet’s sanity (and thus his perspective) comes into serious question as he “feigns” his madness. His growing and serious obsession with death and all its implications (afterlife, process, etc) does not help in creating a more uplifting, comfortable tone.
However, it is not only Hamlet that contributes to this deranged, upsetting atmosphere but characters that surround him as well. As Claudius reconciles his murder of his own brother, and prays to god, we witness a truly corrupted and sinful being that only reestablishes a feeling of uneasiness. Likewise, Polonius’ conniving, selfish, and sly methods and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s questionable orders add to the demoralization and rotten state of Denmark. Ophelia’s genuine madness and Gertrude’s continual betrayal of the men who cared for her the most, all add to a tone that never once takes rest, but intensifies in horror through every scene in the play. It is clear that not one of the major character’s of the play does not experience serious moral and family dilemmas and it is this disturbed state of all the characters in the play that makes the somber tone all the more inescapable and choking in feeling.
However, it is not only Hamlet that contributes to this deranged, upsetting atmosphere but characters that surround him as well. As Claudius reconciles his murder of his own brother, and prays to god, we witness a truly corrupted and sinful being that only reestablishes a feeling of uneasiness. Likewise, Polonius’ conniving, selfish, and sly methods and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s questionable orders add to the demoralization and rotten state of Denmark. Ophelia’s genuine madness and Gertrude’s continual betrayal of the men who cared for her the most, all add to a tone that never once takes rest, but intensifies in horror through every scene in the play. It is clear that not one of the major character’s of the play does not experience serious moral and family dilemmas and it is this disturbed state of all the characters in the play that makes the somber tone all the more inescapable and choking in feeling.