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DENMARK DAILY
Comic Relief:
Get to know your
As hinted in the name, comic relief refers to a scene of comical or humorous nature in an otherwise
serious and tragic play.
KING:
He tries to ask God's forgiveness in
a moving soliloquy but he realizes
that he still reaps all the benefits of
his crimes and cannot give them
up:
My fault is past. But O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul
murder?
That cannot be, since I am still possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
(3.4.52-55)
An Article by Teis Bay Andersen
It is designed to act as a “break” in a series of tragic scenes and is therefore often also referred
to as an episode or an interlude and is supposed to entertain the viewer while relieving the built
up intensity from the earlier scenes. While seeming as a scene out-of-place in the play, the
comic-relief scenes often play an important role in advancing the play.
Looking at the comic relief scene in Hamlet it is very clear that the scene we are looking for is the
scene with the gravediggers. Prior to the scene, Ophelia has died and Hamlet has (almost) been
declared mad by his uncle and mother and has been sent to England. Upon his return he spots
two gravediggers shovelling a grave for whom Hamlet doesn’t know to be Ophelia. Hamlet
speaks to one of the gravediggers, who does not recognize him as Hamlet, and discovers that he
was sent to England because he was mad. Furthermore the gravedigger tells him that Ophelia is
dead and thus advancing the play to Ophelia’s burial and Hamlet’s return to Elsinore.
These gravediggers are so-called “clowns”. Shakespeare’s plays are known to all contain a socalled “clown”, who acts and performs the scene of Comic Relief. The term “clown” does not refer
to a jester, but to a peasant – also known as a common citizen, who is not of noble blood or
similar. These “clowns” is suggested to appeal to the “groundlings” in Shakespeare’s time:
People that could not afford seats and had to stand and watch the play: They discuss and talk to
each other to make themselves feel superior to socially higher placed people, like Hamlet.
This is very clearly shown in the conversation the gravediggers have before Hamlet enters: They
discuss in a lawyerly manner whether Ophelia’s death could be characterized as suicide or not: If
she jumped in the water it would be suicide, but if the water “jumped” onto her it would’ve been
murder.
See Literary 5A
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern A SHORT SUMMARY
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two Elizabethan gentlemen, traveling in a featureless
landscape. They are spinning coins together, and Rosencrantz keeps winning over and over
again, each time calling ‘heads.’ The number of times the coin lands on heads is no surprise to
Rosencrantz, who is simply excited about his ‘new record.’ He also feels a bit bad about taking
so much money from his friend.
Guildenstern, on the other hand, is shocked at the improbable results of the coin spins. He
wonders what it means about the nature of the universe-does probability really exist? Are they
living in some kind of alternate world? Guildenstern is irritated that Rosencrantz isn’t interested
in his musings; he thinks it is very important to understand phenomena such as this.
Rosencrantz has his own curiosities, but they are less serious: he wonders why his toenails
never seem to grow, for example. They try to remember what they are doing traveling, and
finally recall that they were awakened that morning by a man summoning them to the King. They
don’t know what he wants, but they know it is urgent. Then suddenly they hear a band, and a
group of actors appears…
Claudius can also be sensitive and
gentle. He is genuinely sorry for
Polonius' death, and he truly loves
Gertrude. He must kill Hamlet, but he
refuses to do so with his own hand for
Gertrude's sake. He also sincerely
likes Ophelia, and he treats her with
the kindness that she should receive
from her great love, Hamlet. But even
those whom Claudius cares for cannot
come before his ambition and desires.
He will use the grieving Laertes to
whatever ends necessary, and he
denies Rozencrantz and Guildenstern
the knowledge of the contents of the
letter to England -- knowledge that
would have saved their lives, or at
least made them proceed with caution.
And Claudius does not stop Gertrude
from drinking the poison in the goblet
during the duel between Hamlet and
Laertes because it will implicate him in
the plot.
It is clear that we are intended to see
Claudius as a murderous villain, but a
multi-faceted villain: a man who cannot
refrain from indulging his human
desires. He is not a monster; he is
morally weak, content to trade his
humanity and very soul for a few
prized possessions.
But Claudius, in private, is a very
different person. The Ghost refers to
him as "that incestuous, that adulterate
beast" (1.5.42), and we soon realize
that his crime is what is "rotten in the
state of Denmark."
See Politics 2B
Mabillard, Amanda. Introduction to
Claudius. Shakespeare Online. 15 Aug. 2008.
See Theater 3B
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Moustrap – a play to catch a murder…
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It is not really a farce but it has a little bit of all
these things and perhaps that satisfies a lot of
different people.”
Agatha Christie
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