Hamlet Targeting the Audience
Bersche 1
Ethan Bersche
Mr. Wright
ENG4U
April 26, 2015
Entertaining Through Connecting
How William Shakespeare Targets the Audience in Hamlet
All people love to be entertained. For someone to truly enjoy themself, their entertainment must be tailored to their desires. One of the most difficult parts of entertaining, is doing something that a large audience can relate to, and enjoy. During Elizabethan times, going to see the production of a play was one of the few, affordable ways to experience high quality entertainment. William Shakespeare is known for his outstanding play writing because of his ability to connect with the audience. In Shakespeare’s production of Hamlet he uses inspiration, allusion, and setting clues to target and entertain his Elizabethan audience.
Arguably the most important aspect of targeting an audience, is being able to inspire them. A play is much more enjoyable if the audience leaves having found a new sense of inspiration and ambition. In Hamlet’s final soliloquy he states “What is a man/If his chief good and market of his time/be but to sleep and feed?” (IV,iv,35). In other words, if one does nothing with their life, then what is the pointing of living at all? Shakespeare uses Hamlet to encourage the Elizabethan audience to not allow their lives to go to waste and to continue advancing and growing in all aspects of their life. Hamlet was first performed in the heart of what would come to be known as the Renaissance Era. Shakespeare targets the Elizabethan audience and encourages them to do something with their life in arguably the most developmental time period
Bersche 2 in earths history. Elizabethan audiences are inspired by Hamlet’s words and make extraordinary advances in science, literature, philosophy, and more. Shakespeare uses Hamlet’s words to target the progressive stage of life that the Elizabethan audience was going through.
Another way Shakespeare targets his audience is by giving them clues to the plays setting. In
Ethan Bersche
Mr. Wright
ENG4U
April 26, 2015
Entertaining Through Connecting
How William Shakespeare Targets the Audience in Hamlet
All people love to be entertained. For someone to truly enjoy themself, their entertainment must be tailored to their desires. One of the most difficult parts of entertaining, is doing something that a large audience can relate to, and enjoy. During Elizabethan times, going to see the production of a play was one of the few, affordable ways to experience high quality entertainment. William Shakespeare is known for his outstanding play writing because of his ability to connect with the audience. In Shakespeare’s production of Hamlet he uses inspiration, allusion, and setting clues to target and entertain his Elizabethan audience.
Arguably the most important aspect of targeting an audience, is being able to inspire them. A play is much more enjoyable if the audience leaves having found a new sense of inspiration and ambition. In Hamlet’s final soliloquy he states “What is a man/If his chief good and market of his time/be but to sleep and feed?” (IV,iv,35). In other words, if one does nothing with their life, then what is the pointing of living at all? Shakespeare uses Hamlet to encourage the Elizabethan audience to not allow their lives to go to waste and to continue advancing and growing in all aspects of their life. Hamlet was first performed in the heart of what would come to be known as the Renaissance Era. Shakespeare targets the Elizabethan audience and encourages them to do something with their life in arguably the most developmental time period
Bersche 2 in earths history. Elizabethan audiences are inspired by Hamlet’s words and make extraordinary advances in science, literature, philosophy, and more. Shakespeare uses Hamlet’s words to target the progressive stage of life that the Elizabethan audience was going through.
Another way Shakespeare targets his audience is by giving them clues to the plays setting. In
Cited: "Elizabethan Life." Elizabethan Life. Web. 3 June 2015. <http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/ elizabethan-life.htm>. "Shakespeare Facts | Shakespeare 's Globe | Globe Education / Shakespeare 's Globe." Shakespeare Facts | Shakespeare 's Globe | Globe Education / Shakespeare 's Globe. Web. 3 June 2015. <http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discovery-space/fact-sheets>. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Champaign, Ill.: Project Gutenberg, 199. Print.