Subversive Power of the Theater Revealed in Hamlet an Othello :: The Tragedy of Hamlet Essays

revolutionary Power of the Theater Revealed in Hamlet and Othello Theatrical performance is alert not only to the presentation of Hamlet and Othello, exactly it is vital to to each one of the put to works respective stories. Several key characters control, manipulate, or script a internal representation performance of their own. Through subtle suggestion and explicit or unspoken storytelling, Shakespeares use of theatrical performance within his own plays underscores the subversive actor of the theater. It is no secret that Shakespeare embeds within many of his plays subtle suggestions which were subversive to the thoughts and attitudes at the time. Through the construction of the play within a play, Hamlet subverts the flavour of tycoonship. In the play, without even speaking himself, Hamlet constructs a particular variate of reality so chilling that Claudius leaves the theater. While this is obviously due to the floor similarity that Claudius sees between the play an d his own life, the subtle paper implied is the idea that royalty hatful be simplified to nothing more than acting. If the roles of the king and queen can be played so well that Claudius leaves the room, see the striking similarity between the play and his life, then there is no reason why kingship itself cannot be acted. This subversively delegitimizes the power of the throne. Moreover, it is only in the scenes link up to the mousetrap that Hamlet shows signs of leadership. He says to the players, Follow him, friends. Well hear a play tomorrow . . . You could for a need / study a speech of any(prenominal) dozen or sixteen lines / which I would set down and hold in int, could you / not? (Shakespeare II.2546-553). He is directing the action, asking the ability of the players and telling them precisely what they should do. The fact that Hamlet, the man who would be king, is a leader only in a performance subverts the idea of leadership being something firmly indispensable with in the soul of a human being. Instead, it is replaced with the notion that kingship is not something that can be passed down from generation to generation, but something that can be acted, as if it could be turned on and off at will. The nobles and leaders of a country, then, are not inherently born with power because of their familial origin, but they have the same basis of human experience as the leafy vegetable man, an idea which wouldve been utterly rejected in Shakespeares time.