The_Key_To_Success

The Key To Success The Key to Suspense The key to every great story is to capture the readers interest as soon as possible. A great technique to any story, or in this case a play, is foreshadowing. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act I, Scene I hints at certain situations which arise in the latter part of the play. Among the foreshadowed events are the chaos which takes place in the royal family, the revenge of Hamlet’s father’s death, and the violence that ends the life of so many main characters in the play. In the opening scene two royal guards, Bernardo and Francisco, have a short discussion. Francisco almost immediately explains that he is “sick at heart” (line 9) and does not give the reader an appropriate explanation for these feelings. From this simple statement it is assumed that a tragedy has occurred fairly recently. Another guard, Marcellus, and a friend of Hamlet named Horatio join Bernardo and Francisco in a discussion of current events. It is shortly revealed that the recent tragedy is the death of the King of Denmark. It is obvious to the reader that the King of Denmark has died. Horatio tells of the “majesty of buried Denmark” (line 52) and talks of a ghost horatio, hamlet, royal, ghost, events, death, scene, play, king, revenge, family, reader, hamlet’s, francisco, first, father, discussion, denmark, characters, appearance, tragedy, talks, sure, state, serve, says, opening, main, line, hints, guards, future, former, explains, current, chaos