Hamlet #1

In the first two scenes of the play, the audience learns of the ghost resembling Hamlet's father and of the grief that Hamlet suffers due to his father's death. Throughout the act one scene two, Hamlet is grieving his father's death, while his mother and Claudius are unaffected by their son's great unhappiness. The queen says to her son: "Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off,/ And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark./ Do not forever with thy vailèd lids/ Seek for thy noble father in the dust./ Thou know’st ’tis common. All that lives must die,/ Passing through nature to eternity" (I.ii.70-75). The queen is telling her son to be nicer to Claudius, and to stop moping around remembering his father. She also tells her son that death is natural, and that it happens often. During Shakespeare's time, death was an mystery and was quite common. Therefore, people did not make such a great deal when one passed. However, this is contrasting to Hamlet because he is constantly upset regarding his father's death, and no one else seems to be affected by the news.