How We Come to Love and Lose Hamlet in the Graveyard Scene

Formal play analysis

“Hamlet, the Philosopher” by andrewasmith is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Andrew Smith. A statue of Hamlet presented by Lord Ronald Sutherland-Gower in 1888, situated in Bancroft Gardens, Stratford-upon-Avon.

In the first scene of the last act of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which I will refer to as “the graveyard scene,” the audience’s relationship with Hamlet undergoes two major shifts. Upon Hamlet’s reentry into the play in Act 5, Scene 1, the audience finds newfound hope and love for Hamlet, but by Hamlet’s exit the audience is…