rns to Elsinore between Act 4 Scene 3 and Act 5Scene 1. This allows Laertes to return and demand revenge, Ophelia to gomad and kill herself and Hamlet to return just in time for the funeral.Without this compression of time, Shakespeare could not have fitted in theplot points he needs to build the theme of revenge. Laertes leaves Denmarkin the second scene of the first act, and returns in the fourth act anddemands revenge for the death of his father, Polonius. Shakespeare has,again ignored the time frame of the play in order to facilitate the plot.It by ignoring the temporal aspect of setting that Shakespeare has the roomhe needs to develop the plot , and therefore the theme of Hamlet. Shakespeare uses Castle Elsinore and environs to depict a sordid anddepressing place where incest and murder are a part of normal life, whererevenge is commonplace motivation, and where the feigning of madness is anormal strategy to dissemble ones feelings. This is the setting for Hamlet.Shakespeare created this setting to tell us a story of revenge gone wrong.He also created a mood of disgust. When at the end of the play, things arebrought to their right order and Fortinbras becomes king, we look back andsee the depraved way of life that existed at Castle Elsinore and itslogical conclusion, a room littered with bodies and Fortinbras taking hislawful place as king, we feel disgust and its purgation....
