Why do you think Shakespeare included a play within a play?

Answer 1

I believe Shakespeare was making a point about how life itself is a play. It could also be a sort of joke, like when a television show makes a joke about itself...like on 'Everybody Loves Raymond'...in one episode Ray and Debra are having an argument and Ray says "Are the kids even mine? For all i know they could be the mailman's!" The joke being that all three children are blonde...but both parents (Ray and Debra) have dark hair, which happens because sometimes the best actors for a series dont always have matching hair color or appearances. It's what people call "tongue-in-cheek".

Answer 2

Hamlet is a play, and within it, there is a play.

In Hamlet, Hamlet believes that his uncle murdered his father in order to usurp the throne. Trying to gain evidence to support his belief, Hamlet puts on a play, and during the murder scene, he watches to see how his Uncle reacts.

"The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King!"

(See the link below for further explanation of this quotation.)

Answer 3

Hamlet is famous for it.

But there is a play within a play in other Shakespearean plays, notably A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Tempest has a masque which is a sort of play. There is another masque-like entertainment in Love's Labour's Lost, called the "Pageant of the Nine Worthies".

Answer 4

He's trying to flush Claudius out. The Ghost has called Claudius a murderer but much as Hamlet loathes Claudius, he doesn't want to kill the king without being sure. He suspects that the devil could have sent the ghost to lure him into killing Claudius. So he sets a trap. "I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play have by the very cunning of the scene been struck so to the soul that presently they have proclaim'd their malefactions."

Answer 5

Shakespeare used the play within a play structure numerous times in his plays, such as Hamlet, A MIdsummer's NIght Dream, and Love's Labours Lost.