극중극의 이중 구조: 극중 관객 햄릿

Abstract

The double structure of the play-within-a-play means that a play has another play in it played by ‘actors.’ The actors represent both onstage-players and onstage-audiences, and they perform the structural device of the play- within-a-play with their physical bodies. The effect of the play-within-a-play is divided into two results. One is repetition of the plot and meaning of the play. The play-within-a-play represents the significances of the play repeating its plot and playing some roles by actors. The other is the confusion of actors playing a role as onstage-audiences. They are confused with their reality watching the play-within-a-play. The reality experienced by onstage-audiences is just an illusion made by onstage-players. This effect is resulted from the confusion between reality and illusion, and it symbolizes another possibility created by deconstruction and structural reproduction with splitting. We could see the players in the play-within-a-play inducing onstage- audiences to illusions or taunting them in their role-playings which are a kind of device of double acting of actors itself. This means that the play-within- a-play allows onstage-audiences to be reversed from “seeing” to “seen” with their positions as well as onstage-players. Shakespeare presents the possibility to reverse play into life spreading the confusion experienced by onstage-audiences to the theatre-audiences watching the whole play with the play-within-a-play. This possibility is that as if we see the play like a kind of life, our life we feel as reality could be a fiction. This kind of illusion is immanently inherent, so we can not distinguish our life from illusion but let the illusion make a real life. The study of the play-within-a-play starts from the point of view for the consciousness of playwrights ranging to the consciousness of players and audiences. The consciousness of players on the stage feel that their playing roles are divided into double existences which are not biased to both sides. The state of “acting” exposing or covering themselves reveals the structure not only to divide the boundary into illusion and reality but also to deconstruct itself through actors’ bodies. The actors who exist and do not exist on the stage experience their realities beyond time and space. We are compared to players on the stage. We do not see the limited world on their images reflected on the mirror, but realize that the play which the actors are playing their roles seems true, and also the reality which they experience is just an illusion. We can see that our images are the open existence of change and becoming through actors. Hamlet undertakes his double roles for an onstage-player and an onstage-audience to match the double structure of the play-within-a-play. Not only does he play a role as a playwright making the play-within-a-play, but also an onstage-audience and an onstage-player. It shows that this multiple role tasks are the symbol of framing and meaning for the structure of the play-within-a-play. My study focuses on such multiple roles played by Hamlet examining the significance of performing onstage-player and onstage-audience.