How does hamlet plan to use of the troupe of traveling players?

Answer 1

The players enable a number of things:

1. It makes the audience, who were fans of Kyd's Spanish Tragedy which also contained a play within a play, feel that they were on familiar ground.

2. It gives Hamlet an opportunity to comment of the state of theatre in England at the time.

3. It helps the plot along by giving Hamlet a device to test Claudius's guilt.

4. It enables Shakespeare to contrast the formal and stilted language of The Murder of Gonzago with the more natural language of Shakespeare's play.

5. It provides a device where the characters reveal a great deal about themselves while commenting on the play they are watching.

Answer 2

"The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king." Hamlet hoes that when seeing "The Murder of Gonzago" King Claudius' conscience will get the best of him and he will betray his guilt.

Answer 3

You must be talking about Hamlet here, as the other plays which have plays within them (Midsummer Night's Dream, Loves Labour's Lost) involve amateur performances. Shakespeare uses the players in Hamlet in a number of ways. First it provides a vehicle for "The Mousetrap", Hamlet's plan to trap Claudius into some kind of admission of guilt. Second it enables Shakespeare to put into Hamlet's mouth a lot of advice which probably reflects Shakespeare's own view of how actors should do their job. Third, it enables Shakespeare to both imitate and parody the laboured style of an earlier generation, as seen in Gorboduc and other similar plays. Fourth, it enables him to develop his characters by their remarks on the play they are watching, using irony and other techniques. Who can forget Gertrude's marvelous ironic line "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."?