The term metatheatre was first introduced in Lionel Abel’s work Metatheatre in 1963 (Abel v). The dramatist does not only consider plays-within-plays as metatheatrical, but also characters of a play who “are aware of their own theatricality” (vi). Furthermore, Abel mentions that, especially in Hamlet, several characters …show more content…
One example of that can be obseved in Act 3, scene 1, where he tells her: “Ophelia, walk you here. / … /… Read on this book, / That show of such an exercise may color / Your loneliness. … (Ham. 3.1.43-46) before Hamlet enters the scene. In Act 2, scene 1, Ophelia tells her father: “No, my good lord, but, as you did command, / I did repel his letters and denied / His access to me” (Ham. 2.1.106-108). She is therefore well aware that she does not act like her usual self, but pretends to be someone else (the person her father wants her to