ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -The play-within-a-play in Hamlet is called both The Murder of Gonzago and The Mousetrap. (Specifically, in Act 3, Scene 2, when Claudius asks, “What do you call the play?” Hamlet responds, “The Mousetrap.")

Detailed explanation-2: -The Murder of Gonzago, also known as The Mousetrap, is a play Hamlet has performed in order to unveil his uncle’s innocence or guilt in the death of his father. Hamlet adds scenes depicting his father’s death into the action of the play. When those scenes are performed, Hamlet’s uncle and mother are uncomfortable.

Detailed explanation-3: -At Elsinore, they perform a version-which Hamlet has modified and called The Mousetrap-of the play The Murder of Gonzago in the “play within a play".

Detailed explanation-4: -The Murder of Gonzago is a play in the travelling company’s repertoire which usefully parallels the circumstances of Old Hamlet’s murder. The Prince adapts it by adding a few lines (we never learn which) and renames the play The Mousetrap to taunt his mother and Claudius.

Detailed explanation-5: -Essentially, we get to see a “play within a play.” When the characters of the play we are watching become the actors and audience members of a play within that play. The concept of a play within a play (or a story within a story) comes from the French saying mise en abyme, or “placed into abyss.”