Discuss the following passage from Act 1 Scene 2, exploring Shakespeare’s use of language and its dramatic effects.

This passage is taken from the early stages of the play. Laertes has just been given permission to travel to France whereas Hamlet, under the Kings orders, must remain in Denmark. Hamlet continues to mourn the death of his father while Gertrude and Claudius try and end it. Shakespeare uses language and dramatic effects to show Hamlet's authentic sorrow following the death of his father and in order to expose Claudius’s guilt.
Shakespeare uses complex wordplay in Hamlet’s line “A little more than kin and less than kind” which has the effect of showing that Hamlet is not yet ready to forget and replace his father with Claudius. In saying Claudius is “less than kind” it is the first indicator that Claudius has done something immoral. By foreshadowing this early within the play ,the viewer can better sympathise with Hamlet’s mourning considering they have an inkling that the situation involving King Hamlet’s death is less innocent than it immediately seems. Shakespeare again uses wordplay in Hamlet’s line “I am too much i’ the sun”. This line can be taken to mean that Hamlet is ‘in the light’ or in other words, he knows the truth behind the situation. Although Hamlet is not yet aware of Claudius’s treachery, this phrase helps to justify Hamlet’s mood as it suggest he knows more than the viewer and than Claudius. It also aids in beginning to raise questions within the readers mind of what it might be that Hamlet knows; again preparing the audience for the revelation of Claudius’s betrayal. This phrase could also be taken to mean that Hamlet is too much in the “son”. Like with “a little more than kin” Shakespeare is again trying to portray Hamlet’s hesitation to accept Claudius as his father. The combination of these two meanings may lead the more of observant of audience members to link the suspicion surrounding Hamlet’s murder with Hamlet’s reluctance to call Claudius his father. This creates an aura of distrust around Claudius which changes the way in which Claudius’s longer narrative is received.