<span>Francisco and Bernardo, two castle guards in elsinore, denmark, stand alert on the castle steps at night. this is part of the plot’s exposition. This part of the story is just to show that the setting is in the Royal Court of Denmark and during a time when there are castle guards that are stationed on the castle steps at night.</span>
Exposition refers to the introduction of background information about events, settings, characters or other similar elements in a literary work. Exposition is important to a story, as it helps clarify most elements of a story to the reader. In this case, the fact that Francisco and Bernardo, two castle guards, stand alert on the castle steps at night is part of the exposition, as it introduces the setting and some of the characters of the story.