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Explanation & Analysis |
POLONIUS: Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you, We will bestow ourselves. [to OPHELIA] Read on this book, That show of such an exercise may color Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,— 'Tis too much proved—that with devotion’s visage And pious action we do sugar o'er The devil himself. (3.1.43-8) |
Polonius is using his daughter Ophelia in order to spy on Hamlet. He hands her a prayer book to read as she sits alone. This is ironic because the prayer book is meant to be holy and good, yet Ophelia is betraying Hamlet. This betrayal is what sparks the conflict between her and prince Hamlet. Polonius blindly acknowledges the moment's irony, stating how often it occurs that people act good in order to mask their bad actions. This makes the scene even more ironic because Claudius does this exactly. He masks his bad intentions constantly with the facade of good intentions. This scene highlights the recurring motif of deceit.
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HAMLET: To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?—To die,—to sleep,— No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to,—’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die,—to sleep;— To sleep: perchance to dream:—ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there’s the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of despis’d love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death,— The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn No traveller returns,—puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought; And enterprises of great pith and moment, With this regard, their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. (3.1.56-89) |
Hamlet discovers Yorick's skull, which is a symbol of the inevitability of death. Alone in his thoughts, he contemplates Yorick's life and the value of life itself. He contemplates suicide as he considers life's burdens. Hamlet uses juxtaposition of life and death to convey his cynic attitude towards life. Life consists of physical suffering and pain as evident by his laborious imagery ("whips and scorns of time", "dread", "weary", "grunt and sweat") and lengthy syntax. Death is an unknown which Hamlet fears, but he also views it as a peaceful escape. He compares death to "undiscovered country". Hamlet wants to commit suicide. He would rather escape the hardships that plague life and escape to the afterlife. The unknown and uncertainty of the afterlife stops him. He is torn in conflict with himself. This conflict highlights the motif of the uncertainty of the afterlife. Hamlet's soliloquy in this scene also highlights the recurring motif of decay and the theme of thought vs. action. Hamlet describes how "conscious does makes cowards us all", implying that thought retards action. When he describes that the "native hue or resolution is sicklied o'ver", Hamlet provides imagery that contributes to the motif of rot and disease. Hamlet's overall questioning of life can be considered existentialist.
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HAMLET: If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry. Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go. Farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell.
OPHELIA: Heavenly powers, restore him! HAMLET: I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God has given you one face and you make yourselves another. You jig and amble, and you lisp, you nickname God’s creatures and make your wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I’ll no more on ’t. It hath made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages. Those that are married already, all but one, shall live. The rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go. (3.1.130-41) |
Hamlet verbally attacks Ophelia with jabs at her purity. He implies that she is unchaste, and therefore needs to get to a nunnery. "Nunnery" is a pun that has two meanings: 1) a brothel for prostitutes and 2) an actual church. Both meanings insinuate that Ophelia is impure. Ophelia exclaims for Hamlet's restoration because she knows that such insults are unlike him. Her plea highlights just how much Hamlet has transformed throughout the play from the chivalrous gentleman to the cruel vicious man he's become. Hamlet continues to insult her by implying she is a hypocrite. Hamlet insults Ophelia for being literally and figurative two-faced. She is tries to be Hamlet's ally but she betray him for her father. Likewise, she is given one face but uses cosmetics to create another. Hamlet retracts any promises of marriage and renounces one marriage in particular. Hamlet's outburst stems from his disgust over his mother's incestuous and haste marriage. This scene highlights the conflict between Hamlet and Ophelia, the motif of misogyny, the theme of appearances vs. reality, and Shakespeare's stylist use of pun.
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HAMLET: Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd: A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge. ‘A took my father grossly, full of bread; With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May; And how his audit stands who knows save heaven? But in our circumstance and course of thought, 'Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged, To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and season'd for his passage? No! Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent: When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed; At game, a-swearing, or about some act That has no relish of salvation in't; Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, And that his soul may be as damn'd and black As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays: This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. (3.3.73-96) |
Hamlet sees Claudius in a vulnerable state. He is just moments away from committing to killing Claudius once and for all to avenge his father's wrongful murder. Despite being so close to fulfilling his mission, Hamlet is halted by his thoughts. He mistakes Claudius for praying, which is ironic because Claudius is actually just disingenuously asking for forgiveness. Hamlet thinks killing Claudius during his "prayer" will send Claudius straight to heaven. Hamlet thinks this is unfair, especially since his own father, Old Hamlet, is suffering in purgatory. Hamlet lets his thoughts stop him from acting, which prolongs Hamlet's mission to kill Claudius. This scene also highlights the internal conflict Hamlet constantly has with himself when he is torn between his thoughts and his desire to act.
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LAERTES: That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard,
Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot Even here between the chaste unsmirchèd brow Of my true mother. (4.5.112-6) |
Laertes has just been informed of his father Polonius's death. Laertes is upset and proclaims himself a bastard. He doesn't consider himself to be his father's real son since he has not yet punished his father's killer. This makes Laertes a foil to Hamlet. Both must avenge the wrongful deaths of their fathers. Laertes is ready for action immediately. In contrast, Hamlet keeps prolonging his need for action with thought.
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