[Act Three Answers]
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May I stress that these are sample answers. I have stuck to what seemed
to me to be common sense explanations. If you're looking for a philosophy
of life, you won't find one here.
Ê Ê
What? Why? How? Stagecraft
Question 1 (What do they all do?) Question 1 (Dramatic surprises)
Question 2 (Importance of the play
scene) Question 2 (Creation of tension)
Question 3 (Hamlet in the Prayer Scene) Language and Imagery
Question 4 (Claudius' soliloquy) Question 1 (Disease and
rottenness)
Question 5 (Hamlet's soliloquies) Ê
Question 6 (Is Hamlet mad?) Ê
Question 7 (Hamlet at his worst) Ê
Question 8 (Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern) Ê
Question 9 (Is the Ghost an
hallucination) Ê
Question 10 (Ophelia's potential for
madness) Ê
Act Three Answers Ê
What? Why? How?
1. What do Claudius and Polonius do in scene
one, that Hamlet and Horatio do in scene two,
that Hamlet does in scene three and Polonius
does in scene four?
Spy. Claudius and Polonius watch Hamlet meet
Ophelia; Hamlet and Horatio keep the King
under surveillance during the play; Hamlet
observes Claudius supposedly praying, and
Polonius spies upon Hamlet's meeting with his
mother.
This continual spying in the play (earlier
examples are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's
attempts to draw out the Prince and Reynaldo's
mission in France) are a key component of the
atmosphere of 'Hamlet'. The critic Frank
Kermode said that the walls of Elsinore are
made of ears. 'Hamlet' is an extremely
claustrophobic play. No actions are private.
Take Polonius. He knows about his daughter's
relationship with Hamlet. He also knows of the
prince's habit of walking 'alone' in the
lobby. Everything that happens is seen by
another character or their agents. The play
contains an enormous number of minor
characters, guards and lords, etc. Extra
actors cost money, so why would Shakespeare,
who part-owned the theatre he was writing for,
create all these extras who say and do
nothing? Because, I would suggest, their
presence increases the sense of being watched
all the time.
[Back to the top.]
2. In what respects is the 'Play Scene'
(III.ii) a turning point in the play? How is
this turn compounded by Hamlet's actions in
the 'Closet Scene' (III.iv)?
The Play Scene is, of course, Hamlet's attempt
to obtain the proof he needs to act on the
Ghost's instructions. If he is able to make
the King react guiltily to the play, he will
know that the Ghost is not a devil and that he
is justified in killing him.
As it turns out, the Play Scene has other,
unintended consequences. In presenting a
depiction of the murder of his father, Hamlet
tells Claudius that he knows about his crime.
From now on, Claudius is the hunter, Hamlet
the prey. The next time we see Claudius, in
the following scene, he is planning the
prince's death by sending Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern with Hamlet to ensure that he
goes to the English King. We must presume that
he has already devised his scheme to prevent
Hamlet from coming back.
Claudius' realisation that Hamlet is a real
threat rather than a minor irritation is
compounded in III.iv., the closet scene.
Hamlet kills Polonius by accident, hoping it
is the king. The significance of this is not
lost on the King, who tells Gertrude, "It had
been so with us had we been there" in IV.i.
Some critics, notably Terence Hawkes, have
pointed out that the Play Scene doesn't
actually prove as much as Hamlet imagines it
does. 'The Murder of Gonzago' presents the
murder of a King in his garden while he is
sleeping. But the murderer, Lucianus, is the
King's nephew, not his brother. The scene
might have been read by the King as a threat
of murder from Hamlet, rather than the
depiction of his own crime. This additional
uncertainty helps keep alive doubts about the
Ghost's origins and integrity.
[Back to the top.]
3. What does the fact that Hamlet's soliloquy
in the 'Prayer Scene' (III.iii) was cut from
performances of the play for nearly 200 years
tell us about Shakespeare's likely intentions
in writing this speech for the prince?
Samuel Johnson said this scene was "too
terrible to be read or uttered". Elizabethan
audiences and their descendants for the next
two centuries would have found Hamlet
unspeakably cruel and blasphemous in this
scene.
The Prince's intention to send the King to
hell rather than 'merely' kill him would have
more impact in age when hell was such a real
and terrifying proposition. To plan to commit
a man to eternal damnation would have been
viewed as a despicable thought. In any case,
for Hamlet to attempt to second-guess God, to
view himself as the judge of Claudius' fate,
was wholly blasphemous, not to mention
arrogant.
It seems clear that Shakespeare intended us to
see Hamlet becoming evil at this point in the
play, capable of 'drinking hot blood' as he
tells us at the end of the play scene. This is
central to what the play has to say about
revenge. When a person is put above the law,
above the normal moral codes that we use to
keep society running smoothly, anything can
happen. Hamlet is freed from any sense of
sinfulness in the murder of Claudius and
becomes capable of cold-blooded murder on the
slightest pretext. The fates of Polonius,
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are examples of
this.
Some Nineteenth and early-Twentieth century
critics have attempted to rehabilitate Hamlet,
and this is still a view you may hear today.
According to these Romantic critics, Hamlet is
not capable of murder and says what he does in
the prayer scene in order to put off the fatal
moment for as long as possible. Frankly, this
view is laughable. It depends upon a
preconceived notion that Hamlet is a pale,
romantic, melancholy poet who wouldn't hurt a
fly. This is directly contradicted by the
facts of the play. There is no reason not to
take Hamlet at his word here and elsewhere
when he speaks in soliloquy.
[Back to the top.]
4. Does Claudius' soliloquy revise or compound
your opinion of this character?
It probably does a little of both. In terms of
revising one's opinion, there has been little
evidence thus far in the play that Claudius
feels very much about anything. In this scene
we find him on his knees and begging for
forgiveness. Certainly, we must conclude that
he is a man with strong feelings and a heavy
conscience.
However, looking carefully at the speech
allows us to see the King's more villainous
side. He knows he has sinned. He knows that
his sins are so terrible that he is very
likely to be damned for them. But what is his
response? "May one be pardoned and retain
th'offence". When Claudius says "th'offence",
he means the things he has gained through
killing his brother: the crown and Gertrude.
The King wants God to pardon him for his
crimes without giving up anything. He is not
at all penitent: he simply wants to get out of
being punished.
That said, Claudius knows that this desirable
state of affairs will not come to pass. This
is why he finishes the soliloquy attempting to
pray for the strength to repent properly. The
final lines of the scene where Claudius tells
us that he has been unable to pray are not
simply an ironic joke about Hamlet's
haplessness. Rather, they show us that the
King's love for his ill-gotten gains outweighs
his fear of damnation
[Back to the top.]
5. Hamlet is often thought to have a lot of
soliloquies, though in actual fact, he has
fewer than Macbeth and around the same number
as Othello, who are thought to be men of
action rather than meditation. How does the
placing and subject of Hamlet's soliloquies in
this act encourage the idea of a meditative
prince?
With regard to the placing of Hamlet's
soliloquies, their positions within the third
act, help to create the idea of Hamlet as a
thinker. His soliloquy at the end of Act Two
("O what a rogue and peasant slave am I") is
immediately followed the next time we see him
by his soliloquy in Act Three, scene one ("To
be or not to be, that is the question"). Thus
we are given the idea that Hamlet has been
thinking continuously in the interim. The same
thing happens at the end of Act Three, scene
two. Hamlet delivers his "Now is the very
witching time of night" soliloquy and then the
next time we see the Prince, he delivers his
"Now might I do it pat" soliloquy in Act
Three, scene three. Shakespeare creates the
impression that Hamlet is always thinking by
having him soliloquise in adjacent scenes.
Regarding their subject matter, Hamlet's
soliloquies are different to those given by
other Shakespearian heroes in that they
present thought rather than state positions or
decisions. The "O what a rogue and peasant
slave" soliloquy at the close of Act Two,
scene two, shows us Hamlet wanting to feel
more strongly, wishing he had killed the King
already and then deciding not to. The 'To be
or not to be" soliloquy in Act Three, scene
one, debates the advantages of committing
suicide and the reasons that we don't. The
"Now is the very witching time of night"
soliloquy in Act Three, scene two, presents
Hamlet reminding himself not to kill his
mother and the "Now might I do it pat"
soliloquy shows us Hamlet deciding not to kill
Claudius for the time being. Each of the
soliloquies is negative: it retards the
fulfillment of Hamlet's mission rather than
advancing it. The only soliloquy which results
in any action is the one at the end of Act
Two, scene two, which results in Hamlet
putting on 'The Murder of Gonzago'. But this
is in preference to acting directly and has,
in fact, been arranged already, immediately
before the soliloquy.
The 'To be or not to be' soliloquy is often
felt to be central to Hamlet's personality. It
provides an excellent example of Hamlet not
doing anything. He says that it would be far
better for us all to commit suicide, but that
we don't because we are scared of what might
happen to us in the afterlife. Furthermore, we
very often put things off because of our
understanding that we might be being sinful.
We look too closely at our plans and find
reasons for not carrying them out.
In this context, one of the first things to
note is that the soliloquy leads to nothing,
except perhaps his barbarity to Ophelia. The
second thing to note is that it has very
little to do with what Hamlet is supposed to
be doing. He has just planned to put on a play
in order to discover whether the King is
guilty as charged. The very next time we see
him, he doesn't even mention it. Of course,
the speech is relevant to Hamlet's own wish to
be dead and to his failure to kill Claudius.
But it has nothing to do with his immediate
plans. Lastly, it is worth noting that Hamlet
is not talking about himself, he is talking
about humanity in general and and how
unbearable all our lives are. The speech is
more like an essay than a confession.
This treatment of Hamlet's soliloquies is
obviously very one-sided. There is much, much
more to be said about them. But not here.
[Back to the top.]
6. 'I essentially am not in madness' says
Hamlet (III.iv.188). Name four lines spoken by
Hamlet in this act which might make you doubt
this.
"Get thee to a nunnery" (III.i.119) and "It
hath made me mad" (III.i.140-1).
What is Hamlet talking about? He has just
insinuated that Ophelia has lost her virtue
and now he is telling her to go to a convent.
Why? To avoid becoming a "breeder of sinners".
Hamlet says that all humanity is sinful and
suffering: any addition to the race would be
an increase of this wickedness. This relates,
of course, to the "To be or not to be"
soliloquy. He says there that life is
unlivable, but that the alternatives are too
terrifying to contemplate. The solution he
comes up with seems to be "no more marriages",
and consequently, no more children. Call me
judgmental, but this seems like insanity.
In the second line, Hamlet tells Ophelia that
the wicked, deceitful ways of women have
driven him insane. One might well respond that
Hamlet is pretending to be mad because he
knows that Polonius and Claudius can hear this
conversation. Indeed, it has become a
theatrical commonplace for the actor playing
Polonius to cough or otherwise reveal his
presence. However, there is no information
whatsoever in the text to suggest that
anything of the sort happens. When characters
hide in Elizabethan plays they stay hidden
unless they directly reveal their whereabouts,
as Polonius does in III.iv. Similarly, if
someone puts on a disguise, they are never
detected. So we must assume that Hamlet does
not know that Claudius and Polonius are
present.
He might detect that Ophelia is behaving
suspiciously and consequently start talking
gibberish and attack her morals. But he
doesn't say that she is. When he suspected
that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were
deceiving him in II.ii., he immediately told
them of his doubts. If he is suspicious of
Ophelia, one would therefore expect him to
mention it. I believe that Hamlet is speaking
directly and passionately to Ophelia in this
scene and is saying what he thinks. Indeed,
the extent of his passion, the forcefulness of
his attacks on Ophelia are a good argument for
seeing these speeches as genuine rather than
feigned madness
"Nay but to live in the rank sweat of an
enseamed bed" (III.iv.94)
The Queen has just told Hamlet that she has
seen how sinful she is. Hamlet does not
encourage her penitence, rather he continues
ranting about her sin. Three lines later, the
Queen pleads for him to stop because she feels
so guilt-stricken. Hamlet cannot stop himself
and continues with a list of Claudius' vices.
It seems very likely that he is out of control
at this point.
"What would your gracious figure?"
(III.iv.104)
Hamlet sees the Ghost; the Queen can't. In Act
One, the Ghost could be seen by everyone. The
Ghost in Act One wore armour; the Ghost in
this scene wears his normal clothes. The Ghost
in Act One disappears into thin air; this
Ghost uses the door. The Ghost in Act III,
scene iv is more than a little fishy and might
well be an hallucination.
"heaven hath please it so ... That I must be
their scourge and minister" (III.iv.174-6)
Hamlet says he's working for God. We know he's
working for his father. Where has he got this
idea of his importance?
[Back to the top.]
7. Is Hamlet at his worst in scene three or
scene four of this act?
It doesn't really matter which you decided.
Take your pick.
In scene three, Hamlet is blasphemously
arrogant and cruel, as discussed above in the
answer to question 3.
In scene four, he murders Polonius in cold
blood and then says that he deserved to die
for being so nosey. He then berates his
mother, arrogantly claiming to be God's
messenger.
[Back to the top.]
8. How do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern seem to
have become more immoral since their first
appearance in II.ii.?
In Act Two, scene two, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern fail abjectly in their mission.
They look too guilty to fool Hamlet for a
minute and when he questions them, they admit
that they are working for the King.
By Act Three they have become considerably
more corrupt. They begin the act by lying to
the King about their encounter with Hamlet.
The next time we see them, after the play in
Act Three, scene two, they are the King's
messengers, telling Hamlet off for annoying
Claudius and ordering him to go to his mother.
At the beginning of Act Three, scene three,
they are again the King's willing agents,
happy to ensure that Hamlet gets to England as
planned. Despite not living in Elsinore, they
then see fit to deliver an obsequious speech
proclaiming their loyalty to the King as the
foundation of the nation's well-being.
Everyone becomes worse as the play progresses.
The disease of Claudius' crime, the play seems
to suggest, spreads from character to
character.
[Back to the top.]
9. For what reasons might you think that the
Ghost in III.iv is an hallucination, and for
what reasons might you think it is real?
The reasons one might think it is an
hallucination are covered in question six,
above.
On the other hand, how much do we know about
what ghosts can and cannot do? There is no
rule that says that ghosts have to be
consistent in their appearance and behaviour.
Furthermore, the Ghost in III.iv. is reminding
Hamlet of its message which the prince seems
to have forgotten. He tells Hamlet (again) to
expend his anger on Claudius and not on his
mother, the opposite of what the Prince seems
to want to do.
There is again, no true reading of the Ghost.
Shakespeare does not give us enough
information to be absolutely sure whether it
is Hamlet's father, a devil, or (in part) an
hallucination. I believe this element of doubt
is useful. It makes us wonder about the
morality of the Ghost's message, about the
morality of revenge, which I would contend is
the play's main theme.
[Back to the top.]
10. After III.ii., the next time we see
Ophelia she is mad. How are the seeds for this
planted in this act?
We see Ophelia in the first two scenes of Act
Three. She doesn't say a great deal in either
scene. Readings of her frame of mind are
therefore very conjectural.
In her encounter with Hamlet in the Nunnery
Scene, Ophelia seems a little unwilling to
play her part and reject the Prince
wholeheartedly in order to display his
reactions to the onlookers. Instead, she
muddles up her lines and implies that Hamlet
is rejecting her (III.i.101). Then she shows
her disappointment when Hamlet says he never
loved her. When he begins to rant about
nunneries and the wickedness of women, she
drops all pretence, exclaiming "Oh help him
you sweet heavens!" When Hamlet leaves, she
seems to seems to break down in her speech
ending "Oh woe is me / T'have seen what I have
seen, see what I see" (III.i.154-5). Ophelia's
world is beginning to collapse. So far in her
life, she has been under the continual
direction of three men: her father, her
brother and her lover. Her brother has gone.
Her lover is insane. When her father dies at
the hands of the man she loves, there is
no-one to direct her. Back in I.iii., Polonius
says to Ophelia "think yourself a baby", and
tells her to stop believing what Hamlet has
said and believe what he says instead. Ophelia
has never had to make her own mind up and has
been dissuaded from doing so. It might be fair
to say that she does not have a mind of her
own. What happens when that infant mind is
left to fend with the loss of everyone who is
important to her?
This impression of Ophelia is strengthened, I
think, in the Play Scene. Hamlet embarasses
and confuses her publicly. She is almost
completely incapable of responding. She has
never been spoken to like this before and does
not have the resources to cope.
[Back to the top.]
Stagecraft
1. Name three dramatic surprises in this act.
The Nunnery Scene
There is no reason to imagine that Hamlet
would act in such a deranged way with Ophelia.
Indeed, we would have every expectation that
he would behave tenderly towards her.
The Dumb Show
The Dumb Show represents the King's murder of
his brother in an entirely unambiguous manner.
We expect Claudius to react, otherwise there
wouldn't be a play scene. But he doesn't. This
mystery has been solved by some directors and
critics by having Claudius looking away or
chatting with Gertrude while the mime takes
place. A more plausible explanation is that
Claudius is looking, but manages to contain
himself.
Polonius' Murder
Polonius is frequently played as a bumbling
old fool. Certainly, he is a failure as a
secret agent, consistently misinterpreting the
Prince, much to the latter's amusement. When
Hamlet kills him, I think the audience might
be genuinely shocked. Funny, harmless
characters rarely get killed off.
The Ghost
The Ghost's reappearance is very surprising.
We don't really expect to see it again after
Act One, unless to deliver some sort of moral
summary at the end. The Ghost's return is the
more surprising as it interrrupts the climax
of Hamlet's rage against Claudius and
Gertrude.
[Back to the top.]
2. Name two sections which successfully create
tension.
The Play
As discussed above, we fully expect the King
to react suitably to the play, otherwise it
wouldn't be shown to us. The audience's eyes,
like Hamlet's, are trained on him from the
beginning of the Dumb Show until the point at
which he finally breaks.
The Prayer Scene
Claudius is kneeling and vulnerable. Hamlet
has a sword. The few seconds between the
Prince's entrance and the point at which he
talks himself out of killing the King are
filled with tension.
[Back to the top.]
Language and Imagery
1. Find three references to disease or
rottenness.
There are quite a few in this act. They are
always used as metaphors for sin and
corruption.
"The native hue of resolution / Is sicklied
o'er with the pale cast of thought"
(III.i.84-5)
"Thou mixture rank ... thrice infected"
(III.ii.233-4)
"my wit's diseased" (III.ii.291)
"hell itself breathes out / Contagion to this
world" (III.ii.350-1)
"Oh my offence is rank" (III.iii.36)
"This physic but prolongs thy sickly days"
(III.iii.96)
"a blister" (III.iv.44)
"like a mildewed ear / Blasting his wholesome
brother" (III.iv.64-5)
"the rank sweat of an enseamed bed"
(III.iv.92)
"It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
/ Whiles rank corruption mining all within, /
Infects unseen" (III.iv.147-9)
Ê
Ian Delaney.
Copyright © 1997
Shakespearean Education
Last Updated: Monday, 23-Feb-98 11:34:03 EST
email: ian@hamlet.hypermart.net