comments on how a “pious action” can “sugar o’er / The devil himself.” This prompts an aside about his “conscience” from Claudius, the first implicit acknowledgment of his guilt that he has made. Hearing Hamlet approach, they withdraw, forming a dual audience to the action, further revealing the play’s self-conscious theatricality.
Lines 62–166: Hamlet appears to be contemplating suicide as he asks himself: “To be, or not to be,” although the question can be considered in a more abstract way than just Hamlet’s choice over whether to live or die, and can potentially transcend the action of the play as a philosophical argument. It returns us to the concept of “balance,” between flesh/spirit and action/inaction, as Hamlet is torn between a passive acceptance of life’s events, “to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” and definitive resistance to them: “to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them.” Hamlet breaks off as he sees Ophelia, who tries to return some love-tokens that he has previously given her. Hamlet’s disjointed responses become a wild verbal attack on Ophelia that further complicates our understanding of his mental state, seeming too extreme to be merely acting. It is also difficult to distinguish whether Hamlet’s outburst is personal and related directly to his feelings for Ophelia, or an attack on all women and their sexuality, possibly generated by his disgust at his mother’s relationship with his uncle. He repeatedly tells Ophelia to go “to a nunnery,” and then leaves abruptly. Ophelia laments the loss of Hamlet’s “sovereign reason.”
Lines 167–194: Claudius and Polonius discuss what they have overheard. Claudius is not convinced that Hamlet’s madness is the resultof love, nor, indeed, that Hamlet is actually mad. He says that there is something in Hamlet’s soul “O’er which his melancholy sits on brood” and that he is worried that the “hatch and the disclose” of this thing will be “some danger” (although he does not acknowledge aloud the fear that the danger will be to himself). He resolves to send Hamlet to England, claiming that the change might “expel” the “something-settled matter” from his heart. Polonius agrees, but still insists that Hamlet’s problem is “neglected love.” He suggests a further test of this: Queen Gertrude will speak “all alone” to her son, and “entreat him / To show his griefs,” while Polonius will conceal himself again and listen to the exchange.
ACT 3 SCENE 2
The performance of the play-within-the-play makes the theme of theater/performance explicit and focuses attention on the nature of “reality.” The presence of a dual audience also emphasizes the theme of sight/perception, as we watch the characters watching a play, and, more specifically, Hamlet secretly observing Claudius (neatly reversing their roles of observed/observer from the previous scene).
Lines 1–129: Hamlet directs the players as to how he wants them to deliver the lines he has written, urging them to “suit the action to the word, the word to the action”—an ironic instruction given the apparent disparity between words and actions in the wider play. The players go to prepare and Hamlet sends Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to “hasten” them. Horatio arrives and Hamlet excitedly explains his plan and tells him to watch Claudius. Horatio agrees, and the king and queen enter in a formal procession with other members of the court, accompanied by guards and torchbearers. This ceremony emphasizes the public setting for this scene, which contrasts with the concealed secrets, emotions and intentions of the various characters. Hamlet continues to disconcert everyone with his changeable speech, including some bawdy wordplay directed at Ophelia that emphasizes his fixation with women in terms of their sexuality. Music sounds, and the dumb show begins.
Lines 130–256: The dumb
Lines 62–166: Hamlet appears to be contemplating suicide as he asks himself: “To be, or not to be,” although the question can be considered in a more abstract way than just Hamlet’s choice over whether to live or die, and can potentially transcend the action of the play as a philosophical argument. It returns us to the concept of “balance,” between flesh/spirit and action/inaction, as Hamlet is torn between a passive acceptance of life’s events, “to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” and definitive resistance to them: “to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them.” Hamlet breaks off as he sees Ophelia, who tries to return some love-tokens that he has previously given her. Hamlet’s disjointed responses become a wild verbal attack on Ophelia that further complicates our understanding of his mental state, seeming too extreme to be merely acting. It is also difficult to distinguish whether Hamlet’s outburst is personal and related directly to his feelings for Ophelia, or an attack on all women and their sexuality, possibly generated by his disgust at his mother’s relationship with his uncle. He repeatedly tells Ophelia to go “to a nunnery,” and then leaves abruptly. Ophelia laments the loss of Hamlet’s “sovereign reason.”
Lines 167–194: Claudius and Polonius discuss what they have overheard. Claudius is not convinced that Hamlet’s madness is the resultof love, nor, indeed, that Hamlet is actually mad. He says that there is something in Hamlet’s soul “O’er which his melancholy sits on brood” and that he is worried that the “hatch and the disclose” of this thing will be “some danger” (although he does not acknowledge aloud the fear that the danger will be to himself). He resolves to send Hamlet to England, claiming that the change might “expel” the “something-settled matter” from his heart. Polonius agrees, but still insists that Hamlet’s problem is “neglected love.” He suggests a further test of this: Queen Gertrude will speak “all alone” to her son, and “entreat him / To show his griefs,” while Polonius will conceal himself again and listen to the exchange.
ACT 3 SCENE 2
The performance of the play-within-the-play makes the theme of theater/performance explicit and focuses attention on the nature of “reality.” The presence of a dual audience also emphasizes the theme of sight/perception, as we watch the characters watching a play, and, more specifically, Hamlet secretly observing Claudius (neatly reversing their roles of observed/observer from the previous scene).
Lines 1–129: Hamlet directs the players as to how he wants them to deliver the lines he has written, urging them to “suit the action to the word, the word to the action”—an ironic instruction given the apparent disparity between words and actions in the wider play. The players go to prepare and Hamlet sends Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to “hasten” them. Horatio arrives and Hamlet excitedly explains his plan and tells him to watch Claudius. Horatio agrees, and the king and queen enter in a formal procession with other members of the court, accompanied by guards and torchbearers. This ceremony emphasizes the public setting for this scene, which contrasts with the concealed secrets, emotions and intentions of the various characters. Hamlet continues to disconcert everyone with his changeable speech, including some bawdy wordplay directed at Ophelia that emphasizes his fixation with women in terms of their sexuality. Music sounds, and the dumb show begins.
Lines 130–256: The dumb
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