Hamlet Act III scene 1

Thèmes abordés

Hamlet Act, Claudius and Polonius, Shakespeare

Résumé du document

The excerpt that we will analyse is the end of Act III scene 1 of Hamlet by Shakespeare. The passage that we will deal with is just after the famous Hamlet's soliloquy "to be or not to be" which is a key moment in the play. Actually, this soliloquy and then the dialogue between Hamlet and Ophelia are meaningful because they reveal the alleged thoughts of Hamlet concerning the theme of the moral legitimacy of suicide, the verisimilitude between sleep and death, the uncertainty of the afterlife and particularly Hamlet discloses the state of his mind by pretending madness.

All this passage is closely related to our excerpt because Claudius and Polonius were eavesdropping Hamlet and Ophelia and after the exit of Hamlet, they discuss Hamlet's behaviour and how they have to react to it. So we can wonder to what extent this scene through a game between appearances and reality initiates ambivalence between suspicion and attempt to discover the truth about Hamlet's madness. To answer this question we will see the subject in three parts: first we will analyse the opposition between appearances and reality in this scene and then we will see how the tragic dimension is expressed there through omens and the danger Hamlet now represents; And finally we will talk about the game of eavesdropping and interpreting which conduct the characters to their fall.

Extraits

[...] To conclude, we can say that this scene is in a way a key moment in the play. Because of appearances and a game of pretending and eavesdropping, Claudius doubts about Hamlet's madness, Ophelia starts to be desperate of Love and Polonius is still certain that Hamlet's sadness is provoked by his love for Ophelia. But by interpreting what they should not have seen, each of the protagonists provoke their own loss: Ophelia, by only believing what she has seen, will let herself die of love; Claudius by doubting and listening to Polonius will erase his chance to solve the danger Hamlet is representing and finally the most tragic dimension in this scene is that Polonius who wants to take some risk by spying again on Hamlet, will take the decision which will conduct to his own death. [...]

[...] This sentence is like a dark omen for him: Claudius feels that with these words Hamlet suspects something. Finally we can say that the final line of the scene echoes like a tragic omen: “Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd = actually, They have no choice, they have to watch on Hamlet, to react against his madness because he is an eminent character of the kingdom and moreover the heir to the throne so Claudius cannot let him be out of control. [...]

[...] We can notice this when she says have seen what I have seen, see what I she contents herself with a basic interpretation, she only understands that Hamlet is mad and that may be he is not in love with her anymore because he says so. All these interpretations would conduct the characters to their fall. For Ophelia, the situation and her mere interpretation will conduct to her emotional fall. We can notice that, thanks to the lexical field of the downfall: she uses the word and other words like or “wretched”. As Hamlet is down she is also down. [...]

[...] Hamlet Act III scene 1 The excerpt that we will analyse is the end of Act III scene 1 of Hamlet by Shakespeare. The passage that we will deal with is just after the famous Hamlet's soliloquy be or not to which is a key moment in the play. Actually, this soliloquy and then the dialogue between Hamlet and Ophelia are meaningful because they reveal the alleged thoughts of Hamlet concerning the theme of the moral legitimacy of suicide, the verisimilitude between sleep and death, the uncertainty of the afterlife and particularly Hamlet discloses the state of his mind by pretending madness. [...]

[...] And even the King asks for Polonius' advice: we can conclude that he is not certain at all of his vision, of his decisions concerning Hamlet and Hamlet's alleged simulation. II- Danger/dimension tragique/omens However, Claudius wants to react because according to him Hamlet represents now a danger. As we have noticed previously, Claudius, from his hideout, decides that Hamlet is not really in love and that his behaviour is an illusion of madness. Instead, he thinks Hamlet is "brooding" on something, and that it will lead to danger. [...]