Hamlet+3.1

__4. Quotations__ __6. Relationships__ __8. Ambiguity__
 * __Hamlet 3.1__**
 * R, “He does confess he feels himself distracted./but from what cause he will by no means speak” (5-6). G, “Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,/but with a crafty madness keeps aloof/when we would bring him on to some confession/of his true state” (7-10). R and G tell Claudius and Gertrude that they could not get the reason for Hamlet’s insanity out of him, but he did not seem very mad to me when I was reading the play, so are they saying this to keep from spying more?
 * Polonius asks the king and queen for Hamlet to come watch the play that will be performed. “With all my heart, and it doth much content me/to hear him so inclined./ Good gentlemen, give him a further edge/and drive to his purpose into these delights” (26-9). Claudius seems to honestly mean this, like he truly has Hamlets best interests at heart. Is this an act?
 * Claudius describes himself and Polonius as “Lawful espials,” which means spies (35). This highlights the secrecy and deceit in the play.
 * “Read on this book/ that show of such an exercise may color/your loneliness” (49-51). I think that this quotation is funny, because it is so sexist that women are lonely if they don’t have a guy’s attention, and that Polonius thinks this is a crucial part in how Hamlet then sees her. She is reading a bible, so this introduces religion into the scene and begins the nunnery references.
 * “O, ‘tis too true!/ How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience./ The harlot’s cheek beautied with plast’ring art/is not more ugly to the thing that helps it/than is my deed to my most painted word./ O heavy burden!” (56-62). Claudius calls Ophelia a whore, contrasting the religious imagery. He also alludes to a deceit on his part. This is ambiguous and very intriguing.
 * “I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in” (132-138). He has so little self worth and focuses on his flaws. Hamlet is depressed, but not yet mad.
 * When describing Ophelia, Hamlet rants, “It hath made me mad. I say we will have no more marriage. Those that are married already, all but one, shall live. The rest shall keep as they are” (159-61). Others probably take this as a madman’s rambling but it tells of Hamlet’s plan and anger. He practically says that there is one married couple he will kill. Look below for connection to women in general.
 * “His affections do not that way tend;/nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little,/was not like madness. There’ something in his soul/o’er which his melancholy sits lie a brood” (176-9). Claudius sees that Hamlet is not in love with Ophelia and that he is not mad. Does he suspect that Hamlet knows the truth (if in fact he did murder his brother)? And does he plan to send him away because of this? Polonius describes it, “or confine him” which I like because it ties back to Hamlet’s image of Denmark as a prison (200).
 * Hamlet and Ophelia
 * He first sees her and says, “Nymph, in thy orisons/be all my sins remembered” (97-8).
 * Ophelia, “I’m ready to return your affections.” Hamlet, “No, not I. I never gave you aught” (105). Ophelia, “My honored lord, you know well right you did” (106). “I did love you once…I loved you not” (125, 129). This is all very confusing, which is it? He doesn’t care for her now but he did before, or was it he was just attracted to her and acted like he loved her?
 * Hamlet begins talking about Ophelia and criticizing her but then rants about his mother. Therefore has he turned on Ophelia because he now hates his mother and all women?
 * Iambic Pentameter vs. Prose
 * Hamlet speaks in iambic pentameter for his monologue but nothing else.
 * When Hamlet first sees Ophelia (above), what does he mean by his sins? Does he still love her? It does not appear like that as the scene goes on.
 * Who is hamlet really angry at? Ophelia, his mother, his uncle, the ghost, himself?