Hamlet

1
Hamlet

• Act IV

2
Method to the Madness

• Not where he eats, but where he is eaten a
  certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at
  him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet we
  fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat
  ourselves for maggots your fat king and your
  lean beggar is but variable service,--two dishes,
  but to one table that's the endA man may fish
  with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of
  the fish that hath fed of that wormNothing but
  to show you how a king may go a progress through
  the guts of a beggar.
• (IV.iii.22-28, 30-32, 34-35)

3
Method to the Madness

• Equality of Death
• A poor man can eat a king.
• How is this possible?
• Death comes to us all.

4
Method to the Madness

• In heaven send thither to see if your
  messenger find him not there, seek him i' the
  other place yourself. But, indeed, if you find
  him not within this month, you shall nose him as
  you go up the stairs into the lobby.
• (IV.iii.37-41)
• Insulting to the King
• Hamlet predicts the destiny of the King

5
The Kings Plan Part I

• Sends Hamlet to England to recover his wits.
• Suggests that Hamlet needs to leave Denmark in
  order to be protected
• In reality, Claudius is sending Hamlet to England
  in order to be executed.

6
Hamlets Newest Inspiration

• Fortinbras Army
• Thousands of men will die trying to recover a
  meaningless and worthless piece of land in Poland
• Why are they willing to risk their lives for
  nothing?
• Pride

7
Hamlets Reaction

• How all occasions do inform against meAnd spur
  my dull revenge! What is a man,If his chief good
  and market of his timeBe but to sleep and feed?
  a beast, no more.Sure he that made us with such
  large discourse,Looking before and after, gave
  us notThat capability and godlike reasonTo fust
  in us unus'd. Now, whether it beBestial
  oblivion, or some craven scrupleOf thinking too
  precisely on the event,--

8
Hamlets Reaction

• A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part
  wisdomAnd ever three parts coward,--I do not
  knowWhy yet I live to say 'This thing's to
  do'Sith I have cause, and will, and strength,
  and meansTo do't. Examples, gross as earth,
  exhort meWitness this army, of such mass and
  charge,Led by a delicate and tender
  princeWhose spirit, with divine ambition
  puff'd,Makes mouths at the invisible
  eventExposing what is mortal and unsure

9
Hamlets Reaction

• To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,Even
  for an egg-shell. Rightly to be greatIs not to
  stir without great argument,But greatly to find
  quarrel in a strawWhen honour's at the stake.
  How stand I, then,That have a father kill'd, a
  mother stain'd,Excitements of my reason and my
  blood,And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I
  seeThe imminent death of twenty thousand
  menThat, for a fantasy and trick of fame,

10
Hamlets Reaction

• Go to their graves like beds fight for a
  plotWhereon the numbers cannot try the
  cause,Which is not tomb enough and continentTo
  hide the slain?--O, from this time forth,My
  thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
• (IV.iv.34-69)

11
Have We Seen ThisReaction Before?

• Numerous times
• Hamlet is inspired to act
• He gives a passionate soliloquy about how he will
  act immediately
• Hamlet finds an excuse not to act
• The ghost is a devil
• Claudius praying
• Is this another example of all talk and no action?

12
Ophelias Songs

• How should I your true love know
• From another one?
• By his cockle hat and staff
• And his sandal shoon.
• He is dead a gone, lady,
• He is dead and gone

13
Ophelias Songs

• At his head a grass-green turf
• At his heels a stone.
• White his shroud as the mountain snow
• Larded all with sweet flowers
• Which bewept to the ground did not go
• With true-love showers.
• Sadness over Polonius death.

14
Ophelias Songs

• Tomorrow is Saint Valentines day,
• All in the morning betime,
• And I a maid at your window,
• To be your valentine.
• Then up he rose and donned his clothes
• And dupped the chamber door,
• Let in the maid, that out a maid
• Never departed more.

15
Ophelias Songs

• By Gis and by Saint Charity,
• Alack and fie for shame,
• Young men will do t, if they come to t
• By Cock, they are to blame.
• Quoth she Before you tumbled me,
• You promised me to wed.
• So would I a done, by yonder sun,
• An thou hadst not come to my bed.

16
Ophelias Songs

• Insight into the relationship of Hamlet and
  Ophelia?
• Was she intimate with Hamlet because she expected
  to marry him?
• Is marriage out of the question now?
• Why?
• Hamlet killed her father.
• Characterization of Ophelia
• Dependent versus independent

17
Ophelia and the Flowers

• Rosemary
• Remembrance
• Laertes

18
Ophelia and the Flowers

• Pansies
• Thoughts
• Laertes

19
Ophelia and the Flowers

• Fennel
• Flattery and Deceit (Marital Infidelity)
• Gertrude and Claudius?

20
Ophelia and the Flowers

• Columbines
• Flattery and Insincerity
• Gertrude and Claudius?

21
Ophelia and the Flowers

• Rue
• Sorrow or Repentance
• Gertrude and Claudius?
• Keeps some for herself

22
Ophelia and the Flowers

• Daisy
• Forsaken or Unhappy Love
• Gertrude?
• Ophelia?

23
Ophelia and the Flowers

• Violets
• Faithfulness
• they withered all when my father died.

24
Laertes Anger with the King

• Angry that Hamlet has not been punished
• Angry that Polonius did not receive a proper
  funeral

25
Laertes Reaction toOphelias Madness

• Hadst thou thy wits and didst persuade revenge,/
  It could not move thus. (IV.v.192-193)
• Laertes will avenge his sisters madness

26
Connections to Hamlet

• Both have had a father murdered.
• Hamlet talks about action, but (so far) has not
  actually acted.
• Laertes talks about action too

27
Connections to Hamlet

• How came he dead? Ill not be juggled with.
• To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!
• Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
• I dare damnation. To this point I stand,
• That both the worlds I give to negligence,
• Let come what comes, only Ill be revenged
• Most throughly for my father.
• (IV.v.148-154)

28
Connections to Hamlet

• While Hamlet debates the moral consequence of his
  actions, Laertes could care less.
• To cut his throat i th church. (IV.vii.144)
• Will Laertes act?

29
Gertrudes Betrayal?

• LAERTES. Where is my father?
• KING. Dead.
• QUEEN. But not by him.
• (IV.v.144-146)

30
Gertrudes Betrayal?

• Why would Gertrude protect Claudius?
• Does she not believe Hamlets claims?
• Does she still believe Hamlet is insane?

31
The Kings Plan Part II

• After his plan to have Hamlet executed in England
  fails, the King formulates a new plan with the
  help of Laertes.
• Claudius will arrange a fencing match between
  Hamlet and Laertes.
• Laertes will use an unbated sword.

32
The Kings Plan Part II

• Laertes will also poison the tip of the sword so
  that even a scratch will kill Hamlet.
• Claudius will also poison Hamlets drink.

33
The Death of Ophelia(Ophelia by Sir John Everett
Millais)
34
The Death of Ophelia

• There is a willow grows aslant a brook,That
  shows his hoar leaves in the glassy
  streamThere with fantastic garlands did she
  comeOf crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long
  purplesThat liberal shepherds give a grosser
  name,But our cold maids do dead men's fingers
  call themThere, on the pendent boughs her
  coronet weedsClambering to hang, an envious
  sliver broke

35
The Death of Ophelia

• When down her weedy trophies and herselfFell in
  the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wideAnd,
  mermaid-like, awhile they bore her upWhich time
  she chanted snatches of old tunesAs one
  incapable of her own distress,Or like a creature
  native and induedUnto that element but long it
  could not beTill that her garments, heavy with
  their drink,Pull'd the poor wretch from her
  melodious layTo muddy death. (IV.vii.190-208)

36
The Death of Ophelia

• Is Ophelias death an accidental death or a
  suicide?
• If it is a suicide, keeping in mind the societal
  expectations and religious beliefs of the time,
  what are the consequences of her death?