Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

1
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• Hamlet, realising it is Polonius he has killed,
  shows a distinct lack of sympathy
• Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool,
  farewell!
• I took thee for thy better. Take thy
  fortune.
• Thou findest to be too busy is some danger.
  
• (lines 32-34)

2
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• think how this coldness is perceived by the
  audience, especially when it is extended to his
  mother
• Leave wringing of your hands.
• (l.35)
• This imperative (order) is unsympathetic,
  continued by the statement
• let me wring your heart. For so I shall,
• If it be made of penetrable stuff,
• If damnèd custom have not brassed it so
• That it be proof and bulwark against sense.
• (l. 36-39)

3
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• The speech appears to be accompanied by Hamlet
  guiding Gertrude to a seat dramatically, her
  next words
• What have I done that thou darest wag thy
  tongue
• In noise so rude against me?
• (l.40-41)
• would be spoken as she looked up at him does
  this represent a plea? Does Shakespeare present
  Gertrude as a more sympathetic character than
  Claudius?

4
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• Hamlets response is to her marriage read
  lines 42 Such an act to 52 (thought sick at
  the act there seems to be blame for the
  destruction of his own and Ophelias love
• takes off the rose
• From the fair forehead of an innocent love
• And sets a blister there
• (lines 43-5)
• Prostitutes were branded with a hot iron that
  left a blister behind.

5
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• Gertrudes reply to this is presented as
  confused, but Hamlet responds with a painting
  (counterfeit presentment) of the 2 brothers.
  Directors have used miniatures sometimes Hamlet
  wearing one and Gertrude the other otherwise,
  large pictures can be used, but are rather
  difficult to manoeuvre.

6
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• Old Hamlet is represented as having associations
  with
• Hyperion . Sun god
• Jove .. Supreme god (sky god Zeus)
• Mars . God of war
• Mercury .. God of swiftness/mediation
  (messenger)
• This is almost a creation of man story each god
  giving something set his seal
• In contrast, Claudius is presented as spreading
  corruption (blasting) like one mildewed ear (of
  wheat) spreading blight.

7
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• Implicit in Hamlets speech here is that
  Gertrude should have been too old and wise to
  allow a sexual urge to overcome judgement
• You cannot call it love. For at your age
• The heyday in the blood is tame.

8
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• The speech continues to accuse Gertrude of
  having her sense, apoplexed (paralysed) that
  madness has enslaved sense that she has been
  cozened tricked into making a bad choice
  that all her senses have gone. Mention is made
  of devil and hell these have mutinied
  against her matrons bones, if that can happen,
  then youths virtue will also melt like the wax
  of a sealing stick.

9
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• Gertrude is overcome by this thou turnest
  mine eyes into my very soul there there is a
  stain that cannot be removed.
• Hamlet cannot stop he refers to her living
• In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed
• Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love
• Over the nasty sty
• (lines 92-95)
• Shakespeare again presents Hamlet as having an
  aversion to the sexual liaison of Gertrude and
  Hamlet. does this reveal Hamlets psychological
  state?

10
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• Gertrude begs him to stop, but Hamlet continues
  with accusations that Claudius is, A murderer
  and a villain, a thief.
• Look closely at the way Shakespeare has Gertrude
  interject think of the way this could be
  performed and the ways the sympathies of the
  audience might be moved.

11
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• The dramatic tension in this scene is high, when
  the ghost enters it is clear from Gertrudes,
  hes mad that she cannot see it. The ghost
  appeals to Hamlet to help her her mind is in
  agony her fighting soul.
• Gertrude sees Hamlet bend his eye to look at
  what appears to be nothing and talk to
  thincorporal air (empty air). This scene is
  reminiscent of Macbeths vision of Banquos ghost
  at the banquet.

12
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• Why does Shakespeare not have Gertrude see the
  ghost? Is he attempting to now present Hamlet as
  becoming insane? Yet the ghost speaks, so do the
  audience assume that there is still a ghost, but
  for some reason Gertrude is not allowed to see
  it? What about the idea mentioned earlier in the
  play that this could be a devil assuming the
  shape of old Hamlet?

13
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• Hamlet denies madness, saying that his pulse
  keeps the same time as hers, that he could repeat
  word for word what was said, that she should not
  lay unction - place ointment on her soul to
  make herself feel better.
• He uses the image of a garden once more that
  she must not spread the compost on the weeds
  she should admit wrong now, not continue to do it
  and make everything worse.

14
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• Hamlet warns Gertrude not to go to Claudius
  bed that night that until she repents he cannot
  ask for her blessing (a son would normally ask
  this on leaving)
• Shakespeare seems to present Hamlet here as not
  feeling especially guilty about the death of
  Polonius, but feeling that heaven hath pleased
  it so that he should be the instrument of
  punishment as well as the deliverer.

15
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• the cruelto be kind statement seems to
  indicate that his duty is to make her repent, but
  Polonius death is only the beginning worse
  is to come.
• He warns her not to let Claudius tempt her again
  to bed and get his secret that he is not mad -
  out of her then she will be like the famous
  ape this is a fable of an ape releasing birds
  from a cage out of curiosity, then trying to
  imitate them, so breaking his neck. The warning
  is clear telling Claudius will bring her grief.

16
Hamlet Act III sc iv lines32 onwards

• Hamlet tells Gertrude that he must go to
  England, but does not trust Rosencrantz and
  Guildenstern that they are meant to prepare the
  way for his falling into a trap, but he wants
  them, hoist with his own petard blown up with
  their own bomb Hamlet is going to counter-attack
  delve one yard below their mines/And blow them
  at the moon.