Hamlet Act III, Scene 3 & 4 Analysis ELA B30 Mr. Smadu

Scene 3: The Conscience of the King Kneeling in prayer before sleeping, the King confesses the depth and severity of his crime. He likens himself to Cain, the primal or first murderer, and admits that he cannot bring himself to ask for God's mercy. "But oh, what form of prayer / can serve my turn?" Claudius knows that he will never abdicate (renounce) the throne, nor will he give up Gertrude and all "those effects for which I did murder," such as his power and position. He expects to spend eternity in hell.

Scene 3: Hamlet’s Tragic Flaw As we discussed earlier in this unit, the key to any Shakespearean tragedy is that the hero must begin to fall because of his own free will and as a result of his tragic flaw. In this scene, Hamlet’s tragic flaw, his procrastination and hesitation, becomes most apparent. Hamlet enters as the King kneels with his back toward Hamlet. Hamlet reaches for his sword, and the ambiguity shifts to Hamlet. He meant to kill Claudius at this moment but his Christian morality informs him that because the King appears to pray, he is probably confessing.

Scene 3: Hamlet’s Tragic Flaw cont. By ending Claudius’ life in mid-confession, Hamlet would allow the King to go straight to heaven by virtue of his cleansed soul, while his father, a much greater man than Claudius, would still continue to suffer in purgatory. Hamlet would prefer to send the King to hell. He has no problem with the immorality of robbing a man of his salvation. Hamlet is capable of imitating King Claudius' cruelty. This moment represents the pivotal point in the play — the moment of truth. Hamlet had the ability to kill Claudius thus achieving his vengeance and fulfilling his mission of revenge. However, Hamlet once again procrastinates, as he has since the ghost first spoke with him in Act I, and by doing so creates a ripple effect that will lead to much more tragedy.

Scene 3: What is Dramatic Irony? A literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character's words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.

Dramatic Irony in Scene 3 Hamlet decides not to kill Claudius because he believes Claudius is praying and cleansing himself of his sins, therefore assuring his passage to heaven if Hamlet were to kill him at that moment. The audience knows that Claudius isn’t able to pray and receive forgiveness and therefor is as guilty now as he was before kneeling to try and pray.

Scene 4: The Irony of Polonius The irony of this scene all belongs to Polonius; he is there to trap Hamlet and finds himself trapped instead. He has said he will silence himself "silence me e'en here“ just before Hamlet enters, and he is indeed silenced. There is both simple irony and dramatic irony. Hamlet thought that “the rat” behind the arras (curtain) was Claudius but kills Polonius instead. He doesn’t feel any real guilt for his actions.

Scene 4: The Ghost’s Appearance The appearance of the Ghost serves to remind Hamlet of his mission of vengeance and to distract him of his growing anger towards his mother. Hamlet's immediate acquiescence to his father's will here is significant. Whether the Ghost is real or a figment of his imagination, the old king has successfully yanked Hamlet from the preoccupation with Gertrude that has distracted his quest for retribution.

Scene 4: The Ghost’s Appearance The Ghost's invisibility to Gertrude raises the question of Hamlet's sanity. We can interpret Shakespeare's choice to blind Gertrude to the Ghost's presence and to deafen her ears to her son's insistence that the Ghost exists to mean that Shakespeare fashioned Hamlet as a madman, no longer merely acting the part. Of course, one can also make a case for interpreting the scene as an indictment of Gertrude. She refuses to see the Ghost because of her own guilt. Gertrude's black heart impedes her vision, refusing her the sight of her loving husband. On the other hand, perhaps she does see the Ghost and only pretends not to.

Gertrude: Innocent or Guilty? Up until this Act, judging the extent of Gertrude's guilt in the murder of King Hamlet has been difficult. In this scene she now implies that she is entirely innocent and shocked at the accusations Hamlet is making.

Oedipus Rex at a Glance Thebes is struck by a plague and the oracle of Apollo says the sickness is the result of injustice: the previous King’s murderer still walks free. The blind seer Teiresias tells the disbelieving king that he, Oedipus, is the murderer, and adds that Oedipus is living incestuously. Unimpressed, Queen Jocasta says an oracle said her husband, the old king, would be killed by their child, but that never happened since they abandoned the baby and her husband was killed by robbers at a crossroads. Oedipus begins to suspect that he was the abandoned baby; he killed a man on the road to Thebes, where he met and married Jocasta to become king. A messenger and a servant confirm the tale, and Jocasta hangs herself. Oedipus discovers her body and uses the pins of her brooches to stab out his own eyes.