Hamlet Act 1 scene 2 Notes

The second part of scene two After the court with Claudius and Gertrude Deals with Hamlet's reactions, his melancholy, and its causes:

Hamlet’s reactions, his melancholy and its causes: Frustrated: can’t do anything about the marriage “O God, O god heaven and earth must I remember.”

Confused Doesn’t know how much time has passed since his father died (two months, within a month)

Feeling Useless Wishes his “sullied flesh would melt.” Suicidal His flesh is sullied because he carries his mother’s blood

Hateful and Revolted Hateful towards Claudius Revolted by mother She didn’t mourn long enough She is behaving lustfully She is behaving incestuously with Claudius

Disillusioned Hamlet thought his parents wildly in love “she would hang on him as if increase of appetite of appetite grown/by what it fed on.”

Progressively More Emotional His speech gets choppier as the scene progresses.

Feels His World has Collapsed Because his father is dead, and his mother remarried very quickly, he has lost both a mother and a father. This world is rank (disease imagery): an “unweeded garden that grows to seed”

Changeable He then very quickly becomes affectionate and polite to Horatio, the soldiers Marcellus and Bernardo

Suspicious Aware of the foul situation “foul deeds will rise/Though all the earth o’erwhelm them to men’s eyes.”