1. III.iii – III.iv

2.  Claudius: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern take Hamlet away to England  Hamlet = dangerous  Rosencrantz: monologue about the effects of the fall of one who is majestic/grand  Things fall with them

3.  effects of the fall of one who is majestic/grand  Things fall with them  Sound familiar?  Oedipus

4.  Polonius  hide behind curtain in Gertrude’s room  Promises to come back and report what he finds to the King

5.  Claudius: lists three things that he gained because of the murder:  the crown  ambition  the queen  Question: Can one be pardoned and still retain all of the benefits of the offense?

6.  Hamlet decides not to kill Claudius at the end of the soliloquy  wants Claudius to die when he’s ripe with sin  Is Hamlet playing God?  Hamlet wants to decide where Claudius will remain in the afterlife

7.  Gertrude’s room: Hamlet kills Polonius and asks his mother to stop sleeping with his uncle  Dramatic / violent  incestuous relationship between the king and queen

8.  Result?  Queen SEEMS to be split btwn. Hamlet and Claudius  “thou has cleft my heart in twain” (156)

9.  Hamlet speaks with the ghost  Gertrude cannot see it  Is the ghost real?  Is Hamlet mad, as the queen suggests?