detailed assissatence in understanding the play by william shakespeare Hamlet

1. 1
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Shakespeare – Hamlet
Lecturer: Professor D. Scott-Macnab
Essay
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DUE: Wednesday 10 April (after the Easter break)
You need to submit a printed copy in class,
AND an electronic copy on Edulink.
Failure to provide both copies will lead to penalties,
and even NO MARK at all.
The Edition
RSC / Oxford / Cambridge / Arden
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• Renaissance (lyric) verse / poetry
Lyric: a short(ish) poem in which the writer tells you
something about a particular topic.
• Renaissance drama (work written for the theatre)
• Hamlet: A dramatic tragedy by the greatest playwright
the world has known – William Shakespeare
• Hamlet – the one fact that most people know about
Shakespeare (his greatest play?)
• Shakespeare’s longest play (over 4000 lines)
• Unlikely that it was ever performed in its entirety in
Shakespeare’s time
Hamlet – Introduction
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• We, similarly, are not going to be able to cover every
aspect of this mammoth work.
• Shakespeare lived: 1564–1616 (Elizabethan period)
• A time of a major flourishing of drama as a literary
form; Shakespeare its most talented exponent
• Hamlet probably written 1600/01
(over 400 years ago)
• The language can be challenging: consult the notes
and explanations in your editions.

2. 2
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• A mode of literature in which events are presented in
performance by actors.
• You are not TOLD what happens; you SEE it
happening before you.
• You are not TOLD what someone says; you see and
hear that ‘person’ saying it.
• In performance, the script comes alive through the
actors’ interpretations: WHAT they do; HOW they
speak etc.
• But we are not seeing a performance. We are
reading the script.
• You need to involve your imaginations.
WHAT IS DRAMA?
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• Popularity of the play: most people identify with the
hero in some way
• The play tackles the greatest problems:
‘Life, the universe and everything’
• Asks searching questions about the meaning of:
Life
Death
Love
The human condition
Duty / REVENGE
WHY IS HAMLET SO POPULAR?
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Some Major Events
• 1542 Death of Sir Thomas Wyatt
• 1543 Copernicus shows that the Earth revolves around the sun
• 1564 Shakespeare is born
• 1567 First London playhouse: ‘The Red Lion’
• 1570 Pope calls on English Catholics to assassinate the Queen
• 1572 Massacre of French Protestants (religious intolerance)
• 1588 Spanish fleet sent to conquer England
• 1599 Shakespeare’s ‘The Globe’ theatre is built
Death of Edmund Spenser
• 1600/01 Hamlet
• 1603 Queen Elizabeth dies; James I succeeds
• 1616 Shakespeare dies
• 1633 Galileo put on trial for teaching Copernicus (1543)
• 1533 Hans Holbein paints ‘The Ambassadors’
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A CRISIS OF FAITH
Shakespeare – born into a world experiencing a crisis of
FAITH
The old certainties have gone
Man has never been more in control of the world
BUT he has also never been more uncertain
Uncertainty / Doubt / Conflict pervade this era
Remember: Hamlet asks searching questions about the
meaning of:
Life
Death
Love
The human condition
Duty / REVENGE

3. 3
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• ‘It was a tragedy for South Africa when they lost the
cricket match’
• ‘It was a tragic moment for the family when they saw
their child swept away in the flood’
• ‘The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of
millions a statistic’
• Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth are among
Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies
Tragedy (please note spelling)
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• DRAMA: A play in which a noble character (the ‘hero’ /
protagonist), who has the sympathy of the audience,
suffers a sudden reversal of fortune leading to his/her
death
• What causes that reversal of fortune?
• Is the hero ‘responsible’ in some way?
• The play Hamlet is one in which the main character
(Hamlet) is called on to avenge the death of his father,
but he delays doing so and as a result falls victim to the
murderer himself.
Dramatic Tragedy
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• BEWARE of saying: Hamlet is a tragedy because
Hamlet has a ‘fatal flaw’
• Avoid using the term ‘fatal flaw’
• Watch out for two commonly repeated ideas:
• Hamlet’s tragedy is that he can’t make up his mind
• His tragedy is that he doesn’t (can’t) take decisive
action
• Both observations are true, BUT
• They don’t point to a ‘fatal flaw’
• Hamlet doubts, questions, ponders many issues – but
this is not a weakness or ‘flaw’; it’s Hamlet’s strength.
Hamlet & Tragedy
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Act 1, Scene 1
Night / Castle battlements / Two anxious guards
Barnardo: Who’s there?
Fransisco: Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself.
Barnardo: Long live the King!
Fransisco: Barnardo?
Barnardo: He.
Fransisco: You come most carefully upon your hour.
Barnardo: ’Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed,
Fransisco.
Fransisco: For this relief, much thanks. ’Tis bitter cold,
And I am sick at heart.
(1. 1. 1–9)

4. 4
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• Tension (soldiers are on high alert): WHY?
• The one is ‘sick at heart’
• They are also waiting for Horatio to see what they
have seen ... What is it?
• As they start telling Horatio, we find out:
• A ghost appears: 1. 1. 41–59
• Uncertainty: What is it? It looks like the king who is
now dead. What does it mean?
• AMBIGUITY: Is it good or bad?
The scene introduces:
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Horatio:
In what particular thought o work I know not,
But in the gross and scope of my opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state’
(76–78)
‘Eruption’ = disturbance / turmoil
Something is badly wrong!! The young Prince Hamlet
must be told.
Act 1, Scene 2
• Entirely different setting
• Introduces five of the most important characters:
• Claudius (the King, brother of the dead king and
uncle to Prince Hamlet)
• Polonius (counsellor to the king)
• Laertes (son of Polonius)
• HAMLET (son of the dead king)
• Gertrude (the Queen, mother of Hamlet)
• NOTE: Two Hamlets (father and son)
READ Claudius’s first speech: 1. 2. 1–16
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Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death
The memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe,
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature 5
That we with wisest sorrow think on him
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
Th’imperial jointress of this warlike state,
Have we, as ’twere with a defeated joy, 10
With one auspicious and one dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,
Taken to wife; nor have we herein barred
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone 15
With this affair along. For all, our thanks.

5. 5
Claudius refers to
• The death of his brother, Hamlet
• His marriage to his brother’s widow
• The ‘wisdom’ of replacing sorrow with joy
• The approval of the whole court
• ?? Why does he need their approval ??
• Because the marriage is unconventional, if not illegal
• He has married his brother’s widow: a form of incest,
forbidden by the church.
• Look carefully at Claudius’s speech.
Claudius’s double-talk
Note his oxymorons (self-contradictions):
• ‘wisest sorrow’
• ‘defeated joy’
• ‘one auspicious and one dropping eye’
• ‘mirth in funeral’
• ‘dirge in marriage’
• ‘delight and dole’ [‘sorrow’]
Claudius’s speech sounds impressive, but is actually meaningless.
Reveals Claudius’s self-interest, and his DECEIT. He is a
manipulator.
The funeral of Hamlet’s father has turned into a wedding
celebration for Hamlet’s uncle and his mother.
Claudius then speaks to:
• Hamlet
• First dramatic confrontation between them.
• Hamlet – dressed in black – spoils the
harmony of this wedding celebration
• READ: lines 63–66
Claud: But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my
son —
Haml: A little more than kin, and less than
kind.
Claud: How is it that the clouds still hang on
you?
Haml: Not so, my lord, I am too much
i’th’ sun.
(1. 1. 63–66)

6. 6
• Hamlet’s first words to Claudius are riddles – WHY?
• He is unhappy, angry, frustrated, HOSTILE (we’re not
quite sure why yet)
• He is keeping Claudius away from himself
• Hamlet is rejecting Claudius as a father figure AND
trying to keep his thoughts and feelings to himself
• Shows the beginning of a battle of wits between two
main figures of the action
• Claudius is unhappy with this: he wants Hamlet to join in
and be part of his celebrations like the rest of the court
Gertrude and Claudius call on Hamlet to be sensible ...
READ: 67–86
Gertrude is saying ‘everyone must die’:
Why seems it so particular with thee? (75)
Note Hamlet’s answer:
‘Seems’, madam? … I know not ‘seems’ …
I have that within which passeth show … (76)
He is setting himself apart from the court of ‘seeming’
(pretense / illusion). He sees things as they ARE!!
But he’s alone in this.
Soliloquy: a speech in which a character reveals his/her
thoughts to the audience.
Hamlet’s first SOLILOQUY: 129–159
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O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! 130
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon against self-slaughter! O God! O God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on’t! O, fie, fie! ’Tis an unweeded garden 135
That grows to seed: Things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two.
So excellent a king, that was to this
Hyperion to a satyr, so loving to my mother 140
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth,
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
As if increase of appetite had grown 144
By what it fed on, and yet within a month —

7. 7
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Let me not think on’t: frailty, thy name is woman! —
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she followed my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears: why she, even she —
O, heaven! A beast that wants discourse of reason 150
Would have mourned longer — married with mine uncle,
My father’s brother but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules. Within a month?
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing of her gallèd eyes, 155
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good:
But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue. 159
Soliloquy: a speech in which a character reveals his/her
thoughts to the audience.
The speech hows his chaotic emotions
Grief + Horror + Memories
Hamlet wants to disintegrate, or to commit suicide
The world is ‘an unweeded garden’ – image of ordered
world falling apart
His father was like Hyperion (sun-god, divine, radiant)
& Claudius is a satyr (half animal)
His mother seemed to love is father, and showed intense
grief at the funeral – but it now seems false, meaningless
Even worse: she has committed incest.
Hamlet’s first SOLILOQUY: 129–159
Hamlet is outraged by his mother’s actions – which causes
him to have a problem with women from now on (Are
women trustworthy? Does ‘love’ mean anything?)
O most wicked speed! To post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets.’ (156–7)
(Note images of speed)
‘It is not, nor it cannot come to good;
But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue. (158–9)
The audience is allowed to see into the mind of someone
who has reached the limits of what he can cope with.
O that this too too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew.
Hamlet is bitter and disillusioned; he is trapped in Claudius’s
world of falsehood and delusion
Act 1, Scene 3

8. 8
• Tragedy usually extends to other characters in addition
to the ‘hero’ / protagonist
• The hero’s ‘reversal of fortune’ includes others – in
different ways
• Scene 3 introduces a second FAMILY involved in
Hamlet’s tragedy (THREE important characters)
• Laertes (about to depart for Paris)
• Ophelia (his sister)
• Polonius (their father)
Laertes warns Ophelia to avoid Hamlet.
Ophelia is in love with Hamlet and believes that he
loves her, but Laertes sees things differently: Hamlet is
not free to marry whom he wants.
READ: 6–35, especially:
For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,
Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,
A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward not permanent, sweet not lasting,
The suppliance of a minute, no more. (6–10)
Perhaps he loves you now,
And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
The virtue of his will: but you must fear,
His greatness weighed, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth: (16–20)
• Laertes is sincere and well-meaning … BUT his advice
will have terrible consequences.
POLONIUS repeats Laertes’ advice to Ophelia, but as a
command (92–140):
Pol. I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth
Have you slander any moment leisure
As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
Look to’t, I charge you. Come your ways.
Oph: I shall obey, my lord. (136–140)
• What does this reveal about Ophelia?

9. 9
Laertes and Polonius are well-meaning; they want to
protect Ophelia, BUT they destroy the last positive thing
in Hamlet’s life
Hamlet will now think Ophelia false also
Ophelia: is shown to be young, innocent, caught in a
bigger world that she doesn’t understand.
Her male relatives are right in general terms, but their
advice is disastrous!
34
Act 1, Scenes 4–5
Returns us to the castle battlements at night
Read:
1.4. 20–38:
Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
Be thou a spirit of health of goblin damned,
Bring with the airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou coms’t in such a questionable shape
That I will speak to thee: I’ll call thee Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane. O, O, answer me! (20–26)
Say, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do? (38)
35
The Ghost’s Revelations (1. 5. 1–96)
Ghost: I am thy father’s spirit,
Doomed for a certain time to walk the night,
And for the day confined to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away. (13–17)
• It is the spirit of Hamlet’s father, and it is doomed to spend a
certain time being cleansed of its sins.
Ghost: List, Hamlet, O, list!
Hamlet: O heaven!
Ghost: Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
Hamlet: Murder?
Ghost: Murder most foul, as in the best it is.
But this most foul, strange and unnatural. (26–32)
• In life, he was murdered, AND must be avenged
36
Ghost: Now, Hamlet, hear.
It’s given out that, sleeping in mine orchard,
A serpent stung me, so the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forgèd process of my death
Rankly abused. But know thou, noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
Now wears his crown.
Hamlet: O, my prophetic soul! Mine uncle! (39–46)
• The murderer was his brother, Claudius.
Ghost: Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts –
… – won to his shameful lust
The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.
O hamlet, what a falling-off was there! (47–52)
• Even before the murder, Claudius had seduced the queen!
Ghost: So lust, though to a radiant angel linked,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed,
And prey on garbage. (60–61)

10. 10
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• Hamlet senior was murdered while sleeping in the garden and
was not ready for death. Hence he exclaims:
‘O horrible, O horrible, most horrible!’ (85)
• The ghost forbids Hamlet to do anything against his mother
(‘leave her to heaven’ 91), but Hamlet starts to wonder if his
mother was complicit in the murder.
38
Hamlet’s dilemma
• He’s been commanded to kill the reigning king.
• He is to be an agent for JUSTICE, but is it?
• He has been asked to commit MURDER.
• What justification would he give? The words of a
ghost?
• What should he do?
• Decides to bide his time and think; find proof, find an
opportunity.
• He decides to put on an ‘antic’ disposition
(= wild, fantastic), and makes his friends promise
they won’t give any hint that they understand why;
see 1.5.184–197
39
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy. — But come,
Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself —
As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
To put an antic disposition on —
That you, at such time seeing me, never shall
[by any means hint]
That you know aught of me: this not to do. (184–96)
The beginning of Hamlet’s “madness”, while he thinks,
reflects, decides what to do.
40
ACT 1 – Sets up Hamlet’s predicament
Scene 1: Mysterious ghost appears
Scene 2: Hamlet’s anguish
Scene 3: Polonius / Laertes / Ophelia
Scenes 4–5: The Ghost’s revelation
ACT 2 onwards: How does Hamlet deal with his
discovery and the Ghost’s call for him to take revenge?

11. 11
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ACT 2 – time has passed
Structure of the Play
Act 1: takes place over about 30 hours
BREAK of about 2–3 months
2.1 – 4.4: about two days
BREAK (undefined: a few weeks)
4.5 — END (5.2): about 30 hours
42
• Ophelia tells Polonius about Hamlet’s strange behaviour
• READ: 2. 1. 81–107
• Hamlet seems to be saying farewell to her, but Polonius
concludes that he has gone mad from being rejected by
Ophelia
Act 2, Scene 1
43
• Polonius believes Hamlet is mad because he has been
rejected by Ophelia
• Polonius tries to penetrate Hamlet’s thoughts, and
Hamlet uses riddles to keep him out.
• His enemies can’t tell if his words mean something or are
just mad ravings.
Mad from rejected love?
44
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Hamlet’s boyhood
friends) come to spy on him.
• He is becoming surrounded by spies.
• Briefly he admits how bleak his thoughts are:
READ 2.2. 305–323
MORE SPIES

12. 12
45
I have of late — but wherefore I know not — lost all my
mirth, foregone all custom of exercise; and indeed it
goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly
frame, the earth seems to me a sterile promontory, this
most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with
golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a
foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. WHat a
piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how
infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and
admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension
how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of
animals — and yet to me, what is this quintessence of
dust? Man delights not me — no, nor woman neither,
though by your smiling you seem to say so.
(2.2. 305–23)
46
• Questions the meaning of life and all creation
• He can see and sense the beauty of the world, but it
has lost all meaning for him.
• He is cut off from that sense of beauty and
meaningfulness
• One of the most beautiful and TRAGIC speeches in the
play
Hamlet’s Bleak View of the World
47
• A group of actors arrives at Elsinore – and they give
Hamlet an idea. He can use their performance to test
whether Claudius is guilty or not.
• Note that he admits to his worry about WHO / WHAT the
ghost may really be.
The Actors
48
The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil, and the devil hath power
T’assume a pleasing shape, yea, and perhaps,
Out of my weakness and my melancholy
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds
More relative than this: the play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.
(2. 2. 610–617)
• Note his anxiety: the Ghost may be a devil sent to
damn him!

13. 13
49
Act 3, Scene 1
50
• Hamlet is in a philosophical and pessimistic mood
• His main question is ‘Is life worth living?’ What’s the
point of continuing to live in a universe that doesn’t make
sense?
• Anticipates the writings of the Nihilists and Existentialists
by 350 years
• READ: 3.1. 62–94
To be, or not to be ...
51
• He again contemplates death by suicide
• Claims that we only hold back out of fear
• Contemplates all the experiences that give pain and
suffering to life
• Concludes: Fear of what comes after death (possible
punishment) has made him a coward incapable of action
• Note his sense of self-loathing:
‘And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.’
• He criticises himself for not acting more resolutely.
(But is he right to do so???)
Hamlet’s despair
52
The ‘Mousetrap’: 3. 2.
• Hamlet has decided that he needs to do something; he
needs to stop talking and thinking and take action
• But he needs proof that Claudius is guilty;
HOW / WHERE will he get it?
• He has written a short scene for the actors to perform
in front of the court.
• He is in a frenzy of excitement that leads him to say
outrageous things. (E.g. 3. 2. 111–39)
• He humiliates Ophelia, then the King and Queen.

14. 14
53
Hamlet’s First Mistake
• Claudius sees his own crime enacted before him,
IN PUBLIC, and responds with horror.
• Hamlet now has the proof he wanted, but he has also
shown Claudius that his guilty secret is out.
• Claudius now knows that Hamlet knows the secret of
the murder.
• Hamlet’s position is both strengthened and weakened
in the same moment.
• Hamlet is also in a dangerous mood.
• He’s now determined to be the man of action, which
makes him emotional and unpredictable.
54
Hamlet discovers Claudius praying (3.3)
• Act 3, Scene 3 — the DRAMATIC CENTRE of
the play. Hamlet finds Claudius at prayer.
• Will Hamlet do it now? Will he become a killer?
55
Will Hamlet kill Claudius?
• Claudius admits his guilt
NB lines 39–48: ‘O, my offence is rank …’
• He tries to pray:
lines 72–75: ‘Help, angels! Make assay’
• The ghost was right all along!
• Will Hamlet kill Claudius?
• READ: 76–98
56
Now might I do it pat, now he is praying:
And now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven.
And so am I revenged. That would be scanned:
A villain kills my father, and for that,
I his foul son, do this same villain send
To heaven.
O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
…
No.
Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent:
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,
Or in th’incestuous pleasure of his bed,
At gaming, swearing, or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in’t,
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
And that his soul may be as damned and black
As hell, whereto it goes. (3.3.76–98)

15. 15
57
Hamlet’s decision
• Hamlet decides NOT to kill him – because he’s
praying
• He wants his revenge to be more terrible;
Claudius must go to Hell
• He does the RIGHT thing – but for the WRONG
reason
• BUT at least he doesn’t become a callous
murderer like Claudius
• And yet he does kill someone …
58
Act 3
Scene 4
59
Hamlet’s Impulsive Mistake
• Suddenly Hamlet becomes a murderer
• He acts impulsively and kills someone – Polonius
• He kills someone else’s FATHER
• His position in the play changes
• Claudius was the killer and Hamlet the ‘avenger’
• Now Hamlet inspires vengeance in Laertes
• Why? Because he did a stupid thing.
• Tragic forces now begin to work against him
• Claudius now fears him and must act fast!
• Hamlet is banished to England.
60
A Few Weeks Later – Ophelia has gone Mad

16. 16
61
• 4.4: Ophelia has lost her reason
• She sings songs that refer to lost love, betrayal and
death
• What has happened to her?
• She has been forced by father and brother to turn
against Hamlet
• She has been abused and traumatised by Hamlet
• Hamlet kills Polonius
• Ophelia’s mind disintegrates
• Finally, she falls into a river and is drowned (4.6):
Was it suicide?
Ophelia’s descent into madness
62
• Is a symbol of the disintegration of the whole court:
‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’ (1.4)
• Image of real madness, unlike the pretended
madness of Hamlet
• Reminder of the real power of grief and the chaotic
emotions that Hamlet must have felt in 1.2
• Ophelia’s fate is very sad, but it is not – in the
technical sense – tragic
• She is the victim of circumstances greater than
herself
Ophelia’s madness: 4.4 / 4.6
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 I’ll be revenged
Most thoroughly for my father.
(4. 4. 136–41)
• Laertes is prepared to throw away everything,
including his soul, in order to obtain revenge
• Laertes shows what the pure will for revenge is really
like
Laertes and Revenge
64
• Claudius: the master of manipulation
• Claudius, the ‘serpent’ (1. 5. 39) literally poured
poison in his brother’s ear
• He now speaks to Laertes (metaphorically pouring
poison into his ears)
• What might he say if he wanted to calm Laertes?
• READ: 4. 6. 98–112
Claudius & Laertes: 4. 6

17. 17
Claud: Laertes, was your father dear to you?
Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
A face without a heart?
Laertes: Why ask you this?
Claud: Not that I think you did not love your father,
But that I know love is begun by time,
And that I see, in passages of proof,
Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.
Hamlet comes back. What would you undertake
To show yourself your father’s son in deed
More than in words?
Laertes: To cut his throat i’th’ church.
Claud: No place should murder sanctuarize;
Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,
Will you do this? …
(4. 6. 98–112)
66
• Claudius plans a fencing match in which one sword
will be sharp (for Laertes).
• But Laertes goes on to think of a double treason: he
will put poison his blade
• Shows deliberate, planned, cold-blooded murder
• This is what REVENGE really means.
• We now see what Hamlet was holding back from.
67
• Hamlet returns and meets a gravedigger
• He a stronger man, at peace with himself.
• He is shown to be at peace with the idea of death –
dramatised by the encounter with the gravedigger
• There are numerous connections between Hamlet
and the gravedigger:
• One of them is that the gravedigger also speaks in
riddles, but they are riddles that reject any
ambiguities: He speaks the absolute truth.
ACT 5
68
Hamlet: Whose grave’s this, sirrah?
Clown: Mine, sir.
Hamlet: I think it be thine indeed, for thou liest in it.
Clown: You lie out on’t, sir, and therefore it is not yours.
For my part, I do not lie in’t, and yet it is mine.
Hamlet: Thou dost lie in’t, to be in’t and say ‘tis thine. ’Tis for the
dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.
Clown: ’Tis a quick lie, sir, ’twill away again from me to you.
Hamlet: What man does thou dig it for?
Clown: For no man, sir.
Hamlet: What woman, then?
Clown: For none neither.
Hamlet: Who is to be buried in’t?
Clown: One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she’s
dead.
Hamlet: How absolute the knave is. (5. 1. 119–36)

18. 18
69
• The Gravedigger’s speech demonstrates that it’s a
time to confront issues head on.
• Hamlet is then reminded by Yorick’s skull that death
comes to everyone.
• READ: 5.1.184–195
70
Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of
infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne
me on his back a thousand times — and how
abhorred my imagination is! My gorge rises at it.
Here hung these lips that I have kissed I know not
how oft. — Where be your gibes now, your gambols,
your songs, your flashes of merriment that were wont
to set the table on a roar? No one now to mock your
own jeering? Quite chop-fallen? Now get you to my
lady’s chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch
thick, to this favour [appearance] she must come.
Make her laugh at that.
• The scene also implies that DEATH IS NEAR: the
tragic hero is about to meet his own destiny.
71
• We have seen:
• Hamlet is not a perfect character.
• He sometimes behaves very badly.
• He makes bad mistakes.
• He is a flawed human being trying to make sense of
challenging experiences.
• When he speaks to Laertes before the duel, he
shows that he is sincerely sorry for killing Polonius
• He wants peace with Laertes – but it’s too late: the
trap has been set.
The Final Confrontation 5.2
72
Hamlet’s tragedy
• Avoid referring to a ‘tragic flaw’
• Hamlet delays killing Claudius because of his sense
of RIGHT and WRONG
• Does he contribute to his own downfall and death?
• Is he responsible in some way?
• At worst, he makes several mistakes:
• He lets Claudius know too strongly that he knows
what has happened
• He kills Polonius in a moment of passion
• He doesn’t suspect Laertes’ hatred
• He doesn’t anticipate Claudius’s quickness to act

19. 19
73
• Hamlet is the hero because he struggles to make
sense of his situation and everything around him
• He thinks about and tries to understand:
– Meaning of LIFE (and DEATH)
– Unfairness of LIFE
– Nature of the afterlife
– RESPONSIBILITIES
– Nature of LOVE
– RELATIONSHIPS
– Political CORRUPTION
– How does God’s power work on Earth
• He is driven by a yearning to UNDERSTAND
• He wants to understand himself, life, death, the
meaning of existence
74
• From the start, he rejects lies, compromises, easy
answers.
• Eventually this means coming to terms with death
and being ready to accept it.
• He kills Claudius for killing his mother, not his father
• When his own death comes, he is ready for it:
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story. … the rest is silence.
• His final desire is for his story to be known.