Act 3; Scene 1

A room in the Castle.

Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

KING.
And can you by no drift of circumstance
Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
Grating so harshly all his days of quiet
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?

ROSENCRANTZ.
He does confess he feels himself distracted,
But from what cause he will by no means speak. Hamlet will not confide in them because he knows that whatever he says will get back to Claudius and his mother; it’s a rational decision not one made by a madman. It’s like a serial killer sparing someone’s life because they have to go to work and wouldn’t have enough time to get rid of the body and then once they are caught trying to claim that they are insane and couldn’t control their actions.

GUILDENSTERN.
Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
But with a crafty madness keeps aloof He is using the ploy of madness to keep his cards close to his chest
When we would bring him on to some confession
Of his true state.

QUEEN.
Did he receive you well?

ROSENCRANTZ.
Most like a gentleman.

GUILDENSTERN.
But with much forcing of his disposition.

ROSENCRANTZ.
Niggard of question, but of our demands,
Most free in his reply.

QUEEN.
Did you assay him to any pastime?

ROSENCRANTZ.
Madam, it so fell out that certain players Deception vs reality. All the worlds a stage etc.
We o’er-raught on the way. Of these we told him,
And there did seem in him a kind of joy
To hear of it. They are about the court,
And, as I think, they have already order
This night to play before him. Hamlet excited because the play offers a way to test the veracity of the ghost and end his sea of troubles by giving him definitive proof of Claudius’ guilt. He sees a light at the end of the tunnel and knows that he will be able to prove one way or the other. Anything is better than not knowing and being kept in suspense.

POLONIUS.
’Tis most true;
And he beseech’d me to entreat your Majesties
To hear and see the matter.

KING.
With all my heart; and it doth much content me
To hear him so inclin’d.
Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,
And drive his purpose on to these delights. He thinks that Hamlet by being pleased at the player’s arrival is coming back to normal. He’s happy because it means if this is true then he has a better chance of getting away with his crime.

ROSENCRANTZ.
We shall, my lord.

[Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.]

KING.
Sweet Gertrude, leave us too,
For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,
That he, as ’twere by accident, may here
Affront Ophelia.
Her father and myself, lawful espials,
Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen,
We may of their encounter frankly judge,
And gather by him, as he is behav’d,
If’t be th’affliction of his love or no
That thus he suffers for. We’ll put him to the test but Hamlet, being a future king and knowing of the intrigues of court, anticipates that he will be spied upon at some point and is ready to use subterfuge to achieve his goals…to hide in plain sight and if he slips there is an excuse for his behavior. “I only called my stepfather a killer and my mother an incestuous whore because I’m crazy.”

QUEEN.
I shall obey you.
And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
That your good beauties be the happy cause
Of Hamlet’s wildness: so shall I hope your virtues Helen’s beauty led to the Trojan War and the death of countless men. They became a little insane in their quest to recover her…Traveled a hundred miles, killed their own daughter, and fought for 10 years; That’s a little insane too.
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honours.

OPHELIA.
Madam, I wish it may.

[Exit Queen.]

POLONIUS.
Ophelia, walk you here.—Gracious, so please you,
We will bestow ourselves.—[To Ophelia.] Read on this book,
That show of such an exercise may colour
Your loneliness.—We are oft to blame in this,
’Tis too much prov’d, that with devotion’s visage
And pious action we do sugar o’er
The devil himself. Fake piety often disguises devilment (reference to Claudius hiding the fact that he killed his brother?). Polonius is prostituting his daughter for his and Claudius’ benefit, as Agamemnon prostituted Cassandra, Chryseis, and Briseis. The double standard for women…women, even if not given a choice to have sex, i.e., SA, are still looked down upon for not being virgins.

KING.
[Aside.] O ’tis too true!
How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
The harlot’s cheek, beautied with plastering art, The harlot reference, like the strumpet one, is a mindset of Shakespeare for Gertrude’s unfaithfulness to her dead husband. Deception vs reality
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
Than is my deed to my most painted word.
O heavy burden! Confession of the murder of his brother, or is his guilt beginning to weigh upon his conscience

POLONIUS.
I hear him coming. Let’s withdraw, my lord.

[Exeunt King and Polonius.]

Enter Hamlet.

HAMLET.
To be, or not to be, that is the question: Does Hamlet suspect that there is someone spying on him?
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep. Why is he so obsessed with death? Or is it with the afterlife? Is this a reference to God’s judgment? Do I act even though it is not something that would be sanctioned by God or the Bible? Do I throw away my eternal salvation for revenge here on Earth? Perhaps another reference to the murder of his father while he was sleeping… preoccupation of his thoughts, obsessively can’t get the murder out of his mind, even self-murder or suicide.
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, A dream or an endless nightmare
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, What happens to us after death? Is it evil to act with evil even though the intention is to combat evil and root it out of society? Will we be punished if we take the law into our own hands and not leave it to God? By ignoring evil in our midst, do we condone it and encourage it? Should we therefore take action against it or follow the orders of God, who said Do not judge others lest thou be judged thyself?
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of dispriz’d love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn But he knows that there is a country, although undiscovered, following death by the presence of the ghost; it’s just unknown to him
No traveller returns, puzzles the will, The ghost returned because maybe he’s not a ghost but a demon. And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of? We suffer through this life merely because the afterlife is presumably so much worse? An allusion to hell or to purgatory, but definitely not heaven. Who wouldn’t enjoy heaven? Is Hamlet coming to the realization that to be an effective king, he must do unchristian things and cannot be pious to be a good leader, an effective leader? Good leaders often have to do horrible things to protect their country and family. Reference to Henry VI. Piety makes you weak and not a good leader. Jimmy Carter was a good man but a bad president because he was too honest and actually acted like a Christian.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, Does the fear of eternal damnation make us cowards? And without the fear of eternal damnation, would we commit evil acts?
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action. Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d. Does she remind him of his sins or his sins against her due to the way he has been treating her?

OPHELIA.
Good my lord,
How does your honour for this many a day?

HAMLET.
I humbly thank you; well, well, well.

OPHELIA.
My lord, I have remembrances of yours
That I have longed long to re-deliver.
I pray you, now receive them.

HAMLET.
No, not I.
I never gave you aught. Irony

OPHELIA.
My honour’d lord, you know right well you did,
And with them words of so sweet breath compos’d
As made the things more rich; their perfume lost,
Take these again; for to the noble mind
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
There, my lord.

HAMLET.
Ha, ha! Are you honest? Have you ratted me out? Are you being honest with me? He clearly doesn’t believe she is being honest with him.

OPHELIA.
My lord?

HAMLET.
Are you fair? Did you treat me as you should, as a person you supposedly love, or have you been unfair and betrayed me to my enemies?

OPHELIA.
What means your lordship?

HAMLET.
That if you be honest and fair,                                                                                                                                                              your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty. Unlike my mother, whose beauty disguises her sinfulness.

OPHELIA.
Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?

HAMLET  Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner
transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than
the force of honesty can translate beauty into his
likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but now
the time gives it proof. I did love you once. But not anymore because I believe you’ve betrayed me, or because my life no longer has meaning?

OPHELIA.
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

HAMLET.
You should not have believed me, for virtue
cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall
relish of it. I loved you not. He can’t love her; he’s too wrapped up in his own problems to care for someone else, or is he trying to protect her by sending her away so that she won’t get hurt by his subsequent actions?

OPHELIA.
I was the more deceived.

HAMLET.                                                                                                                                                                        Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be In Elizabethan England, the word nunnery was a euphemism for a brothel. Is Hamlet simply remarking on her prostituting herself to learn about his true feelings because she has already shown herself to be a whore? He tells her to go to a brothel because that’s where she belongs. Or does Shakespeare mean a literal nunnery?
a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, All men are sinners because they are of the flesh; original sin reference
but yet I could accuse me of such things that it
were better my mother had not borne me: I am
very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses I am a sinner
at my beck than I have thoughts to put them
in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act
them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling
between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves
all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.
Where’s your father? Pointed question to see whose side she is on…his or Claudius

OPHELIA.
At home, my lord. She lies to him, and he knows it. Therefore, she is fair game.

HAMLET.
Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool nowhere but in’s own house. Farewell.

OPHELIA.
O help him, you sweet heavens! She truly believes there is something wrong with him, i.e., that he has lost his mind. She truly wants to help him, but has received bad advice from the people she trusts, her father and her brother, as well as the King.

HAMLET.                                                                                                                                              If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague
for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as
snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a As Cassandra, who remained chaste when Apollo wished to sleep with her, but it led to her downfall anyway. By telling her to get to a brothel and calling her a whore, is this a reference to Cassandra, who wished to remain a virgin but was prostituted by Ajax and Agamemnon during the Orestia? She was raped by both men so is Ophelia, by being forced into the position, is put in a type of prostitution and also a form of rape? It’s certainly sexual exploitation. I know you are not behind my father’s murder or this test of my sanity, but I will not spare you from my wrath.
nunnery, farewell. Or if thou wilt needs marry,
marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what
monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and Farewell. Cassandra ran into the temple of Athena when Troy fell and sought sanctuary there. A temple is a religious building that houses the followers of a religion. Athena was a virgin goddess like Artemis and Hestia, so wouldn’t her followers also place a high value on virginity? Athena’s priest and priestesses would focus on the mind as opposed to physical pleasure because Athena was a goddess of wisdom, unlike Aphrodite, who is the goddess of love and sex. Both Adam and the Dane were made fools of by their wives, as was Agamemnon. Adam was made a monster who fathered humanity, all of whom are tainted by original sin.

OPHELIA.
O heavenly powers, restore him!

HAMLET.
I have heard of your paintings too, well Appearance, deception vs reality; Face paints like the ones a whore uses to make herself more attractive to her clients?
enough. God hath given you one face, and you
make yourselves another. You jig and amble, and
you lisp; you nickname God’s creatures and make
your wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I’ll no
more on ’t. It hath made me mad. I say we will have Angry and faking insanity?
no more marriage. Those that are married already,
all but one, shall live. The rest shall keep as they are.
To a nunnery, go. Is it marriage he is railing against, or falseness like Gertrude, for all her declarations of love for her dead husband, certainly does not act as if she is devastated as she should be by his death?

[Exit.]

OPHELIA.
O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword,
Th’expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
Th’observ’d of all observers, quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That suck’d the honey of his music vows, I believed his lies. The refrain of god knows how many women and men, too. Everyone has been heartbroken by a member of the opposite sex at some point. Isn’t this exactly what Laertes was warning her against?
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh,
That unmatch’d form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy. O woe is me,
T’have seen what I have seen, see what I see. Lamenting the loss of her beau as well as the complete reversal of his personality, a noble mind corrupted, a pure soul tinted by evil. Cassandra was a prophetess and was usually distressed by what she saw, too, and everyone thought she was crazy, but she was always right in her predictions.  Did Shakespeare borrow the idea of a crazy person saying the truth and being ignored from Cassandra?

Enter King and Polonius.

KING.
Love? His affections do not that way tend, He is not mad because of his unrequited love for Ophelia
Nor what he spake, though it lack’d form a little,
Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul Claudius thinks Hamlet is faking his madness, but something is bothering him. Is it a pun on madness? Mad as in anger, also mad as in insanity. There is something weighing on Claudius’ soul, too.
O’er which his melancholy sits on brood,
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
Will be some danger, which for to prevent,
I have in quick determination
Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England He plans to send Hamlet to England forthwith, but does he mean to kill him? Maybe not yet, but by sending him to England, is he preparing to have the King of England, an ally, take care of his problem if needs be? Is he trying to give Hamlet time to get over his melancholy? If so, why not send him back to school in Wittenberg…because he can’t eliminate Hamlet if he doesn’t recover his sanity and persists with this madness? Orestes, the prince of Mycenae, was sent away from home, too.
For the demand of our neglected tribute:
Haply the seas and countries different,
With variable objects, shall expel
This something settled matter in his heart,
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus If he doesn’t calm down, I’ll have the King of England take him out because he owes me. Actually, he most likely owes Hamlet’s father or the state of Denmark.
From fashion of himself. What think you on’t?

POLONIUS.
It shall do well. But yet do I believe
The origin and commencement of his grief
Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia?
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said,
We heard it all. My lord, do as you please,
But if you hold it fit, after the play,
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
To show his grief, let her be round with him,
And I’ll be plac’d, so please you, in the ear
Of all their conference. If she find him not,
To England send him; or confine him where
Your wisdom best shall think. Unknowingly signs his own death warrant like Ophelia, Gertrude, Claudius, and Laertes. I’m sensing a theme

KING.
It shall be so.
Madness in great ones must not unwatch’d go. Great ones, meaning people of importance like princes, but commoners can be as crazy as they want to be because the whole country doesn’t hang in the balance.

[Exeunt.]