Act 3; Scene 3

A room in the Castle.

Enter King, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

KING.
I like him not, nor stands it safe with us Hamlet’s madness is a danger to me
To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you,
I your commission will forthwith dispatch,
And he to England shall along with you.
The terms of our estate may not endure
Hazard so near us as doth hourly grow
Out of his lunacies. He gets more dangerous by the minute.

GUILDENSTERN.
We will ourselves provide.
Most holy and religious fear it is
To keep those many many bodies safe
That live and feed upon your Majesty. Our loyalty is to you instead of Hamlet, “Feed on your Majesty” = pun on the Eucharist and the Rite of Fraction Is that not blasphemy by comparing Claudius to Jesus when Claudius is just a man and a sinful man at that? It also is heretical because they are worshipping a King who is just a man and raising him up to the level of Christ or god? Also aren’t they supposed to be friends with Hamlet but they are in fact fair-weather- friends.

ROSENCRANTZ.
The single and peculiar life is bound
With all the strength and armour of the mind,
To keep itself from ’noyance; but much more
That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest You are more important than Hamlet because Denmark’s well being is dependant upon you. But he is also the moral compass for Denmark; too bad he’s a murderous jerk who killed his own brother. I wonder if this is why there are so many references to the Garden of Eden…Cain killing Abel.
The lives of many. The cease of majesty
Dies not alone; but like a gulf doth draw
What’s near it with it. It is a massy wheel Inadvertently telling the reason why Claudius should be punished because Claudius is an evil man for killing his own brother because of his lust for power and lust for the queen. He is dragging Denmark down into sin as well.
Fix’d on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortis’d and adjoin’d; which when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Attends the boist’rous ruin. Never alone
Did the King sigh, but with a general groan. The country’s well-being depends upon the wellbeing of the King but what if the King is diseased. Quite often when describing sinful people, writers describe them as pus filled, sick, dirty and unsanitary, like in the Exorcist when they refer to the possessed girl as a sow.

KING.
Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;
For we will fetters put upon this fear,
Which now goes too free-footed. We will put a stop to this fear that is currently roaming rampant in our midst but the only one who is scared is you.

ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.
We will haste us.

[Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.]

Enter Polonius.

POLONIUS.
My lord, he’s going to his mother’s closet.
Behind the arras I’ll convey myself
To hear the process. I’ll warrant she’ll tax him home, She’ll reign him in.
And as you said, and wisely was it said,
’Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,
Since nature makes them partial, should o’erhear
The speech of vantage. Fare you well, my liege,
I’ll call upon you ere you go to bed,
And tell you what I know.

KING.
Thanks, dear my lord.

[Exit Polonius.]

O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,—
A brother’s murder! Pray can I not, Cain and Abel again. Aegisthus was Agamemnon’s adopted brother and first cousin by blood
Though inclination be as sharp as will:
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy Can my guilt ever be atoned?
But to confront the visage of offence?
And what’s in prayer but this twofold force,
To be forestalled ere we come to fall,
Or pardon’d being down? Then I’ll look up.
My fault is past. But O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder!
That cannot be; since I am still possess’d I cannot be truly forgiven because I refuse to give up what I gained from my crime.
Of those effects for which I did the murder,—
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.I killed my brother because I wanted his kingdom, his power and his wife and I won’t give them up. He has broken two commandments, coveting another’s wife and do not commit a murder, but even those would be forgiven if he were truly repentant. He’s not or he would renounce that which he has gained so therefore his sins cannot be forgiven.
May one be pardon’d and retain th’offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offence’s gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law. But ’tis not so above; I may be able to atone for it here on Earth by performing good deeds, but not in heaven where it counts.
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature, and we ourselves compell’d
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? What rests?
Try what repentance can. What can it not?
Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death! My heart is black as death.
O limed soul, that struggling to be free,
Art more engag’d! Help, angels! Make assay:
Bow, stubborn knees; and heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe.
All may be well. I don’t think it will work but I will try to repent and save my soul from damnation. Claudius’ words are empty without the actions to back them up. A lot of characters in this play are concerned about their eternal damnation but it doesn’t seem to stop them from doing something evil. Appearance vs. reality.

[Retires and kneels.] Upon learning that Troy had fallen, Clytemnestra immediately makes sacrifices to the Gods and prays at an altar.

Enter Hamlet.

HAMLET.
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 reveng’d. That would be scann’d: Superstition that if you die while praying your soul goes to heaven.
A villain kills my father, and for that
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven. O, this is hire and salary, not revenge. He doesn’t really want justice; he wants vengeance..
He took my father grossly, full of bread,
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And how his audit stands, who knows save heaven?
But in our circumstance and course of thought,
’Tis heavy with him. And am I then reveng’d,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and season’d for his passage? No.
Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent: I will wait until he is doing some great evil and then kill him so that his soul goes straight to hell. Why does he wait? Is it really because he doesn’t want Claudius to go to heaven or is it because it is difficult to go against one’s religious upbringing. He was raised to be a good man, a good Christian, and now because of his unfettered emotions brought on by a possibly unreliable source and despite the evidence of his own eyes, he finds himself at a crossroads. Does he go against the Bible and it’s admonition to not kill, to let God be the judge and jury? Is he truly willing to sacrifice his soul for something as ephemeral as revenge? Is it a show of his burgeoning maturity to even wonder about that and to show restraint? Kings must act coldly, strategically rather than acting rashly and emotionally. Is it a sign of the boy becoming a man and a prince becoming a king?

He sheathes his sword.

When he is drunk asleep; or in his rage, His decision to not kill Claudius is a deeply rooted in superstition. Old ways of the dark ages vs the enlightened rational thought of the Renaissance. The brutality of a pagan world vs a Christian one.
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 damn’d and black
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays.
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.

[Exit.]

The King rises and advances.

KING.
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go. I don’t feel forgiven. I am not forgiven. My words were empty. I am not really sorry I killed my brother and took all that he possessed. His selfishness outweighs his fear of damnation and confessing because of the fear damnation as well as what it will ultimately cost you is not true atonement.

[Exit.]

A short scene but an important one. It establishes Claudius guilt but more importantly his lack of true remorse for his actions. If he were truly repentant he would give up all that he gained by killing his brother but he will not. Later when he doesn’t tell Gertrude not to drink the poisoned wine, he shows that he is more concerned with retaining the crown and his reputation than he is in retaining her.

Although a pagan and therefore unable to ask for forgiveness, Clytemnestra never shows an ounce of remorse for killing Agamemnon. She absolutely hates him and who can blame her. He killed her daughter, her first husband and most likely her first son. Then he abandoned her for ten years, ten years that he spend sleeping with every Trojan woman he could get his hands on and even bringing one of them back to Mycenae