Act Four
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Gertrude informs Claudius of Polonius’ death.
Claudius maintains that ‘this mad young man’
is a danger to everyone and must be shipped
off to England next morning.
He sends R and G to locate Hamlet and to
recover Polonius’ body.
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There's matter in these sighs, these profound
heaves:
You must translate: 'tis fit we understand
them.
Claudius is asking Gertrude to explain her
distress. She claims it is Hamlet’s madness. It
is noticeable the extent to which King and
Queen deceive each other in this scene.
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Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend
Which is the mightier:
Compares Hamlet’s ‘madness’ to
disturbances within nature. The irony is that
the real disruption of what is natural has
come from Claudius and Gertrude.
Recalls ‘Take arms against a sea of troubles’.
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It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrain'd and out
of haunt,
This mad young man: but so much was our
love,
We would not understand what was most
fit;
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of Life.
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a selfish, ambitious king who is more
concerned with maintaining his own power
and averting political danger than achieving
justice through his rule.
Wishes to send Hamlet away to avert any
danger to himself, not as punishment.
Concerned not with justice for killing of
Polonius, but limiting political damage to his
court.
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Hamlet has hidden Polonius’ body and leads
R and G on a chase.
Claudius reveals that he is unable to put
Hamlet on trial because of his popularity.
Hamlet taunts Claudius.
Claudius reveals to the audience that he is
sending Hamlet to his death.
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Fortinbras orders his captain to go and ask the King of Denmark
for permission to travel through his lands.
On his way, the captain encounters Hamlet, Rosencrantz, and
Guildenstern on their way to the ship bound for England.
Hamlet asks about the basis of the conflict, and the man tells
him that the armies will fight over “a little patch of land / That
hath in it no profit but the name” (IV.iv.98–99).
Astonished by the thought that a bloody war could be fought
over something so insignificant, Hamlet marvels that human
beings are able to act so violently and purposefully for so little
gain. By comparison, Hamlet has a great deal to gain from
seeking his own bloody revenge on Claudius, and yet he still
delays and fails to act toward his purpose. Disgusted with
himself for having failed to gain his revenge on Claudius, Hamlet
declares that from this moment on, his thoughts will be bloody.
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Foil- character who highlights aspects of
another character’s personality through both
their differences and similarities.
Ophelia's apparently genuine madness is a
foil for Hamlet's supposedly feigned 'antic
disposition'.
Fortinbras and Laertes are the most obvious
foils for Hamlet in the play.
These foils are used by Shakespeare to
explore the nature and legitimacy of revenge.
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Fortinbras: a young prince whose father was killed.
His uncle has become king instead of him. Intends to
avenge his father’s death.
Laertes: the son of the most highly-regarded royal
counsellor at the Danish court. His father is killed by
Hamlet. He intends to avenge his father’s death.
Hamlet: a royal prince of the Danish court. His father
was killed ~ murdered ~ only a matter of weeks
before the action of the play begins. The killer is Old
Hamlet's own brother, Claudius. It is Hamlet's uncle ~
this same Claudius ~ who has been elected king.
Hamlet is said to be a soldier, but he has no real
power and does not wish to be involved in battles.
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The audience is likely to gather that Young
Fortinbras was just a child when his father died,
but that he now intends to gain back the land
then lost to Denmark. He prepares for invasion,
without his king uncle's knowledge, but his plan
is thwarted, when Danish emissaries inform the
old man.
Desirous of land and battle, he instead agrees to
fight a meaningless battle with Poland. Certainly
the invasion plan must have been many years in
the making, but it was not well thought out and
Fortinbras seems to have been willing to accept
the alternative. He shows no animosity towards
Young Hamlet.
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Each group will be assigned certain lines of
Hamlet’s final soliloquy.
Your task is to submit a paragraph explaining
these lines as fully as you can.
You should also refer to any techniques you
can identify, or any similarities with other
speeches (images) in the play.
How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge!
‘How all occasions do inform against me,’
Personification is used here to create an image of
Hamlet being on trial and one event after another
coming in to testify against him.
‘And spur my dull revenge!’
Here, Hamlet goes on to compare his revenge to a
dull, spiritless horse. No matter how much it is
spurred, it will not get started. This recalls the
Ghost’s: ‘And duller should’st thou be. . .’
Therefore, it appears clear that Hamlet imagines
the Ghost as his judge.
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Email to rdempsey@calderside.slanark.sch.uk
By Friday
Paragraphs will be collated and added to the
blog
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The death of Polonius has driven Ophelia
mad.
Laertes returns from France to avenge his
father.
Initially, he threatens Claudius.
Laertes is manipulated by Claudius, who
promises to give him a full account of the
death.
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A second plot which helps us to reflect on the
ideas presented by the main plot.
Similarities: A father is dead; we watch the
way his children respond. Shakespeare
develops O and L as extreme versions of two
contrasting aspects of Hamlet’s personality –
the active and the passive. Laertes rashly
vows to take revenge, whatever the
consequences. Ophelia collapses into
madness.
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‘Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person:
There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would,
Acts little of his will.’
Kings are so protected by God that traitors do
not openly reveal their intentions, and cannot
do what they want. Considering Claudius’
murder of Old Hamlet, this is clearly
hypocritical. However, it demonstrates his
skill as a manipulator.
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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.
Laertes, in complete contrast to Hamlet, disregards
any possible consequences to his actions, in thios
world or the next. He places avenging his father
above either allegiance to the king or the
possibility of damnation.
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A short scene
Horatio reads a letter from Hamlet detailing
how his ship was attacked.
Hamlet boarded the pirate vessel that was
attacking his ship and was thus able to
escape R and G.
Hamlet is returning to Elsinore.
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Hamlet is set to return to Elsinore.
Claudius and Laertes plot Hamlet’s death.
Ophelia has drowned herself.
1.
O, for two special reasons;
Which may to you, perhaps, seem much
unsinew'd,
But yet to me they are strong. The queen his
mother
Lives almost by his looks; and for myself-My virtue or my plague, be it either which-She's so conjunctive to my life and soul,
That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
I could not but by her. The other motive,
Why to a public count I might not go,
Is the great love the general gender bear him;
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To cut his throat i' the church.
To desecrate a holy place, such as a church,
by killing there would be seen as an extreme
sin
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Laertes will challenge hamlet to a fencing
duel.
Laertes’ rapier will be secretly sharpened and
dipped in posion.
There will also be a cup with poison in it.
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Falls into a lake but then does not attempt to
pull herself out-extremely passive.
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It acts as a contrast to Hamlet’s
development: he feigned madness and
considered suicide; Ophelia descends into
genuine madness and commits suicide.