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King and Queen are tying to see now Hamlet acted towards R & G
 “This night to play before him” (Ros.) Hamlet wants the King and Queen to be at the play to see how they act
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Hamlet is excited for actors coming into town
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King and Polonius are going to use Ophelia as bait to spy on Hamlet
 “I hope your virtues/Will bring him to his wonted way again,/To both your honours.” (Queen) – I hope you and Hamlet get back together and arehappy for Hamlet’s well-being; this contradicts what Laertes and Polonius tell
Ophelia
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Ophelia knows she will be used as a pawn
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Polonius and the king are going to dangle Ophelia in front of Hamlet to see how he is around her
 “O heavy burden!” (King) – guilt is weighing heavy on him
 “To be or not to be…” (Hamlet’s soliloquy) – Everything in his life is so turned upside down that he wants to commit suicide
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Death would be easier for Hamlet
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Hamlet is scared to go to Hell so suicide is not the solution
 “That I have longed long to redeliver.” (Ophelia) – trying to give him his belongings back; Hamlet refuses to take back the items
 “with them words of so sweet breath composed/As made the things more rich.” (Ophelia) – When he gave her the items with the sweet words they meant a lot to her
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Hamlet continues to play the crazy card and hurts her with the way he speaks to her
 “You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot/so inoculate or old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved/you not.” (Hamlet) – he’s being mean; telling her he lied and that he never loved her.
 “We are arrant knaves all; believe non of us.” (Hamlet) – It’s his way of telling her that it was all an act.
 “let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play/the fool nowhere but in’s own house. Farewell.” (Hamlet) – Let him be a fool in his own house.
Hamlet’s showing his feelings towards Polonius
 “If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy/dowry…Or if/thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well/enough what monsters you make of them.” (Hamlet) – He’ll give Ophelia the plague for a present.
If you get married you better find a fool
 “you one face and you make yourselves another.” (Hamlet) – women are two-faced
 “And I’ll be placed, so please you, in the ear/Of all their conference. If she find him not,/To England send him; or confine him.” (Polonius) – Polonius

plans on spying again while Hamlet is talking to his man; or they could send him away to England
 “It shall be so./Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.” (King) –
Hamlet is a loose cannon.
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Horatio is Hamlet’s only confidante
 “There is a play…One scene of it comes near the circumstance/Which I have told thee of my father’s death…seest that act afoot,…Observe my uncle.”
(Hamlet) – Hamlet inserted a scene that replicates the death of his father; He wants Horatio to watch the King for his reaction (emotions changing) during that scene; seeing a re-enactment will cause distress in the guilty person;
Hamlet will also be watching
 “We will both our judgments join” (Hamlet) – After the play, Horatio and
Hamlet will get together to compare notes on what they observed
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No reaction = lying ghost
 “O ho! Do you mark that?” (Polonius) – Did you see Hamlet sit by Ophelia?
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Dumb-show = comical show without words
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Reenacting the murder of King Hamlet
 “As a woman’s love.” (Hamlet) – Hamlet is taking shots at Ophelia
 “In second husband let me be accurst;/None wed the second but who killed the first.” (Player Queen) – The person you killed – you marry the killer
 “A second time I kill my husband dead,/When second husband kisses me in bed.” (Player Queen) – It’s going to kill him inside
 “So think thou wilt no second husband wed,/But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.” (Player King) – When the act is done you will change your mind to marry
 “The lady doth protest too much” (Queen) – the lady is getting overdramatic, complains too much
 “Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in’t?” (King) – He says the play is offensive, but Hamlet reminds him it is just a play.
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The play is called The Mousetrap .
 “Your Majesty, and we that have free souls, it touches us not.” (Hamlet) – If you’re not guilty it shouldn’t bother you.
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Hecate = main witch in Macbeth
 “Get me some light. Away.” (King) wants the play stopped; shows guilt.
 “Why, let the stricken deer go weep, The hart ungalled play; For some must watch while some must sleep, thus runs the world away. (Hamlet) This proves the King is guilty.
 “I did very well note him.” (Horatio) was spying on King’s actions and sees the same guilt from the King as Hamlet does.
 “No, my lord, with choler.” (Guildenstern) – shows that he is a puppet for the King
 “Play upon the pipe” (Hamlet) – wants Guildenstern to play the instrument

 “It is easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth.” (Hamlet) he is clear that he knows R&G are lying to him and working wit the King and Queen.
 “…you think I am easier to be played on that pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.” (Hamlet) – tells them that he cannot be played.
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Polonius will spy on Queen and Hamlet
 “O heart, lose not thy nature…I will speak daggers to her, but use none.”
(Hamlet) – he is not to hurt her physically
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King wants R&G to take Hamlet to England; wants him out of his hair
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Polonius is going to hide behind a tapestry to spy on Hamlet and the Queen
 “A brother’s murder! Pray can I not” (King) – he cant’ pray because he feels so guilty about killing his brother; usually people pray for forgiveness
 “Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens to wash it white as snow?”
(King) – There’s not enough water to wash the blood off his hands
 “Forgive me my foul murder? That cannot be, since I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder.” (King) – I can’t be forgiven because I am still the King
 “May one be pardoned and retain th’offence? (King) – I can’t have everything
 Hamlet doesn’t kill his uncle because he thinks he is praying for redemption and his soul will go to heaven; doing his uncle a favor
 Hamlet’s father was killed without confession in his sleep
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Hamlet wants to kill him when he is sinning
 “Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” (King) – He doesn’t feel sorry and he knows that he is not going to heaven
 Hamlet is attacking the Queen with words.
 “What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me?” (Queen) - She is worried
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 that Hamlet will kill her.
“What ho! Help!” (Polonius) – He’s too chicken to come out and help her
“How now? A rat! Dead for a ducat, dead.” (Hamlet) – Hamlet thinks it’s
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Claudius behind the curtain
Hamlet killed Polonius o Killed your ex-girlfriend’s dad o Laertes already dislikes him o Hamlet thought he was killing the King
King’s dilemma: What to do with Hamlet? If he sends him to England he will still be alive
“A bloody deed. Almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother.” (Hamlet) – using his words as daggers towards his mother
How can you love someone one day and love another person another day?

 “Thou turn’st my eyes into my very soul, and there I see such black and grained spots as will not leave their tinct.” (Queen) – She feels bad and feels
 really guilty; maybe even a little frightened of Hamlet