Name:___________________________________________
Hamlet
Literary Terms
Act III
Conflict – a struggle or problem
External conflict – a character has a problem with another character, rule or nature
Person vs. Person – a character or group of people has a problem with another character or
group of people
scene i
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.”
Ophelia:
“My honour'd lord, you know right well you did;
And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed
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.” 3.1.102-11
Person
Who is involved?
_________________
vs
Person
_______________
What is the problem? __________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Scene iv
Hamlet:
“…Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff,
If damned custom have not brass'd it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.”
Gertrude:
“What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?”
Hamlet:
“Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.” 3.4.41-60
Person
Who is involved?
__________________
vs
Person
____________________
What is the problem? __________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Internal conflict -- a character has a decision or change that need to or want to make
Scene i
Hamlet:
“To be, or not to be: that is the question:
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;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
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 despised 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 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
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
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.” 3.1.64-96
Person
Who is involved?
_________________
vs
self
___________________
What is the problem? _________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Theme – the main idea or underlying meaning of a literary work. A theme may
be stated or implied
Mystery and intrigue
Shakespeare continues this theme in Act III. He includes many ‘spies’ that hope to gain
information about other characters.
Scene ii
Hamlet:
“…There is a play to-night before the king;
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father's death:
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after we will both our judgments join
In censure of his seeming.” 3.2.80-92
Who is Hamlet asking to spy on Claudius? ____________________________________
Why? ______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Scene iv
Polonius:
“He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between
Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.
Pray you, be round with him.”
Gertrude:
“I'll warrant you,
Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.” 3.4.1-7;9-10
Who is spying on Hamlet?
___________________________________________
Why? ______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
The Mystery of Death
Hamlet continues to be obsessed with the idea of death. He continues to wonder if it would be
the answer to all of his questions.
Scene i
Hamlet:
“To be, or not to be: that is the question:
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;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
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 despised 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 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
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
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.” 3.1.64-96
What does Hamlet compare death to? _________________________________________
What is his fear about death? ____________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________