Analysis Questions for Act III, Scene 4
1. What did Hamlet intend when he stabbed through the arras? What does he
mean by “Nay, I know not: Is it the King?”. Did he mean to kill the King? Or did
he struck blindly and the next instant hope that he had killed the King? If he meant
to kill the king, how could he have thought it was the King behind the arras when
he just left him trying to pray? If he struck blindly, why? There was no imminent
danger.
2. Hamlet’s words “almost as bad good mother,/as kill a king and marry with his
brother” constitute a direct accusation that his other participated in the murder of
her husband. Where does Hamlet get this idea? The ghost doesn’t implicate her.
Yet, later in the scene Hamlet calls the King a “murderer and a villain” (III.4.96)
and she doesn’t deny it or express surprise. Hamlet says this about killing the king,
she repeats it, then he drops it and focuses on what she should do about Claudius.
Why does Hamlet accuse his mother and does her response show her guilt?
3. In all of Hamlet’s haranguing of his mother, he doesn’t ask her a question or
even let her give a response. He is just unloading on her. Why does he allow
himself to do this? Does the death of Polonius have anything to do with it? Why
doesn’t Gertrude defend herself?
4. When the ghost comes and chides Hamlet for acting so terribly with his mother,
Old Hamlet wants Hamlet to comfort his mother. So his mother thinks he’s mad,
but he’s supposed to keep her from madness? Does it he do it while the ghost is
there?
5. Gertrude tells Hamlet “you have cleft my heart in twain” (III.4.156). What does
she mean by this? If she means that she has a deep inner conflict, what is that
conflict? Earlier she said that Hamlet was turning “mine eyes into my very soul;
and there I see such black and grained spots as will not leave their tinct” (III.4.8991). But what are those spots? She has not admitted any complicity in the
murder.
6. Hamlet recognizes Gertrude’s distress and commands her to stay out of her
husband’s bed. At this point, it is impossible to keep from noticing what Hamlet did
not say. He doesn’t ask for any information about his father’s murder. He doesn’t
ask for his mother’s assistance in revenging his father’s murder. Why doesn’t he
ask her for help?
7.Hamlet tells his mother to keep it a secret that he is not crazy: “That I
essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft” (III.4.186-188) His mother, at
this point, has no indication that he is faking it. He’s just crazy seeing ghosts to
her. And also, many people who are crazy like Hamlet is crazy do not believe
themselves to be mad, but counter that the world is mad. So, why would Gertrude
believe him?