Hamlet – Act III – Scenes 3 and 4
Act Three, Scene Three:
1. Why is Rosencrantz's speech on the wellbeing of the person of the king important?
2. Based on Polonius's eagerness for Gertrude to "tax [Hamlet] home," is it your opinion that
Polonius is privy to the King's guilty secret?
3. Reread Genesis 4: 1-16. Compare Cain and Claudius.
4.
(a) Why can't Claudius repent?
(b) What help does he ask of the angels?
5.
(a) Why doesn't Hamlet take revenge when he comes upon Claudius undefended?
(b) Why is his decision ironic?
Act Three, scene four: (The Closet Scene)
6. Why is Hamlet's killing Polonius the major climax of the play? If you don't agree, why not?
7. Does Gertrude know her first husband was murdered?
8. Who does Hamlet think Polonius is?
9. What does Hamlet make his mother look at?
10. What does he consider Gertrude's attraction to Claudius to be?
11. Why does the Ghost enter?
12. Can Gertrude see the Ghost?
13. To what does she attribute Hamlet's belief that he sees his father's ghost?
14. What does Hamlet ask his mother not to do?
15. What can't Hamlet get out of his mind?
16. What plan does Hamlet have for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?
17. Hamlet begins the scene with his mother playing with the word "offended." He ends the
scene playing with his description of the dead Polonius. Look up the words he is playing with:
offend, offense
(a) Why is "guts" apt here? (It is an example of synecdoche.)
(b) He must derive pleasure in his clever observation:
Indeed this councilor
Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Work with:
still
secret grave
foolish prating knave
18. Much has happened in Act Three. Where are we now?
(a) What is Claudius's situation?
(b) What is Hamlet's situation?
19. Consider Gertrude and Ophelia. What is each woman thinking?
20. Compare relative positions of Hamlet, Laertes, and Young Fortinbras.
21. What is the significance of Horatio, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern in the play?