Cara McQuaid
Brendan Salvadore
Mark Mattson
Period 4
Scene Summary
Main Interactions
 King and Queen with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
 King Claudius with Polonius
 Hamlet’s Soliloquy
 Hamlet with Ophelia
 King Claudius with Polonius (Second Time)
King and Queen with Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern
 King and Queen ask Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
what information on Hamlet they have gathered.
 They do not tell Claudius and Gertrude of his true
intentions, because they do not know.
 They tell the King and Queen to attend a play that
Hamlet would like them to attend.
 They tell the King it is solely for entertainment, but
what none of them know is that Hamlet wants to use
the play to draw a confession out of the King for the
murder of his father.
King Claudius with Polonius
 Polonius enters the scene as the King and Queen finish
up their conversation with Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern.
 Claudius and Polonius have a debate over why Hamlet
is mad and a plan to figure out the reason.
 Polonius believes Hamlet is mad because of he’s
lovesick over Ophelia. Claudius believes that it is
something else.
 Polonius agrees to send Ophelia to Hamlet to see if
Hamlet’s madness is due to love for Ophelia.
Hamlet’s Soliloquy
 “To be or not to be, that is the question…”
 Hamlet is questioning whether he should or shouldn’t
commit suicide.
 He compares life and death and says many things that
make death more appealing than life.
 He makes many negative metaphors and similes about
life and how he does not want to live in the world that
has been thrust upon him.
 It ends with him noticing Ophelia and changing the
subject to her.
Hamlet and Ophelia
 First TRUE interaction we see between Hamlet and
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Ophelia.
Ophelia tries to tell Hamlet that she does not want his
“gifts” of love, and wants to give them back to him.
Hamlet gets angry and tells Ophelia that he never was
interested in her (this is a LIE!).
Hamlet then tells her to go to a nunnery (insult, means
prostitution “place”) and accuses her of spreading
“false” rumors about his love for her to Polonius, her
brother, and the King and Queen.
Ophelia figures out at last that Hamlet is mad.
King Claudius with Polonius
(Second Time)
 King, through what he has seen, now firmly believes
that Hamlet’s madness is NOT because of love for
Ophelia. He’s getting a little more suspicious of
Hamlet’s true motives.
 Polonius, despite the “argument” between Hamlet and
Ophelia, still believes Hamlet is lovesick over Ophelia
and that is the true reason for his madness.
 The King then tells Polonius (at the end of the scene)
that he will keep a much closer eye on Hamlet because
now he feels scared of Hamlet’s motives.