ACT 4
CHARACTER EVOLUTION
Hamlet
2 KEY ISSUES IN ACT 4
MADNESS
REVENGE
HAMLET

Is Hamlet ANTIC or MAD?

Actions/words following death of Polonius

“How all occasions do inform against me
And spur my dull revenge” (4.4.34)

“…Of thinking too precisely on th’ event
(A thought which quartered, hath but one part
wisdom/And ever three parts coward”)
(4.4.43)
OPHELIA

Is Ophelia a victim?

Your best psychological analysis?
“Divided from herself and her fair judgment
(Claudius)
 “We know what we are
But know not what we may be”
 Lyrics of “her song”
 And will he not come again” (4.5.212)

MADNESS

Compare and contrast Ophelia and
Hamlet’s madness
CLAUDIUS
Is Claudius arrogant or paranoid?
 “The present death of Hamlet
…Do it, England” (4.3.74)
 “The Queen his mother
Lives almost by his looks (4.7.14)
 “…Is the great love the general gender
bear him” (4.7.20)

CLAUDIUS

“And for his death no wind of blame shall
breathe/But even his mother shall
uncharge the practice/ And call it
accident” (4.7.74)

“Revenge shall have no bounds” (4.7.146)
LAERTES
Is Laertes Hamlet’s foil?
“What would you undertake
To show yourself indeed your father’s son
More than in words?” (4.7.141) ~ Claudius to
Laertes
 “To cut his throat i’ th’ church” ~ Laertes
 “Laertes, was your father dear to you?
Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
A face without a heart?” (4.7.122-124)
~ Claudius


REVENGE

Compare and contrast the revenge of
Hamlet and Laertes