Act 3 Scene 3 Flashcards
Act 3 scene 3 plot summary
Claudius tells rosencrantz and Guildenstern that they must take hamlet to England
Polonius tells Claudius - hide behind areas
Claudius soliloquy
Hamlet comes unseen - wants to kill Claudius but hesitates- if kills now- May go to heaven
Instead, Hamlet decides to wait until a moment he can be certain Claudius will go to hell
Act 3 scene 3 key themes
Secrecy and deception
Polonius’ plan to hide himself in Gertrude’s chamber emphasises his political role at court
Claudius has set in motion the plot to kill hamlet
Act 3 scene 3 form structure and language
Claudius soliloquy -
The king speaks in blank verse as he attempts to pray and unburden his soul in the scene, which is usually played in a chapel because of the prayer like nature of the speech
Staging -
Directors need to make hamlets entrance and Claudius not noticing seem natural
Many modern film directors give hamlet his soliloquy as a voiceover instead
Like the David tenant version
While other onstage versions might have hamlet further away and rely on the audience suspending disbelief
Act 3 scene 3 context
Religion - Claudius trying to pray
Hamlet not killing - religion inspired
Key quotes Act 3 scene 3
‘Nor stands it safe with us/ to let his madness range’
‘His heels may kick at heaven/ and that his soul may be as damn’d and black/ As hell, whereto it goes’
Explain ‘Nor stands it safe with us/ to let his madness range’
Does he actually care about Denmark or is this for his safety only
Explain
‘His heels may kick at heaven/ and that his soul may be as damn’d and black/ As hell, whereto it goes’
Ironic - inability to pray
Imagery of Claudius diving into hell - Hamlets desire for revenge
Wants external soul to suffer - condemn hamlet to a similar fait
Claudius soliloquy
‘O, my offence is rank it smells o heaven’ - biblical story of Cain who killed his brother Abel - first Murder
‘To wash it white as snow’ - Macbeth
‘A brothers murder.’ - pause surprise
‘Forgive me my foul’d Murder?’ Rhetorical question. - struggling
‘My crown, mine own ambition and my queen’ - order of importance, triad
‘My’ - possessive, not going to give it up
‘Wretched’ ‘black’ ‘limed soul’ - trapped and rotting, moral sin
‘Bow stubborn knees’
Hamlets interjected soliloquy
In modern film adaptation - performed as voiceover to explain Claudius doesn’t hear him
In theatre- we have to suspend disbelief
Claudius last line
‘My words fly up, my thoughts remain below
Words without thought never go heaven go.’
The final rhyming couplet - parallelism of 2 lines connecting heavenly and hell
Is below hell or Earth
Irony - hamlet could have killed him
‘O my offence is rank it smells to heaven’
Apostrophe
Olfactory
Guilt
He’s moral
Self disgust
‘The primal eldest curse upon’t,/ a brothers murder
Emphatic
Curse - not his fault
Trying to normalise it - seen as more evil
‘My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,… I stand it pause’
Personification
Plosives
‘Bus’ ‘bound’
Frustration - what to repent for 1st
What if this cursed hand… as snow?
Similar
Hyperbole
Macbeth
Magnified sins
I am still possessed…my Queen
List of 3
Syndetic
Priority - Queen last
