Act 4 Scene 5 Flashcards
To my sick soul, as sin’s true nature is,
Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss:
So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.
S: Queen
C: She is talking about guilt and sins after having a conversation with Horatio about Ophelia’s mental state (she has gone crazy ever since her father, Polonius, died). The Queen finally agrees to see Ophelia.
1) shows she still feels guilty when she looks in the mirror, hamlet had his way.
2) foreshadows a problem, there’s a sign of worse things coming (little insignificant than things seem to be a sign of something big coming)
Then up he rose, and donn’d his clothes,
And dupp’d the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.
S: Ophelia
C: Ophelia is singing her song about Hamlet
1) Confirming that they had sex
2) Shows how men can be assholes and how women are affected by this and left abandoned.
3) shows how much hamlet has affected her
4) shows that there is a method to her madness
Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
You promised me to wed.
He answers:
So would I ha’ done, by yonder sun,
And thou hadst not come to my bed.
S: Ophelia
C: Ophelia is singing her song about Hamlet
1) Confirming that they had sex
2) Shows how men can be assholes and how women are affected by this and left abandoned.
3) shows how much hamlet has affected her
4) shows that there is a method to her madness
That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard,
Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot
Even here, between the chaste unsmirch’d brows
Of my true mother.
S: Laertes
C: Laertes has just returned from France and has just entered the castle with many shouting peasants behind him
1) Laertes refuses to stay calm. If he were to tone down his passion then it would be like calling his mother a whore and disowning his father.
2) Laertes is the exact opposite of hamlet (hamlet thinks his mothers a whore + he still hasn’t acted)
3) Laertes is the model of what hamlet should/wants to be
do not fear our person:
There’s such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would,
Acts little of his will.
S: King
C: Laertes has returned from France and is very passionate, may have intentions of killing Claudius but the king isn’t scared
1) Claudius believes in divinity in royals and feels protected from Laertes because he was chosen by God
2) Ironic because Claudius was not chosen by God but took it by force
3) Foreshadows Claudius’ death
4) Characterizes Claudius as stupid and arrogant.
Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation.
S: Laertes
C: Laertes has returned from France enraged and has begun asking questions to the King and Queen about his father.
1) Condemning his conscious to Hell, he has no time to think about it he must avenge his fathers death
2) Claudius can now use Laertes as a plan B to kill Hamlet
3) Again showing us how Laertes is the polar opposite of Hamlet
To his good friends thus wide I’ll ope my arms;
And, like the kind life-rendering pelican,
Repast them with my blood.
S: Laertes
C: Laertes has returned from France enraged and has begun asking questions to the King and Queen about his father.
1) In response, Claudius can now shift the blame onto Hamlet (sets up the manipulation)
2) Claudius will manipulate Laertes to kill Hamlet (because Claudius can’t do it himself) by using his own rage against him
So you shall;
And where the offence is let the great axe fall.
I pray you, go with me.
S: King
C: Laertes was calling into question the lack of a funeral for Polonius. Laertes has just seen his sister for the first time and is in a state of shock and sadness, he is now re-questioning what he has heard about Claudius killing his father.
1) The offense lies on Claudius because he is the original sin that started all of this.
2) In this line, Claudius is unknowingly foreshadowing his own death because he is saying that whoever is responsible for Polonius’ murder will get killed when he is the one that started all this in the first place.
