AO2: Act 4 Flashcards
‘Mad as the sea and wind when both contend’
Gertrude 4:1 to Claudius about Hamlet
Gertrude uses imagery of storm and the weather to carry on and take part in Hamlets deception. Can due to her own shock that Claudius killed the King or that doesn’t want to look guilty in front of hamlet.
AO4: Gertrude trying to plead diminished responsibility for her son? ‘he weeps for what is done’
‘Like some ore/Among a mineral of metals base/Shows itself pure-‘a weeps for what is done’
Gertrude (4:1) invents a story to Claudius to demonstrate the truth of Hamlet’s madness by suggesting his madness allows a glimmering of morality to shine through, like a vein of gold in a chunk of coal. He weeps for what he has done. Presents him as a kinder and gentler person.
AO4: Trying to plead diminished responsibility for her son
‘How shall this bloody deed be answered?’
Claudius’ 4:1
foreshadowing consequences
‘My soul is full of discord and dismay’
Claudius 1:4
There’s almost a sense of care from Claudius as he partly feels responsible for what has happened and perhaps realises that he should not send Hamlet to England. Might be an act.
‘Besides to be demanded of a sponge’
Hamlet 3:2
Metaphor: mocking Rosencrantz, suggesting he’s just a tool being used by Claudius to soak up the mess.
“The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body”
The line is a paradox that Hamlet uses(4:2) to confuse Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and some critics.It could mean that Claudius is near Polonius’s body, but Claudius is not with the body politic becausehis ascension to the throne was illegitimate, achieved through murder.
Alterantively Hamlet may be referring to his father, the king, who is now just a thing because he is dead.
‘Diseases desperate grown/By desperate appliance are reliev’d’
Claudius (4:3)
Idea of how serious illness need drastic treatment can be symbolic of Denmark as a nation.
‘We fat all creatures/else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots’
Hamlet (4:3) demonstrates that life for Hamlet is a cruel predatory world of heartless and unrestrained consumption. Could be reference to appetite of Claudius and Gertrude.
‘Your fat king and your lean beggar’
Hamlet is seeing how the corrupt nature of Denmark is affecting the people.
AO2: Juxtaposition between rich and poor
AO3: there was singificant wealth inequality in Elizabethan England
‘your worm is your only emperor for diet’
Hamlet 4:3
Hamletis saying thatPoloniusis dead and being eaten by worms and then comments on that is the fate of everyone, whether rich or poor. And with a certain cynicism towards the rich, because luxury in life just means that there’s more for the worms to eat afterward.
AO2: Pun on diet. The line alludes to the Diet of Worms and Martin Luther (the founder of protestantism) Hamlet was a student at Wittenberg University in Germany, where Martin Luther taught.
‘The present death of Hamlet…For like the hectic in my blood he rages’
Claudius (4:3)
Claudius’s real purpose for sending Hamlet to England is now revealed. He’s cunning with conceit and is still the same remorseless, kind less villain.
‘How all occasions do inform against me/And spur my dull revenge’
4:4 hamlet uses striking imagery to talk about his delayed revenge. he follow with a rhetorical question, which could symbolise how his delaying really has no answer or reasoning behind it.
‘O from this time forth/My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth’
4:4
Hamlet comes across blood thirsty and energised to take his revenge however this is ironic as his actions contradict his words. As his whole last soliloquy is full of contradictions.
solemn vow
‘I’ll be revenged most throughly for my father.’
Laertes 4:5
Dramatic foil to Hamlet
Forms an army and demands revenge for his fathers death
Why are Ophelia and Laertes reactions to Polonius’ death in 4:5 significant?
They are the two extremes of Hamlet’s reaction:
Laertes = rage
Ophelia = madness
mirrors Hamlet’s internal conflict
‘To his good friends thus wide I’ll ope my arms And, like the kind life-rendering pelican, Repast them with my blood.’
In thissimile (4:5) Laertes’ welcoming his father’s friends is like a mother pelican which, according to legend, would wound herself with her beak and feed her blood to her young—an act that could bring a dead chick back to life. Implication that Laertes will draw blood for his fathers death.
Ophelia gives out flowers
4:5
- Rosemary and pansies: Ophelia gives these flowers to Laertes, she even cites them as being for rememberance and thoughts.
- Fennel and Columbine: To the king Claudius, Ophelia gives a brave message. Fennel is the symbol for flattery and columbine is considered the flower for “deceived lovers,” a symbol of male adultery and faithlessness.
- Rue: Rue is the symbol for bitterness, thought to be the cause of most abortions in that day, and often connected with adultery. Ophelia gives this flower to the queen Gertrude as well as keeping some for herself.
- Daisy: Ophelia picks up and sets down the daisy without giving it to anyone. This is interesting because the daisy is the symbol of innocence and gentleness. Evidently Ophelia thought there was no place for innocence in the Danish court anymore.
- Violets: Finally, Ophelia says that she would have brought violets but that they all withered when her father died. This is a fascinating note for Ophelia to leave on because violets are the symbole of faithfulness and fidelity.
‘A document in madness: thoughts and remembrance fitted.’
Laertes 4:5 about Ophelia
Although Laertes thinks that Ophelia’s handing out of flowers is indicative of her madness, he finds it fitting that she’s given him flowers symbolizing his need to think about the memory of his murdered father – an eerie parallel of the Ghost’s command to Hamlet, “Remember me!”.
‘And where th’offence is, let the great axe fall.’
- King 4:5
Dramatic Irony
Claudius describes Hamlet as being “The hectic in…
my blood” (4:3)
as if Hamlet’s knowledge of his crime has somehow infected him, attacking his nervous system like a fever.
Shakespeare continues to use the motif of sickness and disease to express the corruption at the heart of Denmark caused by Claudius’ crime.
Metaphor
Ophelia’s appearance in 4:5
Ophelia’s appearance (as indicated by a stage direction in the earliest published version of the play) also signals her breakdown - Elizabethan audiences would’ve recognised Ophelia’s hair being down and dishevelled state of dress as conventional literary indications of ‘madness’.
Causes of Ophelia’s madness
Elizabethan audiences may have recognised Ophelia’s appearance and behaviour as a specifically ‘female’ form of madness drawb upon in literature - erotomania (a term used to describe love-madness or romantic desperation.It was believed to be caused by unrequited love and repressed sexual desire). L + P forbiding Ophelia to have a relationship with Hamlet.
Some critics see her madness as a consequence of her being denied ann authentic voice in the play
Rebellion against the patriarchy
“To cut his throat i’th’ church”
Laertes (4:7) responds emotionally to Claudius’ skillfull manipulation to prove his readiness to kill Hamlet.
Imagery of savage violence shows the depth of his hatred towards Hamlet. Allusion to Hamlet not cutting Claudius’ throath while praying. Tha Laertes is prepared to seek revenge in the sanctified space of a ‘church’ reitorates his cry of “I dare damnation” (4:5). Laertes is willing to suffer an eternity in hell to avenge his father.
