Hamlet 3:3

Question 1

King’s soliloquy

Answer 1

• 3:3
• audience become certain of Claudius’ guilt and aware of his inner thoughts and feelings
• there are similarities to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

Question 2

‘O my offence…’

Answer 2

‘O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven’ - Claudius (soliloquy)
- apostrophe to begin: ‘O’ shows emotion, this is an appeal to external power
- similarities to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth: ‘all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand’

Question 3

‘It hath the primal…’

Answer 3

‘It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t -/ A brother’s murder!’ - Claudius (soliloquy)
- the moment it is all confirmed, Hamlet is right
- refers to Cain’s murder of his brother in the Bible
- Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet with Derek Jacobi as Claudius: in a Church confessional for this scene

Question 4

Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet - Claudius’ soliloquy/3:3

Answer 4

• Derek Jacobi as Claudius
• 3:3 is set in a Church confessional (cleansing)
• there is a sense of desperation and resignation but C is still selfish - he won’t give up the fruits of his act
• Claudius appears human and almost relatable

Question 5

‘My stronger…’

Answer 5

‘My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent’ - Claudius (soliloquy)
- guilt overpowers faith

Question 6

‘What if this cursed hand…’

Answer 6

‘What if this cursed hand/ Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood,/ Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens/ To wash it white as snow?’ - Claudius (soliloquy)
- ‘brother’s blood’ - despite having poisoned him, metaphorical blood/guilt
- echoed in Macbeth later: ‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?’

Question 7

‘And what’s in prayer…’

Answer 7

‘And what’s in prayer but this twofold force’ - Claudius (soliloquy)
1. forgiveness
2. to stop him doing evil

Question 8

correlation between Claudius’ soliloquy and Macbeth

Answer 8

• Macbeth was written after Hamlet
• washing hands - ‘not rain enough’ ‘To wash it white’ - ‘all great Neptune’s oceans’
• moment of guilt - ‘blood’ ‘stronger guilt’
• ambition - ‘mine own ambition’

Question 9

primogeniture

Answer 9

the right of succession belonging to the firstborn child

Question 10

'’Forgive me my…’

Answer 10

'’Forgive me my foul murder’!/ That cannot be; since I am still possess’d/ Of those effects for which I did the murder’ - Claudius (soliloquy)
- cannot ask for forgiveness whilst keeping the objects he gained

Question 11

What are the ‘effects for which [Claudius] did the murder’?

Answer 11

‘My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.’ - Claudius
- how complicit is G

Question 12

‘May one be…’

Answer 12

‘May one be pardon’d and retain th’ offence?’ - Claudius (soliloquy)
- to be forgiven not to undo

Question 13

‘What then? What…’

Answer 13

‘What then? What rests?/ Try what repentance can. What can it not?/ Yet what can it when one can not repent?’ - C (soliloquy)
- must try for forgiveness
- uncertainty over whether praying will offer him any favour

Question 14

penitent

Answer 14

feeling or showing sorrow and regret for having done wrong

Question 15

‘O wretched state…’

Answer 15

‘O wretched state! O bosom black as death!/ O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,/ Art more engag’d!’ - Claudius (soliloquy)
- caught in a trap, attempts to escape only trap him more
- ‘limed soul’ refers Bird Lime a sticky substance put on trees to catch small birds

Question 16

‘Make assay…’

Answer 16

‘Make assay:/ Bow, stubborn knees’ - Claudius (soliloquy)
- parallel in Macbeth where he cannot say ‘Amen’ after killing Duncan
- ‘[Retires and kneels.]’

Question 17

‘[Retires and kneels]’

Answer 17

‘[Retires and kneels]’ - Claudius when Hamlet enters
- appears to be in a state of grace or penitence to Hamlet, dramatic irony
- PROXEMICS (use of space)

Question 18

dramatic irony of Claudius’ position when Hamlet enters

Answer 18

• Hamlet believes he is in a state of penitence so may be forgiven his sins (unlike H sr. was able to do)
• Claudius has just been saying how it is useless for him to pray

Question 19

‘Now might I…’

Answer 19

‘Now might I do it pat, now ‘a is a-praying/ And now I’ll do’t - and so ‘a goes t heaven,/ And so I am reveng’d.’ - Hamlet upon seeing Claudius praying, 3:3
- H believes C is in a state of grace (dramatic irony)
- in some versions the dash after ‘I’ll do’t’ is replaced with where he draws his sword, decisive action (David Tennant as Hamlet version)
- turning point where he thinks claudius might go to heaven if he kills him now - playing God?

Question 19

pre-reformation setting of Hamlet, the praying scene, 3:3

Answer 19

• catholic setting vs protestant audience
• court falling in on itself (shows catholicism negatively)
• Shakespeare’s father had Catholic sympathies and was catholic before forced conversion

Question 20

medieval vs elizabethan ideas of revenge

Answer 20

Medieval: revenge could be seen as atonement, balancing
Elizabethan: revenge was outlawed and against morals, stone cold wrong

Question 21

‘A villain kills…’

Answer 21

‘A villain kills my father; and for that,/ I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven.’ - Hamlet
- reasonably rational thinking (albeit arguable amoral)

Question 22

‘Why, this is hire…’

Answer 22

‘Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge.’ - Hamlet

Question 23

'’A took my father…’

Answer 23

'’A took my father grossly, full of bread’ - Hamlet
- aka not fasting

Question 24

‘To take him in the…’

Answer 24

‘To take him in the purging of his soul,/ When he is fit and season’d for his passage?/ No.’ - Hamlet
- believes C is in the best position to get to heaven (skipping purgatory unlike H sr.)

Question 25

‘Up…’

Answer 25

‘Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.’ - Hamlet
- decisive action to put sword away
- will wait til Claudius is ‘full of bread’ like H sr. was
- Eg. ‘drunk asleep’, ‘in his rage’, in the ‘incestuous pleasures of his bed’

Question 26

‘Then trip him, that his…’

Answer 26

‘Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,/ And that his soul may be as damn’d and black/ As hell, whereto it goes.’ - Hamlet
- shows thought process, an audience may feel relieved he has not killed an unarmed man (so hasn’t been lowered to Claudius’ level), he also makes an active decision here
- many critics (especially religious ones) have been horrified by Hamlets words here

Question 27

critic comments on Hamlet’s choice to wait to kill Claudius so he can send him to ‘hell’

Answer 27

Dr Johnson was dismayed by Hamlet’s callousness in this speech. For a critic much closer in time to Shakespeare’s than our own, Hamlet’s desire to send Claudius to hell was ‘too horrible to read or to be uttered.’ - 1729
Other critics such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge have been horrified by Hamlet’s words - he completely oversteps the bounds of Christian morality in trying to damn Claudius’ soul as well as kill him.

Question 28

Dr Johnson on Hamlet’s speech and decision not to kill Claudius in 3:3

Answer 28

Dr Johnson was dismayed by Hamlet’s callousness in this speech. For a critic much closer in time to Shakespeare’s than our own, Hamlet’s desire to send Claudius to hell was ‘too horrible to read or to be uttered.’ - 1729

Question 29

Samuel Taylor Coleridge on Hamlet’s speech and decision not to kill Claudius in 3:3

Answer 29

horrified by Hamlet’s words - he completely oversteps the bounds of Christian morality in trying to damn Claudius’ soul as well as kill him.

Question 30

what does Claudius say after Hamlet has left - deciding not to kill him yet - in 3:3

Answer 30

‘My words fly up, my thoughts remain below./ Words without thoughts never to heaven go.’ - Claudius
- dramatic irony
- couldn’t mean his words