Hamlet 3:3 Flashcards
King’s soliloquy
- 3:3
- audience become certain of Claudius’ guilt and aware of his inner thoughts and feelings
- there are similarities to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
‘O my offence…’
‘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’
‘It hath the primal…’
‘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
Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet - Claudius’ soliloquy/3:3
- 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
‘My stronger…’
‘My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent’ - Claudius (soliloquy)
- guilt overpowers faith
‘What if this cursed hand…’
‘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?’
‘And what’s in prayer…’
‘And what’s in prayer but this twofold force’ - Claudius (soliloquy)
1. forgiveness
2. to stop him doing evil
correlation between Claudius’ soliloquy and Macbeth
- 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’
primogeniture
the right of succession belonging to the firstborn child
'’Forgive me my…’
'’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
What are the ‘effects for which [Claudius] did the murder’?
‘My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.’ - Claudius
- how complicit is G
‘May one be…’
‘May one be pardon’d and retain th’ offence?’ - Claudius (soliloquy)
- to be forgiven not to undo
‘What then? What…’
‘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
penitent
feeling or showing sorrow and regret for having done wrong
‘O wretched state…’
‘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
‘Make assay…’
‘Make assay:/ Bow, stubborn knees’ - Claudius (soliloquy)
- parallel in Macbeth where he cannot say ‘Amen’ after killing Duncan
- ‘[Retires and kneels.]’
‘[Retires and kneels]’
‘[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)
dramatic irony of Claudius’ position when Hamlet enters
- 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
‘Now might I…’
‘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?
pre-reformation setting of Hamlet, the praying scene, 3:3
- 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
medieval vs elizabethan ideas of revenge
Medieval: revenge could be seen as atonement, balancing
Elizabethan: revenge was outlawed and against morals, stone cold wrong
‘A villain kills…’
‘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)
‘Why, this is hire…’
‘Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge.’ - Hamlet
'’A took my father…’
'’A took my father grossly, full of bread’ - Hamlet
- aka not fasting
