Hamlet 4:7 Flashcards
why doesn’t Claudius tell Laertes his plan for Hamlet?
- perhaps self-preservation in case it got out, trying to maintain distance
- perhaps testing Laertes’ resolve
‘Now must your conscience…’
Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,/ And you must put me in your heart for friend,/ Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,/ That he which hath your noble father slain/ Pursu’d my life.’ - Claudius
‘It well appears…’
‘It well appears. But tell me/ Why you proceeded not against these feats,/ So crimeful and so capital in nature,/ As by your safety, wisdom, all things else, You mainly were stirr’d up.’ - Laertes
- doesn’t full by Claudius’ story
- why hasn’t he taken action against Hamlet given the death-penalty deserving crimes and threat against Claudius (of course Claudius has but he hasn’t told Laertes this)?
what are the reasons Claudius gives for not taking action against Hamlet? (note that he did actually take action but L doesn’t know it)
‘O, for two special reasons […] The Queen his mother [and the…] public’ - Claudius
‘O, for two special…’
‘O, for two special reasons,/ Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew’d,/ But yet to me th’are strong.’ - Claudius
‘The Queen his…’
‘The Queen his mother/ Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,/ My virtue or my plague, be it either which -/ She is so conjunctive to my life and soul/ That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,/ I could not but by her.’ - Claudius
- one of the reasons he hasn’t taken action against Hamlet is because of Gertrude who controls Claudius’ actions because of his great love for her
- presents an altruistic, self-sacrificing image of himself
‘The other motive…’
‘The other motive,/ Why to a public count I might not go,/ Is the great love the general gender bear him;/ Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, […] Convert his gyves to graces’ - Claudius
- the other reason for not taking action against Hamlet as that he is greatly loved by the public, they love him so much that they convert his ‘gyves to graces’ making him innocent
‘so that my arrows,/ Too…’
‘so that my arrows,/ Too slightly timber’d for so loud a wind,/ Would have reverted to my bow again./ But not where I have aim’d them.’ - Claudius
- if he tried to take down Hamlet, it would simply fire back on himself - his power (arrows) is easily turned by the strong wind of public opinion
‘And so have I a…’
‘And so have I a noble father lost;/A sister driven into desp’rate terms,/ Whose worth, if praises may go back again,/ Stood challenger on mount of all the age/ For her perfections. But my revenge will come.’ - Laertes
- Ophelia is idealised, Laertes raising her above all others - she used to be perfect
‘Break not your…’
‘Break not your sleeps for that. You must not think/ That we are made of stuff so flat and dull/ That we can let our beard be shook with danger,/ And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more.’ - Claudius
- perhaps a bit insensitive
- effectively saying that he will take action and protect himself from the threat
‘I lov’d your…’
‘I lov’d your father, and we love our self;/ And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine -‘ - Claudius
‘Letters, my lord, from…’
‘Letters, my lord, from Hamlet:/ These to your majesty; this to the Queen.’ - Messenger
‘[Reads] ‘High and Mighty. You shall…’
‘[Reads] ‘High and Mighty. You shall know that I am set naked on your kingdom.’ - Claudius reading Hamlet’s letter
- very stiff and formal opening - ‘High and Mighty’
- Hamlet has returned to denmark unarmed (‘naked’)
‘To-morrow shall I beg leave…’
‘To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes; when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden and more strange return.’ - Claudius reading Hamlet’s letter
- wants a meeting with C. - is it to kill him?
- Hamlet’s return will mean much more to Claudius than Laertes as he knows Hamlet was not meant to return
'’Tis Hamlet’s character…’
'’Tis Hamlet’s character. ‘Naked’!/ And in a postscript here, he says ‘alone’./ Can you devise me?’ - Claudius
- ‘devise’ - explain (making Laertes think they are partners, manipulation)
‘I am lost in…’
‘I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come;/ It warms the very sickness in my heart/ That I shall live and tell him to his teeth/ ‘Thus didest thou’.’ - Laertes
- ‘Thus didest thou’ - ‘This is your doing’
‘If it be so, Laertes…’
‘If it be so, Laertes -/ As how should it be so, how otherwise? -/ Will you be rul’d by me?’ - Claudius
- placatory tone (suggestion of doubt - ‘If it be so’) shows how Claudius is working to keep L on side
‘Ay, my lord…’
‘Ay, my lord;/ So you will not o-errule me to a peace.’ - Laertes
- will follow Claudius as long as he does not ask him to make peace with Hamlet
‘I will work him…’
‘I will work him/ To an exploit now ripe in my device,/ Under the which he shall not choose but fall’ - Claudius
- has a plan in which Hamlet will die no matter what choices he makes
‘And for his death…’
‘And for his death, no wind of blame shall breathe;/ But even his mother shall uncharge the practice/ And call it accident.’ - Claudius
- even Gertrude will not be able to blame anyone for Hamlet’s death
‘My lord, I will be…’
My lord, I will be rul’d/ The rather, if you could devise it so/ That I might be the organ.’ - Laertes
- wants to be the means of Hamlet’s death
‘You have been talk’d of…’
‘You have been talk’d of since your travel much,/ And that in Hamlet’s hearing, for a quality/ Wherein they say you shine.’ - Claudius
‘Your sum of parts…
‘Your sum of parts/ Did not together pluck such envy from him/ As did that one; and that, in my regard,/ Of the unworthiest siege.’ - Claudius
- of all Laertes’ attributes this one provokes the most envy in Hamlet
- by withholding which skill it is he is talking about, he both intrigues Laertes and creates a sense of general superiority over hamlet
How does Claudius try to heighten Laertes’ competitiveness?
- by withholding the specific skill and introducing it through the use of a notorious fighter ‘Lamord’ who (according to Claudius) gave Laertes a ‘masterly report’ and said he didn’t think anyone could match him (again according to Claudius) this makes Hamlet envious
- Lamord is described by Laertes as ‘the brooch indeed/ And gem of all the nation’
- Lamord sounds like ‘la mort’ the french word for death, suggesting his lethal skill