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
‘He made confession of…’
‘[Lamord] made confession of you;/ And gave you such a masterly report […] he cried out ‘twould be a sight indeed/ If one could match you.’ - Claudius
- uses Lamord to build excitement in Laertes and make him think he is significantly better than Hamlet
‘Sir, this report…’
‘Sir, this report of his/ Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy. That he could nothing do but wish and beg/ Your sudden coming o’er, to play with you.’- Claudius
- use of the word ‘envenom’ foreshadows the use of poison to kill Hamlet, perhaps the idea wasn’t Laertes at all
- creating rivalry between Hamlet and Laertes, making L more confident, he then goes on to mention Laertes’ father, asking if his grief is real, to push Laertes into fencing against Hamlet
‘Laertes, was your father…’
‘Laertes, was your father dear to you?/ Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,/ A face without a heart?’ - Claudius
- asking if his grief is genuine or only surface level, used to build the resentment and impatience in Laertes
‘Not that I think you did not…’
‘That we would do/ We…’
‘Not that I think you did not love your father;/ But that I know love is begun by time, […] There lives within the very frame of love/ A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it’ - Claudius
‘That we would do/ We should do when we would; for this ‘would’ changes, […] And then this ‘should’ is like a spend-thrift’s sigh/ That hurts by easing.’ - C
- suggesting that love can burn itself out over time and, therefore, we should act in the heat of love rather than letting it become a ‘should’
- this perhaps echo’s Hamlet’s experiences with trying to act from love for his father
- ‘spend-thrift’s sigh’ - useless regret of one who has spent all their money
‘But to the quick of…’
‘But to the quick of th’ulcer:/ Hamlet comes back; what would you undertake/ To show yourself in deed your father’s son/ More than in words?’ - Claudius
- trying to encourage Laertes to act against Hamlet soon (before he has time to think)
What does Laertes say he will do to prove that he is his father’s son and feels real grief? P265
‘To cut his throat i’th’church.’ - Laertes
- this would be incredibly shocking, as Laertes knows
- echoes Hamlet’s opportunity to kill Claudius in the church, furthering the comparison of these two characters
‘No place, indeed…’
‘No place, indeed should murder sancturize;/ Revenge should have no bounds.’ - Claudius
- revenge should not be limited by areas seen as sanctuary
‘We’ll put on those shall…’
‘We’ll put on those shall praise your excellence,/ And set a double varnish on the fame/ The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, together,/ And wager on your heads.’ - Claudius
- set up to manipulate a duel between L and H on which others will ‘wager’ to give it the appearance of sport
Hamlet ‘Will not peruse the…’
‘Hamlet ‘Will not peruse the fouls; so that with ease/ Or with a little shuffling, you may choose/ A sword unbated’ - Claudius
- since Hamlet will not checking the swords, one will be unblunted which Laertes will choose, allowing him to avenge his father “by accident”
‘And for that purpose I’ll…’
‘And for that purpose I’ll anoint my sword./ I bought an unction of a mountebank,/ So mortal that but dip a knife in it,/ Where it draws blood [nothing…] can save the thing from death’ - Laertes
- poisoning someone was generally considered a feminine and cowardly way to die, parallel to Claudius’ murder of his brother
- ironic use of ‘anoint’ which has religious connotations
‘I’ll touch my point…’
‘I’ll touch my point/ With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,/ It may be death.’ - Laertes
- another layer to the plan
‘As you make your bouts more violent to that…’
‘As you make your bouts more violent to that end -/ and that he calls for drink, I’ll have preferr’d him/ A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping,/ If he by chance escape your venom’d stuck,/ Our purpose may hold there.’ - Claudius
‘One woe doth tread upon…’
‘One wo doth tread upon another’s heel,/ So fast they follow. Your sister’s drown’d,/ Laertes.’ - Gertrude
- protection Ophelia and the court (withholding the suspicion of suicide we learn later)
‘There is a willow grows…’
‘There is a willow grows aslant the brook/ That shows his hoar leaves in the glass stream’ - Gertrude
- ‘willow’ - suffering, sadness
- trying to make it seem calm - guilt?
- the ‘aslant’ willow could perhaps reflect Ophelia reaching out for help
‘Therewith fantastic garlands…’
‘Therewith fantastic garlands did she make/ Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples’ - Gertrude
- suggests a sort of naivety in Ophelia, childlike, feminine quality
‘and long purples/ That liberal…’
‘and long purples/ That liberal shepherds do give a grosser name,/ but our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them.’ - Gertrude
- a strange detail to include, inappropriate for announcing a young woman’s death - perhaps Gertrude herself is distracted
‘There, on the pendent boughs…’
‘There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds/ Clamb’ring to hand, an envious sliver broke;/ when down her weedy trophies and herself/ Fell in the weeping brook.’ - Gertrude
- interesting account that suggests Ophelia’s death was an accident, there is no way G could have known this unless there were witnesses, perhaps she is trying to protect Ophelia’s reputation from suicide rumours
- ‘envious sliver’ - malicious branch, passing off the blame away from O.
‘Her clothes spread…’
‘Her clothes spread wide/ And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;/ Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds/ As one incapable of her own distress’ - Gertrude
- still telling details that she couldn’t know
- unnecessary description, mythologising ophelia
‘Or like a creature native and…’
‘Or like a creature native and indued/ Unto that element; but long it could not be/ Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,/ Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay/ To muddy death.’- Gertrude
- insensitive ending, ruins the peaceful imagery she had built
‘Too much of water hast thou…’
‘Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,/ And therefore I forbid my tears; but yet/ It is our trick; nature her custom holds,/ Let shame say what it will. When these are gone,/ The woman will be out.’ - Laertes
- Ophelia has already had too much water so he will not add to it by crying but it is a normal reaction, let people think it is shameful, once his is done the ‘woman’ or weaker part of him will be gone
‘Adieu, my lord./ I have a …’
‘Adieu, my lord./ I have a speech o’ fire that fain would blaze/ But that this folly doubts it.’ - Laertes
