Hamlet Act III - key scenes Flashcards
What did Rosencrantz and Guildenstern fail to find the cause of? (quote)
Hamlet’s “turbulent and dangerous lunacy”
When do we first hear Claudius admit his guilt?
In Act III, scene i. He says
“How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience”
(hamlet still unaware)
In his ‘To be, or not to be’ soliloquy, Hamlet says that the terror of the unknown of the afterlife is too great to commit suicide. What does he say to voice this?
“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all”
What does Hamlet repeat when he confronts Ophelia after she returned his gifts?
“Get thee to a nunnery”
After secretly viewing Hamlet’s outburst at Ophelia (after she returned his gifts), Claudius is concerned for little except for his own safety. What does he say?
“…was not like madness. There’s something in his soul,
O’er which his melancholy sits on brood.
And i do doubt the hatch and the disclose
Will be some danger”
Claudius is a great judge of character. At the end of Act III scene i he decides to closely monitor Hamlet’s behaviour. What does he say?
“It shall be so
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.”
What does Hamlet say to the players before the play that shows he is very knowledgeable about theatre and drame?
“speech the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue”
What is the first blow delivered by Hamlet in the play?
“In second husband let me be accurst!
None wed the second but who killed the first”
What is the second psychological blow delivered by Hamlet in the play?
“He poisons him in the garden for his estate”
“the murderer gets the love of Gonzago’s wife”
Hamlet, satisfied of Claudius’s guilt, says he will now:
“take the ghost’s word for a thousand pound”
Hamlet uses a musical metaphor to express his fury with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for using him:
“You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery”
Hamlet decides he will follow the Ghost’s request and not harm Gertrude, but decides to prick her conscience:
“Let me be cruel, not unnatural.
I will speak daggers to her, but use none”
In prayer, Claudius recognises the evil nature of his act, and is, in some way, struggling with his conscience and admits his sin:
“O my offence is rank”
“It hath the primal eldest curse upon it:
A brother’s murder”
There is a hypocritical nature to Claudius’s prayers and he acknowledges he couldn’t possibly be for the murder as he is:
“…still possessed
Of those effects for which i did the murder;
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen”
Claudius knows he couldn’t be forgiven for his sin as he still enjoys its rewards, yet he still asks:
“May one be pardoned and retain the offence”
