Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act Three - “To be, or not to be; that is the question…”

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act Three - “To be, or not to be; that is the question…”

The beauty of Hamlet as a play is that it deals with characters at the edge: A son who must avenge his father’s death whilst feeling disdain and hatred for his own mother whom he loves; a young girl who is asked to put herself up as bait to test the love and sanity of a young man who has shown affection towards her; a king who has killed his own brother and married his brother’s wife to take over the crown.

Act Three of ‘Hamlet’ starts off with Claudius and Gertrude talking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about Hamlet’s melancholy. They tell the king that Hamlet seems to be enthusiastic about the arrival of the players and is keen for the players to put on a performance and for the king and queen to attend. Gertrude and Claudius are pleased and agree to attend the performance as they see this might divert Hamlet from what troubles him. Meanwhile Claudius and Polonius hide to spy on and overhear Ophelia encountering Hamlet hoping that love for Ophelia is the cause of Hamlet's 'madness'.

Before we see Hamlet’s encounter with Ophelia, we hear Hamlet give perhaps the most famous soliloquy of all time. In this speech, he questions whether life is worth living, whether he should commit suicide. He uses metaphoric comparison to compare death to sleep and then questions the moral and ethical consequences of life, acceptance of one’s suffering and death. The ambiguity of the afterlife causes him to question the notion and function of conscience because, for Hamlet, neither religion nor the spirit of pure reason can provide for him the answers he needs. His deep contemplations are interrupted when he sees Ophelia:

“To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!

The fair Ophelia!”

Ophelia opens the conversation by trying to return Hamlet’s love letters. Hamlet denies giving her the letters and launches into a tirade about the dishonesty of women (a speech more directed at his mother than Ophelia). Eventually, Hamlet denounces all womankind and storms out. And then King Claudius and Polonius re-emerge and Claudius dismisses Polonius’ notion that Hamlet is mad for love for Ophelia. He fears that more lies behind Hamlet’s ‘madness’ and decides that moving Hamlet out of Denmark might be a good idea so he decides to send Hamlet to England, in the hope that a change of scenery might help him get over his troubles. Ophelia is left, rejected and discarded by both Hamlet and the machinations of her father and Claudius. Polonius expresses that he still thinks that the initial cause of Hamlet’s ‘madness’ is love for Ophelia and meddling Polonius then asks Claudius to send Hamlet to Gertrude’s chamber after the evening’s entertainment so that he can further observe Hamlet. Claudius agrees to this observing that “…Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.”

We move onto later that evening, as preparations take place for the evening performance by the players. Hamlet’s gives his final instructions to the players and we get some of the greatest insights into Shakespeare’s dramaturgy and philosophy of acting and staging.

“Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to

you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,

as many of your players do, I had as lief the

town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air

too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;

for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,

the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget

a temperance that may give it smoothness…

Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion

be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the

word to the action; with this special o'erstep not

the modesty of nature… And let those that play

your clowns speak no more than is set down for them;

for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to

set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh

too; though, in the mean time, some necessary

question of the play be then to be considered:

that's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition

in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready…”

Hamlet then has a last word to Horatio, to whom he has revealed all the ghost has said about Claudius having committed murder. Hamlet asks Horatio to watch with him for any signs of guilt in Claudius.

The spectacle of the play begins as Hamlet declines an offer to sit beside his mother and asks Ophelia if he can lie beside her. The players start with a ‘dumbshow’ or mime which acts out a silent version of the play which is to come in verse later. This was a common convention in Ancient Roman times and medieval times and was revived in the court in England of Henry VIII. In short, the plot of the dumbshow/mime shows a king and queen in love, then the king is left to sleep, then a man comes to pour poison into the sleeping king’s ear and then the man tries to seduce the queen who eventually succumbs to his advances. Perhaps Claudius doesn’t see or get what this dumbshow/mime is showing or perhaps he is diplomatic enough not to show his reactions so soon.

The players enact the play in full verse and Hamlet helps by giving a running commentary to Ophelia. At the climatic point when the murderer pours poison into the ear of the sleeping king, Claudius becomes outraged and storms out followed by nearly everyone. Hamlet is left alone with Horatio and they concur that Claudius’ reaction shows that he is indeed guilty of murdering Hamlet’s father. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern then enter to tell Hamlet that his mother wants to see him in her chambers immediately. Hamlet uses the analogy of playing a pipe when he derides Rosencrantz and Guildenstein for trying to play and manipulate him. Polonius enters to urge Hamlet to see his mother and Hamlet says he will come soon enough and he dismisses them all and decides that he will be completely honest and blunt with his mother:

“Let me be cruel, not unnatural:

I will speak daggers to her, but use none…”

Soon after, Claudius tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that they must make preparations to leave and escort the ‘mad’ Hamlet to England for the good of the kingdom of Denmark. They agree and exit and Polonius enters to tell Claudius that he is about to hide in Gertrude’s room to overhear Hamlet talking to her and then he leaves too. Alone, Claudius shows his remorse and guilt for having killed his brother. He ends his guilty railing by trying to pray for forgiveness but to no avail.

Enter Hamlet on the way to his mother’s chambers. He spies Claudius, he goes to kill him but notices that Claudius seems to be praying and then he questions whether killing Claudius now would help Claudius to go straight to heaven because he seems to be praying. Hamlet lets this opportunity go and decides:

“Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:

When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,

Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed;

At gaming, swearing, or about some act

That has no relish of salvation in't;

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.”

As Hamlet goes to his mother’s room, Claudius rises. We find out that he was unable to pray “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: words without thoughts never to heaven go.” We as an audience cannot but think that had Hamlet killed him, all would have been avenged.

We finally arrive at Gertrude’s chamber, where Polonius hides behind an arras, or tapestry to await Hamlet’s arrival. Polonius intends to overhear Hamlet's conversation with his mother. When Hamlet enters and asks his mother why he has been sent for, she says that he has offended his father (his uncle the king), and Hamlet retorts that she has offended his father (the deceased King Hamlet) by marrying Claudius. The Oedipal undertones which we saw in Hamlet’s earlier conversations with his mother and his derogatory rants about women with Ophelia, finally come to the fore. Hamlet aggressively confronts and threatens her and she cries out and Polonius makes noises and Hamlet, probably believing that the hidden figure is Claudius stabs the arras killing Polonius. The Queen is distressed and calls Hamlet’s actions “rash and bloody” and Hamlet replies that this bloody deed is not as bad as killing “a king and marry with his brother”. Hamlet then lifts the curtain and discovers that he has killed the “intruding fool” Polonius. Hamlet then turns on his mother forcing her to compare the portraits of his father to that of Claudius. Hamlet continues to torment her until the Ghost appears again (only to Hamlet though, not to his mother). The Ghost reminds Hamlet that his mission is to kill Claudius and enact revenge. The Ghost disappears and Hamlet tries to convince his mother that what he saw was real.

Hamlet asks his mother not to reveal anything to Claudius and asks her not to visit Claudius’ bed tonight or any night thereafter. He also tells his mother that he will sail soon for England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern whom he thoroughly distrusts. He bids his mother goodnight as he drags Polonius’ body from her room.