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What did shakespeare mean by I must be cruel only to be kind thus being bad and worse remains behind?
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
A brief synopsis might put the answer in the proper context. Hamlet's father has just been murdered, a ghost claiming to be his deceased father claims he was killed by his brother Claudius who then marries Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. While talking to his mother in her bedroom, Hamlet hears a spy behind the curtains and kills him, thinking it to be his uncle. It is not; it is his girlfriend's father Polonius.
The full speech delivered may also shed some light on the discussion.
For this same lord
I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,
To punish me with this and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him and answer well
The death I gave him. So again good night.
I must be cruel to be kind:
Thus bad begins and only worse remains behind.
Hamlet is sorry that he killed Polonius, but says fatalistically that "heaven hath pleased it so to punish me with this." He is imagining that heaven wants someone to be the "scourge and minister" to punish Polonius and Hamlet is the lucky guy.
As for the phrase "I must be cruel to be kind", imagine this as a tough love approach. Hamlet believes that fate has put him in the position of the man who has to clean up the corrupt Danish court, but in order to do so, he must take some unpleasant measures. He is warning his mother that Polonius is not the only one who will be killed. He is preparing her for his intended killing of Claudius; the bad beginning is the murder of Polonius and the worse that remains behind is the killing of Claudius. But, he explains, although killing people may seem "cruel", in the end it is for the best, so in the long run killing Polonius and Claudius will be "kind" for Denmark.
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
Wiki User
∙ 8y agoHamlet is lecturing his mother on her lack of morality (well, that's the way Hamlet sees it) in taking up with Uncle Claudius. What he means is that he has to say some unpleasant things to make her see the truth, which will be a benefit to her. Short-term pain but long-term gain is another way of looking at it.
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