Hamlet

Act 3 is a busy act in Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern make a report to the king, and he and Polonius plan to spy on Hamlet. They place themselves in a hidden space with Ophelia as bait. Hamlet strolls along and makes his "To be or not to be" speech. He sees Ophelia and they have a very peculiar conversation which ends with Hamlet getting angry with her and accusing her of prostituting herself (figuratively). Ophelia thinks he has lost his mind ("O what a noble mind is here o'erthrown") but Claudius draws the opposite conclusion. That's Scene 1.

In Scene 2, Hamlet meets up with the players, and after telling them how to do their job, asks Horatio to watch Claudius during the play. The play is then performed with Hamlet being terrifically rude both to the actors and to his fellow audience members. Claudius spots that the play is all to similar to his murder of Hamlet Sr. and demands that it stop. As he exits, Hamlet is exultant: the Ghost has been vindicated! Rosencrantz and Guildenstern show up and tell Hamlet to visit his mother.

On the way, Hamlet spots his uncle praying. We hear part of the prayer and know that Claudius is feeling guilt for murdering his brother. Hamlet is about to kill him then hesitates, deciding to wait until Claudius is doing something sinful. Nevertheless he says he could "drink hot blood" and he is now going to give his mother a talking-to.

In Scene four, Hamlet arrives at his mother's bedroom and begins chastising her. Polonius, hiding behind a curtain, hears and echoes Gertrude's cries for help. Hamlet, believing his moment to kill Claudius has come at last, kills Polonius thinking that he is the king. He then launches into a long tirade to his weeping mother, and is only stopped by the appearance of the Ghost. Gertrude is persuaded that Claudius is a murderer and agrees to help Hamlet, and Hamlet drags the corpse of Polonius off.

Good Old Purdy Gurdy (in other words, his mum).

Hamel

They serve a more serious purpose.

They are used by the King to spy on Hamlet, that's hardly comic relief.

(Even though their fate was funny and well-deserved)

Claudius

The Ghost, in Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5

I don't know. Especially since Hamlet was stabbed first. But Hamlet is the main character. He has to take longer to die

Why does hamlet hesitate to take revenge?

-Apex-

William Shakespeare

Loyalty to his father by risking his reputation to expose his uncles malicious acts. The main thing I can think of is mainly loyalty to his father.

You mean William Shakespeare's Hamlet? It was written around 1600.

Hamlet's madness begins as feigned, to distract from the fact that he is attempting to kill Claudius as revenge for Claudius killing Hamlet's father. He even tells Horatio and Marcellus not to be concerned if they see him acting strangely because he will be putting on an "antic disposition" (Act 1 Scene 5).

However, the farce of his madness can be questioned later as the play continues. Hamlet is under incredible stress and pressure, with his love interest Ophelia breaking up with him, his obsession with killing Claudius, his mother's hasty marriage to Claudius himself, and his madness seems more and more genuine. His blow-up at Ophelia in Act 3 Scene 1 is one such example. After first saying he did love her, he reverses and insists he did not, then orders her to "get thee to a nunnery," amongst other orders and insults. How much of this is just an act and how much is genuine madness is continually debated.

Other examples include Hamlet's irrational and hasty actions throughout the play, such as his murder of Polonius through his mother's bedroom curtain without even knowing who it was hiding there (Act 3 Scene 4).

There is no definite answer as to whether Hamlet's madness truly is an act throughout the play or whether he does begin to genuinely go mad. His words and actions must be carefully evaluated and interpreted and his personal situation must be understood in order for each reader to come up with a personal opinion on this question.

ophelia

It isn't, because not all plays are tragedies. In a tragedy, to be sure, there is a pile of bodies at the end; that is what makes it a tragedy. But in fact only about 25% of Shakespeare's plays were tragedies, and almost half were comedies, which usually ended with all the main players getting married to each other, or families reuniting happily.

Fie

There are a couple of interpretations of the ghost's motives, the two most common are:

A) The Ghost appears to Hamlet because he wants Hamlet to avenge his "murder, Most foul!"

B) The Ghost is not an "honest ghost" but rather the devil.

'Hamlet' is in the general category of "revenge tragedy."

The ghost of Hamlet's father is being referred to here.

The last scene in Act III is the closet scene in which Hamlet kills Polonius, Gertrude recognizes that Claudius may have murdered Hamlet Senior and the Ghost makes a reappearance telling Hamlet to get on with it.

"You could for a need study a speech of some dozen or fourteen lines which I would set down and insert in't, could you not?"

The collective deaths of the core cast in the last scene.

It is a play written by William Shakespeare

erm... a hamlet is a small village.

what has changed in tower hamlets since 1900

mrs swanson