Transcript Hamlet

Act Two
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Polonius sends Reynaldo to spy on how his
son is behaving in Paris.
Ophelia reports that Hamlet entered her
room, behaving in an extremely strange
manner.
Ophelia has refuse to see Hamlet and has
also rejected his letters.
Polonius believes that rejection as turned
hamlet mad.
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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive to spy
on Hamlet.
Claudius allows Fortinbras to march his
forces across Denmark.
Claudius plans a meeting between Hamlet
and Ophelia on which he will eavesdrop.
Hamlet, feigning madness, taunts Polonius
and forces R and G to admit they were sent
for
Hamlet discovers that a theatrical company is
arriving at Elsinore.
What it should be,
More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him
So much from th' understanding of himself,
I cannot dream of.
These lines suggest that Claudius fears Hamlet may
suspect his involvement in his father’s death. Of
course, he can not reveal this. He may already be
considering ways to get rid of Hamlet at this
point.
And I do think—or else this brain of mine
Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
As it hath used to do—that I have found
The very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.
Polonius believes that he has found the cause of
Hamlet’s apparent madness (Ophelia’s rejection
of his love).
I doubt it is no other but the main:
His father’s death and our o'erhasty marriage.
Gertrude worries that her remarriage is the
cause of Hamlet’s madness.
With an entreaty, herein further shown,
That it might please you to give quiet pass
Through your dominions for this enterprise,
On such regards of safety and allowance
As therein are set down.
Fortinbras is no longer threatening to go to war with
Denmark. However, he wishes permission to march
across Denmark to fight the Poles. Like Hamlet,
Fortinbras is the grieving son of a dead king, a
prince whose uncle inherited the throne in his
place. But where Hamlet has sunk into despair,
contemplation, and indecision, Fortinbras has
devoted himself to the pursuit of revenge.
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To the celestial and my soul’s idol, the most
beautified Ophelia”—
Polonius reads a love letter written by
Hamlet, addressed to Ophelia.
Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;
And he, repelled—a short tale to make—
Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
Into the madness wherein now he raves
And all we mourn for.
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Excellent well. You are a fishmonger.
Not I, my lord.
Then I would you were so honest a man.
One meaning of ‘fishmonger’ is whoremaster.
Polonius is using his daughter to his own
ends (enhancing his position with Claudius)
just as a brothel keeper uses prostitutes.
Envisioning Ophelia as a prostitute is
consistent with Hamlet’s misogyny.
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Hamlet : For if the sun breed maggots in a
dead dog, being a good kissing carrion.
Yet another image of decay/ disease (Further
evidence that ‘Something is rotten in the
state of Denmark). Here is the image of the
sun kissing the rotten flesh of a dead animal
and generating maggots. This is connected to
images of a pregnant Ophelia.
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Hamlet’s mood greatly changes with the
entrance of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. At
first he engages them in witty banter:
“In the secret parts of Fortune? O most true,
she is a strumpet?”
He then goes on to take part in a
philosophical dialogue with them:
“A dream itself is but a shadow.”
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I have of late,—but wherefore I know not,—lost all
my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and
indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that
this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile
promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air,
look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this
majestical roof fretted with golden fire,—why, it
appears no other thing to me than a foul and
pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of
work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in
faculties! in form and moving, how express and
admirable! in action how like an angel! in
apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not
me . . . No, nor woman niether.
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Hamlet reveals his melancholy here. He builds up
an elaborate and glorified picture of the earth and
humanity before declaring it all merely a
“quintessence of dust.”
He examines the earth, the air, and the sun, and
rejects them as “a sterile promontory” and “a foul
and pestilent congregation of vapors.”
He then describes human beings from several
perspectives: human beings’ reason is noble, their
faculties infinite, their forms and movements fast
and admirable, their actions angelic, and their
understanding godlike. But, to Hamlet, humankind
is merely dust.
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Hamlet: I am but mad north-north-west.
When the wind is southerly I know a hawk
from a hand saw.
Hamlet reveals his antic disposition; he only
appears to be mad at certain times I.e. When
the wind is north by north west. At other
times he is fine.
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O what a rogue and peasant slave am I.
Comes directly after he has seen the performance
of a speech by the First Player. Hamlet compares
himself to the actor, and finds himself wanting.
The First Player has produced such an effective
performance, with “Tears in his eyes, distraction
in’s aspect” (II.2) with only a pretended cause for
emotion, a “dream of passion”, whereas Hamlet
berates himself for having a greater “cue for
passion” and not acting.
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Hecuba ] Trojan queen and heroine of classical
mythology.
Earlier in this scene Hamlet asks the First Player to
recite a monologue retelling Hecuba's response to
the death of her husband, King Priam. The Player
tells us that Hecuba's grief was profound and
"Would have made milch the burning eyes of
heaven/And passion in the gods." The contrast
between Gertrude and Hecuba should be noted. To
Hamlet, Hecuba has responded appropriately to
her husband's death, while Gertrude has not.
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What would he do, (565)
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have?
Hamlet considers what action the actor would
take if he had the motivation for revenge that
Hamlet does.
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‘Make mad the guilty’-this is what Hamlet
intends to do to Claudius.
‘Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my
cause, ‘
Hamlet curses himself for not taking action.
He sees himself as dull and spiritless.
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Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the
throat,
As deep as to the lungs? who does me this? (580)
Ha!
Hamlet imagines a succession of insults.
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This is most brave,
That I, the son of a dear father murder'd, (590)
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing,
Hamlet curses himself for being given over to thoughts,
rather than action.
The cause of his delay is a lack of certainty that the Ghos
was his father:
“he spirit that I have seen (605)
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me”
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The arrival of the players (actors) helps develop an
important theme: how real life is often like play
acting. Consider the ‘acting’ of both Claudius and
Hamlet.
Hamlet resolves to devise a trap for Claudius,
forcing the king to watch a play whose plot closely
resembles the murder of Hamlet’s father.
I'll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,
I know my course.
“The play’s the thing,” he declares, “wherein I’ll
catch the conscience of the king” (II.ii.581–582).