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Essay On Hamlet Scene 4

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Hamlet is able to act in Scene 4 and not in Scene 3 due to the fact that in Scene 4, Hamlet was rash and, unlike in Scene 3, did not think about what he was about to do or the consequences of that action. In Scene 3, Hamlet has the perfect opportunity to kill his uncle, Claudius, but as he is about to deliver a killing blow, Hamlet stops to think what killing Claudius right now would do, “Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying. And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned. A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. Oh, this is hire and salary, not revenge.” (III.iii.73-80). Here we see that while Hamlet wants to get revenge, he believes …show more content…

As the play opens, we see Hamlet depressed from his father’s death and angered by the fact that his mother married his uncle only two months after his father’s death. Then, once Hamlet meets the ghost of his father, who reveals that Claudius, Hamlet's uncle, murdered him, he is overcome with rage and vows to take revenge while putting on an antic disposition to fool his uncle into thinking he is crazy, so that his uncle will not get suspicious. During Act 3, we see Hamlet continue to focus mainly on revenge while still maintaining an antic disposition. By now, everyone except Horatio and Marcellus, who know about his feigned madness, believes that Hamlet is truly insane; some, including Claudius, thinks there is no way to help him. In Scene 4 of Act 3, we see Hamlet confronting his mother about her marriage to his Claudius. While Hamlet try to make her see what she did is wrong, she takes it as a threat and as more proof that he is insane and calls for help, which in turn makes Polonius (who was hiding behind the tapestry) call for help as well. Without a moment of hesitation, Hamlet stabs Polonius before he looked to see who it was. While his mother is distraught at this sight, Hamlet seems fine, and wants to know who he killed. Once he sees that it is Polonius, he says, “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell. I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune. Thou find’st to be too busy is some danger.”

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