Hamlet Act 4 Scene 4 Summary

Hamlet kills Polonius and Gertrude becomes scared as to what is going to happen with Hamlet. Claudius betrays her trust by taking advantage of it and takes matter into his own hands. Claudius solution to the problem is to have Hamlet sent to England, where he is going to be safe from the law and will not have to deal with any consequences for his actions. " O Gertrude, come away! The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch. But we will ship him hence, and this vile deed. We must, with all out majesty and skill, Both countenance and excuse" (4.1.28-32). Claudius makes Gertrude believe he is setting this up because he wants to protect Hamlet. But even though the audience knows the real reason as to why he is doing this. He is sending Hamlet to England to be killed. " By letters congruing to that effect, The present death of Hamlet" (4.3.66-67).

Delaying, Hamlet continues to avoid murdering Claudius. After hesitating to kill Claudius, Hamlet flees to his mother’s room. Polonius hides in Gertrude’s room while Hamlet is speaking with his mother, but Hamlet soon catches on and murders Polonius. Shocked, Gertrude confronts Hamlet about the murder, but Hamlet retaliates by asserting, "A bloody deed! almost as bad, good

The present King, Claudius, is questioning Hamlet’s odd behaviour because he feels Hamlet’s new and strange behaviour could be harmful to him and his position. So he asks Polonius, the Lord Chamberlain, to spy on Hamlet to resolve the matter. While hiding behind an arras in Gertrude’s room to listen to the dialogue between Ophelia and Hamlet, he reveals his location by calling out for help, Hamlet realizing there is someone behind the tapestry and suspecting it to be Claudius withdraws his sword and stabs the hidden Polonius resulting in polonius’s death, which assisted in ophelia going mad, and also Laertes, Polonius’s son seeking revenge on hamlet, which makes Hamlet’s quest for honour and certainty even harder to complete.

Cleverly, Hamlet decides to feign madness before the King and the court as a way for others to ignore him, so he may construct his plan of revenge for his father’s death. What is interesting is that he initially does not set out to kill Claudius the current king, which suggests that he is troubled on whether or not the apparition he spoke with is truly his father telling the truth. He deceptively uses Ophelia as a messenger to the King to describe his initial count of being mad. This causes the King, Polonius, and Ophelia to spy on Hamlet. When putting on a production to see whether Claudius is truly guilty of being the murder Lord Hamlet states, “that he must be idle” which suggest that his madness is feigned. With Claudius being deemed guilty, Hamlet knows what he must do. Interestingly, Hamlet is unable to kill Claudius the first time when he gets a chance since he did not want to send Claudius to heaven. The level of distress of Hamlet is apparent when he sees his mother after passing Claudius praying to God. Getrude calls for help and a noise is heard behind a curtain. Without thinking Hamlet slays Polonius; the person behind the curtain. This is a very controversial moment for this

Hamlet realizes that he is dying and that he now has the excuse to kill Claudius

This, in turn, exploits Hamlet’s similar flaw of ego and furthers the conflict, but what’s more, it illustrates Claudius’ sheer audacity and lack of repentance. He continues to try to cover up the sin and appease Hamlet into complacency rather than confess and ask for forgiveness. In a mark of pure arrogance, Claudius tells Hamlet to “throw to earth / This unprevailing woe and think of us / As of a father”, conceitedly requesting that Hamlet merely forget the murder and replace his father with the murderer himself (I, ii, 110-112). Similarly, instead of directly confronting Hamlet about his mental condition, the king more or less hires Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on the prince, again cementing his smug mindset. The king does not believe he can be caught or, rather, that Hamlet is competent enough to figure out his plan and foil him. Claudius, too, thinks only of himself after Hamlet’s inadvertent killing of Polonius, pondering “how shall this bloody deed be answered? / It will be laid to us” instead of considering the ramifications of the murder with respect to Hamlet (4.1.17-18). The other two paper-thin traps the king hatches only reinforce his failure to see beyond the apparent; his attempt to deport Hamlet to England and have him killed reeks of treachery and, luckily, Hamlet realizes the king’s subterfuge, crushing the plot and flipping it back on him. Claudius remains steadfast in his efforts to remove Hamlet, going so far as to set up a

In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Prince Hamlet’s speech or soliloquy from Act 4, Scene 4 effectively targets both the plays audience and other characters in the play. In Hamlets speech, he is reflecting on how he is meaninglessly prolonging Claudius’s death, even though he could have killed him at anytime and how he has everything he needs to accomplish his goal. He is also reflecting on how God has blessed humans with the power of thought to use when needed and that blessing is what makes humans different from animals. Hamlet’s speech opens the eyes of the audience by showing them how humans are capable of doing anything they put their minds too and the consequences of overthinking and not taking action to

Claudius responded to the death of Polonius with anger. He does understand the implications of what happened. Claudius understands that Polonius was hidden behind the tapestry and was killed by Hamlet. He understands that Hamlet had intended to kill him, but accidentally killed Polonius instead. This tells Claudius that Hamlet has learned the truth and that he will try to kill him. Claudius will send Hamlet to England along with Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.

In the play, Hamlet, composed by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare bestows Claudius’ letter to the King of England, and shows his progressing emotions to convince him to kill Lord Hamlet. Throughout the play Lord Hamlet came to the conclusion that Claudius, his uncle and successor of King Hamlet's throne, killed King Hamlet. The consequence of his findings was a plan to kill Claudius, which mistakenly led to Polonius’ death. In result, because Claudius was unable to punish Hamlet he sought to have him sent to England… to be killed.

Scene 2 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find Hamlet and ask him where he hid the body but Hamlet refuses to speak in anything but riddles, is rude and insults them and yet he agrees to visit Claudius. In scene 3 we see Claudius consulting with some men

This soliloquy helps develop the theme as Hamlet’s angry tone foreshadows that something bad is going to happen in Gertrude’s room. In the end, Hamlet does end up becoming very aggressive while talking to Gertrude and accidentally ends up killing Polonius.

The play Hamlet by William Shakespeare shows the theme of Revenge. Throughout the play revenge is seen as a motivator for many of the characters’ actions. We are taught as young children that rather than solving our problems with revenge, we should simply apologize. Clearly the characters in Hamlet did not learn this, particularly Hamlet himself who is seeking revenge for his father’s death. It seems each attempt on revenge builds up more revenge and eventually everyone just ends up, unfortunately, dead.

The climax of a story is the moment when all events come together for its peak intensity. In Act III of William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the protagonist, Hamlet, stabs and kills Polonius. “How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!”, that is when Hamlet vocally noticed Polonius was being a spy. At this point in the play, there is no going back for Hamlet. He takes place in public violent action and brings himself into inescapable conflict with the king. Hamlet kills Polonius for spying on him and his mother while they were talking, After that it's a world wind of conflict throughout the remaining parts of the play.

Hamlet has the opportunity to kill Claudius when he is praying, but does not because he is fearful that Claudius will go to heaven despite his crimes. Hamlet is admirable in not killing Claudius while praying because Hamlet wants a revenge worthy of his father and himself. While keeping up his act, Hamlet kills Polonius, Ophelia dies and Claudius and Laertes construct a death plot against Hamlet. Claudius and Laertes plan ironically spins out of control and them both himself killed and the queen killed. Although Hamlet also dies in the process, Hamlet justly kills Claudius with the poisoned dagger and the poisoned drink. The final image of most of the characters on the stage being dead provides a superficial pessimistic ending. However, the ability for Hamlet to maintain his honor when all odds were against him provides a great sense of hope in the audience. Also, the exchange of forgiveness from Laertes to “noble Hamlet” also provides an optimistic ending. Upon the arrival of prince Fortinbras, Hamlet is given a soldier’s funeral of the highest honors which allows for a promising ending.

The soliloquy occurs after Hamlet’s successful disclosure, through the play-within-the-play. Claudius gets restless and anxious after he figured out that Hamlet’s intention will eventually put him in danger. So, he urges Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to send Hamlet to England and agrees with Polonius to continue spying on Hamlet for his behavior.