Hamlet - Act 3 Scene 1
A room in the castle.
Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA,
ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN
Claudius' phrase "puts on" may indicate a suspicion that Hamlet is only pretending to madness.
KING CLAUDIUS
And can you, by no drift of circumstance,
Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
Grating so harshly all his days of quiet
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
ROSENCRANTZ
He does confess he feels himself distracted;
But from what cause he will by no means speak.
Once again, characters are reporting action which the audience has already seen. How much are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern accurately reporting, and how much are they altering? Are they trying to make themselves look better? Are they exaggerating or downplaying Hamlet's behaviour?
GUILDENSTERN
Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof,
When we would bring him on to some confession
Of his true state.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Did he receive you well?
ROSENCRANTZ
Most like a gentleman.
GUILDENSTERN
But with much forcing of his disposition.
Rosencrantz's statement is a distortion, if not an outright lie. Hamlet certainly asked a great many questions, many of them to do with his friends' motives and the intentions of Claudius and Gertrude.
ROSENCRANTZ
Niggard of question; but, of our demands,
Most free in his reply.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Did you assay him to any pastime?
ROSENCRANTZ
Madam, it so fell out, that certain players
We o'er-raught on the way: of these we told him;
And there did seem in him a kind of joy
To hear of it: they are about the court,
And, as I think, they have already order
This night to play before him.
Since Hamlet in 2.2 called for the play to be performed "tomorrow night," this would appear to be the next evening.
LORD POLONIUS
'Tis most true:
And he beseeched me to entreat your majesties
To hear and see the matter.
KING CLAUDIUS
With all my heart; and it doth much content me
To hear him so inclined.
Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,
And drive his purpose on to these delights.
ROSENCRANTZ
We shall, my lord.
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
Ophelia remains silent throughout this entire exchange, until she is directly addressed by Gertrude below. Her demeanour-- body language, gestures, facial expressions-- as well as her reactions to the conversation, may reveal much about her feelings at this point.
KING CLAUDIUS
Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;
For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,
That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
Affront Ophelia:
Her father and myself, lawful espials,
Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen,
We may of their encounter frankly judge,
And gather by him, as he is behaved,
If 't be the affliction of his love or no
That thus he suffers for.
Gertrude's comment here contradicts those of Laertes and Polonius in 1.3; is Gertrude sincerely supportive of this relationship, or does she hope that it will restore Hamlet's sanity, or both? This may be a moment in which Gertrude changes her opinion of Ophelia, or else reveals an affection that has not been seen previously.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
I shall obey you.
And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
That your good beauties be the happy cause
Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope your virtues
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honours.
OPHELIA
Madam, I wish it may.
Exit QUEEN GERTRUDE
LORD POLONIUS
Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you,
We will bestow ourselves.
To OPHELIA
Polonius, acting as stage-director, arranges not only the action but also positioning and props. Ophelia's prayer-book becomes another meta-theatrical instance of a virtuous exterior masking illicit intent.
This aside is the first indication of Claudius' guilt, though it is ambiguous as to the nature of his crime.
Read on this book;
That show of such an exercise may colour
Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this –
'Tis too much proved – that with devotion's visage
And pious action we do sugar o'er
The devil himself.
KING CLAUDIUS
[Aside]
O, 'tis too true!
How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art,
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
Than is my deed to my most painted word:
O heavy burthen!
LORD POLONIUS
I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord.
At Hamlet's entrance, Claudius and Polonius are offstage (though in some productions they may be hidden onstage), and Ophelia is still onstage, walking or reading her book. Is Hamlet aware that he is being watched? Is he aware of Ophelia's presence? Does Ophelia react in any way to Hamlet's arrival or to his words?
Unlike Hamlet's other soliloquies, this famous speech is almost totally impersonal-- the words "I" and "me" do not appear at all. Instead, Shakespeare uses the infinitive ("to be," "to die," "to sleep"), giving a sense of universal human experience, absorbing the audience into Hamlet's perspective.
The speech shifts here into a contemplation of death, and its terms are surprisingly stark: Hamlet articulates a long list of problems which make life unbearable, whereas death is almost absurdly easy to achieve. He tries to understand why so many people choose to live in misery rather than seeking their own death, and realizes that the unknown and unknowable realm of death is more terrifying than the misery of life.
Hamlet's lines here may be a reflection to himself, or a greeting to Ophelia. Each production must make a choice here, which will determine whether Hamlet or Ophelia makes the first move in the encounter, setting the tone for the conversation that follows.
Presumably, the "remembrances" are letters, or small gifts, though these have not been mentioned earlier in the scene. Is this still part of Polonius' plan, or is Ophelia making her own choices here?
Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. – Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
OPHELIA
Good my lord,
How does your honour for this many a day?
HAMLET
I humbly thank you; well, well, well.
OPHELIA
My lord, I have remembrances of yours,
That I have longèd long to re-deliver;
I pray you, now receive them.
HAMLET
No, not I;
I never gave you aught.
OPHELIA
My honoured lord, you know right well you did;
And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed
As made the things more rich: their perfume lost,
Take these again; for to the noble mind
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
There, my lord.
HAMLET
Ha, ha! Are you honest?
OPHELIA
My lord?
Shakespeare uses "fair" in its older sense, meaning both "light-haired or light-skinned" and "beautiful." The poetic convention is that exterior beauty denotes interior purity ("honesty"), but Hamlet reverses the association, arguing that beauty will overpower honesty and lead to corruption.
HAMLET
Are you fair?
OPHELIA
What means your lordship?
HAMLET
That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should
admit no discourse to your beauty.
OPHELIA
Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than
with honesty?
Hamlet confesses his love and denies it in the space of a few lines. It becomes difficult to tell how much of his confession, if any, is meant to be sincere, and whether he is acting from passion or as part of a formulated plan.
HAMLET
Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform
honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of
honesty can translate beauty into his likeness: this
was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it
proof. I did love you once.
OPHELIA
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
HAMLET
You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot
so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it: I
loved you not.
OPHELIA
I was the more deceived.
For Shakespeare's Protestant audience, a nunnery was both a Catholic institution where nuns resided and also slang for a brothel. Hamlet's arguments strongly support the literal meaning, but the audience would be aware of its more illicit connotation as well.
Hamlet's question may indicate his awareness or suspicion that the encounter is being watched. Ophelia's response is an overt lie, meant either to calm Hamlet or to protect her father, or both.
HAMLET
Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a breeder
of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I
could accuse me of such things that it were better my
mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful,
ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have
thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape,
or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do
crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant
knaves, all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a
nunnery. Where's your father?
OPHELIA
At home, my lord.
HAMLET
Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the
fool nowhere but in's own house. Farewell.
OPHELIA
O, help him, you sweet heavens!
Hamlet twice attempts to leave and then returns to accost Ophelia. Whether he is acting out of mercy, malice, or manipulation, he may also become lost in his frenzy and out of control, as he does in the conversation with Gertrude at 3.4.
HAMLET
If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy
dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou
shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go:
farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for
wise men know well enough what monsters you make
of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell.
OPHELIA
O heavenly powers, restore him!
Hamlet's distrust and disdain for makeup links with his ideas of exterior falsehood and interior truth. The image returns, morbidly, again with reference to Ophelia, in 5.1.
HAMLET
I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God
has given you one face, and you make yourselves
another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nick-
name God's creatures, and make your wantonness your
ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath made me mad.
I say, we will have no more marriages: those that are
married already, all but one, shall live; the rest shall keep
as they are. To a nunnery, go.
Exit
Ophelia's response to Hamlet's attacks is neither anger nor self-pity, but prayer and hope for his recovery. This reaction associates her with ideas and ideals of patience, the ability to "suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."
Ophelia's lament is moving, yet odd, since the image of Hamlet that it conjures – courtier, warrior, scholar, lover – never truly appears in the play, and may thus be entirely a figment of Ophelia's love.
Given Claudius' confession of guilt earlier in the scene, he may suspect that Hamlet knows about Old Hamlet's murder. Claudius' plan to exile Hamlet may already be a pretext for a murder plot, or that plan may develop naturally from the events in 3.2 and beyond.
OPHELIA
O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword;
The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
The observed of all observers, quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That sucked the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me,
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
Re-enter KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS
KING CLAUDIUS
Love! His affections do not that way tend;
Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little,
Was not like madness. There's something in his soul,
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood;
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
Will be some danger: which for to prevent,
I have in quick determination
Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England,
For the demand of our neglected tribute.
Haply the seas and countries different
With variable objects shall expel
This something-settled matter in his heart,
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
From fashion of himself. What think you on't?
Polonius once more plays stage-director, with another variation of this same plan. This time, Gertrude will speak to Hamlet, with Polonius eavesdropping.
Hamlet's feigned madness (which may be shading into real madness) is a double-edged sword: it conceals Hamlet's true intentions, but it also provides Claudius with a pretext to have him exiled, or even executed.
LORD POLONIUS
It shall do well: but yet do I believe
The origin and commencement of his grief
Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia!
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said;
We heard it all. My lord, do as you please;
But, if you hold it fit, after the play
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
To show his grief: let her be round with him;
And I'll be placed, so please you, in the ear
Of all their conference. If she find him not,
To England send him, or confine him where
Your wisdom best shall think.
KING CLAUDIUS
It shall be so:
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.
Exeunt