Hamlet

							Hamlet

    Act IV




Geschke/English IV AP
    Hamlet Act IV
    Method to the Madness
•   “Not where he eats, but where he is eaten:
    a certain convocation of politic worms are
    e'en at him. Your worm is your only
    emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else
    to fat us, and we fat ourselves for
    maggots: your fat king and your lean
    beggar is but variable service,--two
    dishes, but to one table: that's the end…A
    man may fish with the worm that hath
    eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath
    fed of that worm…Nothing but to show
    you how a king may go a progress
    through the guts of a beggar.”
                  (IV.iii.22-28, 30-32, 34-35)
                  Geschke/English IV AP
                      Hamlet Act IV
    Method to the Madness
•   Equality of Death
•   A poor man can eat a king.
•   How is this possible?
•   Death comes to us all.




               Geschke/English IV AP
                   Hamlet Act IV
    Method to the Madness
•  “In heaven: send thither to see: if your
   messenger find him not there, seek him i'
   the other place yourself. But, indeed, if
   you find him not within this month, you
   shall nose him as you go up the stairs
   into the lobby.”
                          (IV.iii.37-41)
• Insulting to the King
  – Hamlet predicts the destiny of the King

                Geschke/English IV AP
                    Hamlet Act IV
      The King‟s Plan Part I
•   Sends Hamlet to England to
    “recover” his wits.
•   Suggests that Hamlet needs to leave
    Denmark in order to be protected
•   In reality, Claudius is sending
    Hamlet to England in order to be
    executed.


               Geschke/English IV AP
                   Hamlet Act IV
    Hamlet‟s Newest Inspiration
•    Fortinbras‟ Army
•    Thousands of men will die trying to
     recover a meaningless and worthless
     piece of land in Poland
•    Why are they willing to risk their
     lives for nothing?
•    Pride

                Geschke/English IV AP
                    Hamlet Act IV
        Hamlet‟s Reaction
• “How all occasions do inform against me
  And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
  If his chief good and market of his time
  Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
  Sure he that made us with such large
      discourse,
  Looking before and after, gave us not
  That capability and godlike reason
  To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be
  Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
  Of thinking too precisely on the event,--
                 Geschke/English IV AP
                     Hamlet Act IV
           Hamlet‟s Reaction
• A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part
     wisdom
  And ever three parts coward,--I do not know
  Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'
  Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and
     means
  To do't. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me:
  Witness this army, of such mass and charge,
  Led by a delicate and tender prince;
  Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd,
  Makes mouths at the invisible event;
  Exposing what is mortal and unsure

                   Geschke/English IV AP
                       Hamlet Act IV
         Hamlet‟s Reaction
• To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
  Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great
  Is not to stir without great argument,
  But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
  When honour's at the stake. How stand I,
      then,
  That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
  Excitements of my reason and my blood,
  And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
  The imminent death of twenty thousand
      men
  That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,

                 Geschke/English IV AP
                     Hamlet Act IV
         Hamlet‟s Reaction


• Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot
  Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
  Which is not tomb enough and continent
  To hide the slain?--O, from this time forth,
  My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing
     worth!”
                                  (IV.iv.34-69)


                  Geschke/English IV AP
                      Hamlet Act IV
             Have We Seen This
              Reaction Before?
•       Numerous times
•       Hamlet is inspired to act
•       He gives a passionate soliloquy
        about how he will act immediately
•       Hamlet finds an excuse not to act
    –    The ghost is a devil
    –    Claudius praying
•       Is this another example of all talk
        and no action?
                    Geschke/English IV AP
                        Hamlet Act IV
        Ophelia‟s Songs
• “How should I your true love know
     From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff
     And his sandal shoon.
He is dead a gone, lady,
     He is dead and gone;


              Geschke/English IV AP
                  Hamlet Act IV
        Ophelia‟s Songs
• At his head a grass-green turf
    At his heels a stone.
White his shroud as the mountain snow
    Larded all with sweet flowers;
Which bewept to the ground did not go
    With true-love showers.”
• Sadness over Polonius‟ death.

             Geschke/English IV AP
                 Hamlet Act IV
        Ophelia‟s Songs
“Tomorrow is Saint Valentine‟s day,
    All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
    To be your valentine.
Then up he rose and donned his clothes
   And dupped the chamber door,
Let in the maid, that out a maid
   Never departed more.
              Geschke/English IV AP
                  Hamlet Act IV
         Ophelia‟s Songs
By Gis and by Saint Charity,
  Alack and fie for shame,
Young men will do „t, if they come to „t;
  By Cock, they are to blame.
Quoth she „Before you tumbled me,
  You promised me to wed.‟
„So would I „a done, by yonder sun,
  An thou hadst not come to my bed.‟”
               Geschke/English IV AP
                   Hamlet Act IV
              Ophelia‟s Songs
•       Insight into the relationship of Hamlet
        and Ophelia?
•       Was she intimate with Hamlet because
        she expected to marry him?
•       Is marriage out of the question now?
•       Why?
•       Hamlet killed her father.
•       Characterization of Ophelia
    –     Dependent versus independent

                     Geschke/English IV AP
                         Hamlet Act IV
Ophelia and the Flowers



                   • Rosemary
                       – Remembrance
                         • Laertes




       Geschke/English IV AP
           Hamlet Act IV
Ophelia and the Flowers



                   • Pansies
                       – Thoughts
                         • Laertes




       Geschke/English IV AP
           Hamlet Act IV
Ophelia and the Flowers


                   • Fennel
                       – Flattery and
                         Deceit (Marital
                         Infidelity)
                         • Gertrude and
                           Claudius?


       Geschke/English IV AP
           Hamlet Act IV
Ophelia and the Flowers


                   • Columbines
                       – Flattery and
                         Insincerity
                         • Gertrude and
                           Claudius?



       Geschke/English IV AP
           Hamlet Act IV
Ophelia and the Flowers

                   • Rue
                       – Sorrow or
                         Repentance
                         • Gertrude and
                           Claudius?
                         • Keeps some
                           for herself


       Geschke/English IV AP
           Hamlet Act IV
Ophelia and the Flowers


                   • Daisy
                       – Forsaken or
                         Unhappy Love
                         • Gertrude?
                         • Ophelia?


       Geschke/English IV AP
           Hamlet Act IV
Ophelia and the Flowers


                   • Violets
                       – Faithfulness
                         • “they withered
                           all when my
                           father died.”



       Geschke/English IV AP
           Hamlet Act IV
Laertes‟ Anger with the King
•   Angry that Hamlet has not been
    punished
•   Angry that Polonius did not receive a
    proper funeral




               Geschke/English IV AP
                   Hamlet Act IV
        Laertes‟ Reaction to
        Ophelia‟s Madness
•   “Hadst thou thy wits and didst
    persuade revenge,/ It could not
    move thus.” (IV.v.192-193)
•   Laertes will avenge his sister‟s
    madness




               Geschke/English IV AP
                   Hamlet Act IV
     Connections to Hamlet
•   Both have had a father murdered.
•   Hamlet talks about action, but (so
    far) has not actually acted.
•   Laertes talks about action too:




               Geschke/English IV AP
                   Hamlet Act IV
     Connections to Hamlet
“How came he dead? I‟ll not be juggled with.
To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation. To this point I stand,
That both the worlds I give to negligence,
Let come what comes, only I‟ll be revenged
Most throughly for my father.”
                            (IV.v.148-154)

                  Geschke/English IV AP
                      Hamlet Act IV
     Connections to Hamlet
•   While Hamlet debates the moral
    consequence of his actions, Laertes
    could care less.
•   “To cut his throat i‟ th‟ church.”
    (IV.vii.144)
•   Will Laertes act?



               Geschke/English IV AP
                   Hamlet Act IV
     Gertrude‟s Betrayal?


LAERTES. Where is my father?
KING. Dead.
QUEEN. But not by him.
                (IV.v.144-146)


             Geschke/English IV AP
                 Hamlet Act IV
      Gertrude‟s Betrayal?
•   Why would Gertrude protect
    Claudius?
•   Does she not believe Hamlet‟s
    claims?
•   Does she still believe Hamlet is
    insane?



                Geschke/English IV AP
                    Hamlet Act IV
     The King‟s Plan Part II
•   After his plan to have Hamlet
    executed in England fails, the King
    formulates a new plan with the help
    of Laertes.
•   Claudius will arrange a fencing
    match between Hamlet and Laertes.
•   Laertes will use an unbated sword.


               Geschke/English IV AP
                   Hamlet Act IV
     The King‟s Plan Part II
•   Laertes will also poison the tip of the
    sword so that even a scratch will kill
    Hamlet.
•   Claudius will also poison Hamlet‟s
    drink.




                Geschke/English IV AP
                    Hamlet Act IV
    The Death of Ophelia
(Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais)




             Geschke/English IV AP
                 Hamlet Act IV
      The Death of Ophelia
• “There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
  That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy
     stream;
  There with fantastic garlands did she come
  Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long
     purples
  That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
  But our cold maids do dead men's fingers
     call them:
  There, on the pendent boughs her coronet
     weeds
  Clambering to hang, an envious sliver
     broke;

                 Geschke/English IV AP
                     Hamlet Act IV
      The Death of Ophelia
• When down her weedy trophies and herself
  Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes
      spread wide;
  And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
  Which time she chanted snatches of old
      tunes;
  As one incapable of her own distress,
  Or like a creature native and indued
  Unto that element: but long it could not be
  Till that her garments, heavy with their
      drink,
  Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious
      lay
  To muddy death.” (IV.vii.190-208)
                Geschke/English IV AP
                    Hamlet Act IV
      The Death of Ophelia
•   Is Ophelia‟s death an accidental
    death or a suicide?
•   If it is a suicide, keeping in mind the
    societal expectations and religious
    beliefs of the time, what are the
    consequences of her death?



                Geschke/English IV AP
                    Hamlet Act IV