Hamlet Act III Questions

Act III questions
Read the exchange between Hamlet and Ophelia carefully. Why is he so bitter towards her?
When Hamlet sees Ophelia coming, he calls her, “The fair Ophelia!” and speaks fondly of her. Though as soon as she starts speaking to him in a formal way because she knows she’s being watched and returns the gifts to Hamlet, he realises something is up and they’re being watched. He feels tricked and trapped and so he asks Ophelia what she seems to be, “Are you honest?... Are you fair?”. Hamlet becomes increasingly angered at the fact that she’s acting and so he decides to drive the point that he’s crazy home. He does this by stating that he loved her once and then contradicting himself by saying in fact he never loved her. Then he exaggerates just Ophelia and his mother of being deceitful to the whole of womankind, denouncing all women.
Do you believe him when he says “I loved you not?” Why/Why not?
I believe that Hamlet did truly love Ophelia once, and this is why he is so upset at her acting and being deceitful towards him. Him stating that he didn’t love her is him playing mad and almost a puerile attempt at making her jealous and upset. He acts like a spurned boy in his responses to her, “You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not”. In this instance he’s stating that really it was her fault for thinking that he loved her, because she should know that we’re all rotten at the core no matter how hard we try to be virtuous.
What connection can be established between his feelings for Gertrude and his response to Ophelia?
Both his issues with the two women stem from them being deceitful or not being transparent. He then accuses all women of evil because they give birth to men, stating it would’ve been better if his mother never gave birth to him, “That it were better my mother had not borne me”. He orders her to goto a nunnery so she can never breed sinners like his mother Gertrude did to him. Then he states that women’s deceitfulness by lying via make up and their sexual moves have driven him crazy, “It hath made me mad”.
This is the last time we see Ophelia before she descends into madness. What effect must this have had upon her?
Before this encounter, Hamlet was Ophelia’s rock. He was the one person she could relate to and share her feelings with. She laments about how amazing he used to be, “ the rose of the fair state”. Now for her to see this once great man’s descent is both maddening and extremely upsetting. Her life is now void of all meaning by seeing the renaissance man go mad.
What are Claudius’ and Polonius’ responses to what they have witnessed?
Claudius immediately doubts the authenticity of Hamlet’s love and also his madness. “Love? His affections do not that way tend, nor what he spake, though it lack’d form a little, was not madness.”. He fears hamlet’s melancholy sits on something that when it hatches will be dangerous to him, so he devises a plan to send Hamlet off to england in an attempt that the change of scenery will get Hamlet over his problems. Polonius just reinforces that he’s an idiot by stating that he still believes Hamlet is mad and it stems from unrequited love with Ophelia.
Describe Hamlet’s reactions after Claudius storms out. Examine in particular, his dealings with Ros and Guil.
Hamlet reacts rather excitedly to Claudius storming out because he knows he’s guilty, even making a bet with Horatio that he’s guilty, “I’ll take the ghost’s word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?”. When Rosencrantz and Guildernstern enter, Hamlet is very visibly excited about it to the point of Guildernstern telling him to pay attention and stop drifting off. Then when the players enter he grabs a recorder to begin an analogy on how Ros and Guil are playing him like a musical instrument. He insists that Guildernstern play the recorder but Guildernstern maintains that he cannot play it. So Hamlet responds with saying well you know how to play me so well, so it’s as easy as that. Going as far as accusing him that Guil thinks it’s easier to play Hamlet than it is a recorder, “do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me”.
Hamlet is standing behind the King, ready to murder him and decides not to in Scene 3. What causes him to change his mind?
Hamlet’s decision not to kill his uncle comes from his need for revenger, and he states that by murdering him in a church, it’s not revenge. “Why this is hire and salary, not revenge.” He reasons this because if he murders him in a church then he goes to heaven with a clear conscience, something he disallowed his brother, Hamlet’s father, by murdering him without allowing him a confession. So hamlet decides that he needs to murder his uncle when he is sinning and he is drunk, angry or lustful. In a moment of irony, after Hamlet departs the king says, “my words fly up, my thoughts stay below” indicating that he didn’t get to pray properly, he still has a guilty conscience meaning Hamlet would’ve achieved revenge if he killed him.
Act III scene iv
1. Note Hamlet’s disturbed state in the bedroom and list down various images and phrases that we have heard expressed earlier in the play. Where have we heard them?
Hamlet in his speech to his mother once again places his father amongst the gods as he did when he was speaking to his mother in act 1. He makes reference to Hyperion and again and even more gods like, Jove, Mars and Mercury. Using the two pictures of the brothers he compares them again like before, and by making his father even greater, he lowers Claudius.
What is the core of Hamlet’s attack on Gertrude? What do you note about his attitude towards women, Claudius and his own Father?
Hamlet is attempting to awaken his mother’s moral conscience, evident by his use of all the visual references like watch, see and eyes. He is gravely upset by her passivity and how the real spiritual crime is that everyone has accepted his father’s murder so easily. Hamlet’s attitude towards women consists mainly of a sense of betrayal, which isn’t all that fair seeing as it’s based off only two women. Hamlet still deeply despises his uncle berating him in this brilliant rant, “A murderer and a villain, a slave that is not twentieth part of your precedent lord, a vice of kings, a cutpurse of the empire and the rule”. And his opinion of his father hasn’t changed much either with him still placing his Hamlet senior on a pedestal and regarding him essentially as a god.
Why is it significant that the Ghost re-enters to interrupt Hamlets tirade?
The necessity of this is because Hamlet is straying from his revenge mission given to him by his father. “This visitation is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose”. The Ghost is telling Hamlet that his motivation and passion is blunted, and he needs to sharpen it and stay on task.