Hire's Hamlet Log 3:3
Act 3:3
This scene contains Claudius’s SECOND actual confession…can you find the FIRST? One late pass to the first person who posts a correct response. (I want line #’s!)
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Number 8: staging is important in this scene because Hamlet has to walk on stage mid Claudius monologue with a sword! I like how K.B. interprets the scene as Claudius in a confessional…and then Hamlet appears where the priest usually is on the other side. I think Claudius could be anywhere though…it would be way cool if he was back out in the garden…still kneeling, still praying…but to put the scene back where the crime took place I think would be very powerful. Hamlet could be hiding behind a tree or something.
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Questions: why the heck doesn’t Hamlet just get it over with and kill Claudius!! I guess it’s a decent reason that he doesn’t want to send him to heaven (belief of repenting of sins…) It would be more perfect I guess to kill him doing something “bad” but come on, Hamlet! What insights into Hamlet’s character does this suggest? Well, I guess compassion…but more so, weakness! He’s already said that his life isn’t worth a “pins fee” so we know he doesn’t fear death. I guess it’d be scary to go through with murder…but when the ghost of your father comes back to earth to tell you to do something…that’s a tough one…but easier said than done. I think it also shows Hamlet’s indecisiveness and also actual madness…the fact that he doesn’t know what to do…or he knows exactly what to do but can’t go through with it!
posted by Mrzhire at
4:55 PM
4 Comments:
I've got a guess on Claudius' first confession for the late pass.
Is it Claudius' aside in 3.1, Lines 56-61?
"O, 'tis too true!" etc.
-Sreyas
Is Claudius's first confession when he states:
"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 burden!" in 3:1 lines 56-61
I noticed the motif of disguise particularly in that quote and when he talks about women using their makeup as masks. there was a good quote of Hamlet's when he stated "God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another" (3:1, 156)
This is somewhat similar to what Cluadius is doing, except not with makeup. It ties in with the motif of secracy in the play.
PS- SREYAS I FOUND THE ANSWER FIRST! I was just too lazy to type it until now. I swear! :)
I thought that lines 102-103 were very ironic and significant.
Claudius says: "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; / Words withought thoughts never to heaven to."
I think this is ironic because Claudius is the only one in the play (so far) who has actually committed a crime. And this is said right after Hamlet had the chance to kill Claudius, but he didn't. This is ironic because Hamlet's "word without thought" (him possibly killing Claudius)wouldn't take him to heaven, and Claudius is the one vocalizing this statement.
Ooooh, good call Kara. This part is cool...and so typical of Hamlet's indecesion...and what's even more ironic is that Claudius isn't even truly repenting! He's basically saying...yeah, I'll say the words, but this king thing is pretty cool and I still kinda like it and don't wanna give it up yet! SO, my point is that if Hamlet would have killed him just then - the whole heaven clause would have been null and void!
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