Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1

I am going to be examining Act III Scene I and Act III Scene II to show how these two scenes create dramatic effectiveness for the audience. Act III Scene 1 (A Room in the castle) involves Claudius contemplating whether or not to send Hamlet away to London in order to deal with his troubles. This is also the scene of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy ‘To be or not to be”, whereby he is considering his life and what has been going on since his fathers death. Act III Scene II is where Hamlet has a play in which it shows how Claudius killed his father in attempts to see if he will react in a negative way towards seeing the death of Hamlets father (The King) within this play.

“To be, or not to be: that is the question.” – Hamlet (Act III Scene I; 56
Hamlet simply shuns Ophelia and implies that God creates people you have different faces, meaning a person can be truthful but contrasts that people can somewhat be the complete opposite of this. Could be why Hamlet can perhaps not trust anyone anymore. Shakespeare is making the audience foreshadow what will occur throughout the play, as again, the audience may believe that Hamlet will resort to killing himself. This again raises tension throughout audience as well as putting everything that has occurred into context.

The following scene (Act III Scene II), it is Hamlet’s turn to try and gain truth and understanding from Claudius by observing how he will react to seeing the similar death, as the one he carried out on Hamlet’s father earlier in the play.

“Lady, shall I lie in your lap?” - Hamlet to Ophelia (Act III, Scene II;