Hamlet Acts 4&5

Act IV- Resolution/Falling Action
1. Hamlet being gone for the last few scenes allows Claudius to plan out his final demise for Hamlet. Without Hamlet there Claudius begins to have a piece of mind until Laertes comes in accusing him of his father’s murder. This allows for the action to escalate but then calm back down when Claudius explains to Laertes what really happened allowing them to plot Hamlets’ death together. With Hamlet being absent, it allows for the drama of the situation to heighten.
2. The short scenes in Act IV allows for many actions to happen all at once, engaging the audience. Since these scenes are short and to the point they have a greater emotional impact on the audience. Shakespeare did not elaborate on many of the action happening within Act IV so that one did not have time to engage in one action before something else happened. This allows for the audience to get the sense of how tense and fast pace things are becoming around the kingdom.
3. Claudius does not take direct action against Hamlet because he would have nothing to justify his action to the people of Denmark who love and respect Hamlet. He muses about what he must do about Hamlet before he decides to kill him or anyone else. Claudius thinks that he will be to blame if Hamlet does anything else and the people of Denmark find out Claudius did not do anything about it. Compared to what the Queen says, Claudius shows now sympathy toward what has happened to Polonius; he is more concerned about his own safety. He makes it seem as if he is sympathetic about how Hamlet is acting rather than worried. After speaking with the Queen, Claudius ask that Guildenstern and Rosencrantz find Hamlet and Polonius’s body. He wants to speak to Hamlet immediately and wants Polonius’s body taken to the chapel. The reader can sense a different tone from Claudius depending on who is talking to. When talking to the Queen, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern he acts as if Hamlets’ well-being is his only concern whereas when he talks to himself or Laertes we see that he truly wants Hamlet dead. This tells us that Claudius is doing everything in his power to fool everybody into thinking he loves Hamlet when he actually fears him. We can really see here how much he fears Hamlet and wants him gone, but without knowing Claudius’s true intentions.
4. Hamlet makes the comparison between him and Fortinbras both wanting honor and revenge for the death of their fathers. They both have the motivation to do it yet neither of them have yet to get the real revenge they desire. What is ironic about Fortinbras’ mission is that what they are fighting for in Poland is not even worth it but yet they have a huge army ready to invade and fight to the death for it. Fortinbras is doing it for the glory and honor of a victory. The significance of the last couplets in Hamlet’s soliloquy shows his determination to finally kill the King and stop putting it off. He wants to get revenge for his father’s death but still has done nothing to get it. He is now declaring that all his thoughts will be of his revenge on the king ensuring it will be done.
5. Ophelia’s appearance before the King and Queen is very dramatic. At first the Queen had no desire to speak with her but when Horatio insist and states his concern the Queen agrees to see her. She talks like a crazy person which causes them to worry and become concerned with her mental health but also feel bad for her. Not only did Hamlet break ties with her and began acting crazy himself, but she also lost her dad to murder. Claudius also thinks part of the reason she went crazy was because of the rumors going around about her father’s death and the fact that he was not given a proper burial ceremony.
6. When Laertes hears about the death of his father he comes back to Denmark in full fury with many people backing him chanting that he should be king. He shows great amounts of grief when talking with the King about the death of his father. So much that he declares, “Let come what comes, only I’ll be revenged most thoroughly for my father” (IV.v.133-134). Claudius tries to be calm and reasonable with Laertes hoping that he will cool off and listen to what really happened. Claudius listens to what he has to say and agrees with what he is saying about wanting revenge on for the death of his father. Claudius’s subtle manor allows him to make a deal with Laertes – if Claudius is found guilty in any way then he will give Laertes his crown, kingdom, his life, or whatever he wants (IV.v.203-206). If he is found innocent then he will help Laertes get proper revenge on who really killed his father.
7. Though it does not specify, the reader can infer that the pirates who took him prisoner were the ones to bring him back to Denmark to fulfill a favor for them. This information is reveled in a letter Hamlet has sent to Horatio. Shakespeare does not show this in a scene to increase the suspicion in the audience and allows them to ponder what really happened that allowed Hamlet to return to Denmark so quickly.
8. When Claudius find out about Hamlet’s return he formulates a new idea for Hamlet’s demise that will not reflect poorly on him or anyone else. He is sure that Laertes will go along with his plans because it would give Laertes the revenge he craves for the murder of his father. Claudius’s plan is to tick Hamlet into a duel Laertes and rig it so that Laertes will surely win and have Hamlet killed. Laertes contributes to the Kings plan by rigging the duel even more. He bought poison so deadly that nothing could save a person once it is in them. He plan on coating his sward with the poison so that whether he stabs Hamlet or merely cut him at all, the poison will get in him and ensure his death.
9. At the rate that things are going, with all the new plans set in place, Hamlet’s death seems bound to happen by the end of the play. Claudius has planned it with Laertes so that when Hamlet duels Laertes there is no possible way Hamlet can escape death of the poison they are putting in his drink and Laertes’s sword.
10. In Act IV nothing really gets resolved. Most of what happened in this act is setting up what is to come in the final act of the paly. We now have the plan for how Claudius is going to have Hamlet killed without harming anyone’s reputation.
ACT V
1. There are multiple step through Act V that led to Hamlet’s acceptance of his ordeal. First of which is when he encounters the skull of Yorick. This scene is where he realizes that no matter who you are or what you have done in your life, everyone ends up the same; just ashes and dust mixed with the earth. Secondly, he proclaims his faith in God when going into battle with Laertes. He is no longer going to worry about uneasy feelings; he believes whatever is going to happen will happen and he is okay with that. With this new perspective, Hamlet is now ready to carry out the orders his fathers’ ghost has given him. He manages to finally kill Claudius as he is also dying.
2. The gravediggers appear in the very beginning of Act V, right after the intensifying actions were revealed in Act IV. Their actual purpose in the play is to dig a place to bury Ophelia, who has committed suicide. The gravediggers are also seen as a comic relief to allow the audience to give their mind a break from the tragic actions of the last few scenes. This way when things being to pick up again the action will seem more intense.
3. Hamlet is affected by the skull of Yorick because it was a jester he once knew. When looking at the skull he is almost reminded about what really happens after death. He comes to the conclusion that no matter who you are, rich or poor, if you made a huge contribution or were just the average peasant, in the end everyone turns into ashes and dust. This was a new concept he had not thought of before. He uses examples of Julius Cesar and Alexander the Great to get his point across that no matter who you are everyone ends up the same after death. The reader can hear the grieving in his tone about holding the skull of someone who he use to know and when he reflects on their time spent together.
4. Hamlet reacts the way he does to Laertes’ outburst at Ophelia’s burial for a few different reasons. The main reason could be because he was unaware that Ophelia had committed murder. He claims he loved her and that “forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up [his] love” for her (V.i.255-257). The news of her death on top of everything else could have been the reason he acted out so harshly towards Laertes. Another reason for his reaction could be because he was annoyed with how dramatic Laertes was being about the burial. Hamlet probably saw it as Laertes acting this way for sympathy. Hamlet’s lament seem to be sincere. He makes it clear to all that he did love Ophelia very much and claims he will do almost anything to mourn her death. The full heartedness of this claim could be question due to his acts of insanity throughout the play. Though we are sure he really did love her at one point, by this point in the play it is difficult to distinguish between Hamlets emotional state.
5. In spite of his premonitions, Hamlet agrees to the duel with Laertes. He tells Horatio about his uneasy feeling about the duel but refuses to stop him from participating because he does not believe in superstitions. He clearly states that he believes “there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come. If it not be to come, it will be no now” (V.ii.207-209). What he is basically is saying is that God is ultimately the one who is in control of what happens to him. If God wills something bad to happen then let it be so. For this reason he does not fear this duel even though he is unsure of what is to happen.
6. The swords end up getting switched during the third hit when Hamlet manages to disarm Laertes switches their weapons swiftly. His dying words to Hamlet heighten the tragedy because of his sorrow for contaminating the sword with poison which backfired on him and blamed the king for the idea of using poison. It also makes it more tragic because right before Laertes dies, he ask Hamlet for his forgiveness just as he has forgiven Hamlet. This element makes it tragic because no longer is it a fight between enemies, but rather between two men who forgave each other resulting in an innocent death.
7. I do not think Gertrude knowingly drank from the poisoned wine. I believe she was drinking in honor of how well Hamlet was doing, just as Claudius was doing, despite his warning not to. Since she is a Christian woman, I do not think she would willing drink the poison without have repenting first or fearing the consequences of her actions.
8. Hamlet is finally able to kill Claudius because this is his last opportunity since he is dying from the poison. He just had to watch his mother dies from the poison Claudius put in the wine that was meant for him, not his mother. Laertes told him that the king is to blame for all this happening, which most likely escalated his adrenaline to finally kill Claudius and get revenge for his father’s murder.
9. Hamlets last words to Horatio are significant because this is where the truth about all the deaths are to be told to the people. He begs Horatio not to drink the poison so that someone who knows what really happened can calm all the soon to be conspiracies with the truth. He also mentions to Horatio that he expects Fortinbras to become the next king of Denmark and wants him to tell Fortinbras that he supports him, alluding that Horatio should as well.
10. It is appropriate for Fortinbras to arrive at the very end of the play when everyone is dead because it concludes the craziness that has been going on. Now that all family heirs to the thrown are dead and Denmark is without a king it is only right, and suitable that Fortinbras takes over. His arrival makes for a practical ending alluding to his chances of taking the thrown.