Hamlet Notes and Reflections

Mckenna Schnack
10/31/12
Mrs. Brookes
IB English
Hamlet Journal Analysis
Summary

* ACT 1, SCENE 1 * The two guards first see a ghost. Then they call Horatio in to talk to the ghost because he is a scholar. The Ghost returns but doesn’t talk to Horatio. It disappears and the guards believe that Horatio scared it off. Then the ghost returns again and Horatio isn’t able to converse with it again. The ghost looks like deceased King Hamlet.

* ACT 1, SCENE 2 * King Claudius gives a speech to his courtiers proclaiming his rule, and also explains his marriage to Gertrude. * ACT 1, SCENE 3 * Laertes leaves to go talk to Fortinbras and advises his sister to not fall for Hamlet while he is gone. Polonius then comes to Ophelia and asks her about what Laertes told her. After she tells him, he agrees with Laertes and makes her promise not to fall for Hamlet. * ACT 1, SCENE 4 * Hamlet, Horatio, and the guards go out and wait for the ghost. When it appears, Hamlet follows it into the darkness, and eventually Horatio and the guards follow. * ACT 1, SCENE 5 * The ghost disappears and Hamlet decides that he must avenge his father and right the horrible ruling of his uncle. Horatio and the guards are forced to swear to not tell anyone of the ghost they saw. * ACT 2, SCENE 1 * Polonius sends his servant Reynaldo to France to give Laertes a message. Ophelia tells Polonius that Hamlet accosted her, and he then believes that Hamlet is “love sick” for Ophelia because he has been away from her. * ACT 2, SCENE 2 * Claudius and Gertrude call in some of Hamlets old friends to try to help him deal with his “grief”. The messengers come back from talking with Old Fortinbra and they say that young Fortinbra will not attack, but only wish for peaceful passage to attack the Poles. Everyone tries to figure out of Hamlet is actually love sick for Ophelia. Hamlet comes up with a plan to try to figure out if Claudius had anything to do with his father’s murder. * ACT 3, SCENE 1 * Claudius and Gertrude discuss Hamlet’s behavior with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who say they have been unable to learn the cause of his sadness. Claudius and Polonius spy on Hamlet’s ranting to Ophelia. They conclude that he is not going insane with love, but something else. Are going to spy on him again when he is sent to his mother’s chamber. * ACT 3, SCENE 2 * The players arrive and Hamlet asks Horatio to watch Claudius’s face during the performance to detect any emotion. When the play reaches the point to which the man is murdering the king, Claudius freaks out and stops the play. Then he storms out leaving Hamlet thinking that he is guilty. Hamlet is then told that he must go to his mother and decides that he will tell her the truth.

* ACT 3, SCENE 3 * Claudius asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to take Hamlet to England and they agree. They leave him and he begins praying. Hamlet sneaks in preparing to kill Claudius, but then thinks that if he murders the king while he is praying, then he will be sending him to heaven, which is not proper revenge. * ACT 4, SCENE 1 * Gertrude tells Claudius about Hamlets visit, and tells him that he is mad and that he has killed Polonius. Claudius decides that Hamlet must be sent off to England. * ACT 4, SCENE 2 * Rosencrantz and Guildenstern go and find Hamlet after he has disposed of the body of Polonius. They question him, but Hamlet does not give them straight answers, and he accuses them of being the Kings spies. * ACT 4, SCENE 3 * Hamlet returns to the castle and talks to Claudius. He is asked where he buried Polonius’s body and eventually tells the king. Then he is told that he must leave for England immediately. He enthusiastically agrees and leaves. Claudius reflects on his thoughts, hoping that the English follow through and kill Hamlet when he arrives. * ACT 4, SCENE 4 * Hamlet is leaving for his ship when he runs into Young Fortinbras on his was to ask permission of the king to pass through Denmark to get to Poland. Hamlet realizes that he has failed to avenge his father and immediately begins thinking bloody thoughts. * ACT 4, SCENE 5 * Ophelia is said to be mad. Laertes comes back enraged at his father’s death, and brings a mob with him saying that he should be king. He is angered even more by the sight of his mad sister. Claudius says that he is innocent, and that his should not be blamed. * ACT 4, SCENE 6 * Horatio gets a letter from Hamlet saying that his ship was captured by pirates, and that he is in the countryside. Horatio goes to find his friend. * ACT 4, SCENE 7 * Laertes and Claudius find out that Hamlet is returning to the castle. They begin plotting a way for Laertes to duel Hamlet and kill him to avenge his father. The queen then tells Laertes that his sister Ophelia has drowned herself in a lake. * ACT 5, SCENE 1 * Hamlet and Horatio hide and watch the grave for Ophelia being dug, not knowing that it is for Ophelia. Suddenly the funeral procession approaches. When Hamlet sees that it is Ophelia, and he watches Laertes jump into the grave grieving, he reveals himself, jumps into the grave with Laertes, and begins proclaiming that he loves her way more the Laertes does. The two men begin fighting, and are then pulled off eachother. * ACT 5, SCENE 2 * Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are killed by the English because Hamlet cleverly switched the letters telling the English to kill the messengers that deliver the letter. Hamlet accepts Laertes invitation to duel against Horatio’s advice, and goes to the castle. They fight and both eventually cut with Laertes poisoned sword. The queen dies when she drinks the poisoned win, and Hamlet kills the king with the poisoned sword, and also forces him to drink the poisoned wine.

Analysis

* ACT 1 * The main purpose or the significance of the ghost’s appearance was to inform the reader of the great king’s death, and also to make a sense of foreboding that something was wrong with the king’s death. The ghost also helped to increase the late king Hamlet’s shadow over his country. When Hamlet encountered his father’s ghost, it sparked him on his quest for revenge. The ghost wasn’t a figure of just Hamlet’s imagination. The guards and Horatio also saw the apparition as well. So the odds that the ghost was real are very possible. After seeing this ghost, Hamlet was introduced to the fact that his uncle had killed his father. He was pushed to avenge the wrongful death, and feeling obligated to listen to his dead father he began plotting. The fact that Horatio had been with Hamlet when he had seen the ghost made him an easy confidant and huge assistance to Hamlet while planning the death of his uncle. Horatio took the ghost as being an ill omen for the kingdom of Denmark.

* The relationship between Gertrude and King Hamlet was abruptly interrupted when the King died. Immediately after her husband’s death, Gertrude either was seduced or simply moved on to her next lover. To add to the huge scandal, not only did she move on immediately after her husband’s death, she moved on to her husband’s brother. Hamlet grapples with the question of whether or not to blame his mother for her new lover. Some people tell him that she was seduced, while others criticize her for mourning her dead husband in her wedding bed. In the first scene Hamlet has no idea how to react to the new relationship between his mother and uncle. His conflicting feelings about accepting his mother’s new husband as his father, and also the fact that his uncle was now his stepfather clash with each other throughout the entire first act.

* ACT 2 * In act 2 Hamlet is considered by his peers as being on the brink of insanity. At first Claudius and Polonius think that he could be upset and love sick over the gorgeous Ophelia. Especially after Ophelia reports back to her father saying that Hamlet accosted her in the castle. This drives Claudius to think that he is correct in labeling his step son as insanely in love with Ophelia. To confirm his assumptions, Claudius brings in two of Hamlets old friends from England. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sent to chat with Hamlet and deduce the real reasons for his strange behavior. Unfortunately for themAct 2 gives off the appearance of Hamlet being in total control of his “insanity”, by giving an inside look into his thoughts. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are really hated by Hamlet in reality, and he easily fools them into going back to the king and reporting that he is actually mad with love for Ophelia.

* The inclusion of Young and Old Fortinbras into the play almost foreshadows the ending. In the beginning and preface, the relations between the two Kingdoms seem important, but in actuality the political interactions are barely mentioned. In act 2 messengers come back from talking with Old Fortinbras. They come bearing news that their neighbors only wish to be peaceful, and that Young Fortinbras only wishes to peacefully pass through Denmark to attack the Poles. The importance of these political relations is severely reduced when King Claudius simply dismisses the messengers saying that he will simply deal with it later. The fact that he paid almost no mind to the impending news that a potential threatening army wishes to “pass through” his domain, creates an idea for the reader that the Fortinbras don’t play a very large part in the story. The reader is more apt to focus their attention on the drama unfolding within the castle.

* ACT 3 * During the first part of Act 3 Ophelia and Hamlet have a very important, and intense dialog. This is one of the most important interactions or conversations that the couple has. To be blunt, Hamlet treats Ophelia horribly, saying that she should take herself to a nunnery, and that he never loved her. The feelings that are brought out by this dialogue almost make the reader feel sympathy for Ophelia. Not only did she think that Hamlet loved her, but she is being forced to have a meaningful conversation with the man that she loves, while having her father listening to every word. Ophelia is manipulated by almost every male character in the play. Hamlet toys with her emotions to create his being of insanity. Her father uses her to his advantages to help him achieve and gather information about Hamlet. Polonius has no regard for his daughter’s well-being or interests. Claudius also in turn cares little for the actual relationship developing between the two lovers, and is only intent on finding the actual cause of Hamlet’s insanity.

* An almost recurring theme throughout the play is religion. The entire scandal between the king and Gertrude is such a big deal because it was against the religion of that late time period. (not to mention that it still is in a sense) When Hamlet is faced with the opportunity to kill his horrible stepfather, he foregoes the perfect timing because the king was praying. Hamlet’s reasoning for not killing the king was strictly religious. He believed that since Claudius had killed his father while he was sleeping, then his father had gone to heaven. But if Hamlet killed Claudius while he was praying and recanting his sins, then the corrupted king might be sent to heaven alongside his own beloved father. His reasoning behind killing the king was that he simply wanted more revenge, by wanting the king to reside forever in hell versus in heaven when Hamlet himself wanted to spend his afterlife with his father.

* ACT 4 * Hamlet’s pure cunning and intelligence is revealed in act 4 when he cleverly deals with the king. After he kills Polonius, he hides the body. Eventually Claudius’s guards find him and bring him to talk to the king. The conversation between Hamlet and Claudius is almost comical because of the mocking comments that Hamlet provides when the King is simply trying to deduce the location of his dead friend’s body. Eventually after the king’s attendants have retrieved the body, Claudius begins to express to Hamlet that he must leave with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to go to England. Surprisingly Hamlet agrees, and the King reacts enthusiastically thinking that the young prince has fallen right into his trap. Little does he know that Hamlet has again used his intelligence and planning abilities to avoid his own death. Unfortunately for Hamlet’s old English friends, they are killed when they return to England instead of Hamlet, who is on his way back to the castle to avenge his dead father. Again, Hamlet has outsmarted Claudius and avoided his impending death.

* Again in scene 4 king Claudius is shown manipulating all of the individuals around him. As soon as Laertes returns to the kingdom and finds that his sister, and father are dead he immediately seeks revenge. The first person he looks to blame is rightfully the individual that is supposed to be running the kingdom, but is instead just trying to get a handle on all of the drama going on in the castle. When Claudius is accused and blamed for Ophelia and Plonius’s death he immediately defends himself, and begins to manipulate Laertes. He conforms Laertes rage and need for revenge into his own plan to make life easier for him. He devises a plot that will allow Laertes to kill Hamlet, not only to avenge Polonius but also to make the kings own life easier by erasing the last remaining remnants of King Hamlet. Laertes rage was a very prominent example of Claudius manipulating individuals with no regard for their own safety or outcome. The corrupt king was only concerned about his own needs and wants, mainly to kill Hamlet.

* ACT 5 * Death is a recurring theme in the play. Sadly in the end, almost everyone died. The entire tragedy revolved almost completely around the actions of a single individual. Claudius was the one person that started the ongoing chain of deaths. When he killed King Hamlet and married his own brother’s wife, he started a chain of sadness and unfortunate events in the kingdom. Hamlet himself also contributed to the demise of the royal family in Denmark. After seeing an apparition of the late king he decided that he must avenge his father. This became his entire motivation, and eventually the main plot line of the book. The fact that Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, and Hamlet all die in a single blood-filled scene shows how climatic and dramatic the play turned out to be. * At the beginning of scene 5 Horatio and Hamlet are at the cemetery watching a couple of grave diggers dig a grave. Hamlet wisely comments on the skulls being excavated from the ground and wonders why they are being dug up for a new grave. He comes to the conclusion that all of mankind will at some point become one with the earth in the form of dust. No matter how they die, or who they are, they will become the same dust. He says this almost remorsefully thinking of his deceased father. When the burial procession arrives, Horatio and Hamlet watch, until Hamlet figures out that it is his deceased “lover”. As soon as he sees Laertes jump into the grave with despair, he follows suite, and jumps in as well. His intentions were to display that he indeed does love Ophelia the most, more than her brother. His reasons for doing so only provide more of a reason for Claudius to believe that he is insane, and also sparks Laertes rage and need to avenge his fallen father. When really, all of the death in the family was Claudius’s fault.