Tuesday, 2 October Hamlet Act IV

Quiz on Hamlet Vocabulary 2!
 Hamlet vocabulary packets are due next Tuesday, October
Heads Up! final cumulative assessment on Hamlet this Friday. It will consist of the class questions.

In class today:

We will be discussing Act IV today, after the quiz. You will find the discussion questions below:

Act IV Study questions

1.   How does Hamlet react to having killed Polonius and what does Claudius tell Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to do with the body? IV.i. 25-38.
 

2.   Hamlet gives a “knavish speech” to a “foolish ear”, specifically Rosencrantz, who has come to remove Polonius’ body. What does Hamlet mean when he tells him he is a sponge and how does it relate beyond the context of the play? IV.ii.11-21.
 

3.   Why can’t Claudius simply have Hamlet arrested for the murder of Polonius? IV.iii.1-12.
 

4.   Hamlet insists on winding up the king, that is teasing him to make him upset. Where in abstraction does he tell the king that the body can be found and ultimately, where is the corpse located? IV.iii.19-41.
 

5.   For what reason will England follow Claudius’ orders to kill Hamlet? IV.ii.67-77.
 

6.   On his way out, Hamlet meets the Captain, the representative of the “nephew to old Norway,” who is on his way to Claudius to request passage through Denmark to attack a ‘little patch of ground” in Poland. What is Hamlet’s observation on this action? IV.iv.10-30.
 

7. After departing from the Captain, Hamlet muses on what it means to be a man, in contrast to a beast, what excuses he has for not having taken action and what is future holds. Read the following soliloquy IV.iv.34-69 and explain . 

8.   How all occasions do inform against me, 

And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, 

If his chief good and market of his time 

Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. 

Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, 

Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and god-like reason 

To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be 

Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple 

Of thinking too precisely on the event, 

A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom 

And ever three parts coward, I do not know 

Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;' 

Sith I have cause and will and strength and means 

To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me: 

Witness this army of such mass and charge 

Led by a delicate and tender prince, 

Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd

 Makes mouths at the invisible event, 

Exposing what is mortal and unsure 

To all that fortune, death and danger dare, 

Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great 

Is not to stir without great argument, 

But greatly to find quarrel in a straw 

When honour's at the stake. 

How stand I then, 

That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd, 

Excitements of my reason and my blood, 

And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see 

The imminent death of twenty thousand men, 

That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, 

Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot 

Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, 

Which is not tomb enough and continent 

To hide the slain? O, from this time forth, 

My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

8. Ophelia’s mad; in “a poison of deep grief.” Claudius notes that the griefs come in battalions. According to the king, what tragedies have so far occurred? IV.v.80-103.

9.    Now Laertes is back, having heard “cries of cuckold to [his] father. Claudius calms him down and explains he is guiltless of his father’s death and convinces him to “let the great ax fall...where th’ offense is.” As well, Hamlet is back-alone- and has sent a note essentially saying he’s going to settle the score. Claudius flatters Laertes about his “rapier most especial” and presents a plan, whereby Laertes will have his revenge on Hamlet for his father’s death and his sister’s madness.
 a.    How does Claudius provoke Laertes to action? Where have you seen this type of behavior earlier in the play? IV.vii.126-143.
  b.    How will Laertes be assured that he will best Hamlet? IV.vii.145-169.
 

10. What were the circumstances under which Ophelia drowned? IV.vii.187-207.

NOTES for ACT IVScene I: Gertrude relates to King Claudius that Hamlet has killed Polonius, and that her son is "mad as the sea and wind when both contend / Which is the mightier" (IV.i.7-8). It's even more important now to get the kid out of the kingdom.

Scene ii: Rosencratz and Guidenstern ask Hamlet where Polonius' body is. Hamlet calls out their syncophancy, the way they suck up to the king: they are sponges, who "soak[ ] up the King's countenance, / his rewards, his authorities...When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again" (IV.ii.15-21).

Scene iii: Hamlet finally relents and tells the king where Polonius might be found"Hamlet eventually tells the King "but if, indeed, you find him not / within this month, you shall nose him as you go up / the stairs into the lobby" (IV.ii.38-41). After Hamlet departs for England, the King's soliloquy reveals that "by letters congruing to that effect / The present death of Hamlet"(IV.iii.73-74).

Scene iv.: Hamlet encounters Fortinbras and his army, who are on their way to attack Poland. Through the conversation between Hamlet and the Captain we gain some insight into the purposelessness of war. Captain: "Truly to speak, and with no addition, / We go to gain a little patch of ground / That hath in it no profit but the name"(IV.iv.19-21). Hamlet observes that the war is being fought simply because of "much wealth and peace." This scene closes with another soliloquy, where he compares his own inaction to how Fortinbras "makes mouths at the invisible event / Exposing what s mortal and unsure / To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, / Even for an eggshell" (Iv.iv.53-55). In other words, for "honor's sake", Norway will attack a tiny, useless piece of Poland, and Poland will not yield it, because this would not be honorable. Yet, Hamlet "that have a father killed, a mother stained" has yet to seek his father's revenge. The soliloquy concludes with his "thoughts be[ing] bloody, or be[ing] nothing at all."

Scene v. Ophelia "speaks much of her father;...speaks things in doubt / That carry but half sense" and people are listening. Horatio convinces Queen Gertude to have a conversation with her. The King wants her watched closely and observes, "when sorrows come, they come not single spies, / But in battalions"(IV.v.84-85). Note how he summarizes the play to this point.

And if that is not enough, in comes "young Laertes, in a riotous head" and assumes Claudius is the killer. The king assures him that he is "guiltless of [his] father's death / And am most sensibly in grief for it"(IV.v.171-72). Then Ophelia comes along, strewing flowers: rosemary for remembrance, pansies for thoughts, rue and daisies. The king takes advantage of the situation- Laertes grief and anger over his father's death, who incidentally had an "obscure funeral" and "no noble rite nor formal ostentation", and his sister's mental breakdown, to take the time to calm him down.

Scene vi.: Horatio gets a letter from Hamlet, who relate how he switched the message sent from Claudius to England that said the Prince was to be killed. In his stead now, his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will be murdered.

Scene vii. Laertes wants to know why Claudius hasn't done anything about his father Polonius' death. Claudius' excuse is that "the Queen his mother / Lives almost by his looks (IV.vii.13-14) and the public has a "great love" for him. then what news should be imparted: Hamlet's back, but the has an idea. Laertes will "be ruled / The rather if you could devise it so / That I might be the organ" (IV.vii.77-79). That is Laertes wants to be the one to carry out Claudius' plan. Claudius flatters Laertes that he is known for his "rapier most especial", sword fighting. The king then goads him by questioning his love for his father: "was your father dear to you? / Or are you like a painting of a sorrow / A face without a heart?(IV.viii.122-4). Claudius will arrange a friendly sword competition between Hamlet and Laertes, but Hamlet, "being remiss, / Most generous, and free from all contriving, / Will not peruse the foils" (IVLaertes sword will have a poison tip. These lines should give you insight into Hamlet's character.

And still to come in scene vii: Ophelia's death by drowning. But Laertes refuses to cry for "too much of water hast" she.