ACT III, 1: O HEAVY BURDEN!
The third act begins with a report from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to King Claudius concerning Hamlet. They tell the king that Hamlet is moody and distracted, but they were unable to find out why he is that way. Rosencrantz adds that Hamlet was delighted to see the arrival of the company of actors and that Hamlet would be quite pleased if Gertrude and Claudius would come and watch the actors’ performance. Claudius is pleased that Hamlet’s mood seems to be improving.
King Claudius and Polonius then begin their plan or scheme to have Ophelia talk to Hamlet while they hide and spy on them. Polonius tells his daughter to pretend to be reading a book and to pretend that her meeting Hamlet was purely an accident. Polonius realizes that he is advising his daughter to be not quite honest and states, “With devotion’s image and pious action we do sugar o’er the devil himself” (49-51). Polonius means that often people pretend to be holy or virtuous even though they really have evil intentions or plans.
The comment affects Claudius greatly. In an aside (words that reveal his thoughts and are not heard by the other characters), Claudius reveals his guilt, how his conscience is bothered by the evil deed that he has committed (line 52). Claudius describes his guilt by use of a double metaphor. He compares the cheek of a harlot or prostitute that is covered with make-up or cosmetics to his evil deed and his actions:
HARLOT’S CHEEK COVERED UP WITH MAKE-UP
IS EQUAL TO
CLAUDIUS’S DEED COVERED UP WITH LIES
Claudius uses the expression “painted word” (55) to suggest the lies that he has to tell Gertrude, Hamlet, and the rest of Denmark. The make-up on the harlot cannot hide her evil (hence, ugly) act, nor can Claudius’ lies hide or remove the evil that he has done. For Claudius, such an act is a “heavy burden” (56), perhaps too heavy to bear.
ACT III, 1: TO BE, OR NOT TO BE
The most famous speech that Shakespeare ever wrote appears early in the third act. In this soliloquy Hamlet contemplates death. The speech is the essence of existentialism.
Hamlet begins by asking himself about choosing one of two possible options:
To be or not to be; that is the question.
Hamlet is asking whether he should be alive or not be alive. He is wondering if life is worth living. Hamlet is contemplating suicide. The question is repeated and elaborated upon in the four lines that follow. Hamlet asks which is nobler: to stay alive or die. Is there nobility or honor in choosing death? If one chooses to be, to stay alive, then he is choosing “to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” (59-60). Fortune (or Fate) is personified as an enemy to man, who shoots arrows at man from his bow or who hurls rocks at man from his slingshot. Hamlet is declaring that the fate or destiny of man is painful and sorrowful, like a soldier who is continually under attack and sees no relief or rest in sight. Hamlet refers to life in a metaphor as “a sea of troubles” (61). The alternative to life is death. Again, through metaphor, Hamlet states that man is merely defending himself against fate by killing himself. To “take arms” means for a man to take up a weapon to defend himself. Figuratively, one is using the weapon against the enemy of Fate. But literally, one is using that weapon against himself – to commit suicide.
For centuries a common expression or maxim was the comparison (metaphor) of death to a long sleep. Hamlet elaborates upon this comparison at some length. In sleep one is at rest and finds peace even though the day is heavy and full of worries and problems.1 For Hamlet, if death is really like sleep, then it is “a consummation devoutly to be wished” (65-66). In other words, death is something everybody should wish for because it brings peace and rest.
But then Hamlet extends the metaphor further. Sleep is not always restful, soothing, and peaceful. Sometimes during sleep man is troubled by dreams, by nightmares. “To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub” (67). Hamlet worries that if death is really like sleep, then perhaps it may also be like one long nightmare. A rub, literally, is an obstacle in the game of lawn bowling. A bowling ball could hit a rock or some other object and be knocked off course. That rock was called a rub. Here Hamlet means rub to stand for an obstacle or complication to prevent man from seeking death. If death is really just one long nightmare, then a man should “pause” (70) or hesitate from taking an action that will end his life. Once a man no longer has his “mortal coil” (his human body – line 69), his spirit may be afflicted by nightmares. Hamlet’s notion of nightmares is, of course, not unlike the notion of hell itself.
Hamlet explains that it is this fear of the afterlife that causes man, any man, to cling to life and fear death. “There’s the respect that makes calamity of so long life” (70-71). In this line the word respect means concern or fear. The word calamity means a distressful or horrible event, and that is what a long life is to Hamlet. A long life is horrible, but men’s fear of what the afterlife may bring prevents them from killing themselves.
Hamlet then proceeds to make a catalog, a list, of all of the awful events that man experiences in life:
Line |
Quote |
Meaning |
72 |
Whips and scorns of time |
Pain one experiences in a lifetime |
73 |
Oppressor’s wrong |
Abuse by people in authority |
73 |
Proud man’s contumely |
Scorn or ridicule from proud or overbearing men |
74 |
Pangs of disprized love |
Unappreciated or undervalued love |
74 |
Law’s delay |
Injustice |
75 |
Insolence of office |
Rudeness or disrespect from government officials |
75- 76 |
Spurns patient merit of th’ unworthy takes |
Scorn or mockery of good people by bad people |
Hamlet is stating that life, existence, is a burden full of problems and worries and troubles that no thoughtful man can tolerate; but man accepts it because he fears that the afterlife could even be worse. Man could make an end to his life (“quietus” in line 77) with a “bare bodkin” (78), with a simple knife. But man is afraid that the worries and troubles to come in the next life will be worse than the ones in this life.
Hamlet explains that the afterlife, which he refers to as the “undiscovered country” (line 81), is a mystery. It is unknown. And man fears the unknown far more than he fears the known dangers and problems that afflict him daily.
The soliloquy concludes with the following lines:
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. (85-90)
By the word conscience, Hamlet means thought or thinking. The word thought is even used as a synonym by Hamlet (in line 87). Hamlet thinks too much. Hamlet worries, wonders, and speculates too much. The word resolution indicates decision and determination. It also suggests action (as provided in line 90). Hamlet is declaring, then, that people in general (and Hamlet himself specifically) tend to hesitate because they think too much. They think so much that they lose or miss the opportunity to take action at the time when that action is most needed. Hamlet is troubled and depressed. But he expresses an idea that many others who are not so troubled or depressed also believe to be true. Hesitation is not a quality that is unique to Hamlet. Rather, it is a quality that makes him a sympathetic character to the audience.
ACT III, 1: GET THEE TO A NUNNERY
Hamlet’s conversation with Ophelia is a heavily dramatic and moving dialogue. Hamlet continues to act mad and distracted, and his words appear to be disjointed and senseless. But there is the sense behind the madness, and Hamlet also continues to provide social criticism in a veiled or hidden manner.
Early in the conversation, Hamlet brings up the topic of honesty (lines 105-16). The reader may recall that Hamlet also spoke with Polonius about the lack of honesty in men (Act II, 2: 177-80). In talking about Ophelia’s beauty and honesty (or virtue), Hamlet expresses the idea in a complex metaphor that also involves personification (lines 113-16):
BEAUTY can transform HONESTY into DISHONESTY (bawd) more easily than
HONESTY can transform BEAUTY into HONESTY
Essentially, Hamlet is declaring Beauty to be a more dominant force in society than Honesty is. He is saying that people make statements or take action because they are persuaded by beauty (or superficial considerations) rather than being persuaded by honest or virtuous intentions. Hamlet then suggests that he had hinted to Ophelia that he loved her because he was motivated by beauty, not honesty.
The moment when Hamlet tells Ophelia that he never loved her (lines 119-20) marks a dramatic moment in the play. The actress playing Ophelia should probably go through a range of emotions before saying her next line: doubt, fear, worry, anger, betrayal, disappointment, shock, and perhaps others. Such an emotional reaction would prepare the audience for the madness that eventually overwhelms Ophelia later in the play.
Hamlet then advises Ophelia to join a convent: “Get thee to a nunnery” (122). Hamlet is telling Ophelia to live a chaste life. He is telling her to avoid men and never have children. Boys grow into men, and even the best of men are full of negative qualities: “proud, revengeful, ambitious” and so on. Hamlet states that he himself is full of such qualities. In other words, Hamlet is implying that all men are worthless or evil and the world would be better off without such creatures.
Hamlet does not have anything positive to say about women either. Some editors of this play comment that the word nunnery was Elizabethan slang for a brothel (a house of prostitution). The double-meaning could fit this passage. Women are either nuns or whores (they are either saints or sinners). Hamlet clearly expresses his indignation or anger with women a few lines later. He states that women hide their faces with make-up (suggested by paint in lines 142-43) and that they walk and speak in an artificial manner as well (indicated by the words amble and lisp in line 144). Hamlet is declaring that the majority of women are fakes or frauds. He is saying that they are dishonest. And, worst of all, Hamlet declares that women hide their wantonness (their loose sexual behavior) by pretending to be ignorant or innocent (line 145). Hamlet is thus declaring the majority of women to be whores.
Hamlet, of course, is especially thinking of his own mother when he utters these lines. He feels that his mother has betrayed his father. He feels that if his own mother, the woman whom he had trusted most, could act in such a shameful manner, then all women must be similarly sinful. Hamlet tells Ophelia that there should be “no more marriages. Those that are married already – all but one – shall live” (146-48). Hamlet feels that there is one married woman that should die. That woman is his mother.
ACT III, 1: HE SHALL WITH SPEED
TO ENGLAND
King Claudius is convinced that Hamlet is not only melancholic, but he is also mad. And so Claudius makes a quick decision: “he shall with speed to England” (169). Claudius recognizes that Hamlet could be dangerous to others around him, and so he is determined to send Hamlet away. Claudius does not have any evil intention in doing this. Rather, he wants to protect others and attempt to help Hamlet. As Claudius tells Polonius, perhaps the change of location will get Hamlet’s mind off of his worries. Claudius believes that Hamlet needs a vacation to settle down and calm his overactive mind.
ACT III, 2: THE UNSKILLFUL VS.
THE JUDICIOUS
In the second scene more metatheater occurs as Hamlet advises the actors about how to deliver their lines. Here again the audience may actually be getting William Shakespeare’s own personal views about actors and acting.
Hamlet criticizes actors who overact, who put too much emotion in a speech. He comments that a bad actor “out-Herods Herod” (line 12: also note how Shakespeare uses a noun as a verb). Herod is a Biblical character who appears in medieval mystery plays. In these plays the character would scream and shout in a wild, violent, and mad manner. Thus, to out-Herod Herod means to speak and act in a manner that is even more wild and violent and mad. Such acting is too much. It is bad acting. Apparently, such bad acting was also quite common during the Renaissance. For if it were not, neither Hamlet nor Shakespeare would have to make this kind of comment.
Hamlet tells the players that a good actor holds “the mirror up to nature” (20). Here Shakespeare is expressing the notion that good actors must be true to life. They must act naturally, realistically. For Shakespeare, overly exaggerated emotion has no place on the stage.
A few modern scholars have asserted the
erroneous notion that if Shakespeare were alive today, he would be writing for television. They say this because Shakespeare wrote for the masses. He did not specifically intend his plays for just aristocrats or just intellectuals. But, actually, these scholars are wrong. Although his plays did appeal to a wide variety of people, Shakespeare never purposely set out to please what is often referred to as LCD or the “lowest common denominator” (which means the members of the audience who are not very intelligent and who prefer “jigs” or “bawdry” – see II, 2: 480 – over great drama). Shakespeare, as several lines in Hamlet indicate, was more interested in pleasing one thoughtful and tasteful man in his audience over several thousand foolish and boorish men:
Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance o’erweigh a whole theater of others. (22-25)
The word censure refers to disapproval or negative criticism. Hamlet is stating that if one wise or judicious man in the audience disapproves, even if all of the fools applaud, then the actor has failed his task. In other words, actors should not try to please the fools. Rather, they should please the judicious or thoughtful members of the audience – even if there is only one such person in an audience of several thousand.
ACT III, 2: HORATIO: BLOOD AND
JUDGMENT
Hamlet admires Horatio as a man of wisdom and reason. The reader may recall how the guards (in Act I) also looked up to Horatio as a man of intelligence and composure. So, Hamlet asks Horatio to watch Claudius when the actors perform their scene that reenacts the murder of the dead king. Hamlet does not trust his own judgment. He is too moved by his passions or emotions. He wants Horatio to confirm his opinion of Claudius when the murder scene occurs. Hamlet realizes that if the cool and rational Horatio holds an opinion, then such an opinion is very likely to be correct.