Hamlet Act 4

Hamlet Act 4

1. Key Quotes

   • "It had been so with us had we been there. His liberty is full of threats to us all; To you yourself, to us, to every one." - Claudius, Scene I
   • "The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body." - Hamlet, Scene II
   • "How all occasions do inform against me; And spur my dull revenge!" - Hamlet, Scene IV
   • "Of thinking too precisely on the event" - Hamlet, Scene IV
   • "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" - Hamlet, Scene IV
   • "O! from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!" - Hamlet, Scene IV
   • "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions" - Claudius, Scene V
   • "That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard, Cries cuckload to my father, brands the harlot Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow Of my true mother." - Laertes, Scene V
   • "There's such divinity doth hedge a king, That treason can but peep to what it would, Acts little of his will" - Claudius, Scene V
   • "Let come what comes: only I'll be reveng'd Most thoroughly for my father." - Laertes, Scene V
   • "And, where the offence is, let the great axe fall. I pray you go with me" - Claudius, Scene V
   • "And so have I a noble father lost; A sister driven into desperate terms, Whose worth, if praises may go back again, stood challenger on mount of all the age For her perfections. But my revenge will come"- Laertes, Scene VII
   • "Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, A face without a heart?" - Claudius, Scene VII
   • "That we would do, We should do when we would, for this'would' changes" - Claudius, Scene VII
   • "No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize; Revenge should have no bounds" - Claudius, Scene VII

2. Irony

   • Gertrude supports the man who killed her husband
   • Fortinbras is willing to fight for nothing, but Hamlet has everything to fight for and does nothing
   • Ophelia's song symbols what is going on in Denmark

3. Themes

   • Appearance VS Reality
     • Unclear if Gertrude thinks Hamlet is really mad or is keeping his secret
     • Claudius thinks about politics and appearances
     • Fortinbras means to keep his word by sending the captain to Claudius
     • Hamlet isn't really mad
     • Ophelia really is mad
     • Gertrude defends the man who killed her husband
     • Claudius cares about how other people's action will affect him
   • Action and Inaction
     • Hamlet indirectly threatens Claudius but takes no action
     • As soon as Claudius realised Hamlet was a threat he took action
     • Fortinbras is willing to take action to gain honour
     • Hamlet sees Fortinbras' thoughtless action as ridiculous but admires it
     • As soon as Laertes finds out about his father he is willing to take action - no thinking
   • Revenge
     • Laertes is willing to get revenge for his father's death - unscrupulous
     • Claudius beieves that revenge should have no bounds
     • Hamlet looks for certainty before taking action
   • Death
     • Hamlet focuses on death telling Claudius what happened to Polonius
       • Everyone is equal in death
   • Honour
     • Fortinbras is willing to fight to gain honour
   • Poison
     • Laertes has a plan to kill Hamlet with poison
   • Politics
     • Claudius is corrupt, so is Denmark
     • King served under God as head of the body politics
     • Health of state depended on the goodness of the King

4. Language

   • RIddles and ambiguities
   • Hypocrisy
   • Blank verse
   • Verse and prose

5. Repeated imagery

   • Disease
   • Death
   • Decay
   • Poison
   • Bestiality