Hamlet Act 4

Scene 1 Characters: K, Q King wants to know where H is, wants to send H to England – How does he get what he wants? By twisting the situation all around to himself– he is worried that he will be blamed– he hides under the guise of loving H– we KNOW that is a lie b/c he killed C! Q wants to take in all that just happened P getting killed K calls in R & G to take P’s body to the chapel – Chapel = a sanctuary (religious place of safety)

Scene 2 Characters: H, R & G Hamlet wants to either use satire to tease R&G about P’s body—not tell them where it is OR H is really starting to go crazy and his dialogue with R & G prove it He does not tell R & G where P’s body is located

Scene 3 Characters: H, R&G leave K enters K wants to let the audience know that Hamlet being sent away must LOOK LIKE careful work b/c the common people LOVE Hamlet. R & G bring H in to see K Hamlet wants to tease the K (or again…is he really starting to go crazy??) about where P’s body is.

Scene 3 K is alone. He writes a letter to the King of England statin—you owe me one. Claudius: And you, dear king of England, if you care about me at all—and you should, since you can still feel the damage that Denmark has done to you in the past and, so, fear and respect us—then you won’t ignore my letters instructing you to kill Hamlet immediately. Do it, English king, since he’s raging like a fever in my brain, and you must cure me. Until I know it’s been done, I’ll never be happy, no matter how much luck I have.

Scene 4 Fortinbras w/ army is marching toward Poland. Tells Capt. To tell K “hi” H- has a bit of dialogue with them. R asks if H is ready to go on ship. H delivers a soliloquy. – States he has the motives, the determination, the strength, and the means to do it. Fortinbras is fighting for a piece of land worth nothing. From now on my thoughts MUST concentrate on vengeance or I am not worthy to be called King Hamlet’s son. I AM A COWARD!

Scene 5 Characters: Q, Horation, random gentlemen, Ophelia’s “crazed” scene What does Ophelia want? – To let everyone know how she lost her mind over her father’s death, her love, Hamlet is gone, and her brother has not yet returned. King wants Horatio to follow her- he talks to the Queen:

Scene 5 Oh, her grief has poisoned her mind. Her father died and now look at her! Oh, Gertrude, Gertrude, when bad things happen, they don’t come one at a time, like enemy spies, but all at once like an army. First her father was killed, then your son was taken away—because of his own violent actions. The people are confused and spreading nasty rumors about Polonius’s death, and I was a fool to bury him in a hurry, without a proper state funeral. Poor Ophelia has been robbed of her sanity. Last but not least, her brother has secretly returned from France and is surrounded by gossip-mongers, who fill his ears with wicked stories about his father’s death. Deprived of proper evidence, he’ll naturally attribute the murder to me. Oh, dear Gertrude, I feel as though I’m being murdered many times over. Claudius hears a noise at the door and get’s scared—calls for bodyguards! Acting time……………

Scene 5 Characters to play: King Claudius, messenger, Laertes, Queen, Ophelia Perform from pg

Scene 5 Laertes wants to know who killed his father and how can he get his revenge Ophelia enters and proves she has gone nuts She exits and Laertes asks the King: LAERTES Where’s my father? CLAUDIUS He’s dead. GERTRUDE But the king didn’t kill him. CLAUDIUS Let him ask what he wants to ask

LAERTES How did he end up dead? Don’t mess with me. To hell with my vows of allegiance to you! Vows can go to hell! Conscience, too! I don’t care if I’m damned. I don’t care what happens to me in this world or the next. Whatever happens, happens, but I’ll get revenge for my father’s murder. LAERTES All right, then. The way he died, his secret funeral, no funeral rites or military display, no noble rites or formal ceremony—shout out from heaven and earth that I must call the way he died into question CLAUDIUS And you’re right to do so. May the guilty party be punished by death. Please, come with me

Scene 6 SERVANT Sailors, sir. They say they have letters for you. HORATIO Show them in. Exit SERVANT I don’t know who else would send me a letter from abroad except Hamlet. Enter SAILORS SAILOR Hello, sir. God bless you. HORATIO May He bless you, too. SAILOR He will, sir, if He wants to. There’s a letter for you, sir. It’s from the ambassador, Lord Hamlet, who was going to England—if your name’s Horatio, as they told me it is. (he hands HORATIO a letter) HORATIO (reading the letter) “Horatio, When you’ve read this letter, find a way to let these guys see the king. They have letters for him. Before we were at sea for even two days, a pirate ship equipped for battle pursued us. We were too slow to escape, so we were forced to stand and fight. In the battle that followed I ended up on the pirate ship. Just then they left our ship behind, so I became the only prisoner on board. They’ve treated me quite mercifully for thieves, but they knew what they were doing. They want me to do a favor for them

Scene 7 King and Laertes must have spoken off stage King tells Laertes the reason he did not say anything publicly 1. The queen dotes on Hamlet 2. The common people love him So, the reaction would have blown up in his face. Laertes is raging b/c Polonius was given a secret funeral. Why?

Scene 7 Plan for Laertes and King Claudius to kill Hamlet: – Hamlet and Laertes will duel. Poison will be placed on the tip of the sword. Laertes will kill Hamlet. If that does not work: – Put poison in a cup of wine and Hamlet will drink it.

Scene 7 Ophelia dies at end of scene