An analysis of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" Act 4
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Module
English
Institution
Sixth Year / 12th Grade
This document provides an in-depth analysis of Act 4 of "Hamlet" with many quotes and lots of summary. These notes helped me gain top grades in my English exam.
ACT IV, Scene I
27th March 2023
Here we see Claudius’ reaction to the death of Polonius. We’re not surprised that he looks at it in a
selfish way. He points out to Gertrude that if we had been there, Hamlet would’ve killed him, “O heavy
deed! It had been so with us had we been there”. He follows this by saying that Hamlet on the loose is a
threat to everybody, “His liberty is full of threats to all; to you yourself, to us to everyone”. We know that
his concern is the threat to himself, not anybody else. But as usual, he likes to pretend he has a concern
for others.
We see this when he says to Gertrude that the reason he didn’t do anything about Hamlet when he was
behaving mad was because he loved him so much and was unsure what to do, “But so much was our
love, we would not understand what was most fit”.
At the end of the scene, we see Claudius’s self-concern again when he says he hopes what Hamlet has
done won’t come back to bite him, “Transports his poison’d shot, may miss our name, and hit the
woundless air”.
We also look at Gertrude’s behaviour in this scene. She is loyal to her son, and we admire this. She tries
to show that Hamlet’s killing of Polonius was a fit of madness rather than something planned, “Mad as
the sea and wind...Behind the arras hearing something, stir, whips out his rapier, cries, ‘A rat! A rat!’ And
in his brainish apprehension, kills the unseen good old man”. We can see that she is genuinely upset that
Polonius is dead, she calls him “good”. Her defence of Hamlet continues when she says, “He weeps for
what is done”.
Act IV, Scene II
This scene is short, but it shows us Hamlet’s absolute detest for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They
want to know where Polonius’ body is, but Hamlet will not tell them. He tells them they are “Sponge”,
that they are sucking up to the king, “Ay sir, that soaks up the king’s countenance, his rewards, his
authorities”. He tells them that in the end, the king, when he is finished using them, He will just throw
them away. “When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you will be dry
again”. Hamlet is evasive and won’t cooperate with them, he gives a smart answer to them, “The body
is with the king, but the king’s not with the body.”.
Act IV, Scene III
29th March 2023
At the start of the scene, we once again see how concerned Claudius is about Hamlet. Ever since the
‘Murder of Gonzago’, Claudius sees Hamlet as a personal threat to him. Hamlet’s killing of Polonius has
alerted him even more. We can see his concern clearly here yet again, “how dangerous is it that this
man goes loose!”.
, At the same time the king is clear enough to know that he can’t be seen to be too harsh on Hamlet, he
knows the people of Denmark love Hamlet and that if he acts against Hamlet, the people will turn
against him, “Yet must we not put the strong law on him, he’s loved of the distracted multitude”.
Everywhere in this play, we see how clever Claudius really is.
Even when Hamlet enters the scene, Claudius puts on the pretence that he is sending Hamlet to England
for his own good. “Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety”. He even uses the expression, “Thy loving
father” as a way of seeming soft in his dealing with Hamlet.
At the end of the scene, we see Claudius in a mini soliloquy. On his own he says that England owes him
and that he has arranged for Hamlet to be put to death in England. “By letters conjuring to that effect,
the present death of Hamlet. Do it England”. He says, Hamlet is like a disease he wants England to cure,
“Thou must cure me”. He says he won’t be happy until Hamlet is dead. “Till I know ‘tis done, howe’er my
haps, my joys were ne’er begun”. All this shows just how two-faced Claudius is. To Hamlet’s face he tells
him he’s acting for his safety, yet moments later in private we see he has the very opposite in store for
Hamlet.
Once again also, we see Hamlet’s contempt for Claudius, he won’t kill him where Polonius’ body is
hidden, he only hints that he is near the stairs and very smartly says, “He will stay until you come”.
Act IV Scene IV
This scene is important because of Hamlet’s soliloquy at the end of it.
Hamlet is after leaving the castle. He is being escorted away by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He meets
one of Fortinbras’ captains. The captain tells him that they’re on their way to seize a piece of land in
Poland that, in his mind, isn’t even worth the effort, “We go to gain a little patch of ground that hath in
is no profit but the name”.
At the end of the scene, we see Hamlet’s reaction to this. In the soliloquy we can see how bad he feels
about his lack of action. The chat with the captain has showed him how useless he is, “How all occasions
do inform against me, and spur my dull revenge”. Hamlet admits that he thinks too much about things,
“or some craven scruple at thinking too precisely on the event”. Hamlet calls himself a “coward”, “A
thought, which quarter’d hath but one part wisdom and ever three parts coward”.
He says that this army really shows him up. Those Norwegian soldiers are walking to their deaths as
calmly as if they were going to bed, “While, to my shame, I see the imminent death of twenty thousand
men that, for a fantasy and trick of time, go to their graves like beds”.
Hamlet’s point is that his cause is a much greater cause than theirs and yet he does nothing, “When
honours at the stake. How stand I then, that have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d”. Hamlet decides that
from now on he will have nothing but revenge on his mind, “O! From this time forth, my thought be
bloody, or be nothing worth!”.
These are powerful words, but we need to remember that we’ve heard Hamlet speak like this before in
soliloquys and still nothing has happened.
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