Hamlet 3.3-3.4

1. Claudius asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to take Hamlet away to England because, after seeing the play within a play, he knows that Hamlet means to avenge the murder of his father.

2. Polonius plans to spy on the conversation between Hamlet and Gertrude.

3. a. He expresses guilt and grief over the murder he has committed. This is the first time we see any remorse from Claudius.

b. He claims he wants forgiveness, yet does not want to give up what he "earned" from the murder, meaning the kingship and marriage to the queen.

c. He prays for forgiveness and guidance, making him an easy target for Hamlet's attack.

4. This is odd because praying shows some type of remorse for his sin, a thing which Hamlet did not believe Claudius possessed. Also, Hamlet believes that this means Claudius might still go to Heaven.

5. Hamlet does not take this opportunity for revenge because he sees that Claudius is praying. He believes that if he murders Claudius now, the man will go to Heaven and live a much better eternity than the ghost he believes to be his father who is seemingly stuck in purgatory. He also thinks that he might go to Hell for murdering a man who is praying. He prefers to wait until Claudius is doing something bad like drinking or having sex to kill him, ensuring that he goes to Hell.

6. Polonius tells Gertrude to yell at Hamlet and really punish him a lot. He says to let Hamlet know that his pranks have caused too much trouble already and he should be ashamed of himself and stop it. He tells her to be blunt.

2. He is saying he believes he hears a rat, or spy, behind the curtain, and that he's betting it's a dead rat now. This means his is about to kill the person behind the curtain. He also claims to think it's Claudius that is spying.

3. He is telling his mother that what he did to Polonius was only almost as bad as what she did by marrying Old Hamlet's brother after killing her husband. He is trying to see what her reaction is and use it to discern whether she was in on the murder of his father.

4. She is declaring her innocence and she's also trying to reestablish dominance in the mother/son relationship by calling Hamlet rude. She's letting him know that she hasn't done anything wrong so he has no right to speak to her that way.

5. He claims that his father looks kind and gentlemanly. He is extremely handsome, like a god. He uses many gods such as Mercury, Hyperion, and Jupiter to describe his father. By comparison, he describes Claudius as a moldy ear of corn infecting the good one.

6. He means that Gertrude's first husband was a much better man in every way and that she took a huge step down by marrying Claudius. He loved his father and believes that he was superior to Claudius and that Claudius is a black mark on the face of Denmark.

7. It's disturbing because it's disgusting, for one. Back then, the marriage between Gertrude and Claudius was considered incest, which is gross. The lines imply that the sexual relationship between Gertrude and Claudius is unnatural and repulsive, and they use good imagery to get that point across and make the reader agree.

8. The appearance of the ghost stops Hamlet's rant. The figure basically tells Hamlet to regain focus and remember his original mission, which is to kill Claudius.

9. In lines 155-157 Hamlet talks about how forming habits can sometimes be a bad thing and sometimes be a good thing. He says, "That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat of habits, is angel yet in this: that to the use of actions fair and good he likewise gives a frock or livery that is aptly put on". He is saying that both good things and bad things can become habits if you do it enough times. He is telling his mother that, by refusing Claudius, she might actually get into a habit of saying no, which could be good or bad depending on the circumstances.

10. In act one, the ghost is trying to explain what happened when Claudius murdered Old Hamlet, and that's about it. In act three, the ghost reminds Hamlet that he wants to kill Claudius to avenge his father. He becomes really pushy about this and insistent that this is the right path. This reflects Hamlet's madness in that only he can see the ghost this time, leading us to believe it's not really there. If this is true, Hamlet is using the ghost of his father as an excuse to kill Claudius, proving that by this point he is no longer acting and has actually gone crazy.