Hamlet+3.3+and+3.4

4. "Oh, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven;/It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't/A brother's murder. Pray can I not,/Though inclination be as sharp as will./My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,/And like a man to double business bound,/I stand in pause where I shall first begin/And both neglect" (3.3.40-47). I think this is important because it shows that Claudius is not necessarily completely heartless. He seems genuinely distraught about the heinous acts that he has committed and feels the need to repent of his sins and pray for forgiveness. However, he does not believe that the sin that he has committed is forgiveable, even by God so, while he does attempt to pray, Claudius does not have a strong belief that God can and will forgive regardless of how heinous the crime. He feels that his guilt is too great to overcome and transcend his past actions.

5. To me it seems that Claudius and Hamlet have had a role reversal. At the beginning of the play Claudius was the character that appeared cold and heartless; however, in Act 3 we see him become penitent, he seems genuinely sorry for the sins he has committed. He even turns to prayer, although he fears that he will never be forgiven. Hamlet, on the other hand seemed to represent equality, justice and peace at the beginning of the drama. However, by Act 3 it seems that he has regressed. Instead of killing Claudius while he has the chance, he decides against it saying that if killed whilst in prayer Claudius would have a possibility of going to heaven. Therefore, he decides to wait to kill Claudius when he is committing another sin so that the King might go to hell, where Hamlet thinks he rightfully belongs. Additionally, at the beginning of the play the ghost asks that Hamlet not harm his mother; however, Hamlet does not listen to his orders and he pulls his mother into the whole ordeal in Act 3 scene 4. By the end of act three we see that Hamlet begins to behave more like Claudius, and Claudius more like Hamlet.

6. I am interested to see how Hamlet's relationship with his mother will progress in the coming scenes. Act 3 Scene 4 is really the first time the reader has the opportunity to see the two interact one on one. From the beginning it seemed that the two did not have an extremely close relationship; however there is a possibility that this could change based on the new information exchanged. Hamlet informs Gertrude that her current husband, someone who she trusted is a murderer. This new information could cause the fate of the relationship to go either way; it could either cause her to completely shut out Hamlet and back up her husband, or she could abandon Claudius and repair her relationship with her son. The choice is hers. However, at the moment I think that she pities her son because of his rumored and supposed madness and is somewhat hesitant to believe. It should be interesting to see how the relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude will progress in the upcoming scenes.