[Act Five Answers]
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May I stress that these are sample answers. I have stuck to what seemed
to me to be common sense explanations. If you're looking for a philosophy
of life, you won't find one here.
The Plot Κ
Κ Κ
What? Why? How? Stagecraft
Question 1 (Gravedigger's riddles and Question 1 (Suspense in the
songs) graveyard)
Question 2 (Hamlet on the skulls) Question 2 (Suspense in the
fencing match)
Question 3 (How old is Hamlet?) Language and Imagery
Question 4 (Hamlet and Laertes'
argument) Question 1 (Canker?)
Question 5 (Development in boat story) Themes
Question 6 (Hamlet's motives) Question 1 (Carnage or justice?)
Question 7 (The point of Osric) Question 2 (Who wins?)
Question 8 (Why defy augury?) Κ
Question 9 (Laertes' motives) Κ
Question 10 (Dying lines) Κ
Act Five Answers Κ
The Plot (Delete as appropriate)
Gravediggers are preparing a grave for Ophelia. They
speculate about the possibility that the death was
suicide and the chief gravedigger makes two jokes about
the power of death to conquer all. The second
gravedigger leaves to fetch some "liquor", leaving his
boss singing a song about death's victory as he
continues digging.
Hamlet and Horatio enter. Hamlet is appalled by the
rough treatment that the bones of the grave's former
occupants receive from the gravedigger. He speculates
about the identity of a skull thrown up during the
digging, revealing that his bones "ache" to think of
this waste of power and energy. Hamlet attempts to
discover the identity of the person who is to be buried,
but is, uncharacteristically, outsmarted.
Hamlet is handed the skull of Yorick, whose death he
mourns and then proceeds to wonder at the way in which
even the greatest of men, such as Caesar, are returned
to the earth.
Hamlet and Horatio hide as Ophelia's funeral procession
enters. Laertes and the priest quarrel over the brevity
of the service. Gertrude throws flowers into the grave
which are swiftly followed by the distraught Laertes.
Hamlet realises that Ophelia is dead and reveals his
presence, taunting Laertes to outdo his grief. Laertes
attempts to throttle Hamlet. They are parted and the
King counsels Laertes to follow the plan they decided
upon at the end of Act Four.
Back at the castle, Hamlet tells Horatio about the plot
to kill him in England and how he was able to turn
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's treachery against them.
He credits unthinking action and God's will for his
escape. He is now determined to kill the King, but
regrets losing his patience with Laertes. Osric enters
with the offer of a fencing match between Hamlet and
Laertes. Hamlet mocks Osric's pretentious speech and
accepts the challenge. A Lord arrives to ask
confirmation of Hamlet's acceptance.
Horatio tells Hamlet he will lose, but the Prince is
confident. He has decided to ignore the troubled
feelings he has about the match and trust to providence.
He reflects that being ready for death is all.
The court enter to see the match. Hamlet apologises to
Laertes, who says that his feelings are satisfied though
his honour is not. They select swords. Claudius puts a
pearl into the poisoned goblet of wine he has prepared
for Hamlet and puts it on a table.
The fencing match begins and Hamlet wins the first two
bouts. Accidentally, the Queen drinks from the poisoned
cup. Laertes stabs Hamlet with his poisoned and
sharpened foil between rounds. They fight and exchange
swords. Hamlet then stabs Laertes with the sword. The
Queen faints and swiftly dies. Realising that he too is
dying, Laertes reveals the plot and the King's
complicity. Hamlet stabs the King and as Claudius dies,
forces him to drink from the poisoned cup. Laertes begs
Hamlet's pardon and dies. Hamlet forgives Laertes and
prevents Horatio from killing himself with the remains
of the wine. He wants him to be alive to tell the story
to world. Hamlet dies.
Fortinbras and the English ambassadors enter. They are
shocked by the carnage before them. Horatio promises to
explain how it all happened. Fortinbras says he will
take over the throne and sends Hamlet's body off to a
soldier's funeral.
[Back to the top.]
What? Why? How?
1. What do you feel are the point of the
gravedigger's riddles and song?
The gravedigger tells two riddles: one
concerns the claim that digging is the oldest
trade in the world; the second asserts that
gravediggers build more securely than "a
mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter". The song
seems to begin as a love song but rapidly
turns into a reflection upon life's brevity,
supposedly sung by a corpse.
What they have in common, of course, is their
insistence upon death's power and
inevitability. The gravedigger is not simply
blowing his own trumpet, but rather, assists
in altering the mood of the play. Things have
been getting more serious since the death of
Polonius, who may be viewed as the main comic
character in the play. Throughout Act Four,
the sense of increasing danger is heightened
with the plots of Claudius and Laertes, and
Ophelia's madness and death.
Paradoxically, though, at the same time as
darkening the mood, this section is also
funny. I believe it is a mistake to view the
gravediggers' prattle as "mere" comic relief.
Why would Shakespeare want to decrease the
tension at this point? Nonetheless, one
interesting aspect of this section of the play
is that it is funny and gloomy. This is a
distinguishing and frequently mystifying
feature of the play. Among the murders and
madness, there is almost constant wordplay,
together with examples of irony, riddles,
witty repartee, bawdy and clowning. You may
find humour in Polonius' murder, and even the
fencing match, with its farcical switching of
swords and drinks, has a comic element. The
purposes and effects of humour in 'Hamlet' are
varied and, frankly, not always explicable. In
the graveyard scene, though, Shakespeare seems
intent to distance the audience from the
emotional implications of Ophelia's death and
Hamlet's impending doom. Perhaps this is with
the intention of saving emotional release
until the final catastrophe.
Furthermore, humour in the graveyard scene
does not solely come from the gravediggers.
Hamlet jests about the owner of the skull that
is thrown up at the same time that his bones
are aching at the waste. I think this is the
real point of the humour in this section of
the play. The mixture of wit and skulls helps
to emphasise the differences in Hamlet's
reactions. He is coming to terms with his
mortality and his morbidity. Previous
reflections about death, such as the "To be or
not to be" soliloquy (III.i.56-89), have
focused upon its terrors, finality and
perverse desirability. Here, Hamlet regrets
death and is also able to use humour to
distance himself from "consider[ing] too
curiously" its attractions.
[Back to the top.]
2. In what ways do Hamlet's reactions to the
skulls in the graveyard seem to suggest a
change in his outlook?
This has been partially answered above. I
would suggest that Hamlet is here displaying a
more mature and human attitude to death than
he has done previously in the play. He now
regrets death rather than viewing it as
desirable. Additionally, though he speaks in
prose in this scene, he has otherwise dropped
his "antic disposition". As I suggested in the
discussion of Acts Two and Three, there
appears to be more to Hamlet's mad act than
pretending. We cannot be absolutely sure about
Hamlet's sanity at some points in the play.
Now, however, there is none of the hysteria or
despondency that marks his character earlier
in the play.
Another proof of this suggestion that Hamlet
is more mature and level-headed is in his
reaction to Yorick's skull. Hamlet is
disgusted by the decay he is witnessing,
genuinely distressed by Yorick's death and
shows more affection to him than he has done
to any other character in the play, certainly
more than he displays to either his father or
Ophelia: "He hath bore me on his back a
thousand times, and now how abhorred in my
imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here
hung those lips that I have kissed I know not
how oft".
This is, of course, an extremely famous
speech, or at least its first line is. Hamlet
staring into Yorick's sockets is an image of
man confronting his own mortality that can be
understood without reference to the rest of
the play. This is why, when artists produce
pictures or statues of Hamlet, they choose
this moment. It is a visual image that is
recognisably Hamlet and no other Shakespearean
character, and it is an image with universal
meaning.
[Back to the top.]
3. How old is Hamlet?
The gravedigger says that he took the job on
the day that "young" Hamlet was born and then
says he's been doing it for thirty years
(V.i.122, 140). Then he says that Yorick has
been dead for "three and twenty years" and
Hamlet recalls playing with him as a child
(V.i.150-168). So Shakespeare tells us twice
that Hamlet is thirty.
This comes as a surprise to many readers of
the play. Earlier in the play, there are many
indications that Hamlet is a lot younger:
people refer to him as "young" (e.g. Polonius:
"he is young" (I.iii.124)), he is a student,
he is courting Ophelia who is almost
definitely young, he writes embarrassing love
letters to her, he refers to his friends as
"lads" and talks about going out drinking with
them, he has a sexually active mother and
uncle. Furthermore, Hamlet's violent emotions,
his insistence on continuing to mourn his
father, his outrage at his mother's remarriage
and self-righteousness all suggest an
adolescent rather than an adult.
It's a clever trick. Shakespeare wants us to
see Hamlet as more mature in Act Five and so
he changes his age. It is not impossible for
Hamlet to be thirty despite all the things
listed above, but the audience is drawn to
view Hamlet as juvenile in the first part of
the play and then as adult in Act Five.
Obviously, in the theatre, these things are
partially decided for us through the casting
of the play. But then, we are used to older
actors playing younger parts and so we feel
free to decide that Hamlet may be younger than
he physically appears. Then Shakespeare tells
us "No, he is that old".
[Back to the top.]
4. What does the violent argument between
Hamlet and Laertes add to the play?
I think this is a really difficult part of the
play to understand. On learning that the grave
is Ophelia's, Hamlet comes out of hiding,
taunts Laertes about his over-acted mourning
and announces himself as "Hamlet the Dane".
Then Laertes climbs out of the grave (or
Hamlet jumps in) and attempts to strangle the
prince. Hamlet insists that he loved Ophelia
most and can outdo his grief.
The problems here are manifold. What does
Hamlet mean when he says he's "Hamlet the
Dane"? Why does he lose his temper with
Laertes? By what right can he say he loved
Ophelia more than Laertes? Does he jump in the
grave or does Laertes climb out?
Unfortunately, I don't have answers to all of
these.
"Hamlet the Dane" might mean Hamlet the Danish
person, but this would be a rather silly thing
to say under the circumstances: everyone
present knows who he is. Alternatively, then,
it means Hamlet, King of Denmark. Presumably,
this would be with the intention of saying
"Here I am, the rightful King of Denmark".
This seems quite a reasonable thing for Hamlet
to say. But if this is the case, why doesn't
anyone react to this statement? Perhaps events
move too quickly for anyone to have time to
react.
Hamlet's loss of temper with Laertes is
something the prince later regrets and, having
just called Laertes a "very noble youth"
(V.i.194), it comes as something of a
surprise. Hamlet begins by asking "What is he
whose grief bears such an emphasis?". This
means "Who is this person whose grief is so
artfully displayed?". The words "emphasis" and
"phrase" in the following sentence are drawn
from the art of rhetoric, or effective
speech-making. Hamlet takes exception to the
overwrought manner in which Laertes expresses
his grief. He views Laertes' rather ludicrous
speech about being buried alive with his
sister as an insult to the dead in its
showiness. It may occur to you that Hamlet is
the last person with a right to complain about
the theatricality of someone else's mourning.
Act One, scene two, for example, is dominated
by Hamlet's display of his grief. Perhaps this
is the point. Hamlet has grown up. He now
knows that the sort of excesses that Laertes
is indulging in are selfish and immature. When
he tells Laertes "I'll rant as well as thou",
he is admitting his own weakness for
hyperbole. He is outdoing Laertes grief in
order to mock him and to mock himself.
This explanation is the best one I can
provide, but I am not entirely satisfied with
it. If Hamlet is now more mature, as I have
argued, shouldn't he be more able to hold his
temper?
Hamlet's protestations of love for Ophelia are
a problem because the last time we saw Hamlet
with Ophelia (III.ii), he embarrassed her
publicly without any legitimate excuse. The
time before that (III.i) he said that he never
loved her. In fact, Hamlet does not act in a
loving manner to Ophelia at any point in the
play. Again, I would argue that his
declarations of love here are an indication
that he is not the same person anymore. He has
lost his melancholy and misogyny and is more
like the person who, before the start of the
play, courted Ophelia "With almost all the
holy vows of heaven" (I.iii.114).
On the question of whether or not Hamlet jumps
into the grave or Laertes climbs out, we
cannot be entirely sure. Nearly all modern
editions have Laertes climbing out, with good
reason. From the lines, it seems clear that
Laertes is the aggressor in the fight and so
it is hard to see why Hamlet would jump into
the grave. Second, the only authority for
Hamlet jumping in from Shakespeare's text is
the generally discredited "Bad Quarto"
edition. Third, would Hamlet and Laertes
really trample over Ophelia's body to be able
to fight? Fourth, the sight of two men's heads
fighting in a grave looks silly rather than
exciting.
However, there is a small case for Hamlet
jumping into the grave. The "Bad Quarto" is
the only Elizabethan text with any stage
direction at this point. The more reliable
Second Quarto and Folio versions of the play
have no stage direction at all. Second, a poem
written on the death of Richard Burbage,
Shakespeare's leading actor, includes the
line: "Oft have I seen him leap into the
grave". This is generally understood to refer
to Hamlet. It might, though, refer to another
role for which Burbage was famous. On balance,
it seems more sensible to have Laertes
climbing out of the grave. This certainly
makes a lot more sense of the sequence and is
considerably more likely to "work" in the
theatre.
To summarise my answer to the main question,
the fight sequence adds to our impression that
Hamlet is more self-aware, more mature and
more emotionally healthy than previously in
the play. It also adds to the impression of
enmity between Hamlet and Laertes, and so
prepares us for the fencing match. Finally, it
adds a dash of real violence to the play,
again preparing the mood for the final
catastrophe.
[Back to the top.]
5. What developments in Hamlet's character are
presented through the story of what happened
on the boat? (V.ii.1-62)
At the opening of V.i., Hamlet recounts how he
got up from troubled sleep aboard the boat,
found the letter ordering Hamlet's execution,
exchanged it for one ordering Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern's death and used his father's
ring to give it the royal seal.
What strikes Hamlet is how improbable all of
this is. He happened to wake up. He happened
to find the letter. He happened to be able to
imitate the style of diplomatic writing. He
happened to be carrying his father's ring. How
could such a string of coincidences be the
consequence of chance?
Hamlet comes to the conclusion that Providence
is guiding him. Providence is the direction of
earthly events by God. Hamlet says: "Our
indiscretion sometimes serves us well / When
our deep plots do pall, and that should learn
us / There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
/ Rough-hew them how we will". This means,
roughly, "Actions we take by accident
sometimes work out better than ones we've
planned carefully. This should teach us that
there is a higher power that decides our
destinies, however much we mess things up".
Another facet, then, of Hamlet's development
is this attitude to destiny. He is going to
stop pushing against the flow of events and
simply wait to be given his chance to do the
right thing (viz. kill Claudius). He will
devote himself to preparation for this and for
his own death: "the readiness is all". This
may not seem a terribly wise decision in the
Twentieth Century, however it was absolutely
the correct attitude according to the English
church of Shakespeare's day. The articles of
belief included the statement that "We have no
power to do good works" unless God wills it.
So Hamlet has moved from the Roman Catholic
belief in having the free will to shape his
destiny to a Protestant belief in Providence.
More generally, this new belief makes Hamlet a
calmer, happier person: if Claudius isn't dead
yet, it's because God has not willed it, not
because Hamlet is a bad son.
[Back to the top.]
6. How do Hamlet's motives in killing Claudius
seem to have shifted according to his speech
beginning 'Does it not, think thee...'
(V.ii.63)?
Hamlet's motives in pursuing Claudius' death
up until this point have been twofold. First,
revenge for his father's death, as a matter of
duty and of natural feeling. Second, revenge
for the (supposed) prostitution of his mother.
These motives are rehearsed in line 64 of this
speech.
Much of what remains in this catalogue of
Claudius' crimes is new, however. The next
line says that Claudius pushed in when Hamlet
wanted the crown for himself. Hamlet has
previously called Claudius "A cutpurse of the
empire and the rule" in 3.4., at which point
we assume he means that Claudius stole the
crown from Hamlet's father. Hamlet firmly
resists Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's
suggestion that he is ambitious in II.ii., but
know he seems to be acknowledging that he did
hope to become the King of Denmark after his
father's death.
The next couple of lines introduce the very
understandable motive that Hamlet wants to
kill Claudius because Claudius tried to kill
him: Claudius "Threw out his angle for my
proper life".
The last lines seem to me to introduce
another, new dimension to Hamlet's motives. He
says: "And is't not to be damned / To let this
canker of our nature come / In further evil?".
Hamlet means: "Wouldn't I deserve to be damned
if I allowed this cancer of human nature to
continue to corrupt it?" Here, Hamlet is
asserting that he is going to act not on
behalf of his father, or his mother, or
himself, but on behalf of the human race.
Claudius is depicted as an affliction that
degrades and threatens to destroy us all. I
think this shift is highly significant: Hamlet
will no longer be acting as a revenger, but
rather as a surgeon for the state. The rights
and wrongs of the Ghost's request and Hamlet's
own feelings cease to have relevance and so
Hamlet can kill Claudius with a "perfect
conscience".
[Back to the top.]
7. What concerns of the play are reinforced in
the Osric episode? (V.ii.80-170)
This is a slightly odd sequence which often
tends to get cut from performances. There are
at least three problems with it. First, the
jokes don't really work very well because they
depend on quite a close knowledge of
Elizabethan English. Second, a comic episode
at this point, together with introduction of a
new character, between Hamlet's stoic
acceptance of his fate and the final
catastrophe may be felt to disrupt the
atmosphere and detract from the dramatic
impact of the scene as a whole.
I would suggest, though, that it intensifies
several aspects of the play. First, Osric is
given as an example of the corrupted state of
Denmark. He is a nouveau riche social climber
who, Hamlet tells us, is typical of the sort
of man who has attained high office in the
"drossy age" of Claudius' rule. Second, his
arrival gives Hamlet a chance to be wittily
sarcastic. This is perhaps Hamlet's most
likeable talent. Consequently, we are given a
sense of Hamlet's worth which reinforces the
tragedy of his death. Osric is, in some ways,
standing in for Polonius as Hamlet's comic
foil.
Lastly, a little tentatively, I would suggest
that there is a theme of "dishonest language"
in the play: people not saying what they mean
or wrapping their meaning in obscure
expression. Earlier examples would include
Polonius (not) telling the King and Queen
about Hamlet's madness at the opening of
II.ii., Hamlet's act of madness in II.ii.,
Hamlet's explanation of his melancholy to
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, also in II.ii.,
Hamlet's letter to the King of England and the
gravedigger's refusal to tell Hamlet whose
grave it is in V.ii.
[Back to the top.]
8. Why does Hamlet 'defy augury'? (V.ii.192)
Hopefully, the answer to question five, above,
has made the answer to this question fairly
clear.
Briefly, then, Hamlet decides to ignore the
"ill" feeling in his heart because he refuses
to allow himself to be drawn into planning his
future. He has come to believe in Providence,
the divine power which supposedly rules the
course of our lives. If he is to die (as he
must expect) then it is because God has
decided it. Provided he is spiritually
prepared for whatever happens, that all that
is necessary. Since God apparently spared
Hamlet's life on the ship to England and since
killing Claudius would be an act of goodness,
Hamlet is convinced that he will be given his
opportunity when God decides.
[Back to the top.]
9. What does Laertes say is his motive in
still resenting Hamlet? How has he already
lost this? How does this contribute to the
presentation of revenge in the play?
(V.ii.216-223)
Laertes says that he is content as far as
"nature" (natural feeling) is concerned, but
in his "terms of honour" he still holds a
grudge. His resentment of Hamlet is on the
grounds of honour, he says.
This is, of course, nonsense and Laertes
realises this as the fencing match proceeds.
How can a person claim to be acting the
grounds of honour by plotting stab someone
with a poisoned, sharpened sword during a
rigged fencing match? In the knowledge that if
you don't get to stab the person, then a
poisoned drink will do the trick? Prepared to
stab your opponent while his guard is down,
between rounds? Laertes' honour vapourised as
soon as he committed himself to revenge when
he declared "To hell allegiance, vows to the
blackest devil, / Conscience and grace to the
profoundest pit!" (IV.v.131).
This is the paradox of the revenge ethic: it
is feelings disguised as duty. The revenger,
by definition, moves himself outside society's
codes of behaviour. What the revenger desires
is itself a paradox: natural justice, a code
of feeling aligned with a code of
civilisation. The revenger's refusal or
inability to go to the law puts him outside
the social bonds that prompt the desire for
revenge. In the Revenge Tragedy, the revenger
is polysemic (has more than one meaning): a
sign of chaos and a sign of the movement
towards destruction of that chaos. This is why
revengers, like Hamlet, must die. The
restoration of order requires the extinction
of anti-social elements. How can the rule of
law be established while they are still people
who would ignore the law?
[Back to the top.]
10. How might the dying lines of Gertrude,
Claudius and Laertes be viewed as typical of
the way their characters have been presented
throughout the play?
Gertrude says: "No, no, the drink, the drink
&emdash; o my dear Hamlet &emdash; / The
drink, the drink &emdash; I am poisoned." One
way to read this is that Gertrude is killed by
her sensual appetites. She insists on having
the drink just as she insists on remarriage.
Another, kinder, way of reading the line is to
say that it illustrates her love for Hamlet,
protecting him from danger, and for Claudius,
refusing to incriminate him as the source of
the poison.
Claudius says: "Oh yet defend me friends, I am
but hurt." So typical of Claudius to rely on
others to do his work, seemingly offering no
physical resistance to Hamlet at all.
Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the
King of England, the King of Norway, and
Laertes have all acted as the King's agents in
the play, with varying degrees of
incompetence.
Laertes gets a longer dying speech in which he
reflects upon the poetic justice of the King
dying by the poison he himself prepared. he
then goes on to offer and ask for Hamlet's
forgiveness, concluding, "Mine and my father's
death come not upon thee, / Nor thine on me".
Laertes experiences something of a moral
U-turn in his final moments, from the moment
just before he stabs Hamlet when he says it is
"almost against [his] conscience". This
reversal in Laertes' attitudes returns him to
the status of the "very noble youth" Hamlet
remembers him as in the graveyard scene. His
regret at his actions helps to emphasise the
anti-revenge theme of the play and the tragic
sense of waste in these deaths.
[Back to the top.]
Stagecraft
1. What means does Shakespeare use to raise
suspense during the graveyard scene?
The most obvious means is a visual cue. There
is an open grave on the stage. We know it is
Ophelia's, but Hamlet, despite his best
efforts, does not. The tension of the scene on
account of this dramatic irony rises from the
point at which Hamlet attempts to discover the
identity of the deceased at line 99, to the
point at which he finds out at line 209. The
open grave is also a sign of the death which
awaits all the major characters at the end of
the play. We have come from the plotting of
Hamlet's death in IV.vii to Hamlet jesting
unknowingly beside an open grave. The jokes
themselves, set against the grave and the
knowledge that Hamlet will die shortly might
be said to raise the tension. Hamlet's fight
with Laertes raises the suspense because it
intensifies the aggression between these
characters, an aggression which will of course
reach its climax in the following scene.
Lastly, Claudius promises to put the plan for
Hamlet's death into immediate operation at
line 262, raising our expectation of
catastrophe in the following scene.
[Back to the top.]
2. What means does Shakespeare use to raise
suspense during the fencing match?
As with the graveyard scene, there is a strong
sense of dramatic irony in the suspense of
this scene. We know that the sword Laertes
holds is sharpened and poisoned, and that the
drink is poisoned too, but Hamlet doesn't.
Shakespeare heightens the effect of these two
pieces of knowledge. he has Hamlet better at
fencing than Laertes. This way, the fencing
match is lengthened, the tension is raised,
and Laertes must compound his sin by striking
at Hamlet between bouts. Similarly, Hamlet
innocently refuses the poisoned wine, saying
he'll drink it after the next round. Again,
the tension is heightened through the
deferment of discovering the true nature of
the item.
Again, too, the tension has a very visible
focus. Shakespeare's theatre used few props
and so the ones that are used attain an extra
significance. Shakespeare has Claudius set the
wine upon a table, the only piece of furniture
in the scene, in order to draw the audience's
attention to it. Similarly, the only other
hand-props are the swords, investing them with
importance because of their singularity.
[Back to the top.]
Language and Imagery
1. In V.ii., Hamlet refers to Claudius as
"this canker of our nature". What makes this
so appropriate?
The word "canker" here, refers not to an
insect infestation of a plant as in modern
English and I.iii.39, but rather a cancer.
Claudius is like a cancer in the state of
Denmark because (a) his evil influence is
deadly; (b) it spreads as time passes,
infecting previously healthy cells; (c) it is
hidden from view; (d) it infects from the
centre outwards rather than from the
extremities and (e) radical surgery is
required to halt its spread. This line is the
climax of the disease imagery in the play and
its most explicit application. The image
possesses a gruesome brilliance which I find
almost shocking.
[Back to the top.]
Themes
1. Which characters view the ending as bloody
carnage and which as poetic justice? Why such
confusion?
Claudius' court, the lords, guards and
attendants in the final scene, certainly seem
to view the ending as a massacre. The court
seem to be unable to hear Laertes'
incrimination of the King because, as Hamlet
stabs Claudius, they cry out "Treason,
treason!". Later, at line 313, Hamlet
addresses the court, who are described as pale
and trembling at what they have seen.
Similarly, Fortinbras says that the pile of
bodies suggests "havoc" (343).
On the other hand, Laertes gives a clear
indication that he views Claudius and his own
death as just. He says he is "justly killed"
(287) and that Claudius is "justly served"
(306) because their evil plot has backfired
upon its inventors. Horatio appears to be of
the same opinion, telling Fortinbras that the
plots to kill Hamlet have "Fallen on
th'inventors' heads" (363) and promising to
explain more, as per Hamlet's dying wishes.
This double view, justice and chaos, is
absolutely deliberate and quite crucial to
understanding the end of the play. Confusion
on this issue forms a commentary upon what has
been achieved by the two revengers, Hamlet and
Laertes. They have achieved a kind of justice
and they have achieved a bloody massacre. This
is because revenge is and is not justice. It
punishes offenders, but without moral or legal
sanction to do so. It is in excess of justice,
always wanting more than fair punishment, yet
it is less than justice, driven by individual
desire rather than social necessity. The
ending of Hamlet is both poetic justice and
bloody carnage because that is what revenge is
like.
I would suggest that Hamlet worries about this
as he dies. In each of Hamlet's final three
speeches after Laertes' death, he asks Horatio
to report his story "aright" (318). Why such
insistence? Aside from his recommendation that
Fortinbras be made the next king, it is all he
says in his final speeches. We are not told
the reason, but the evident worry implies that
Hamlet is not sure what he has achieved. The
pale, trembling court (and this line is
partially addressed to the pale, trembling
audience, too) tell him that there is another
way of reading the climax of the play, one
that sees the pile of dead bodies and is
sickened by the waste. I do not believe that
Hamlet dies peacefully, but rather in an agony
of mistrust. In the Folio edition of the play,
Hamlet's last line is not "The rest is
silence", but "O, o, o, o", thought to signify
either a long sigh or a cry. Quite appropriate
really.
In this light, Horatio's account of the play's
events takes on a rich ambiguity:
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚSo shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural
acts,
Of accidental judgements, casual
slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning and
forced cause...
(360-2)
As Hamlet's friend, Horatio presumably means
Claudius' "carnal, bloody and unnatural acts"
(his murder of his brother and marriage to his
sister-in-law), Laertes' "accidental
judgement" of Hamlet, and Claudius, Laertes
and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's "cunning"
plots to kill Hamlet. The audience, however,
may be more critical and sceptical of Hamlet's
actions and wonder about Hamlet's judgement
and casual slaughter of Polonius, Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern. The speech promises
certainty but unwinds itself to expose
questions about what has been done and what
has been achieved.
[Back to the top.]
2. Who "wins" in Hamlet? How?
A first, not at all mischievous, suggestion is
that Death wins. This is one of the typical
features of tragedy. If the ending did not
feature wasteful death, we wouldn't view it as
a tragedy. Fortinbras implies this reading
when he asks: "O proud death, / What feast is
toward in thine eternal cell / That thou so
many princes at a shot / So bloodily hast
struck?" (343-46). Whatever other answers we
may find to this question, it is certainly
true that Death has scored a victory.
Hamlet wins up to a point. He achieves his
goal of killing Claudius. Also his dying
wishes, his story being told and Fortinbras
becoming King, seem likely to be achieved.
Dying somewhat undermines Hamlet's victory,
but he has been prepared for this for some
time.
Most certainly, however, Fortinbras wins. The
landless orphan gains everything he set out to
achieve at the start of the play and much
more. He assumes the throne of Denmark without
challenge on the basis of some rather vague
"rights of memory" (367). There are a couple
of things to be said about this. First, of the
three fatherless sons in the play, Hamlet,
Laertes and Fortinbras, Fortinbras is the only
one who survives and achieves full success.
Not coincidentally, he is also the only one of
the three who gives up his revenge. A kind of
moral is suggested by this: if you pursue
revenge you will get stabbed with a poisoned
sword, if you give it up you will become King
of Denmark. Fortinbras' victory again
emphasises an anti-revenge message to the
play. Second, Denmark has been taken over by a
foreign power. Everyone's worst fear at the
opening of the play has been made real. What
happens in V.ii. is a disaster for Denmark.
However, positive Hamlet and Laertes are about
having achieved their goals, the Danish are
likely to be less than positive about their
country being taken over by the Prince of
Norway, particularly since that prince has
every appearance of being an egocentric
warmonger. Shakespeare's tragedies are about
the deaths of Kings, Princes and Queens
because these people are important. The ending
of Hamlet isn't tragic just because of the
individual deaths, but rather because of the
impact of those deaths upon the entire
country.
Questions on
Act Five
Ian Delaney.
Copyright © 1997
Shakespearean Education
Last Updated: Monday, 23-Feb-98 11:35:00 EST
email: ian@hamlet.hypermart.net
