All About Hamlet: Act 3, scene 2

[Music] [Applause] hey welcome back to my channel so I'm Carly Stevens and this is English nerd and this is the middle of the all about Hamlet series that has been ongoing for a while and I intend to finish this today we're going to talk about act 3 scene 2 which is a doozy it's the play within a play lots of different movements within it lots of different important revelations so let's get started by the way I had to get burned so that's not a bruise or anything I'm fine I just got in the Sun and as you can see him fairly pasty white so I just kind of burned I've three Scene two starts with him like giving a bunch of advice to the players which came at the end of Act two scene two now these are actual professional actors and Hamlet is giving them advice about how to act he's saying things like don't over act don't under act and make sure that you're holding a mirror up to nature that's where that really famous line comes from in fact when I saw him let up in Denver a couple years ago in the bathroom they had hold a mirror the purpose of playing wasn't is to hold a mirror up to nature on the mirror in the bathroom which I thought was kind of kind of fun if you're a big nerd like me but it's funny if you read this scene and you realize look this is this is Hamlet speaking these big chunks here's how to act people and then the players are forced to be friendly and nice because he's a prince but you can tell they're kind of annoyed that he's telling him how to do their jobs as anybody would be of course we know that him look fancies himself an actor from the end of act 2 scene 2 when he gave that big speech the reason that Hamlet is so keen to make this particular play hold a mirror up to nature is that he's hoping that the mirror will reflect Claudius and his evil schemes of killing the previous king of course so that you'll kill show that he's guilty and Hamlet will know that he's not necessarily going insane jury's still out on that one but he'll realize that the ghost actually was telling him the truth about his murder so as soon as the players go to get ready for the play the next part of this scene is that Hamlet is choosing who his real friends are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern he dismisses out of hand in the most dismissive way possible here it says he tells him Allah tells Polonius but the players make haste Polonius goes to get tell the players to get ready and then Rosencrantz and Guildenstern awkwardly still stand there and Hamlet says will you help to hasten them I mean help to hasten them that's that's not a thing all they need for puts Polonius to say we're ready for you and so when Hamlet says that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern get the memo they are not really wanted there because Hamlet as we'll find out especially later sees them as betraying his trust but then as soon as everybody leaves he sees Horatio and acts in a completely different way he basically declares his love for Horatio people have interpreted this in a variety of different ways I am NOT going to get into all those but Hamlet says show me that man that is not passions slave and I will wear him in my heart score yes in my heart of hearts as I do thee well he admires so much about Horatio is that he's not blown about by the winds of emotion instead he's just a very steady person loyal to Hamlet through thick and thin Hamlet on the other hand tends to be blown about by whims and having Horatio there is a really calming and positive influence for him so he says you're my only true friend Horatio you're the one that I've chosen for myself he trusts Horatio so much that he actually tells him about the plan to trap Claudius through giving the play so he says ratio rivet your eyes to his face and and let me know that I'm not just seeing things what I what I want to see but if we both think that Claudius looks guilty as he's watching this play we have something as I was preparing for this video I learned that when Hamlet says okay that everybody coming to the play I must be idle get you a place that I actually can mean either the way that we think of it we have we have to be unoccupied idle or it can mean crazy that's interesting to me the word idle and the word distracted both mean crazy as well in Shakespeare so I don't know if that makes me crazy sometimes or what but anyway he says I must be idle I have to have to kind of act on occupied / crazy and that's really fun to stage when I put on this play a few years ago I had Hamlet just drape herself it was a girl who was playing Hamlet she didn't excellent job over these chairs and and just overact and it was it was magnificent so then everybody comes in to watch the play what ensues is a just a lot of group drama pretty much a hamlet just being sassy to everybody he keeps giving these zingers just keeps keeps him coming some of the gems from getting ready for the play my favourites are when Polonius acts like Captain Obvious he says I was actor one time and in Hamlet plays along and says oh yeah what did you do oh I did an act Julius Caesar Polonius says I was killed in the capital Brutus killed me it's like well yes that is the plot of Julius Caesar there Polonius and you can tell just by the way Hamlet responds that he's playing it off that's really awkward as well Gertrude his mother says here sit by me Hamlet because they're really really really really close but Hamlet says no no I'm gonna sit by Ophelia and make all these dirty jokes and prophy Lea again she does not deserve any of this justice for Ophelia Hamlet makes fun of his mother as well as she's laughing and having a good time at this play when really she should be mourning her father or not her father her husband her late husband and Hamlet just keeps keep serving at all of these all of these sassy comments one of the most poignant is right before the dumb show enters the silent pantomime of what the play is going to be about emili´s says look look you Ophelia hmm I'm just taking four all right look look you how cheerfully my mother looks and my father died within these two hours oh philia says nay tis twice two months my lord so it was four months ago when your father died so long Hamlet responsible then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year one a little water for that burn it's it's like there should just be a fountain turned on during this entire scene for all the burns that are flying around so the dumb show enters with some with some hot hot boys there okay confession for many years I thought that was some kind of servant you know maybe not a hot boy but you know some kind of person that would come in actually not so much hot boy is like an oboe oboe music so I was very wrong I realized this when I was reading Macbeth and there were some hot boys and one of the witches scenes when the witches were alone and it wouldn't make sense for them to have these servants running around so that's a little embarrassing but now you can avoid the making the same mistake that I did huh oh the oh the burns after the the dumb show which is hilarious to act out in class by the way if you're a teacher and you're preparing for your lesson how people act this out don't tell them what's going to happen just cast the people and tell them what to do it's hilarious Hamlet gets impatient to know philia says just calm down this is this is brief my lord to which Hamlet says as woman's love telling you fountain necessary then the play within a play starts now the play within a play is rather lengthy if I were Shakespeare's editor I know that's terrible to say but I would have cut this down it's a lot of couplets and it just kind of goes on and on but a couple of interesting things to think about while this play is going on one the play seems to be affecting not only Claudius at the end but also Hamlet Hamlet keeps muttering things like wormwood wormwood how like you this play mother and and he seems to be affected himself so that's interesting also he said at the end of Act two scene two that he was planning on putting in some dozen or sixteen lines into this play now the play doesn't get that far before him let just can't contain himself and spoils the ending and stands up and starts freaking out so the part that that it has been shown so far it's pretty much just the king saying I'm going to die and it's okay if you get married again to the Queen and the Queen says no no earth to give me food nor heaven light you know just take take all pleasure away from me if ever I think about marrying someone else after you have died it's extremely heavy-handed and it makes sense that Gertrude says the lady doth protest too much methinks it's a bit much Hamlet and then the King goes to sleep and the poisoner just comes in and starts saying his poisoning intro and that's all that they get through so I'm wondering what are the lines that Hamlet put in did he put in extra lines to make the poisoning a certain way like the point of poison in the ear exactly like his father was was killed or did he add lines to make his mother feel bad about remarrying Claudius because that still seems to be whereas focuses it's bizarre you think it would be on Claudius but it is not so much on Elias I've heard the beginning of the scene when Hamlet was arguing for realism don't be too loud and saw the arrow with your hand and don't be too tame but make sure that you actually are reflecting nature he doesn't even follow his own advice he gets to the end well not even the end of the play but the end of the play within a play that we see here and Hamlet says you know get get to the point get to the point finally Hamlet stands up and says he gives the rest of the plot of the mousetrap which is his his sassy shorthand name for the murder of Gonzago which is actually the play so he stands up but he says he that is the poison her poisons him in the garden for his estate Chelsea anon how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago wife he just spoils the whole thing but it works cuz the King Rises and and says give away the play that's that's enough now that's a fascinating moment the moment when Claudia stands up despite the lack of realism in the play because at that moment Claudius knows that Hamlet knows about the murder and also at that moment Hamlet knows that Claudius knows both of them have this understanding that it is a race to murder essentially who can get to the other person first so the stakes just shoot right up at that moment and Hamlet is interestingly thrilled by this turn of events he is just giddy he's so excited that finally he knows for sure that Claudius has killed his his father so he can take some action at last his mind set after this is so so weird and funny and murderous and scary that we get an amazing scene as soon as everybody just runs off stage everybody turns on the lights and all the players flee he checks with Horatio just double checks and says did you see it did you see him standing and Horatio says yeah yeah absolutely you're pure right he's he's guilty Rosencrantz and Guildenstern come in right after that to say so Hamlet you behaved really badly and your mother wants to talk to you remember at the end of Act three Scene 1 Polonius said let Gertrude talk to him that maybe she can find out the cause of his madness and then if she can't then send him to England you remember all that because you saw the previous video right right yes so Rosencrantz and Guildenstern come in to relay that message to see his mother and Hamlet has such incredible lines he just he's so cruel to them really and I feel bad they don't deserve to be shoved off to the side and not cared about the way that that Hamlet shoves them off to the side but at the same time it is just beautiful the language that he uses which is one of the reasons that I like this play so much even the language in the darkest moments the to be or not to be speech here even when he's talking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern after the play the beauty of the language implies the value of humanity the people who are using this kind of language and I'll get more into that later I think but it's one of the reasons that I prefer Hamlet to even modern comedies there's something more life-affirming in Hamlet that I don't see underlying a lot of more modern light-hearted things the understanding in those is that life is not fundamentally meaningful unless you make it so and in Hamlet the understanding is that despite the darkness it always matters so poor on that later I could get into it obviously so him--let while Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are there grab a recorder you know like you everybody learns in 4th grade for reasons unknown and he starts saying why don't you what do you play this recorder and Guildenstern says I can't I literally don't know how to play the recorder and Hamlet gets in raged and says really you can't play this recorder but you're gonna play me good luck but he says it in such a beautiful eloquent way obviously you read it or seen it I would recommend watching the Kenneth Branagh version of this particular scene because he does - great job acting crazy and cruel and funny all at the same time which is just the tone that you need for something like this alright everybody leaves and then Hamlet is alone and gives kind of a mini soliloquy about his bloodthirstiness at this point he says not good I drink hot blood and do such it's do such white let's see do such bitter business as the day would quake to look on its he is very scary this moment is one of his most terrifying it's almost like he's summoning up some sort of darkness within himself to carry out what he needs to carry out but then rather than talking about Claudius again you think that's who you would be thinking of at this moment and perhaps he is the person that he brings up is his mother soft now - my mother let not the soul of nero enter this firm bosom let me be cruel not a natural I will speak daggers to her but use none he's concerned that he's going to kill his mother he's that bloodthirsty at this point Nero killed his his mother and some other stuff so that's why Nero comes up there I don't want to be like that I'm not going to kill my mother but I will make her rethink her life choices now if you're following along in this entire series and you're ready for the next video I want you to remember I will speak daggers to her but use none because Gertrude in the next scene is going to say is going to reference daggers like his words are like daggers entering into her ears which is exactly what he wanted he wanted the words to enter like daggers into her ear but remember the ghosts advise his instruction it was to get revenge on Claudius and to leave his mom alone so far he is doing neither of these things so we'll see next time it's yes and actually next time it will not be the the closet scene with his mother that'll be the time after next time it's going to be the climax the turning point the moment when Hamlet could have everything he wanted and you'll see go go watch and read it ahead of time and stay tuned next Monday for the next video so if you liked this make sure to subscribe to my channel for more Hamlet II and English nerd goodness because I will post every Monday if you have any question or comment I would love to field those obviously I'm a big fan of Hamlet so please join the conversation and put in a comment below okay I'll see you next Monday

Channel: English Nerd

Views: 3,664

Rating: 4.8983049 out of 5

Keywords: english nerd, hamlet 3.2, hamlet murder of gonzago, hamlet act 3 scene 2, hamlet act 3 summary, hamlet act 3 analysis, shakespeare's hamlet, hamlet and horatio, rosencrantz and guildenstern, the lady doth protest too much, hamlet summary, hamlet analysis, hamlet act 3 summary and analysis

Id: Jah7SaCXoEU

Length: 18min 14sec (1094 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 04 2018