All About Hamlet: Act 3, scene 3

[Music] [Applause] welcome back to my channel my name is Carly Stevens and this is English nerd specifically the all about Hamlet's series today we're gonna be talking about act 3 scene 3 which is an amazing scene in Shakespeare's Hamlet that I love lots and lots of reasons and I'm gonna share some of those with you today so as always I hope that you've seen or read this scene before coming to this video let's get started so act 3 scene 3 I tend to think of as the climax or the turning point of the story I don't like to use the word climax because normally people think of that as the dramatic moment at the end you know and everything comes to a head and everybody's dropping dead and all that stuff spoilers I mean I'm not telling you who's dropping dead if you haven't gotten that far but it's a Shakespearean tragedy we know some stuff's gonna go down so I like to think of it as the turning point so there's exposition at the beginning of any tragedy where you kind of set the scene you figure out where you are orient yourself to the characters in the place and then in the case of Hamlet we have the ghost of hearing - Hamlet and saying I was murdered you need to a get revenge on my murderer Claudius so that is the exciting action or the complication of the pot which sets everything really in motion in the the rising action the rising action is when the protagonist Hamlet is seeming to succeed in his goals and things are going well for him relatively and it looks like he's making positive steps towards hit whatever he wants to accomplish in this case to prove Claudius is guilty and to take him out now act 3 scene 3 is when he has his chance he has his chance and he lets it slip through his fingers so let's let's talk about this but first cue spoilers I'm three Scene three starts out and it has three characters in the scene it's the King Claudius Rosencrantz and Guildenstern the King if you remember in the scene just before this has figured out that him knows about the murder for sure so not only does Hamlet know that Claudius is guilty for sure but Claudius knows that Hamlet knows about his guilt so it's a race to see who can defeat the other one first essentially so the king is going to send Hamlet to England if you remember they're Danes they're vikings essentially and so they need to go and gather some tribute from the people living in England at the time became sins Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to go with Hamlet now you remember Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Hamlet are kind of on the outs Rosencrantz and Guildenstern I think will always be tight I mean they have no identity outside of each other but Hamlet has made it very very clear that he has no interest in being friends with either one of them anymore so why the King chooses to send Rosencrantz and Guildenstern I'm not sure probably because they're just around Horatio might be a better bet but whatever so what we get in fact three scene three is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern response which essentially boils down to Rosencrantz is aligned at the end of his rather lengthy line there that says never alone did the King sigh but with a general groan so yes we'll help you because the health mental health and goodness of the King impacts the entire nation and everybody feels the effects of that now Rosencrantz does not know that he's being essentially prophetic they're gonna get to act 5 scene 2 will find that that is 100% correct that all of Denmark is affected by these events it's not just the royal family Rosencrantz and Guildenstern don't know about the murder of course they're still fairly ignorant but they do know that something's wrong Hamlet and so they're saying yeah well we'll help help out with this after that Polonius comes in and he announces that he is going to Gertrude's closet now if I think I've mentioned it before but a closet it's just a bedroom a personal room it's not like she hangs out in her closet like a weirdo I didn't mention this before because of Oh Helia I was sewing in my closet so again a closet just means hey a bedroom so plenteous says I love Polonius here I love Polonius in every place he's so the phonation doesn't realize it but my favorite thing he says here as he's just announcing I'm gonna go and make sure that when Gertrude talks to Hamlet that I overhear everything and then I will report back to you check this out he says and as you said and wisely was it said tis meat that some more audience than a mother since nature makes some partial should over here in the speech now this wouldn't be all that interesting except whose idea was it the Polonius hide behind the tapestry over here everything let's go back shall we - page no you guys don't have the same bug I always do that English teacher problems at the end of Act three Scene 1 is what I'm liking yet Polonius is the one who says yeah I'll as long as it's okay with you I'll be placed in the ear of all their conference let him talk to his mom all over here it wasn't Claudius's idea at all but I think what he's trying to do is get on the Kings good side and say wasn't it a great idea you had for me to overhear this whole thing hope low Gnaeus god bless you so he leaves and the King is left alone now this next part is so interesting to me no one else in this play gets any soliloquies except for Hamlet he has the big four as well as a couple of mini soliloquies like we saw in the last scene when he says now could I drink hot blood and he's being really terrifying here the king though does get a soliloquy he gets some lines by himself we see inside his mom and it is fascinating he's tormented by guilt which we'd already gotten a glimpse of a night 3 scene 1 when he's when he feels bad because of a throwaway comment that Polonius made but here he's trying to pray he's trying to pray and be forgiven for killing his brother and taking his wife and the kingdom no this speech is really it really brings up some universally interesting points I think so I wanted to briefly address some of those Claudius is thinking through what mercy is for he he starts out his soliloquy saying my my offense is rank what I've done is so despicable maybe I can't ever be forgiven for this but then he thinks well what's the point of Mercy the point of Mercy he he says and we had to take it with a grain of salt because it is Claudia speaking here but he says we're to serves mercy but to confront the village of offense so in more modern terms that would be why why does Mercy exist except to come face to face with sin with evil and to forgive forgive the evil that has occurred or to prevent it from happening ahead of time those are what he says are the two reasons that Mercy exists so he says ok well what else is mercy for but for forgiveness and what is forgiveness for unless there has been sin so maybe there's a chance for me and it's it's one of those things that I think is just a really universal kind of way of thinking just thinking through men I've done something so so terrible can I ever be forgiven but that's what forgiveness is forgiveness by definition almost must forgive the unforgivable so chew on that so after he thinks about mercy he says then I'll look up there could be some some hope for me I look up and and pray my fault has passed he says but Oh what form of Prayer can serve my turn forgive me my foul murder that cannot be since I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder my crown mine own ambition and my Queen may one be pardoned and retain the offense that question I think is at the heart of this entire saloum may want to be pardoned and retain the offense what are you saying is can I be forgiven and still keep everything that I gained from my sin in a lot of small ways I think that we deal with this like could I be could I be forgiven for I don't know that that shady business deal if I'm not willing to give up the money that I gained from it as well he's Claudius is thinking do I have to give up the Queen or have to give up the kingdom do I really have to go through all of that if I'm gonna have a hope to be forgiven and it's a real question it's something that I think is is pretty heartfelt and I like that about Shakespeare and Shakespeare you don't run into that many characters that are unequivocally good most people aren't but you also don't run into that many purely evil characters either everybody has this element of humanity to them and that is one of the things that just makes him so so good the temptation to make a character just good or just evil can be pretty strong but Shakespeare doesn't give us those easy answers even with this antagonist he throws out some some very human very honest thoughts that are worth listening to so this speech is fascinating I really like it the drama is fantastic because as soon as Claudius chooses to pray and close his eyes and face away Hamlet comes in this is his chance he is not going to get a better chance to kill Claudius than this because there is nobody else in the room his eyes are closed he's focused on something else Hamlet will not get a better shot than this that's why this is the turning point the climax the moment we could get everything that he wanted that revenge but we'll see that he doesn't choose that now I've been mentioning especially two different versions of the movie Hamlet and I think that you all should watch if you have that the timer ability and those are the one but Kenneth Branagh and the one by David Tennant it's the other one so David Tennant is a really good rendition I think that Patrick Stewart who plays Claudius very well I might add does this speech exceptionally well there's a reason that he's well known as a Shakespearean actor and in that rendition David Tennant as Hamlet comes in he has this sort of crooked crown because he's just coming off that crazy high of realizing that Claudius is guilty from the play before and he he enters just as justice Claudius is praying and closing his eyes and facing away it's a very powerful moment Kenneth Branagh takes it in a slightly different way with Claudius who's played by Derek Jacobi in a confessional on one side and Hamlet on the other side this works I think because what Kenneth Branagh chose to do he was the director as well was to kind of have him fantasize about stabbing Claudius in the ear as he was praying which is disgusting and not super enjoyable to watch but I think it's well done because if you think about it that's how Claudius killed his father by pouring poison into his ear so having a kind of eye for an eye death would be would be quite interesting actually probably the best rendition of this speech that I've heard was when I put the play on myself at the school back in 2014 the guy that I cast as Claudius if you're out there watching by the way you know who you are that was so good it was ridiculous it was so so good he he really dug deep for this particular soliloquy and the only criticism that I gave was that it was it was it was so honest and so quiet and so so heart-rending Lee real I mean he was shaking it was it was so good that the audience sometimes couldn't hear and he needed to project somewhere but I almost hated to give him that direction because it was so outstanding I mean he he he knew that character inside and out hi I am grateful to him to this day for how how well he did in that role anyway I'd like it oh sidetracked this is already a long enough video I'm sure so Hamlet comes in not might I do it Pat now he's praying now I'll do it and everybody in the audience is thinking yes he's going to stab Claudius is gonna be super intense and you know the reason he doesn't kill Claudius is that he would be sending close to heaven at least that's what Hamlet thinks because Claudius is praying he's asking for forgiveness Hamlet thinks well he's gonna be forgiven and soul is going to be cleansed and he will then go to heaven my father on the other hand he thinks is in purgatory he was killed and his soul was not prepared what kind of revenge is it if I essentially give Claudius the reward of going to heaven what I want he says is to send him to hell this I find him ly interesting I don't like him personally though and this is one of the one of the reasons why he wants revenge that is so thorough that it doesn't just mean death in this life it means death in the next that's grandma that's bleak he says no up sword and then Noah thou a more horrid hint when he's drunk asleep or in his rage and he gives this list of possible sinful situations that he could find Claudius and so that he could kill him that way and so he decides not to not to kill Claudius this is one of the examples people point to and they say that Hamlet's tragic flaw is indecision he talks himself out of killing Claudius when he has the perfect opportunity he over analyzes and walks away well see in the next scene that overanalyzing doesn't seem to be his only flaw there are times and he just acts impulsively and so I I don't know that I fully agree with that even though it's kind of that the party line to say so the King leaves and the earth oh I'm sorry not the king hamlet leaves and then Claudius gets up and he just says two lines but the two lines change everything about this scene I'm gonna read them to you so the final scene the final lines of Act three Scene three the King not knowing what's happened behind him Rises and says my words fly up my thoughts remain below words without thoughts never to heaven go he's trying to pray but his heart's not in it his words are going up but his thoughts are remaining here he knows that he's not gonna give up anything that he gained and so the whole exercise was futile why does this matter because he would have gotten to help according to the play he would have gone to hell if Hamlet had killed him right then his soul was not right his prayers weren't sincere Claudius just gives it up and so this that's why this whole thing is a is beautifully ironic so ironic in the sense that the opposite the outcome is the opposite of what's expected in in every possible way so it's a cool turning point from this point forward everything just unravels horribly and spirals into confusion and madness and death and things pick up the pace just gets relentless after this scene but hopefully I'm enjoyed some of these thoughts that I've had on act 3 scene 3 maybe it's clarified maybe these thoughts have clarified something for you if you have had questions about this part of the play if you do have any additional questions or things you want me to cover in later videos please include them in the comments below and I will get to all of those in time alright thank you for joining me if you haven't subscribed to my channel yet make sure you do so that you are alerted every Monday when I come out with new videos alright until then see you on Monday

Channel: English Nerd

Views: 2,506

Rating: 4.8461537 out of 5

Keywords: Hamlet 3.3, Hamlet act 3 scene 3, Teaching hamlet act 3, Hamlet act 3, All About Hamlet, English Nerd, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Claudius soliloquy, Words without thoughts never to heaven go, Hamlet and claudius, Hamlet act 3 analysis, Hamlet act 3 summary, Act 3 Hamlet, hamlet summary, hamlet analysis

Id: 4ISYLntkuSw

Length: 18min 17sec (1097 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 18 2018