All About Hamlet: Act 4, scene 5

[Music] [Applause] and welcome back to my channel today we are gonna talk about Hamlet act 4 scene 5 which is a doozy I would say going to get through this as quickly as possible but heaven knows that's probably not going to be very fast so just a couple of things first of all its spoilers by this time you should know that you should read or watch these these scenes before coming to this commentary the point of this series has not been just to give you summary but something to chew on beyond what happens purely so act 4 scene 5 picks up the story in the falling action of this tragedy Hamlet has been sent to England the last we heard of him he gave this big rousing speech right before he got on the ship with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern having passed to the Norwegian army and that is supposed to help Claudius dispose of him as a threat so that's where we're picking up but let's not forget Hamlet is not he's he's personally away but the consequences of his actions are still very much present in everybody in the play Hamlet is too self-absorbed to realize this apparently but when he killed Polonius it was not an isolated incident no matter what you think about Polonius he is not someone who lives in a bubble he was somebody who yes annoying but he was somebody who had a family notably to children who are drastically affected by the sudden murder of their father so that's the context of act 5 scene or act 4 scene 5 or not to act 5 quiet yet so at the beginning of the scene we have my trusty book we have the Queen Horatio and a gentleman nobody cares about the gentleman I don't know why Shakespeare didn't just conflate this with somebody that we've already met but whatever the Queen starts off the scene by saying I will not speak with her probably trying to create some suspense or something but honestly there are only two ladies in this play worth mentioning am i right and that is Gertrude the Queen and Oh fie Lea so right away we know who she's talking about and when the gentleman starts explaining in these hesitating hints who this is and what has happened to her we should know right away whether or not we're familiar with this play that it is Ophelia what he's talking about he says the gentleman that is for instance she speaks much of her father okay confirmed that her father's murder had a huge impact on her uh says that she speaks things in doubt the carry but half sense so in a roundabout kind of way he's trying to warn the Queen that Oh fie Lea is not in her right mind it seems like there might be thought and yet there isn't he he says these different things and once again I have to say I feel so sorry for Ophelia I don't think that she deserves the terrible terrible fate that awaited her she just wasn't prepared for the level of tragedy that her life would entail and although she is not blameless completely she did have an illicit kind of relationship with him like the background she certainly didn't deserve all this pain that that she goes through so Horatio says it probably would be a good idea to talk to her if that general population gets ahold of Ophelia before you do rumors could start spreading it can be really really bad for your reign so you probably should talk to her so after Horatio says that the Queen allows her to come in after saying for you to my sick soul she says to herself the Queen as sins true nature is each toy seems prologue to some great amiss so her soul is sick the Queen has as the ghost set at the beginning her has her conscience eating away at her and she knows now that the King has done now she feels like every bad thing is like the beginning of the end it's not something small it's something that is massive and frankly ophelia going crazy is pretty massive so affiliate enters and her first line is where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark for a long time I didn't notice that line I always just assumed that she was talking to the Queen then she was so disoriented that she didn't know where where she was but it's kind of an ambiguous line she could be talking about the majesty of Denmark in general that Hamlet has started to unravel just the majesty of Denmark the country itself since he's one of the leaders she could be talking about Hamlet because in the eyes of Ophelia anyway he was beauteous or she could be talking about the Queen so there is some room for interpretation there that I had not considered until recently so take that as you will then she starts singing that's a really really famous scene she she comes in and immediately everybody can tell that she's crazy from the moment she walks in says that she enters distracted and distracted means crazy which is interesting just given our current situation in the world I personally feel like I'm distracted all the time TS Eliot's line about modern society being distracted from distraction with by distraction it feels so relevant with phones and media and everything but originally in Shakespeare's time if you were distracted then at least in a certain sense you were crazy so feely is distracted and starts singing these apparently nonsense songs but there is a lot of meaning to them the songs tend to center around two different themes one is the death of her father the murder of Polonius he is dead gone lady he is dead and gone and the other theme is that of a lover who came and then of and the woman without without marrying her so it seems pretty clear that in code like barely even code she is describing why she's why she's in saying the things that plague in her mind day in and day out the fact that the man that she slept with and had no intention of marrying her apparently which especially in this culture was so taboo has now just lost his mind and treated her poorly but beyond that murdered Oh philia is not generally one to speak up and speak her mind if you think through the different scenes that she's been in she told her father about Hamlet's madness she went along with the plan to be the bait essentially to see if Hamlet was mad for love and he was she was treated very poorly there here when she goes to the Queen the Queen keeps trying to calm her down and and Ofili aqip saying no listen to me listen to me and then starts dropping these these riddle like truth bombs on everybody which which I kind of like I wish that the king and queen would learn more from aphelion and what she has to say but it's she finally here as she's losing her mind is starting to get some real agency and the in the plot and saying no listen I have something that is that you need to hear so the King comes in in the middle of Afilias crazy sad songs and says a line that's really difficult not to say in a creeper voice I'm so proud of the person who played the King in the version that I put on we tried this line about a million times tried not to make it sound like some creepy old man hitting on this young woman but it was I think he did the best he could but honestly this line just sounds creepy and no matter how you slice it King comes in the Queen says look here my lord as though he needed and he sort of prompting look at her crazy and the king says how do you pretty lady that's just kind of a cringe-worthy line come on King the heck is wrong with you Oh philia an answer doesn't doesn't really answer but she continues to talk and I think that the Nugget of what we're supposed to get out of this scene and largely out of the play at least one of the main things is buried here in her crazy rambling she says Lord we know what we are but know not what we may be we know we are but know not what we may be not sure who she's thinking about the most there is it herself is it Hamlet but anyway it does it does beg the question we know what we are but we know not what we may be all of these characters are kind of in the realm of of common human experience who who are we going to be it's almost like this pale reflection of Hamlet's speech in act 4 scene 4 or his what he says to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern act 2 scene 2 when he talks about how great mankind can be in yet how how fallen and how broken they can be as well so I don't think this is meant to be hopeless this line Lord we know what we are but we know not what we may be I think it's meant to just prompt a little bit of self-reflection what what are we capable of and in light of that what should we what should we be what should we do what action steps should we take o philia finishes or crazy songs with pretty explicit I don't know bar songs about how about the fact that she slept with Hamlet essentially and so those those doubts maybe that you had an active one scene 3 when Laertes was saying be careful it's like have you already done it yes yes she has which was very poor decision especially given how Hamlet turned out in the end she says I hope all will be well so there's a hint of optimism there I don't know if it's real optimism but you just say my brother shall know of it so for those of you who forgot about lair C's shame on you Laertes is a fantastic character especially shown in these final few scenes of the play he's one of my favorite characters even though of all the versions of Hamlet that I've seen and there have been quite a few I've never loved the casting of lair T's I always feel like they just do him a bit of a disservice by making him not as awesome as he could be but anyway Ophelia brings him up has almost a warning and exits saying good night ladies good night sweet ladies good night good night now for any of you massive English nerds out there who have also studied some TS Eliot that line probably will sound familiar from the wasteland I'm not going to waste my time talking about every Shakespeare's Hamlet reference in other literature but that one I find I find interesting so next time you read the wasteland or if you have to study it in college then check it out look for Afilias parting line the wording is exact the scene is an action-packed scene but in between the time when Ophelia leaves and Horatio is supposed to be the one who looks after her note the King gives a speech not really a speech monologue he speaks to to Gertrude and says a few things that are of note I'm not going to go through all of it but basically this is this is so terrible when sorrows come they come not single spies but in battalions that line has come to my mind just in my life you know how when it rains it pours really good things kind of come in waves really bad things kind of come in waves for the royal family of Denmark at this time it's the bad stuff that is coming in waves not in single spies but in battalions just attacking another thing if that just has always made me kind of laugh is that the king in this speech which is so intense about the evils of life and how lophelia has been divided from and everything's falling to pieces he uses the word hugger-mugger i just really is this the time when you would think to use hugger-mugger that is the oddest the oddest choice of words more important though is what happens after there is a noise a sudden noise the King says where is my Switzer's because people from Switzerland were like these mercenaries at the time and he uses the singular I told you this was an english nerd channel so here we are where is my Switzer's because that was an old way of referring to a couple people who are doing the same thing sort of like we do with a group I guess so Switzer's get on its hit dead Laertes comes Larry T's yeah I think he is one of the coolest characters cuts what does he do when he learns about his father's murder well he should pause not quite like Hamlet but he should pause and figure out who the actual murderers more on that later but Larry's immediately leaves France where he's been hanging out and doing his thing comes back to Denmark and in a blink of an eye gets together this this mob to storm the castle and see justice done I don't know how you can get a mob together on your side so quickly who think that you should be the king of the country but men Larry G's has to have some kind of following or maybe it's people from Paris also who are very Pro hilarities but anyway he has this group of people who want to see him be the king fascinating I mean what about Hamlet like bring him back from England but no oh the rabble called him Lord the gentleman says and all this mob keep crying out Larry you shall be king Larry T's King they break the doors down this scene is just so dramatic I love it they break the doors down Larry cheese comes in he's completely armed he talks to all of his mob outside and says no you stay stay guard the door I'm gonna take care of this myself I'm gonna see justice done without a big big mob it's just going to be me and the perpetrator of this crime so all of the mobs stay outside and guard the door to make sure that nobody escapes clarity's storms in toward the king and says give give me my father so immediately we know that Lera T's has misperceived this situation he thinks that Claudius killed Polonius but that of course it is false there are hints throughout this whole exchange between Laertes and Claudius I love this scene it's so much ah-huh that are just so fascinating for instance as they're talking the Queen keeps defending Claudius both bodily and in what she says the King has to keep saying let let it let him go Gertrude let him go because she's physically holding back Laertes now I don't know I don't think Gertrude is like this super super strong woman and Lera T's is a young grown man who's armed and full of rage to me this says this says a whole lot of things but Laertes can't be going toward Claudius with all of his strength if Gertrude is able to hold him back effectively even though he's armed and everything I feel like something gives him a bit of hesitation maybe he's not positive that he has the correct person I'm not quite sure but that's really interesting one of the the clearest places where we see her sure defending Claudius out of love out of fear I don't know is here right after Lera T's comes in so they are T's comes in right there and I'm looking down here the King says tell me Lera T's why thou art so thus incensed let him go Gertrude speak man so the king is actually really impressive in this scene Claudius is a terrible person but he shows such bravery here it's kind of hard not to admire him so Lera T's response where is my father the King just says dead he's of the hamlet school of SAS and the Queen says but not by him the king but the King didn't do it it's so good the interplay of all these characters there's there's there are way too many hypothetical situations as far as motive and all of that go but I just wanted to point out a few of those little pieces so that you can come to your own conclusions about what what the dynamic is in that room because I just think it's electric I think it's really incredible and you can see from the Kings point of view yes he is courageous he doesn't really know what Lera T sits there for he might suspect but he's not positive storms toward him and as soon as he finds out the Laertes is there to kill the murderer of Polonius the Kings that you won't mind starts going and he thinks perfect perfect remember the Kings reasons for not just dispatching Hamlet after the murder were that the general public loved and Gertrude as well loved Hamlet more than they loved him so if he took all of this revenge on Hamlet then he would get the brunt of the backlash heaving Claudius so when he sees that Lera T's also wants to get rid of the same person even though he might not know yet Claudius thinks actually this is a this is a dreamy situation if I can direct the rage of this young man to Hamlet's then I can get all suspicion off myself he can have his revenge I can have Hamlet out of the way and it's a win win win win win situation but that's only if he can not be killed by clarity's first so the king being the consummate politician says good Laertes if you desire to know the certainty of your dear father's death is it written your revenge that scoops take you will draw both friend and foe winner and loser would you just indiscriminately slaughter people in your quest of a revenge or do you want to take out the one who's actually guilty Lera T's response I want to take out none but his enemies that is the enemies of his father King says will you know them then want to know who did it want to know he just tantalizing it's fantastic I love it but that's not all this scene is so packed it's not like Act two scene two packed that thing's a beast but this is not tweaking oh philia being crazy we get Laertes coming and demanding to be the King about to kill him but then not because he has the wrong man interestingly but we also get a philia coming back in and this is probably the most heartbreaking scene in the play in a way at least Laertes saying his sister crazy for the first time is just painfully heart-rending before I talk about it just one more note about the part before and that is I believe I mentioned it before I'm sure I have but as a reminder all of this should have make it clear that we have several different foils for Hamlet setup Hamlet and Claudius are not very very clear foils because they both murdered innocent men whose sons are out for revenge but also Laertes and Hamlet find themselves in a really similar situation trying to get a revenge for their father's murder but in the case of Lera T's Hamlet is kind of that Claudius figure so a lot of really interesting stuff going on but back to well philia depending on the version you have of this play either a general group of Danish people or the king say let her come in when the Euro philia making sounds I think it's more compelling to have the King say this line let her come in because it's as though he knows what he's what he's doing he knows what he's about to do to Lera T's I don't know this theory might be undermined about what he says at the end of the scene but no we'll follow the theory and see see where it goes Lera T's is completely devastated we saw a knife one seen three how close the two siblings were it's almost a creepy degree of closeness I don't know what it is what the family is in this palace but he is completely devastated oh philia it's hard to tell if she she picks up on how sad he is but a version that I really liked of Hamlet was actually a local production just a black box kind of show and and while huh ry lophelia is singing here she takes she took Lera T's hands and just danced around with him and it was almost like this they were both mourning their father in a really sweet kind of roundabout way like they couldn't go to the funeral together because he was away and she went crazy and so this is the moment that they had to mourn the father that they both loved so much despite all of his flaws so and I just think that's that's beautiful even Polonius for all of his knows eNOS and know-it-all attitude and just all of this all the stupid things about his character even he mattered so much to these people that it was enough to break them I think I just think that the value of human life in this story despite the fact that it's so much about people getting killed shines through really clear hi digress I always digress if my students are watching this go say yeah sounds about right ah they don't feel they start sending out flowers is really famous scene for most productions have her not actually carrying flowers because these are a lot of different kinds that it would not make sense for her to have really and just giving out fake flowers to the different people I love in some ways that Shakespeare doesn't really have a lot of stage directions throughout his plays because you can decide who these flowers are for you can decide if really almost everything about these plays except for the dialog as long as you stay true to the dialog and the themes and what you can peace out from the from the characters and all of that you have so much freedom to do what you want and one of the places where you can have that freedom is here as Ophelia is handing out flowers for the different people in the room different people in the room there are three the King the Queen and Laertes and each flower has a symbolic meaning that people in Shakespeare's time would have been much more aware of than we are today so I'm just gonna quickly run through them you can decide who would get each of these flowers it's fascinating to think through each of those three I say fascinating a lot from realizing but it's interesting it's a good thought experiment to go through each the King the Queen and Lera tease and see how would that cymbal fit them okay so the first one she actually points out what they mean there's rosemary for remembrance and she adds pretty love remember in the black box version that I saw she gave that one to Laertes and it was really touching but that can go in a lot of different directions and there's pansies that's for thoughts she says fennel comes next and that one stands for flattery according to most flower symbolism experts columbines are next and that symbolizes infidelity which is kind of a bummer because I'm a Colorado girl in Columbine this part of the state flower but oh well that's infidelity there drew for you and that represents regret which makes sense because that's still a meaning of the word rue you know rue the day so regret she passes out and then there's Daisy which stands for unhappy love and then there are violets which means faithfulness but she says I can't give you I can't give any of you violets because they've all died when my father died so those are the flowers that she hands out and then she sings another song primarily about the death of her father and leaves I don't know if Horatio is still supposed to be the one watching her but we need to keep an eye on lophelia at this point in the play and who is supposed to be keeping an eye out just a side note it might be might be Horatio because he was the first one to watch her as she left and now he doesn't seem to be here I don't know where ratio ran off to but I guess we got a clue in the next scene Laertes back to the actual point is so distraught that he cries out this visceral kind of human cry do you see do you see this guy do you do you see this horrific injustice how is it that an old man's life should outlive a young maids wits I think is what he says anyway how how is there justice and then so what can I do to make this right that's what Lera T's cry is and so the King tries to feed that fire just bit by bit and says okay get together the people that you know are good at judging in matters like this and then they'll tell you that the evidence does not point to me at all the points to someone else and the King ends the scene with this line where the offense let the great axe fall makes sense in context the king is a horse a key about Hamlin he wants Laertes to go after Hamlet and kill him where the offense is let the great axe fall but Hamlet is not the only one who is committed a great offense in this story so it is again pretty ironic that the King says this because it looks like that's generally going to be true of all the characters who are guilty and the characters who are who are guiltless as well okay this video has already been way too long I'm gonna try to edit it out just a smidge but anyway hopefully you enjoyed this I love this scene so much if you have some questions or comments be sure to put them in the comment section below I like this video if you like it and make sure to subscribe to my channel for more good English nerdiness because I put out new videos every Monday and I would love to give you more what you would like to see alright see you on the day

Channel: English Nerd

Views: 2,567

Rating: 4.9459457 out of 5

Keywords: english nerd, Hamlet act 4, Hamlet 4.5, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet act 4 scene 5, Ophelia crazy scene, Laertes, Hamlet summary, Hamlet analysis, shakespeare hamlet, william shakespeare, hamlet

Id: MhCnN2_zY18

Length: 29min 43sec (1783 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 01 2018