All About Hamlet: Act 4, scenes 6-7

[Music] [Applause] so welcome back to my channel my name is Carly Stevens and this is English nerd we are getting to the end of the all about Hamlet series that I've been doing for a super long time today we are going to talk about I'm going to talk about don't want to do that Claudius Royal we thing act for scenes six and seven which bring us to the end of act 4 and most of the falling action alright let's dive in obviously as always I have a lot to say so I'll try to be as fast as I can act 4 scene X poor scene 6 is a very short sing and it just has a ratio reading a letter from Hamlet but I want you to notice a couple of things of hang on first prep say they're going to be lots of spoilers in this so I want you to notice that Horatio was supposed to watch Oh philia crazy Ophelia in the previous scene and he did not return with Ophelia when she came back into the room and Laertes saw her and was very heartbroken so it seems to me that Horatio got sidetracked by these sailors that appear in act 4 scene 6 the servant and the sailors give Horatio a letter from Hamlet that he wrote while out at sea so let's just take a quick look at this letter and I want you to notice the ratio apparently abandoned o philia that is not good I'm a big Horatio fan not as big a fan as Hamlet is maybe but still I don't think that that speaks super well of him okay the letter to of Horatio from Hamlet says that pirates attacked while they well Rosencrantz Guildenstern and Hamlet were on the way to England there was a pirate attack a pirate a very warlike appointment's gave us chase finding ourselves too slow of sail we put on a compelled valour and in the grapple I boarded them on the instant they got clear of our ship I alone became their prisoner I saw a post on Pinterest while ago that said all you need to know about Hamlet is that the plot is so convoluted that there is a pirate attack and it's treated as a minor pony - the action doesn't even happen on the screen or on stage and that made me laugh because it's kind of true here is off stage a complete pirate attack lots of odd things about this pirate attack one Hamlet is the only one who goes all kamikaze and runs on the pirate ship to attack and then as soon as he's on there the pirate ship pulls away now to meet my first thought is the Pirates are taking Hamlet for ransom he's he's a prince there are pirates and so they could get a good ransom if they just kidnap them and and then bring it back however that does not seem to be the case because there is no mention of a ransom demanded here and Hamlet rights they have dealt with me like thieves of mercy but they know what they did I'm to do a turn for them I am I I'm going to come and say hi and then Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ki are continuing on to England the Pirates are just going to bring him home to Denmark these are the friendliest pirates I think that there ever have been I mean the Princess Bride Dread Pirate Roberts has kind of a similar vibe but this was confusing to me for a long time it seemed like a really convenient plot device to have these pirates just steal Hamlet and then immediately bring him back without apparently even a ransom and then then I went back to my alma mater for a visit a couple years ago and I was talking to a professor who's also a big fan of Hamlet and he said oh yeah yeah Hamlet organized the pirate attack and I sat there and said excuse me what he said oh yeah it's it's right there okay just bear with me for a second in act 3 scene 4 and act 3 scene 4 the closet scene with the Queen I mentioned this in the previous video but I didn't want to give away stuff that was to come at the end of that scene right before Hamlet drags the body of Polonius out of his mom's room he talks about how he knows he's going to be sent to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern he says I'm going to a delve one yard below their mines and blow them at the moon I'm going to take all of their plans and turn them back against them and then he finishes that whole discussion with the lino oh it's his most sweet when in one line two crafts directly meet now crafts means a few different things so for those of you who are thinking well he meant something else yeah but he's hit him let's words are very often like an onion you know they have layers to them but think about it in one line two crafts directly meat that is an interesting way of putting that sentiment since two crafts directly met and that these pirates apparently just take Hamlet home fantastic I'm pretty sure that Hamlet engineered this entire thing by being friends with pirates just magnificent I love it now that would be a play that scene does show up in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead but by Tom Stoppard which I would highly recommend but he doesn't play up the fact that Hamlet is friends with the Pirates you just kind of see the attack and and Hamlet disappears so that's that Horatio gets that letter and he knows that Hamlet is going to come in and talk to him which brings us to act 4 scene 7 under the King and Laertes the lair tease of course has come back from France I writes that his father has been murdered at first he thought Claudius had done it but then Claudius between the previous scene and this one has proven that him is actually the one who's guilty of Polonius is death which makes the two of them Claudius and Laertes allies in wanting Hamlet dead that's what they're talking about they are dispelled first of all Lehren T's asks why didn't you why didn't you just take out Hamlet yourself if he is also not only guilty of this crime of killing Polonius but going after you King because Claudius told him that that was true why didn't she do something about it and that's when the King again gives his two reasons for not just killing Hamlet outright the fact that Gertrude and loves Hamlet more than she loves Claudius and the same goes for the general population of Denmark as well also discussing this a messenger comes with another letter from Hamlet because it is to the king so Horatio organized this made sure that they had some access to the king the letter is one of the sassiest things in this entire play and Hamlet is kind of the king of sass just this weird dark humor kind of sass but this letter has an unbelievably sarcastic tone just listen just listen to this it reads high and mighty I mean already when you address somebody as high and mighty that's just that's just cold you shall know why upset naked on your kingdom tomorrow I shall beg leave to see your kingly eyes when I shall first asking your pardon there and to recount the occasion of my sudden and more strange return Hamlet and that's it I'm set naked on your kingdom it this this word messes up both the King and Laertes but basically he's just saying I don't have an entourage and they're not even really armed I'm just coming back by myself to see your kingly ass that's just so sassy so the King asks for Laird he's advice what do you what do you make of this I don't think the King actually cares what Laertes thinks about any of this I think that he's trying to ingratiate himself with Laird he's so that he knows that the king is on his side and that's when the King drops the basic idea that they're going to kill Hamlet in such a way that everybody thinks it's an accident that really Laertes is the one who does it but everybody thinks it's an accident clarity's is pretty excited about this the King starts telling him his plan the king again like a good politician kind of coaxes him into his seeing things from his point of view he doesn't immediately come out and say here's my three-step plan to kill Hamlet even though he does have that brewing in the back of his mind he says yeah I've heard you praised a lot for a particular quality that where you shine and hamlets really jealous of your ability and we're going to use that and through a kind of a long series of hints he finally comes out and says that you Laird user was one of the best fencers that that he's ever seen and he he's heard people from France admire him and even Hamlet is jealous of Laertes skills now I would doubt the Kings word here because he is trying to work up Lera T's and he's a liar in a lot of ways but honestly Hamlet's personality is such that that wouldn't surprise me in the least is being really jealous of l'air T's and wanting to prove that he's the better fencer so just as the King's just winding up for the pitch for Laertes to take this murder plan and and run with it the King stops and says molarity is was your father dear to you or are you like the painting of a sorrow a face without a heart hahaha the reason the King does this he knows that Lera T's is obviously really upset about Polonius the reason he stops I think is to wind up Lera T's into this frenzied lather and it works he gets to the point he just he starts uh well a lot of people say that they're sad but then really they're not and so I just want to know that I can trust you is it really that big of a deal he works up Laertes so much that Lera T's says I would do anything I would cut his throat in the church I mean that's that's beyond just violent and and kind of terrifying so it's at that point that the King says alright buddy here's the plan then we were going to organise a duel between the two of you I'm going to prepare a a nun wanted sort of thing he calls it unbated but there's there's normally a little little ball metal ball at the end of that of a rapier and there that's going to be taken off its gonna be a sharp sword lair cheese catches on it says ok ok so we'll have a sharp sword and then I will poison the swords so that if I can just barely Nick Hamlet then it'll mean death for him I find it kind of interesting that lair T's jumps in with this because he says fantastic and on unblended sword cool when I was in France I bought an unction of a mountebank that is six family poisonous when you were in Paris you buff is really deadly poisoned weren't you going to storm in and kill Claudius with your sword or maybe the mob that you gathered when were you going to use this really deadly poison maybe was it just a back-up plan or something but I seems kind of odd and then their back-up plan speaking of if Hamlet really is better than Laertes of sword fighting because Hamlet's been practicing a lot for reasons that start with C and Claudius they're going to prepare a chalice and fill it with poison so when they get tired the two fencers and playas will send him the poison drink he'll drink that and that will be the end of Hamlet so it's a three-step plan unblended its poisoned sword and then poisoned drink if none of that seems to be working so not not a not a one a bad murder plan as far as from our plans go seems like things could go wrong but it's a pretty safe bet especially for the king because when Hamlet you know it's killed from this what we'll see if it actually works that when Hamlet is killed from this if anybody gets blamed it's going to be Laertes and the King can just watch his hands of it and say oh I had no idea how dare he treason to the throne and and he can get rid of laranesha he needs to so his hands are really not on it on this plan the Queen comes in at the end of this scene and interrupts the the conversation that these two are having and this part this part there are lots of things obviously lots of questions that I have about this play but one of the most burning questions that I have comes here at the very end of act 4 scene 7 the Queen comes in with the really tragic news your sister's drowned Laertes and Claire Jesus is shot drown where where how did this how did this happen and the Queen gives a very beautiful very lengthy theme there it is description of exactly what Ophelia was doing she was she was putting together flower garlands from these particular beautiful flowers although one of the one of the kinds of flowers has the nickname dead man's fingers which is terrifying and then she took those flower wreaths and she tried to hang them up on a tree on a willow but the branch beneath her broke as she was trying to do that and she fell into the water her dress bubbled up and kept her afloat for a while while she sang these sad songs but then as her dress got got heavier with water from the river him down she went and she died the description is is so poetic and beautiful that it has spawned the most the most iconic image people have of Ophelia when they think about Ophelia if they know about the play or even if don't really they'll think about her drowned even the front of this tragedy book I have that's lophelia I don't know wistfully look putting flowers together it doesn't look like she's focusing on the flowers but whatever there are very famous paintings there are even the poster that I have up in my classroom is it's a hand holding a skull and then you can only tell after looking at it for a while but there's this design on on the top of the poster which is all made of the text of the play it's very cool that is o philia lying there in the water drowning with flowers kind of falling from her hands it's pretty disturbing once you see it but it's well done on behalf of the people who made the posters at little graphs docked come or Linda graph that what bothers me about this is you of course it's of course it's tragic it's sad that that Ophelia dies this way but that that's not the part that bothers me so much why that bothers me is how much the Queen knows she knows play by play moment by moment how this all went down in such detail that it seems if she were that close she could have saved Ophelia or pulled her out I've had some students think that Gertrude is really the one who's behind a lot of this intrigue and she wanted no philia to die and and killed her and things like that which i think is a pretty awesome goodness conspiracy as far as conspiracy theories go the problem is in the very next scene the Queen to herself says things that are very very complimentary of of Ophelia so I don't think that the Queen killed her or wanted her to die but I just can't quite reconcile how she could know so much about her death and not have had the time to save her so the closest I've come to any sort of staging for this would be it would really only work for a movie I think if she saw what was happening from Elsinore from the window in Elsinore looking down at the at the river and maybe she was watching and then she realized she was watching for too long and she came up just as at the tail end of her drowning that could make sense I'd like to know what you think do you think think archerd is a cold-hearted murderer do you think that she's just an airhead who is you know must be dependent on somebody what do you what do you think is the deal with that so that brings us to the end of the of the scene Lera T's is so distraught obviously that he runs out of the room he doesn't want anyone to see him cry and the king is really angry I had to calm him down we were working something out and then you come in with this did you work them all up again Gertrude it highlights the Kings really cold character in this quite well huh so if Elia lophelia is dead because of the incompetence and evil of the man really around her and that brings us to the end of act 4 altogether so the next video is going to be act 5 scene 1 the gravedigger scene where a lot of drama happens and that really famous part with Yorick as well so you can look forward to that thank you for sticking around hopefully you found this helpful if you have any questions or comments make sure to stick them down below I like this video if you liked it and if you want any more English nerdy goodness be sure to subscribe alright I'll see you on Monday

Channel: English Nerd

Views: 1,843

Rating: 4.9375 out of 5

Keywords: english nerd, hamlet act 4, shakespeare's hamlet, hamlet 4.6, hamlet 4.7, Hamlet Act 4 scene 6, hamlet act 4 scene 7, horatio and hamlet, hamlet analysis, hamlet summary, all about hamlet, hamlet pirate, ophelia drowning scene

Id: NKdWrWYh-nU

Length: 20min 49sec (1249 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 06 2018