Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1 Analysis

Act III Scene I In the beginning of act three, scene one the king, queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern are all in Elsinore. Claudius asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have they found out the reason for Hamlet’s behavior. They reply no, but they tell Claudius that Hamlet really liked the play they player’s performed so much that he is creating his own play. Claudius agrees to go to Hamlet’s play to see what it is about. Polonius and Claudius use Ophelia as bait to see if Hamlet madness is real because of love. While Ophelia is reading a book, Hamlet recited literature most famous speech “To be or not to be”. After his speech, he talks to Ophelia saying mean hurtful thing to her. Ophelia is heartbroken to hear this thing that Hamlet tells her, Claudius and Polonius confront Hamlet telling him that he is not going insane because of love but for something else. Claudius makes the decision to send Hamlet to England so he will not do anything dangerous. Polonius

He tells players to act normal and to keep the play simple. After talking with the players, Hamlet begins to speak with Horatio about the play. Hamlet wants Horatio to keep an eye on Claudius during the play to see his face expression to determine whether he is guilty or not. Horatio agrees to the plan and sits beside Claudius during the play. Everyone that is royal living in Elsinore enters the play to talk with Hamlet. While the play is going on, a scene involving a character poisoning another character makes Claudius realize that Hamlet knows the truth behind the murder he did. The king makes a big fuss about it letting Hamlet know that he is guilty of his crime. After the play, everyone is telling Hamlet that his mother would like to have a talk with him. Hamlet says another soliloquy that is about his mother; he says that he will hurt her feeling with his word but he will not hurt her