Tuesday, March 12, 2013

In Act 3, scene 3, please analyse Hamlet's soliloquy "Now might I do it pat, now he is praying...This physic but prolongs thy sickly days."please...

Space does not allow me to go line by line, but here is an outline of the soliloquy. In Lines 75-76, Hamlet finds Claudius praying and thinks it would be a good time to kill him. However, in lines 76-80, Hamlet realizes that since Claudius is in prayer,and, according to  Elizabethan belief, killing him while in prayer would allow Claudius to go directly to heaven. In lines 80-85, Hamlet points out the irony that the "villian" Claudius would go to heaven while Claudius sent his father to purgatory. In lines 85 to 100, Hamlet then decides that he will wait to kill Claudius until his uncle is doing something sinful like "in the incestuous pleasure of his bed" or "drunk" or "swearing". That way his sins will be measure and hopefully, his soul "may be as damned and black as hell" where Claudius will spent eternity suffering. Hope this helps.

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