Search results
It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t, A brother’s murder. (III.iii.) Claudius utters these lines at the beginning of a soliloquy in which he confesses to murdering his brother. At first Claudius does not explicitly state that he killed his brother.
- Claudius
Hamlet’s major antagonist is a shrewd, lustful, conniving...
- Polonius
This difference between Polonius and Hamlet results in a...
- Ophelia
Between this jarring moment, the lewd jokes Hamlet tells her...
- Hamlet
The Prince of Denmark, the title character, and the...
- Act V
Summary: Act V, scene ii. The next day at Elsinore Castle,...
- Suggestions for Further Reading
Topics include the stage history of the play, race in...
- Claudius
31 maj 2020 · Claudius begins his soliloquy by describing his ‘offence’ – killing his brother, Old Hamlet – as ‘rank’, i.e. foul-smelling and offensive. His crime is the very first murder in the Bible: Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, from the book of Genesis, and the subsequent curse placed upon mankind.
Share. (from Hamlet, spoken by Hamlet) To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles. And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep, No more; and by a sleep to say we end.
In Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996), Claudius is sitting in a confessional and Hamlet is on the other side with his dagger drawn. If you were producing the play, how would you stage Hamlet finding Claudius at prayer?
Hamlet suggests that beauty can transform honesty into a “bawd,” but honesty cannot make a sinful woman pure once more. “I did love you once,” Hamlet tells Ophelia, and she retorts that Hamlet only made her believe that he did. Hamlet recants and says Ophelia’s right—he never really cared for her.
Hamlet asks Horatio to keep his eyes carefully on Claudius during that scene to gauge his reaction. If Claudius doesn’t seem guilty, then it’s possible that he’s innocent and the ghost that appeared to Hamlet was a demon—but if he does, action must be taken.
Hamlet decides to wait, resolving to kill Claudius when the king is sinning—when he is either drunk, angry, or lustful. He leaves. Claudius rises and declares that he has been unable to pray sincerely: “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below” (III.iii.96). Read a translation of Act III, scene iii.
