Hamlet Act 3: Thoughts & Analysis

It is ironic how everyone in the beginning of the play views Hamlet as mad since this can be illustrated by how Rosencrantz says “He does confess he feels himself distracted. But from what cause he will by no means speak” (3.1.5-6). Then Hamlet casually strolls in contemplating death while Claudius and Polonius hide to spy on him. Hamlet is a genius in that his words reflect what is on his mind yet his secret onlookers are unable to understand the reason behind what he is saying. Claudius and Polonius believe that he is suffering the heartache that has resulted from his love for Ophelia when in essence, Hamlet is pensively thinking about a matter concerning Claudius. This can be illustrated when Hamlet later tells Ophelia, “Those that are married, all but one, shall live” (3.1.60-61). Yet during Hamlet’s soliloquy Hamlet is again torn between “seeming” versus “is-ing.” He wants to know “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”(3.1.58-61)? In other words, Hamlet means whether or not it would be the better route to simply put up with all the pain that the world has thrown at him by silently keeping it to himself or by fighting through physical force. Yet Hamlet soon contemplates a new question: whether or not living is even worthwhile. This can be illustrated in that Hamlet views dying with comfort: “To die, to sleep--/No more—and by a sleep to say we end/ The heartache and the thousand natural shocks/ That flesh is heir to—‘tis a consummation/ Devoutly to be wished! To die, to sleep./ To sleep perchance to dream—ay, there’s the/ rub” (3.1.61-67). In translation, Hamlet simply says that dying and sleeping seem to be basically the same thing, in that death is simply a sleep that never wakes, but allows us to end all the trouble and pain that life on Earth forces upon us, so shouldn’t we wish to die? Yet, Hamlet then muses even further because he considers how in death we also dream. And when we die, no one can determine what kind of dream we may have whether it be pleasant or stretches our sufferings eternally. By this point, I’d like to imagine the look on Claudius’s face (if he is, as predicted, responsible for murdering Hamlet’s father). Obviously, when Hamlet is speaking he’s not contemplating his own death, but his father’s. And the only person in the room, besides Hamlet who could possibly know of such a deed would be Claudius himself. Claudius is probably pondering at this time what King Hamlet must be feeling once he is dead and feeling rather guilty about his deed, yet still he does not catch on to the fact that Hamlet knows that Claudius is responsible for his father’s murder. Claudius will simply believe that Hamlet is still grieving. On the other hand, Polonius may think that this episode completely justifies his belief that Hamlet is mad because his contemplation seems as if Hamlet was talking about suicide. Hence, I love how Hamlet is able to voice out all his thoughts, yet none of the characters are able to understand the true meaning behind those words.