Act IV Scenes 5-7

In Scene 5 we find out that Ophelia has gone insane. I think it’s hilarious because everyone “knows” that she is insane due to her father’s recent death while they couldn’t recognize the same thing in Hamlet. I think that the difference between the two could lie in Shakespeare’s contrast between masculinity and femininity, as men aren’t expected to be so grief stricken, and that leads to Hamlet feeling like a weak girl. What is interesting is that as Gertrude and Claudius question Ophelia, she rambles on about love along with death and life. Could part of her insanity be due to Hamlet’s rejection of her? She also, at the end of the scene, talks of giving flowers to people. What is the significance of this? She gives rosemary, pansies, fennel, columbines, rue, daisy, and violets. What could these different plants mean? Later, Laertes and his mob come to talk to Claudius and rant about Polonius’s death. What struck me the most that somewhat goes unnoticed is that the messenger declares Laertes will be king. Somehow Claudius doesn’t express much concern over this. Why? Is Laertes even vying for the throne or is it just the messenger? I’m a tad confused. At the end of the scene Claudius begins to plant the seeds of revenge in Laertes.

In Scene 6 we start to hear about Hamlet’s adventures with pirates through his letter to Horatio. It seems like he is gaining confidence in himself once again. Horatio is ordered to bring letters to Claudius and the court.

In Scene 7 so much happened that I’m going to take it important thing by important thing. First, Claudius finds out that Hamlet is not dead, and realizes that he must come up with a  new plan. So, he manipulates Laertes into deciding to take revenge against Hamlet. He compliments Laertes, his fencing skills, and his strength, tempting him to duel against Hamlet. They also decide to poison Laertes’ sword and as a backup plan poison a cup of wine to serve to Hamlet. So many people are avenging their fathers in Hamlet, yet none of the avenging brings happiness or satisfaction. I think it’s a commentary about revenge and yet also about fathers. Also, Gertrude reports that Ophelia has drowned. It is unclear whether it was suicide or accident but I’m pretty sure it’s suicide. I bet Gertrude and Claudius are embarrassed for the kingdom because of a significant societal figure’s shameful suicide. Ophelia was surrounded by flowers, which is a callback to scene 5. Her death reminds me of the movie The Hours when Virginia Woolf committed suicide. Drowning is a slow means of suicide and implies that the person who committed it was in an absurd amount of pain. 

A major theme of this reading was manipulation, on Claudius’s part, as we learned that he is far smarter than he has seemed so far. Another theme was once again revenge, as Claudius pushing Laertes to murder somewhat parallels Hamlet’s father’s ghost pushing him to murder Claudius. We know that revenge is bad and everyone dies in the end but I’m starting to question the purpose of this play. What is it teaching us? Why is it teaching us this?