Respond to these discussion responses each response should be a separate paragraph and each 100 words. With evidence from Hamlet Act 1 or 2

1. I believe that at the end of act scene ii, that indeed Hamlet is ready to take revenge. There are many moments that build up to the soliloquy at the end of Act II scene ii and one of those was revealed in Act 1 scene 5. It was when the Ghost reveals to Hamlet that he is his father’s spirit and that he is doomed to walk the night and it is the first instance that we see the ghost actually speak. Hamlet who up to this moment had been plainly against his uncle’s marriage to his mother due to the reason that it is his uncle and that it was illegal and incest to marry his mother. He has no knowledge of the Ghost’s next revelation which is as follows, ” ‘Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark, Is by a forged process of my death, Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father’s life, Now wears his crown.” It was in this scene that Hamlet now has even more reasons to be against the marriage and his uncle who is king. Fast forward to the events in scene II act ii we see how Hamlet learns of the players and in his soliloquy where he begins to share dialogue, ” Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit, That from her working all his visage wann’d, Tears in his eyes, distraction in’s aspect,…” I feel that in this very scene he feels jealousy or some sort of rage against the players whom he feels can bring out such emotions or such tears for a fake character or as he himself says it, “What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,That he should weep for her?” He then goes on to say that the players would drown the stage in tears if he had the same passion and reasons as Hamlet did and yet Hamlet who can’t shed a tear for his own father’s death. The soliloquy then leads us to when Hamlet begins to plot for his revenge by asking the players to play something like his father’s death. This leads me to believe that at last he will make a move towards his revenge and by doing this he will watch the king. Hamlet will see for himself how the king reacts to the play before him and hopes that the king will confess his crime against Hamlet’s late father.

Second Discussion

Following the ending of Act II of Hamlet, I am not entirely sure whether or not Hamlet is truly ready to avenge his father’s murder at the hands of Claudius. Obviously, he comes up with the plan of having the recently arrived players reenact his father’s death in front of King Claudius, in order to see his reaction and determine his guilt. Since the conversation with his father’s ghost at the end of the first Act, Hamlet has been shown as well as said to have been acting somewhat insane. Although he told his friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, that he is not truly insane all the time when he said, “I am but mad north-north-west. When the / wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw” (Act II, ii, 402-03), it is not entirely clear still whether or not he can be trusted. This is shown even more so, in my opinion, after the players exit when Hamlet lets out all of his anger with himself over having done nothing to avenge his father yet. His while monologue at the end of Act II shows all of his insecurities and other issues. He repeatedly refers to himself in demeaning ways, such as, “a coward” (Act II, ii, 598) or “pigeon-livered and [lacking] gall” (Act II, ii, 604). On top of that, the plan to expose Claudius’s guilt is not entirely well though out in my opinion. I am not entirely sure that a play would be able to expose the guilt of somebody who had recently murdered their own brother. All of these issues with Hamlet’s mental state and plan lead me to believe that he shouldn’t be trusted to “catch the conscience of the king” (Act II, ii, 634).

Third discussion

I do not believe that Hamlet is ready to take revenge on his father. He seems to be delaying the event and it feels like there is a lot of things holding him back. He has already been through two methods to get King Claudius to confess and nothing has come of them. Time has passed and he has made no effort to kill the King. Instead he dilutes himself him into creating master plan to get the King to confess. And he hates himself for it he wishes he wouldn’t procrastinate so much. “Why,what an ass am I! This is most brave, That I, the son of a dear father murder’d, Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell.”(Act 2, Scene 2 line 543-558) He wishes he would just do it but ironically he does the exact opposite. He still wants to make sure that the ghost was telling the truth. Hence continues with his plan to make a play and catch the King in his own sin. In my opinion if he was truly ready to take revenge he would of done it already. He should be believed as he is doing so much which means he is either crazy or is on too something. The characters around him are beginning to see how passionate Hamlet is about his plans and are starting to see that there is something to be discovered. His actions come with great passion which is what is driving him insane and is not going to stop until he revenges his father. Despite this he is not taking things in the most efficient way.