LogFAQs > #912691562

up to 2 saves per hour.
2 saves from unique users to be safe.
last scene is eliminated.

1.1 - ghost appears during night watch
1.2 - wedding banquet; Hamlet learns about ghost; "sullied/solid flesh"
1.5 - ghost describes murder, Hamlet swears revenge; oath
2.2 - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; fishmonger; players arrive; "rogue and peasant slave"
3.1 - "to be or not to be"; nunnery
3.2 - The Mousetrap
3.4 - Hamlet berates Gertrude; kills Polonius; ghost appears to Hamlet only
4.5 - Ophelia's madness; Laertes demands vengeance
4.6 - Horatio reads letter from Hamlet about being captured by pirates
4.7 - Claudius persuades Laertes to follow his plan for killing Hamlet; Ophelia drowns
5.1 - Gravediggers; Laertes jumps into the grave; Hamlet jumps into the grave
5.2 - Hamlet explains how he got R&G killed; duel; everyone dies; Fortinbras becomes king

Eliminated:
13. 3.3 - Claudius confesses and prays; "now might I do it pat"
14. 4.3 - Hamlet eventually reveals where he put the body; Claudius plans to have Hamlet killed in England
15. 1.3 - sending Laertes off; advice for Ophelia
16. 1.4 - waiting for ghost; ghost beckons Hamlet to follow
17. 4.4 - Fortinbras on his way to Poland; "how all occasions do inform against me"
18. 4.2 - R & G beg Hamlet to tell them where he put Polonius's body
19. 2.1 - Reynaldo; Ophelio affrighted
20. 4.1 - Gertrude tells Claudius what happened; Claudius determines to send Hamlet away

Oof, we're getting down to it. Like Hamlet, Claudius knows what he must do, but can't do it. Like Hamlet 2 scenes ago, he wonders about the undiscovered country. Claudius believes his soul is already doomed no matter what he does, a sentiment echoed in several references from Hamlet about how the king is already dead, as well as in the references to cold rotten Denmark, as the land and king are one. This adds to the idea of time being out of joint - temporal order no longer matters, because all of Denmark is a living corpse.

Does Hamlet really stop himself from killing Claudius because he's praying or is he just making excuses again? His readiness to kill Polonius whom he mistakes for the king in the next scene supports that he's being truthful. Just as he stage-managed the play in the previous scene, he wants to completely stage-manage the manner of his revenge. Yet, I wouldn't entirely rule out cowardice. If it's just because of the praying, does that mean that Hamlet believes Claudius can be redeemed? Hamlet has talked a lot about the discrepencies between people's actions and their true feelings, so why would he take Claudius at face value here if not to excuse his inaction? When Hamlet says that Claudius's soul will go to heaven, he explains that it's not equal justice because Hamlet Sr. was killed with his sins, doomed to walk as a vengeful ghost. On this viewing, I wonder if Hamlet might also be contemplating about the fate of his own soul, which is just as doomed. He cannot refuse his role as the avenging son, but there's a part of him that wants to believe that Claudius can be redeemed because it means so can he himself.

Then comes the ironic twist:

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

Hamlet could have killed Claudius after all. Hamlet and Claudius both fall apart in the gap between themselves and their actions. They can perform, but not do.
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