act 3 scene 2 and 3

Act three scene two begins when hamlet tells the players of the play to act as rehearse the way he wishes them to rehearse. Soon after this Horatio arrives and Hamlet discusses his admiration of Horatio and his qualities. I found this to be interesting especially since we know he is the one person who does not betray hamlet at the end of the play. Because hamlet had told Horatio about what the ghost told him, hamlet asks Horatio to observe Polonius to see whether or not his reaction is telling of his murder, and Horatio agrees. This once again is important as it contributed to the motif and theme of surveillance in which all members of the play are spying on the others. Additionally, the theme of madness and insanity in hamlet reappears when he is in front of Polonius and Claudius before the start of what is called the dumb show where the king and the queen act out what has happened to hamlet in real life, in which the queen leaves the king who is then murdered by another, and that person tries to seduce the queen. This is soon acted out in full and it is very telling according to hamlet and Horatio that Claudius is guilty.

In the next scene, Claudius believing hamlet is mad talks to Hamlet's two friends and asks them to take him on a trip to England immediately. Polonius enters and then reminds Claudius that he intends to hide and overhear the conversation between hamlet and Gertrude, letting Claudius know he will make him aware of all that he has heard. Polonius then leaves and Claudius admits to his guilt and sin which hamlet overhears as he is about to kill Claudius and revenge his father's death. Hamlet realizes however that if he kills Claudius while he is asking for forgiveness he will go to heaven and therefore decides not to kill him at that moment. I think that the second scene was more intense than the first however throughout both I think it is evident that two main themes are surveillance and madness which have appeared several times recently. Both of these combined however cause much confusion and that end up having a negative end result.