Analysis Of Hamlet Act 4

In the play, Hamlet by Shakespeare, Act 4 and 5 presents Hamlet’s main change upon his return from England. When Hamlet returns from England, he is more resolved to act than he was. Hamlet understands that everyone must die and although he does not stop mourning for the dead, his sorrow for most of the dead turns into anger towards someone else. He also becomes much more merciless when he conspires for the execution of the two of his friends, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.

On his way to England in Act 4, Hamlet sees Fortinbras, the Prince of Norway and his army on their way to Poland to obtain a small land which “is not tomb enough and continent/[t]o hide the slain” (4.4.67-68), which means that not enough of a land to bury the soldiers. So,

When Cladius, Gertrude and Laertes appear along with a priest and other lords attendant with a coffin, Hamlet learns that Ophelia died from the conversation of Laertes and the priest. Laertes, angry at the priest and sad, jumps into Ophelia’s grave to hold her in his arms once again. Sorrowful and infuriated, Hamlet enters the funeral saying that his love is much greater than anyone. He jumps into the grave along with Laertes and fights him. Hamlet says that “Forty thousand brothers/Could not with all their quantity of love/Make up my sum” (5.1.285-287), meaning that his love for Ophelia is greater than forty thousand brother’s love combined. This is ironic because Hamlet does not realize that he was the cause of Ophelia’s death; he broke up with Ophelia because he could not trust her when she let Polonius and Cladius spy on their conversation and killed Polonius thinking that it was Cladius. When Hamlet’s father died, he mourned for his father for a long time. When his father’s ghost appears to Hamlet, he learns that his father was killed by Cladius during his sleep. Because of Cladius, Hamlet’s father’s ghost has to go through purgatory before going to

He feels betrayed by the fact that his two childhood friends are obeying Cladius’s order and spying on Hamlet. He says that they are nothing but mere pawns or sponges that king squeeze when he needs the things that the sponges have gleaned (4.2.19-21). When Hamlet killed Polonius, the witness Gertrude, who promises not to tell anyone, tells Cladius what happened in her chamber. Cladius sends Guildenstern and Rosencrantz to find Hamlet and bring him to the king so that they find out where he has hidden Polonius’s corpse to bury Polonius in a proper burial. Shortly after when Claudius learns where Hamlet has hidden Polonius’s body, he sends Hamlet to England and writes a letter to the King of England about him executing Hamlet upon his arrival in England. Claudius wants Hamlet to be executed in England because he feels threatened by Hamlet’s “madness” and if he haves Hamlet executed in Denmark, others would suspect Claudius which would cause a riot among the people. Furthermore, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who are following Cladius’s order escorts Hamlet to England in a ship. When Hamlet came back from England afterwards, he tells Horatio about how he stole the papers with Claudius’s instructions to the king of England and read