ThenotesbelowareabriefcompilationoverHamlet'sActV

THETRAGEDYOFHAMLET,PRINCEOFDENMARK
byWilliamShakespeare

O,Imfortunesfool
(Shakespeare,RomeoandJulietActIII,scenei)

What makes Shakespeare a man of all ages is the fact that he wrote about human nature and the human
nature simply hasnt changed. We can clearly see it in his works as they touch us very deeply, taking us to
suchanintensereflection,whenwedlessexpect.
Its well known that Hamlet is a tragedy and, therefore, theres no admittance of solution for the conflicts.
However, Hamlet allows us, opposing Aristotelians catharsis tradition, to look at the play through an
obscurity veil that intensifies the reception of the tragedy, once that, to understand this work, we must hold
onto the idea of a mystical tragedy being the mystical inexpressible and the tragic impossible to put into
words. Even so, words are the human manifestation of what is the being, the essence of the men: The rest
issilence(actV,sceneii).

HAMLET:theplay.

Hamlet is an essay about human psyche it dives into the disturbance of the spirit and the vicissitudes of life
that end up reflecting on people. The play use a surreal happening (the ghosts appearance) to ignite
something so real as the body provoking in unwarned souls such an inquietude that at the end it leaves a
feelingthatsomethinghaschangedintheconsciencelevel.
It shows us that we must decide what well be at all the moments of our lives, taking our part on the events
so we have a chance to change fatum and wont come to an end as mere spectators, because fate is like a
web which the origins are our own choices, but the lack of this choices are a kind of choice as well. The
princeHamlethad,thisway,hisdestinydecidedbyhisowninertia.
Hamlet is a prime work because it deals with selfknowledge, with the knowledge about Life, about Death
and about the World. And it is also a story about relationships: the relation between the prince Hamlet and
his fathers ghost, between Claudius and Gertrude, between Hamlet and Ophelia, Hamlet and Claudius,
Hamletandhismother.

ACTV:
SCENEi
At the graveyard two gravemakers talk awhile digging, wondering about the disparity between social
position and social/religious conventions and the more pity that great folk should have countenance in this
world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even Christian. These two fellows part as one of them
goes to fetch some drink and the one who stayed starts singing as he digs. Hamlet feels bewilderment at
the sense of easiness of this man in dealing with human remains Has this fellow no feeling of his
business that he sings at gravemaking? but concludes that when something is routine you end up
somewhat senseless. He realizes then the average ending waiting upon all the living beings not mattering
where they came from nor who they were Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, Might stop a hole to
keepthewindaway.
After that enter the King, the Queen, Laertes and the entourage with the corpse of Ophelia, which Hamlet
doesnt immediately recognize, but once he finds out that it is the fair Ophelia whos being buried he gets
quite shocked himself and ends up losing his temper facing Laertes exaggerated commotion. The
gentlemen fight over the matter as he also has loved the Lady What is he whose grief Bears such an
emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand Like
wonderwounded hearers? [] I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of
love,Makeupmysum.

SCENE ii at a hall in Elsinore Hamlet and Horatio are talking and the prince tells his friend how he
managed to turn the table over Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who were in charge to deliver into English
hands his own death sentence, signed and sealed by the king by changing the letters they carried what
culminated into the messengers death. Hamlet says that their deaths arent even near his conscience,
becauseitwashisformerfriendsintrusionintosomethingthatdidntconcernthemthatdecidedtheirends.
Hamlets speech about what happened on his way to England is full with some sense of amazement over
superior forces a divine like providence that impelled him to take action before he could think and
carefully plan about it. This same thought is expressed before his fight with Laertes: the readiness is all,
hesays.
Osric, a courtier, enters the hall and tells them about a bet made by the king over a fencing match between
theprinceandLaertes.
Before the fight, Hamlet ask forgiveness to Laertes explaining that sometimes he lost his sanity and that, if
he caused Laertes any pain, it has been most unconscious done, once that crazy Hamlet is enemy of
Laertes as much as of himself. Laertes forgives Hamlet, but for a matter of honor says that the duel might
proceed, though it might now be like a brothers game. In the middle of the games, the Queen drinks
poisoned wine prepared by the king to Hamlet and awhile she suffers by the poisoning, Hamlet is hit by
Laertes envenomed weapon with which Laertes himself is stroked by Hamlet. Before dying, the Queen
says the wine in the cup was poisoned and Laertes, also poisoned and dying, reveals his part in the
scheme made by Claudius to kill Hamlet whom wont live much longer either. The prince, then, stabs the
king and gives him his own poison Drink off this potion. [...] Follow my mother. Hamlet exchanges
forgiveness with Laertes as he dies and prepares himself to follow, asking Horatio to tell everyone about his
misfortunes,hisreasonstotelltheworldabouthistale.

SOLILOQUIES There are not really soliloquies into the Act V, once the main point in the final act isnt
Hamlets inquiries or search for something thats outside him. It has come the time to the play to have some
Action, finally. Besides, Hamlet during the two scenes of this act isnt left alone, but it doesnt keep him
from thinking nor it serves to help him from feeling solitude and those thoughts are what well be
analyzing:

ACTVScenei

HAMLET
That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's
jawbone, that did the first murder! It might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o'erreaches one
that would circumvent God, might it not? [...] Or of a courtier which could say 'Good morrow, sweet lord!
How dost thou, good lord?' This might be my lord suchaone, that praised my lord suchaone's horse, when
hemeanttobegitmightitnot?[...]
Why, e'en so: and now my Lady Worm's chapless, and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade:
here's fine revolution, and we had the trick to see't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play
atloggatswith'em?mineachetothinkon't.[...]
There's another: why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets, his
cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce
with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be in's time a great
buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries: is this the
fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers
vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of
indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box and must the inheritor himself have
nomore,ha?[]

HAMLET
Let me see. (Takes the skull) Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most
excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times and now, how abhorred in my imagination
it is! my gorge rims at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes
now? Your gambols?your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not
onenow,tomockyourowngrinning?quitechapfallen?
Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come
makeherlaughatthat.[]

ACTVSceneii

HAMLET
Does it not, think'st thee, stand me now upon He that hath kill'd my king and whored my mother, Popp'd
in between the election and my hopes, Thrown out his angle for my proper life, And with such cozenage
is't not perfect conscience, To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd, To let this canker of our
naturecomeInfurtherevil?

HORATIO
ItmustbeshortlyknowntohimfromEnglandWhatistheissueofthebusinessthere.

HAMLET
Itwillbeshort:theinterimismineAndaman'slife'snomorethantosay'One.'
But I am very sorry, good Horatio, That to Laertes I forgot myself For, by the image of my cause, I see The
portraitureofhis:I'llcourthisfavours.But,sure,thebraveryofhisgriefdidputmeIntoatoweringpassion.
[]
Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come
if it be not to come, it will be now if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: since no man has
aughtofwhatheleaves,whatis'ttoleavebetimes?
[]
HAMLET
O, I die, Horatio The potent poison quite o'ercrows my spirit: I cannot live to hear the news from England
But I do prophesy the election lights On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice So tell him, with the occurrents,
moreandless,WhichhavesolicitedTherestissilence.

CHARACTERS:

Thegravediggers
Laertes
Gertrude
Englishambassadors
Hamlet
Claudius
Osric
Fortimbras
Horatio
Yoricksskull(thephysicalconsequencesofdeath)

CONCLUSION HAMLETs ending doesnt actually closes the story. The Dane prince, when dying, asked
Horatio to tell his story, but Horatio were, during all the time, merely a spectator it wasnt inside of him that
the changes which lead to the tragedy occurred. Basically, what we have, then, is a return to the crucial
questions, the initial inquiries made by Hamlet, but this time, itll be made through Horatios voice through
Horatios words Words, words, words. creating a circle thatll repeat itself endlessly, once its little
probable that someone will ever achieve the answer to those questions except maybe when, like Hamlet,
one finds himself face to deaths strict arrest and theres no time anymore to explain what one has realized.
HadIbuttime[...]O,Icouldtellyou.Butletitbe.[]Iamdead.

What was it that Hamlet attained while embraced by his destiny? Well probably never know, even while
Horatios narrative about this sweet prince continues on and on, since The rest is silence. and therefore
cantbeexpressedbyhisWords,words,words(ActII,sceneii).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

HELIODORA,Barbara.PorquelerShakespeare?SoPaulo:EditoraGlobo,2008.
LOTT,Bernard.TheNewSwanShakespeareAdvancedSeriesHamlet.London:Longman,1974.
VIGOTSKI,L.S..AtragdiadeHamlet,prncipedaDinamarca.SoPaulo:EditoraMartinsFontes,1999.
VIGOTSKI,L.S..Pensamentoelinguagem.3ed.SoPaulo:EditoraMartinsFontes,2005.

References

www.letras.ufrj.br/ciencialit/garrafa4/9.doc

SintesiselaboratedbyBrunaFelicioRavaglio.