DRJ #4- Acts 4 & 5

My first reaction with Act 4 is that Claudius feels he could have met the same fate as Polonius the 0099 Curtain Spy. Hamlet's blade was meant for Claudius. Polonius' death was just a prelude to more deaths to come, albeit none were as amusing as his. Earlier the Infamous Mr. C and 0099 Curtain Spy were behind the curtains when Hamlet was talking to Ophelia in Act 3 Scene 1 and it was a successful recon mission. But Polonius pushed his luck too far and paid a price. After Polonius’ death the whole play takes on a very different tone, it’s not all about Hamlet’s madness, but it is about putting plans into action. Both Hamlet and Claudius attempt to put an end to the other; Claudius by sending Hamlet to England and have him killed, and Hamlet trying to muster the will to thrust a sword through Claudius. Hamlet now knew he was capable of killing and became more brazen in his plans. The deaths of the characters were not all heroic but Hamlet seems to have come out as a more honorable person. Unfortunately Hamlet had to die also in order for the “rotten in Denmark” to be completely purged.
The Gravediggers give a common man’s view of the kingdom and of death. Though they only show up in Act 5 Scene 1, they play a vital part in the final scenes of the play by giving a perspective of death to Hamlet that he had not considered. When they talk about the idea of suicide when digging Ophelia’s grave, they discuss if suicide is a forgivable sin. Hamlet was contemplating suicide in earlier scenes. After Hamlet hears those words and then sees that it is Ophelia that is being placed in the grave he sees death in a different light after that point. When the gravediggers play with the skulls, it shows that no matter how royal your blood may be, when you die, the worms eat you and you become simply a bag of bones that can be tossed back and forth and used as a prop for a joke. Hamlet shows his disgust with what the gravediggers are doing when he says “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?" He sees how his own bones will be lying there one day and he had no control if they were to be defiled.
Mortality is a theme that fits well with Acts 4 and 5. Each main character meets their demise by the end of the play whether they deserved death or not. Persons of royalty feel as if they will live forever, but Hamlet learned in the gravedigger scene that no one lives forever and all are mortal. Even though we feel that Gertrude should have been spared, she is still “rotten” as is the whole kingdom. No one is innocent in this kingdom. If any of the ruling royalty had lived, the lingering stench of a corrupt kingdom would have still permeated in the castle. Even Hamlet had to die to purge the kingdom of its putrid state. That sounds harsh I know, but the only way to purge corruption, deceit, madness and sin is to purge it completely and start over. Hamlet addressed mortality and began to understand what death meant, that we all return to dust when he said “No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel? Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw!”