Hamlet Act III Scene i: According to Daniela Maggard

This is the part of the play when everyone assumes that Hamlet has gone insane. The goal is to find out the cause of his insanity. Is it love or something else? They place Ophelia by herself and have her pretending to be studying about God, and Claudius and Polonius hide to hear if it truly is love that has gotten Hamlet to act so strange.

As Hamlet enters he gives the famous “To be or not to be” speech, where it appears that he is questioning everything that life has to offer. Hamlet appears very depressed and is questioning whether it would be easier to just kill himself than have to deal with life’s troubles. He is clearly deeply hurt by Ophelia and his anger shows when he first sees her. The two speak briefly where Ophelia tries to convince Hamlet that they were in love. He feels her betrayal and he tells her to get to a convent quickly so that she can repent for her sins. As he leaves Claudius and Polonius come up with another plan to help Hamlet.

They are going to send him to England in hopes that he will straighten out. Ophelia begs them to let Hamlets mother try to get his feeling out before they send him. They both agree and everyone exits. The themes and devices used in this scene center around conflict and resolution. You can tell that everyone is interested in finding out what is wrong with Hamlet especially since he is a Lord.

Ophelia has betrayed him and Hamlet is questioning the value of life. It seems like everyone is also questioning the sanity of Hamlet. The tragedy of this scene is that Hamlet has been let down and now he cannot decide whether or not he has a reason to live. The betrayal that continues to go on makes Hamlet think that there truly is no reason to live and that he might as well give up. Like every breakup his anger is taken out on Ophelia. Ophelia believes that is it not just her wrong doing that has Hamlet so screwed up.