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"what's in prayer"
Context and Language Videos
Act 3,
Scene 3
Lines 42-55

A discussion of Claudius's prayer in Act 3, Scene 3 of myShakespeare's Hamlet.

myShakespeare | Hamlet 3.3 “what’s in prayer”

Claudius

I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursèd hand 
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood?
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy    
But to confront the visage of offense?
And what's in prayer but this twofold force — 
To be forestallèd ere we come to fall,
Or pardoned being down? Then I'll look up,
My fault is past. – But, oh, what form of prayer     
Can serve my turn — ‘Forgive me my foul murder’?
That cannot be, since I am still possessed 
Of those effects for which I did the murder:
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
Video Transcript: 

RALPH: Claudius first asks, "what's the point of God's mercy, if it's not to fight against, or to provide a counter-weight to our sins?"

SARAH: And he follows this with a second question: "Isn't that precisely the job of praying — first, to prevent us from sinning, and then, if we do sin, to help us seek forgiveness for that sin?"

RALPH: In this case, it's a little late for prevention, so it's the forgiveness that he's after.

SARAH: Claudius's phrase, "Then I'll look up" is a nice bit of word play — to look up, in Shakespeare's English, means to cheer up, to be more optimistic — as we might say "look at the bright side" — but here it also directly means, to look up to heaven, to appeal to heaven to be forgiven.