You are here

All Site ContentHamletAct 3Scene 3
Back to the Play
"Words without thoughts never to heaven go"
Context and Language Videos
Act 3,
Scene 3
Lines 94-98

A discussion of the irony in the end of Act 3, Scene 3 of myShakespeare's Hamlet.

myShakespeare | Hamlet 3.3 “Words without thoughts never to heaven go”

Hamlet

And that his soul may be as damned and black
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays.
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.    
[Exit.]

Claudius

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.    
[Exit.]
Video Transcript: 

RALPH: Though Claudius could say the prayer, he could not bring himself to sincerely repent; therefore his appeal for absolution would have gone unheard.

SARAH: Ironically, had Hamlet killed him now, Claudius would not have gone to heaven, but to hell.