SARAH:  This scene is a kind of turning point. Hamlet’s killing of Polonius is his first real action of the play, and now the action continues, all the way through to the climactic ending of the tragedy.

RALPH:  It’s also a central scene because it draws on almost every major theme of the play.

SARAH:  First, we have the ever-present theme of watching and being watched, and of play-acting.  Once again, there’s a kind of audience on stage – Polonius is hiding behind the curtain – and Gertrude, since she is aware of this audience, must act a certain role, beyond her normal role as mother.

RALPH:  Then, we have Hamlet’s repulsion at his mother’s sexuality, at what he sees as his mother’s sinful lust for Claudius.  Later in the scene, Hamlet will call it “rebellious lust in a matron’s bones.”

SARAH:  This might remind us of Hamlet’s attitude in his first monologue, back in Act 1, scene 2. It also might bring us back to Hamlet’s harsh words to Ophelia in Act III, scene 1, when he seems to be talking to all women and no longer just his girlfriend Ophelia.

RALPH:  There’s also the question of what constitutes the right kind of action.  Hamlet does finally take action in this scene, killing Polonius – but is that what he needs to do?  Polonius is no innocent victim here, but it also seems that Hamlet’s violence is misdirected, and that he is not entirely sure how to understand the implications of what’s happened.

SARAH:  Remember that when Gertrude asks him what he’s just done, he replies, “I know not.  Is this the King?”  Polonius’s body will continue to play a role, and continue to be a source of confusion, in Act IV.

RALPH:  Then, we have the ghost.  Later in this same scene, the ghost returns to the stage for his final appearance in the play. This time, only Hamlet is able to see him – unlike his previous appearances, when his presence was confirmed by multiple witnesses.

SARAH:  Does this mean that Hamlet is indeed becoming mentally unstable, and seeing things that aren’t there?

RALPH:  It’s not too hard to imagine that Hamlet’s beginning to have a hard time keeping it together.  After all, he stabs a man to death without checking to see who it is, then he rants about his mother’s second marriage with a corpse lying literally at their feet. It’s all pretty weird.

SARAH:  And finally, more questions about Gertrude’s own role in the play:  Her words suggest that she’s innocent of any involvement in King Hamlet’s murder, but later in the scene it’s clear that she does feel some guilt and shame about her new relationship with Claudius.

RALPH:  It’s interesting, Sarah – in one of the early versions we have of this play, Gertrude actually has some lines where she explicitly denies knowing anything about Claudius’s crime.  This is what she says:  “As I have a soul, I swear by heaven / I never knew of this most horrid murder.”  Then Hamlet explicitly asks for her help in taking revenge on Claudius.  He says:  “And mother, but assist me in revenge, / And in his death your infamy will die.”

SARAH:  Well, I suppose it’s good that Shakespeare seems to have taken those lines out for the other versions of the play… seems a bit obvious, doesn’t it?

RALPH:  Sure does.  I like it better that we have to work out for ourselves where Gertrude stands in all of this.

SARAH:  But Ralph, something about this scene doesn’t quite fit together for me.

RALPH:  What’s that, Sarah?

SARAH:  In the middle of this scene, Hamlet suggests that Gertrude might be resistant to hearing him out because she’s become unfeeling, her heart’s been hardened by all that’s happened, and she’s now insensitive to emotion.

RALPH:  That’s right:  Hamlet wants to wring her heart, as long as “damned custom have not brazed it so hardened That it be proof and bulwark against sense.”

SARAH:  But then it seems that his main criticism is that she’s too sensual, too ruled by emotion – her attraction to Claudius has somehow overpowered her more rational, virtuous side, and her lust is what’s truly driving her behavior.

RALPH:  I see the problem:  is she an unfeeling woman, with a heart of stone?  Or does she feel all too much, and because of this she’s forgotten her virtuous side?

SARAH:  Precisely.  It seems Hamlet is accusing her of both, and yet they don’t seem to go together in the slightest.

RALPH:  You’re right, Sarah, and this may have something to do with Hamlet’s own conflicted and confused feelings here.  But it also may be that we’re dividing up the rational and the emotional sides in a different way than Hamlet is doing.

SARAH:  How do you mean?

RALPH:  Well, Hamlet seems to think that virtuous emotion – for example the kind of love that Gertrude had for King Hamlet – is entirely in line with reason and virtue.  Those are proper emotions; they’re socially appropriate for a woman, and they’re in line with Christian virtue.

SARAH:  Ah yes, but her attraction for Claudius is immoral – it is still considered incest – and therefore unreasonable, irrational, lustful.

RALPH:  And, strangely enough, it’s precisely this lustful behavior that Hamlet thinks has hardened her heart – it’s not a lack of emotion that makes a person heartless, it’s the wrong kind of emotion.

SARAH:  Alright then, I can see that Hamlet may indeed be making an interesting point about emotions here – but this doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s right about Gertrude and her hardened heart.  As this scene continues, we see her intense emotion and her conflicted feelings about her relationship with Claudius – her struggle is agonizing.

RALPH:  And what are we to make of Hamlet’s disgust at his mother’s sexuality? Does he have some unresolved sexual tension with his mother, or is he simply upset that his mother is attracted to her own husband’s murderer?

SARAH:  Closely related to this question is Hamlet’s excessive outbursts.  Is he justified in his harsh words to his mother?  Or is Hamlet once again going over the edge, as his impulsive murder of Polonius might suggest?