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"Heaven's face"
Context and Language Videos
Act 3,
Scene 4
Lines 44-49

An explanation of the phrase "Heaven's face" in Act 3, Scene 4 of myShakespeare's Hamlet.

myShakespeare | Hamlet 3.4 Language: "Heaven's face"

Hamlet

From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And makes a blister there, makes marriage vows
As false as dicers' oaths — oh, such a deed    
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words. Heaven's face does glow.     
Video Transcript: 

SARAH:  Hamlet is here using an image of heaven personified as a face, looking down upon the "solidity and compound mass" of the earth and seeing Gertrude's immoral act.

RALPH:  This "face of heaven" is showing two reactions:  it glows — it's blushing with shame, because it is embarrassed by what it sees; and it has a tristful visage, or a sad expression, as if doomsday was approaching, because it is thought-sick — as if it had gotten sick just by thinking about what Gertrude has done.