Hamlet Reading Log Essay, Research Paper

Reading log on King Claudius for the book Hamlet

Act 1 Quotes and Summaries

Take thy fair hour, Laertes. Thine be thine,And thy best graces spend it at thy will. — This shows the Kings understanding, and even more, his courteousness in his words.

Tis sweet and commendable in your nature,Hamlet,To give these mourning duties to your father,But you must know your father lost a father,That father lost, lost his, and the survivor boundIn filial obligation for some termTo do obsequious sorrow, But to preserverIn obstinate condolement is a courseOf impious stubbornness. Tis unmanly grief.It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,A heart unfortified, {a} mind impatient,An understanding simple and unschooled.For what we know must be and is as commonAs any the most vulgar thing to sense,Why should we in our peevish oppositionTake it to heart? Fie, tis a fault to heaven,A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,To reason most absurd, whose common themeIs death of fathers This quote shows that he apparently cares for Hamlet, but encourages him to forget about his father because all men loose there fathers eventually, its nature. So this shows the kings apparent love

Act 2 Quotes and Summaries

Welcome dear Rosencrants and Guildenstern,Moreover that we much did long to see you,The need we have to use you did provokeOur hasty sending, Something have you heardOf Hamlet s transformation, so call it,Sith nor th exterior nor the inward manResembles that it was. What it should be,More than his father s death, that thus hath put himSo much from th understanding of himselfI cannot dream of. I entreat you bothThat, being of so young days brought up with himAnd sith so neighbored to his youth and havior,That you vouchsafe your rest here in our courtSome little time, so by your companiesTo draw him on to pleasures, and to gatherSo much as from occasion you may glean,[Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus]That, opened, lied within our remedy. This quote starts the king s dark side (which continues on). He brings in these two gentlemen to spy on his nephew, Hamlet. So this shows the second side of the kings, a side not apparent to the town and even the court.

Thyself do grace to them and bring them in[Polonius exits]He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath foundThe head and source of all your son s distemper. Here, I believe, is a cover-up brought on by the king with the help of Polonius. It is disillusionment to the truth that the king killed King Hamlet. It shows the trickery in the king s heart.

Act 3 Quotes and Summaries

And can you by no drift of conferenceGet from him why he puts on this confusion,Grating so harshly all his days of quiteWith turbulent and dangerous lunacy? Again he gives a statement that hides his actual knowledge. I believe he knows that Hamlet is disturbed because of his actions towards his father, and by stating this question it reveals to the people that are present that he does not know the reason for Hamlets behavior. This shows the kings clever words.

Love? His affections do not that way tend;Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little, Was not like madness. There s something in his soulO er which his melancholy sits on brood,And I do doubt the hatch and the discloseWill be some danger; which for to prevent,I have in quick determinationThus et it down: he shall with speed to EnglandFor the demand of our neglected tribute.Haply the seas, and countries different,With variable objects, shall expelThis something- settled matter in his heart,Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus Form fashion of himself. What think you on t? The king realizes that his cover ups are diminishing. He then discovers that he has to get rid of Hamlet before his cover blows. He knows he can t kill him cause it would disturb the town so he ships him to England with the reasoning of helping his madness. The king s character has shifted drastically from the first act.

Act 4 Quotes and Summaries

It had been so with us, had we been there.His liberty is full of threats to all To you yourself, to us, to everyone.Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?It will be laid to us, whose providenceShould have kept short, restrained, and out of hauntThis mad young man. But so much was our love, We would not understand what was most fit,But, like the owner of a foul disease,To keep it from divulging, let it feedEven on the pith of life. Where is he gone? The king is noticing Hamlets vengefulness and is becoming disturbed. Hamlet has killed Polonius and has now convinced the king that his time is short. The king must act fast or his clever scheme will be done with.

I have sent to seek him and to find the body.How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!Yet must not we put the strong law on him.He s loved of the distracted multitude,Who like not in there judgment, but there eyes;But never the offences. To bear all smooth and even,This sudden sending him away must seemDeliberate pause. Diseases desperate grownBy desperate appliance are relievedOr not at all. He is stating Hamlet as a disease that must be rid of or else it will spread. To let him live would be sacrificing all their lives. Again his words cover up his inner self that has developed and become more apparent throughout the play.

Act 5 Quotes and Summaries

I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him.Horatio exits.[to Laertes] Stengthen your patience in our last night s speech.We ll but the matter to the present push. Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son. This grave shall have a living monument.An hour of quite {shortly} shall we see;Till then in patience our proceeding be. The king is foreshadowing the death of Hamlet in this quote. His wants have become reality and he is going to destroy Hamlet

Stay give me drink, — Hamlet, this pearl is thine.Here s to thy health.[He drinks and then drops the pearl in the cup.]Drum, trumpets, and shot.Give him the cup. Here the king poisons the cup of Hamlet. And in doing this he thinks that he will solve his problems. In doing this though, he kills his wife.