Hamlet Analyis Act 3

Act III Analysis

            In Act III of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, King Claudius has a revelation about all the bad he has done and all the strife he has caused. In this seen Claudius is depicted as a man who wants to be forgiven for all of his transgressions and wants to find peace with God. Shakespeare shows how that even though you commit the most horrible of actions, one can still have remorse for it.

            In this scene Claudius is asking for forgiveness from God. He knows what he has done is horrible and now that he has all he wanted he is neglecting it because of the guilt he is feeling. Claudius doesn’t think he can be forgiven and is praying that he can. This is how Hamlet finds Claudius when he went to kill him. But Hamlet couldn’t do it, he couldn’t kill Claudius when he is being forgiven his sins that would mean Claudius would go to heaven not hell like he deserved.

            But Claudius is a very selfish man and always wants more. He doesn’t really care that he killed his brother, married his wife and took the kingdom. He wanted power and now he has it, so why give it up? With that being said Claudius retracts his prayers and decides to live as he has been.           

            Shakespeare creates meaning through these words by alluding to the fact that even though we as humans have good intentions we will always fall back on be habits. He shows through how Claudius acts towards him murdering his brother and how Hamlet once again loses his courage to kill Claudius. By  using the language Shakespeare did to write this scene he show habits die hard and that once you start them you will continue to repeat them. Shakespeare is trying to get the point across that we are always in an internal tug of war match and that we will die from this match because we can never win.