Skip to main content

What does Hamlet mean when he says "The play's the thing/Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."?

This rhymed couplet sums up the plan that Hamlet decides to pursue at the end of Act II.


Hamlet isn't entirely certain that Claudius killed Hamlet's father, so he is going to test Claudius. He is going to stage a play for Claudius to watch, a thinly-disguised dramatization of Claudius's supposed murder of Hamlet's father. If, after watching the play, Claudius betrays emotions of guilt or otherwise behaves suspiciously, Hamlet will have confirmed that his uncle did, in fact, kill his father.


If you read the approximately 18 lines leading up to these words, you can observe Hamlet hatch this plan. The others have left; Hamlet is thinking aloud. And he recalls something:



"Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! I have heard
That guilty creatures sitting at a play
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ."



In other words, he's heard that people guilty of crimes have confessed their guilt after watching a play that portrays situations highly reminiscent of their own, criminal acts. Seeing their crimes acted out by others reminds them of their guilt, and so they give themselves away.


Having remembered this, Hamlet determines that he will write his own little drama -- one recreating the peculiar circumstances of the crimes he believes Claudius committed -- and have the actor's troupe perform it for the royal household. Then, to determine if Claudius is guilty, Hamlet says:



"… I'll observe his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,
I know my course."



If Claudius reacts with so much as a flinch, Hamlet says, he will have the evidence he needs to confirm Claudius's guilt. This is crucial because Hamlet isn't sure he can trust what he was told by the spirit that had appeared to be his father's ghost. He's concerned that "the devil" might have taken the shape of his father and told him lies.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...
Post a Comment
Read more