Hamlet and The Mousetrap

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Sarah Siripreechapong


IB English Mr. Fitz.


September , 00


Hamlet’s Astute Plan to Catch the Guilty Conscience of the King and the Queen


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Astutely, Hamlet plans out an opportunity for Claudius to indicate some guilt, therefore allowing his conscience to freely carry out the murder of Claudius. Well, my lord. If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing, / And scape detecting, I will pay the theft. (III, ii, 0-1) As the plot rises in action, Hamlet discovers enough through the play within Hamlet, known as The Mousetrap. In response to the Kings inquiry as to the name of the performance, Hamlet replies The Mousetrap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna. Gonzago is the Dukes name; his wife, Baptista. You shall see anon. Tis a knavish piece of work, but what o that? Your Majesty, and we that have free souls, it touches us not. Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung. (III, ii 5-41).


As Hamlet finds out, the not all of us have “free souls” or in other words the diction that Hamlet uses delineates that not everybody has clear consciences and are actually perfidious. There are lies and hidden intentions. As Hamlet best said it, “something’s is rotten in Denmark,” that being the lies which have replaced or covered the true state of each character. Hamlet inserts a dozen to sixteen lines in the play “Mousetrap” to look his uncle’s and mother’s reaction to verify the Ghost’s words. In Act three, scene lines 160-161 the player queen is saying that she has proved her love to the king and as love is, so is her fear. I interpreted this as Hamlet inserting these lines because the theme appearance vs. reality reemerges. The characters in the play are often deceitful. The image they present to the world may be false and deceiving. An allusion can be made to Act 1 scene 5 where Hamlet says “O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling damned villain! My tables. Meet it is I set it down That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain, in lines 110-11. Hamlet is referring to his mother who apparently can smile and smile putting on a persona and still be a villain. When the player queen says she has proved her love to the king, it is questionable if she really has. Some things that seem to be true are not always true.


In Act three, scene in lines 16-16 the player queen says that where love is great, small worries lead to fear; Where little fears grow, great love grows there. “Where love is great, the little doubts are fear; Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.” I inferred this as Hamlet’s way of delineating how the Queen’s relationship with the King may have had “little fears grow great” or in other words her fears on being caught accumulating. The king then says faith, I must leave you where you will stay behind and meet someone in lines 164-168. The diction Hamlet uses such as “behind” is a way of Hamlet’s foreshadows the king’s death. The queen interrupts the king by saying she doesn’t want to hear the rest. “O confound the rest (III, ii 16).” Again the theme of appearance vs. reality emerges. The queen is showing dislike of meeting someone new but will she really dislike being united with someone new, someone that will ensure her the crown on her head. We see a glimpse of what lays beneath her persona when she denounces people when her reigning status is threatened. The player queen goes on to say If I remarried, I would be accursed. None marry twice expect those who killed the first in lines 171-17. Hamlet has inserted these lines to say that only those who remarried killed the first husband. The player queen also says that if she remarries, she will be accused. The queen goes on to say, “The instances that second marriage move/Are those base respects of thrift, but none of love. A second time I kill my husband dead, When second husband kisses me in bed, (III, ii 174-177).” I construed this as the player queen saying that the only reason people marry twice is not that they are in love; greed is the vice. The player queen is also saying that she would be killing her husband twice if husband number two made love to her in bed. The theme of women emerges in these lines. Hamlet’s views on women are complex and intensely emotional. Hamlet seems to have ambivalent views on women especially towards the two women closet to him � his mother and his lover. Perhaps, Hamlet put in these lines to portray his bitterness to Gertrude and to catch her guilty conscience. Hamlet is extremely suspicious of the hasty marriage between his mother and his uncle. In the lines he wrote, he points out that people marry twice because of frugality.


The player king tells the player queen in lines 178-17 that he is sure that she believes what she says now; but though we make a pledge, we break the vow. This is Hamlet’s way of saying though his mother is saying that she will not tolerate another marriage, she will break the vow of being faithful to her husband. There are two levels of meanings. It can be interpreted that Gertrude had not been “faithful” and true to her husband by going along with the murder or her husband or she pretended not to know wearing that persona of hers and living in her fantasy world.


An allusion can be made in lines18-185 to the Garden of Eden. “…Which now, the fruit unripe, sticks on the tree, But fall unshaken when they mellow be. Most necessary ‘tis that we forget/To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt.” I interpreted this as like unripe fruit, they’re firm upon the tree until they mellow and then they fall quite free. Inevitably, we all soon forget to pay ourselves what is a self-owed debt. The diction used presents an imagery of the forbidden fruit. Hence, an allusion can be made to the Garden of Eden. If the fruit had been left alone and “sticks to the tree”, nothing bad would have presented itself. But like Eve taking a bite of the apple, the fruit hamlet talks about changes to from an unripe fruit to a fruit that falls quite free from the tree forgetting whatever commitments it had pledged or vowed.


The player king goes on to say in Act , scene lines 1-15 that this world is not forever and that our true love should with our fortunes change. It is really a matter for us to prove if love decides our fat or does fate our love. “This world is not for aye, nor ‘tis not strange/That even our loves should with our fortunes change, For ‘tis a question left us yet to prove, Whether love lead fortune or else fortune love (III, ii 1-15).” From reading these lines a reader acknowledges Hamlet’s perspective on the world changing. Hamlet has inserted these lines to talk about how with love, our fortune changes. It is really a matter to the individual to seek whether love decides our destiny or does our destiny decide our love. Hamlet is saying that does by “loving someone” make you a queen or a king. Hamlet is trying to impose a guilty conscience on both the present king and the queen for marrying each other for their own benefits.


The player king says that although you think that you will not wed a second husband, intent will die when your first lord is dead. “Our wills and fates do so contrary run/That our devices still are overthrown Our thoughts are ours, their ends one of our own. So think though wilt no second husband wed, But die they thoughts when thy first lord is dead, (III, ii 0-08). The player king is also saying that our wills are different then fate’s own plan and that schemes and plots are overthrown. Our thoughts are ours but the outcome not our own. You think that you won’t remarry again but your intent will die when your lord is dead. Hamlet is suggesting in these lines that Gertrude’s intent of not marrying another will die when her husband dies. I also made the assumption that he is suggesting that the king seduced or in other words, lead Gertrude astray, “Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own, (III, ii 05).”


The queens response to the player king’s speech is that let her nights be sleepless and for earth to deny her food if she ever remarried again. “Nor earth to me give good, nor heaven light/Sport and repose lock from me day and night/To desperation turn my trust and hope/An anchor’s cheer in prison be my scope/ Each opposite, that blanks the face of joy/ meet what I would have well and it destroy/Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife/ If, once a widow, ever I be a wife, (III,ii 08-15). An anchor’s cheer in prison be my scope means my comforts not exceed a hermit’s crust. The player queen is saying that for her comforts to be limited significantly if she marries twice. She also says to frustrate her joys (to take away her joys) and to have all her hopes destroyed. Hamlet has inserted these lines to show that not keeping one’s vow and punishment come in hand and hand. Perhaps this is to frighten his mother and for her to indicate this by her facial expressions. Once again, this is to catch the guilty conscience of his mother if she is really at fault. Hamlet exclaims after the player queen has finished her speech, “If she should break such a promise, (III, ii 16)”


The player king asks to dismiss himself for a nap for his “spirits have grown dull.” It is questionable if his spirits have grown dull because he is dubious of the queen’s vow. The queen responses by saying “sleep rock thy brain, And never come mischance between us twain, (III, ii 0-1). She is saying that for sleep to come to him and that ill luck must never divide them two. The queen’s hopes for sleep to come to him possibly foreshadows king’s death and even possibly her desire for his death.


Evening has come, and Hamlet is with the players before their performance, explaining how he wants the new speech he has written to be delivered. As always, the point he wants to make leads him to give what is virtually a lecture, this one on the whole art of acting.


Hamlet gives advice to the players. I interpreted this as Shakespeares own statements on his views on acting and on the art of the theater. What he says, however, is also relevant to the dramatic situation. As a well-educated nobleman who strives for a classical balance in life, Hamlet wants the actors to be moderate and natural in their delineation of life, not exaggerated, yet not dull. He believes that the theater exists to hold the mirror up to nature and hopes that Claudius will see his evil nature reflected in that nights performance.


He explains his scheme, since he is the only one Hamlet can trust and asks Horatio to join him in watching the king. Horatio promises that he will not let the king out of his sight during the performance.


Hamlets speech to Horatio shows you again that Horatio, unlike Hamlet, is a moderate man, neither rich nor poor, neither violent nor melancholy. Hamlet loves and envies Horatio for not being passions slave, a good description of how Hamlet must see himself in his frenzied moods.


A fanfare announces the king and queens entrance, accompanied by courtiers and guards bearing torches. The king immediately asks how Hamlet fares, and Hamlet, punning on the sense in which the word means dines, answers that he eats the air (another pun, on heir) as chameleons conventionally do, and that this is not a good way to feed capons- a hint that he suspects Claudius, in naming him successor, of stuffing him with.


The troupe of players is in the play as an active reminder that in real life a person can play many roles, and it is not always easy to tell what is true from what only appears to be true. Many other characters, at various times, seem to be playing parts. Hamlet demands honesty, but is he himself always honest?





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