Hamlet act IV scene V - VII

Act 4 Scene 5 begins with a conversation between Gertrude and Ophelia. Distraught over the death of her father, Ophelia seems to unravel quickly. She sings a song throughout the conversation, with themes of lost love, death, and virginity. Gertrude is not very interested in consoling Ophelia, but then Claudius enters and drawn into the strange conversation. Once he realizes her strange actions, he asks Horatio to watch her closely since she is not in her right mind. I thought this was interesting, and wondered why Claudius would care what Ophelia was doing or saying, since he traditionally has not cared about anyone but himself.

He then reveals the next problem, to come up, a very angry Laertes who is fueled by rumors spread about his fathers death while he was away. Here he confronts Claudius, backed by an army of equally enraged townspeople with the intention of de-crowning the king and taking the throne for himself. He lets Laertes continue to build up his anger, mocking him and letting it grow before he explains that it was Hamlet who unfairly killed his father, not him. He says that not only did Hamlet murder him, but that he had planned the murder before hand. Claudius tells Laertes that he will not allow for Hamlet to escape his crimes, and after learning that he is planning on returning anyway, they both jump at the chance to punish him.  

Claudius then begins to plan a way to get rid of Hamlet once and for all, just like he did with his father. He continues to encourage Laertes need for revenge, telling him of Hamlets jealousy of him and how his envy was what was behind his actions. They then begin to think of ways to kill Hamlet, finally deciding on a rigged duel between Laertes and Hamlet; a sword and drink, both poisoned, will make sure that Hamlet pays for his actions. 

Finally, Gertrude gives the two men news of Ophelia's death and Claudius lies to her, saying that he worked hard to calm him down and that this will only upset him more. In class I would like to talk about Claudius and how he stirred the pot, and how Gertrude acted towards Ophelia in the beginning and why.