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: : : Could somebody please sum up act 3 of hamlet i have a test tommorow and haven't read anything on it??? : Act 3 scene 1: The scene is set in the room in the castle where the planned encounter of Hamlet and Ophelia is to take place. : The King and Queen are present surrounded by Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and other lords. Claudius is in : the midst of asking Rosencrantz and Guildenstern whether they have discovered anything concerning the cause of Hamlet's : madness, but they answer that Hamlet "with a crafty madness" has kept from "confession of his true state." Gertrude asks them : how he received them and whether they have been able to interest him in any pastime. They reply that he treated them like a : gentleman and was overjoyed by their news of the arrival of a company of players whom he has already ordered to appear this : night before him. Polonius says that Hamlet has also asked the King and Queen to attend the performance, and Claudius says : that he is happy to hear of Hamlet's new interest and to support it by attendance. : Rosencrantz and Guildenstern now leave and Claudius suggests that Gertrude leave also as he has secretly sent for Hamlet that : he may accidentally meet Ophelia. Claudius and Polonius mean to spy on the encounter to test whether Polonius' theory of the : source of Hamlet's madness, disappointed love, is correct. Gertrude tells Ophelia that she hopes Ophelia is "the happy cause of : Hamlet's madness" and that, if her virtues are able to cure him, there would be a hope for their marriage. As Ophelia seconds : her hope, Gertrude leaves. Polonius now instructs Ophelia that, while the King and he hide themselves, she is to walk there by : herself reading a pious book since this would serve to explain her lonely presence. He now reflects, as well he might, that : people are often to blame for covering evil behavior with a show of "pious action." In an "aside" (a speech spoken to the : audience and meant to indicate silent thought), Claudius reveals that Polonius' words have stung his conscience, for he too : covers his deed with behavior as false as a harlot's painted charms. The maintenance of this falsehood has become so difficult : for him that he must cry out, "O heavy : burden!" : Act 3 scene 2: Hamlet enters a hall of the castle explaining to the players how they are to perform. They are to pronounce the : words easily rather than mouth them broadly; they are not to "saw the air too much" with their hands "but use all gently"; their : pion should be controlled and smooth, for it is offensive to hear a "fellow tear a pion to tatters, to very rags, to split the : ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise." But neither : should they be too tame. He tells them to "suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with : this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature," for the purpose of drama from its origin to the present : "was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature." Though overacting may cause the uneducated to laugh, it "cannot but : make the judicious grieve," and one of these outweighs a whole theatre of the others. He has seen actors who "have so strutted : and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity : so abominably." This should be completely reformed as well as the license for improvization given to clowns; these should : "speak no more than is set down for them" so that they do not obscure : "some necessary question of the play" through the laughter of "barren spectators." The players agree and leave to prepare : themselves for the performance. : Act 3 scene 3: The King is seen talking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in a room of the castle about the danger which : Hamlet's madness poses to him. He informs them that he is dispatching them to go with Hamlet to England. Guildenstern says : that the danger of regicide represents a "most holy and religious fear" to the very many people who depend upon the King, who : "live and feed upon your majesty." Rosencrantz continues that a king is more obligated to protect himself than a private person : since the welfare of many lives depend upon him. He compares the death of a king to a : whirlpool which draws "what's near it with it," then to a huge wheel fixed on the summit of the highest mountain "to whose huge : spokes ten thousand lesser things" are joined which attend "the boist'rous ruin" when it falls. He concludes: "Never alone / Did : the king sigh, but with a general groan." The King now tells them to hasten their preparations for the journey which will imprison : the cause of "this fear" and they leave to attend to this. : Act 3 scene 4: We are now in Gertrude's room in the castle. Polonius, alone with Gertrude, tells her that Hamlet will be there : immediately and that she should be very forceful with him, should tell him that she has protected him as much as she could but : that his behavior has been too unrestrained to be endured any longer. Polonius now withdraws behind a hanging tapestry as : Hamlet is heard approaching. : He enters and immediately asks his mother "what's the matter?" She answers: "Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended." : Offended by this reference to Claudius as his father, he sharply returns: "Mother, you have my father much offended." The : conversation quickly proceeds with Gertrude objecting to Hamlet's "idle tongue" and Hamlet objecting to her "wicked tongue," : until she finally asks, "Have you forgot me?" Though she is asking Hamlet whether he has forgotten the respect due to a mother, : he answers with a bitter identification: "You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife, / And (would it were not so) you are : my mother." : Seeing that she will not get anywhere with him, she proposes to end their meeting, but Hamlet is not going to let this longed for : opportunity to speak his mind to his mother get away from him so easily. Forcing her angrily to sit down, his expression must : appear to her so murderous that she is forced to cry out in terror for help: "What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murther me? Help, : ho!" At this the startled Polonius also begins to cry for help and Hamlet, quickly drawing his sword, drives it through the : tapestry killing the figure behind it with the words: "How now? a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!" The Queen cries out to ask him : what he has done and Hamlet replies, "Nay, I know not. Is it the : King?"

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