Act 4, Scene 5: Key Events
English Lit: OCR A Level - Hamlet, topic 2.4.4
Key Events in Act 4, Scene 5
Ophelia enters in a state of madness, singing snatches of songs about death, love and betrayal. Her brother, Laertes, dramatically enters, demanding to know how his father died and vowing revenge.
Ophelia's appearance & 'madness'
- Ophelia enters, her appearance and behaviour much changed.
- The audience is prepared for Ophelia’s 'madness' by the Gentleman’s account of her strange speech and behaviour. However, Ophelia’s appearance (as indicated by a stage direction in the earliest published version of the play) also signals her breakdown – Elizabethan audiences would have recognised Ophelia’s hair being down and her dishevelled state of dress as conventional literary indications of 'madness'.
Ophelia's thoughts in song
- Ophelia (singing): “He is dead and gone, lady, / He is dead and gone.”
- Ophelia communicates through fragments of different songs. The lines above suggest she is brooding over the death of her father. However, the following lines describing the subject’s grave and “shroud” may suggest her distress over Hamlet’s neglect in giving Polonius a respectful, Christian burial.
Love, sex and betrayal in song
- Ophelia’s song fragments also touch on the subjects of love, sex and betrayal.
- Critics have suggested that these lines betray feelings of guilt, betrayal and self-disgust after Hamlet’s cruelty towards her.
Male exploitation of a lover
- Ophelia (singing): “Quoth she, ‘Before you tumbled me / You promised me to wed’”
- These lines seem to come from a song describing a young man’s sexual exploitation of his lover. The man has “promised” to marry the narrator but he abandons her after he has “tumbled” (had sex with) her and, in the couplet which follows, blames the young woman herself for her loss of honour.
Subconscious guilt & shame
- This fragment of song may again show Ophelia subconsciously processing feelings of guilt and shame caused by Hamlet’s cruel and highly sexualised insults towards her.
More Key Events in Act 4, Scene 5
Laertes enters in a fury, demanding to know what has happened to his father.
Laertes vs Hamlet: revenge hero
- Laertes, like Hamlet, now has the role of revenge hero thrust upon him.
- However, unlike Hamlet, he is portrayed as a man of action - impatient and restless to fulfil his duty as son to a murdered father.
Laertes' approach to revenge
- Laertes (to Claudius): “Let come what comes, only I’ll be revenged”.
- Laertes has “only” one thing in mind: revenge for his father’s death. This single-mindedness and lack of distraction contrasts with what we have seen from Hamlet. Rather than complicate his revenge mission with thoughts of consequences, Laertes vows to accept “what comes” from avenging Polonius.
Test yourself on Act 4, Scene 5: Key Events
What does Ophelia sing about in A4S5?