ACT 5
Hamlet: "Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw!" (V, i, 2O7-21O).
- Hamlet is pondering about death
- Hamlet expresses his perception of life and death
- He reflects on how even if one is super famous/powerful, everyone ends up dead the same way
- By reflecting on death, Hamlet expresses acceptance and his true reality
Hamlet: "Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special
providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,
'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be
now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the
readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he
leaves, what is't to leave betimes? Let be" (V, ii, 21O-215).
- Hamlet tells Horatio that he accepts death
- He realizes that everyone ends up dead
- He accepts his reality
Claudius: [Aside] "It is poison'd cup: it is too late" (V, ii, 288)
- Claudius is talking to himself
- He expresses that it is too late for Gertrude
- He is too busy appearing that nothing is wrong but in reality he knows he made a mistake but there is not turning back
- He would rather continue with his plan than to reveal reality to his wife
Laertes: "I can no more: the king, the king's to blame" (V, ii, 313).
- Laertes reveals reality and the truth
- He reveals that Claudius is the blame for everything
Hamlet: "To tell my story" (V, ii, 342).
- Horatio wants to kill himself but Hamlet wants him to be alive so Horatio can tell Hamlet's story
- Hamlet wants everyone to know the reality / truth of what happened