Hamlet before the play asks Horatio to keep and eye on him he says that he trusts him a lot, after noticing the reaction of Claudius while seeing the play Hamlet talks about how much disgust he is filled with and at once looks forward to attacking and killing Claudius.
“why let the stricken deer go weep”
he compares Claudius to a deer whose been hunted and that he should now just go and die, he talks to Horatio about the way Claudius was reacting and they both agree that Claudius has demonstrated his guilt. Hamlet is very active at this point as he is clear about what he is doing he has the support of Horatio after sharing his thoughts. Hamlet now also believes in the Ghosts words so this indicates that Hamlet is ready to take revenge and bring his words into action, Hamlets confidence in his words as he speaks to Horatio show it very clearly.
“I’ll take the ghosts word for a thousand pound”
Later on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern come to tell Hamlet that the king is outrageous, he uses the word “choler” to describe him, at this point Hamlet at first tells them that maybe he is drunk and then talks about bringing in the doctors for him. The fact that Hamlet does not appear serious to them shows that Hamlet is enjoying the way Claudius is found guilty conscious as this relieves Hamlet from the previous thoughts he had and the double mind he was beginning to have. The significance of this scene to our understanding of the play as a whole and Hamlet the character in particular is very important. As we know that the theme of this play is a revenge tragedy we also know that from the previous understand of Hamlet shows him as the man of words rather than actions and not very active and lost in his own world, at some parts Hamlet was also shown to be losing his sanity but in this particular scene we see the other side of Hamlet where taking revenge from Claudius is not merely because he killed Hamlets father and married his mother but also because Hamlet indicates that Hamlet has very less power which he wants. This is when he talks to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and when they ask him to consider them his close friends and tell him all that he has to say.
“Sir, I lack advancement”
At this point Hamlet clearly shows the audience that there is much more than just the reasons he has been giving for taking revenge. Hamlet is also angry with Claudius because he kills his father and takes the throne to himself when Hamlet has also been waiting for that powerful position. This whole factor gives Hamlet more encouragement for killing Claudius. This also shows us that Hamlet is aware that killing a King is the biggest crime in front of God and the people of Denmark, Hamlet would not just kill Claudius and take such a big step if it was only for his dead father, but in fact Hamlet has his own reasons for why he should kill Claudius and this brings the whole understanding of the play. In this scene any confusion that the audience may be in is cleared as Hamlet shows his true aims which affect the play as a whole. We see that Hamlet is also ambitious and this is one point that we didn’t know by seeing the previous scenes of the play.
