Question

In Act 4 Scene 4 what are the emotions that Hamlet is feeling?

Hamlet: How all occasions do inform against me
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
Sure he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th' event—
A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward—I do not know
Why yet I live to say, “This thing's to do,”
Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means
To do 't. Examples gross as earth exhort me.
Witness this army of such mass and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit, with divine ambition puffed,
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honor's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father killed, a mother stained,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep, while to my shame I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men
That for a fantasy and trick of fame
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

Answer 1

@Isry

Answer 2

Any answer choices or do you have to write your own?

Answer 3

No answer choices.

Answer 4

Oof.

Answer 5

So far I've written "After reading Hamlet’s fourth soliloquy I can concur that he is feeling vengeful, angry, upset, confused."

Answer 6

Does it have to be a paragraph? Because that is good :)

Answer 7

I'd like to make it a paragraph, it'll give me extra credit.

Answer 8

Hmmm so maybe we can include some direct evidence

Answer 9

Alright so let's explore Hamlet's motivation for this soliloquy.

Answer 10

His longing to get revenge? And sorry I was doing something really quick..

Answer 11

What happened immediately before this moment?

Answer 12

Claudius wants to get rid of hamlet...

Answer 13

To legitimize his claim to the throne..

Answer 14

So Hamlet here has managed to dehumanize Claudius and himself to a certain extent. You could write about the psychology of the madness of revenge and the depths Hamlet will stoop to in order to achieve this goal.

Answer 15

So I simply must explain why Hamlet is mad for revenge?

Answer 16

Yeah to the point that he no longer sees his opponents as human. It's a definite psychological break that you can point to.

Answer 17

Ah okay I see, I'll do that then, Thank you!