I am doing Claudius for my A3. For this close reading, I am looking at his soliloquy when Hamlet thinks he is praying, and decides not to kill him, because he doesn’t want to send Claudius to Heaven.
O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
A brother's murther! Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will.
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offence?
And what's in prayer but this twofold force,
To be forestalled ere we come to fall,
Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up;
My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murther'?
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the murther-
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardon'd and retain th' offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law; but 'tis not so above.
There is no shuffling; there the action lies
In his true nature, and we ourselves compell'd,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? What rests?
Try what repentance can. What can it not?
Yet what can it when one cannot repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engag'd! Help, angels! Make assay.
Bow, stubborn knees; and heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe!
All may be well.
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
A brother's murther! Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will.
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offence?
And what's in prayer but this twofold force,
To be forestalled ere we come to fall,
Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up;
My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murther'?
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the murther-
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardon'd and retain th' offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law; but 'tis not so above.
There is no shuffling; there the action lies
In his true nature, and we ourselves compell'd,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? What rests?
Try what repentance can. What can it not?
Yet what can it when one cannot repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engag'd! Help, angels! Make assay.
Bow, stubborn knees; and heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe!
All may be well.
In the soliloquy, this is the second time Claudius has admitted his guilt (the first was his aside a little earlier). In the first line, Claudius says his “offense is rank, it smells to heaven.” This shows a disgust to his sin similar to that which Hamlet feels, and especially tries to convey to Gertrude. However, his admission to guilt is not so one-sided. When Claudius says his “stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,” it is hard to tell whether his guilt is very strong (all of a sudden) or if his intent was weaker than we thought—maybe killing his brother was not so coldly calculated. Also, he refers to it later as a “visage of offense,” a mere appearance of sin. Also, the three times “murder” is used in the soliloquy, each of those lines are not in iambic pentameter. Murder is not as secure in Claudius’ thoughts, and we see real doubt for the first time in what Claudius has done.
The entire soliloquy basically centers around Claudius chance of going to Heaven. He debates it constantly, questioning whether he could be forgiven. In doing so, he lists the “effects for which I did the murder– My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.” In laying out these reasons, Claudius centers the sin upon his self, which is in contrast to earlier speeches, when he uses “we” and “our” to refer to the queen and crown.
When looking at the meter of the lines, many are in iambic pentameter, but the ones that aren’t stand out. “Heaven” is used twice in the entire soliloquy, and both times it ends a non iambic pentameter line in feminine rhyme. This shows heaven is a major uncertainty for Claudius, and it comes to consume his thoughts. “Mercy,” “prayer,” and “justice” also end several non-iambic pentameter lines, continuing the undermining of these aspects in Claudius’ life. He shows no mercy to Hamlet in sending him to be killed, his prayer fails, and the justice that serves Claudius also wipes out the kingdom.
How do you think the different type of feet (like a trochee) makes a word like “murder” more significant than just a variation from the normal iambic pentameter?
Also, I feel like there should be a connection to the ghost, with all of Claudius’ mentions of heaven, but I’m not sure yet.
