Hamlet: Act 3, Scene 1 Summary & Analysis

Everyone is concerned about Hamlet—though whether they are genuinely concerned or merely affecting concern changes from person to person. The constant scheming and plotting in the play underscores the theme of appearance versus reality—with everyone pretending all the time, it’s impossible to tell who’s really thinking what, and who’s responsible for which actions.

This passage again underscores how Ophelia and Gertrude must exist only as pawns controlled by the men around them, made to do their bidding and heed their orders.

This passage marks Claudius’s first admission of guilt in the play—he is clearly triggered or affected by the piles of lies building up all around him. Polonius’s comment about false displays of piety again underscores the Christian morality in Elsinore that makes the dishonest, manipulative, and even murderous actions of its inhabitants all the more dishonorable.

This monologue is arguably one of Shakespeare’s most well-known soliloquies—and most controversial, as well, considering its levelheaded inquiry into the merits and morality of suicide. Hamlet is tortured by his own existence and longs to escape it—but given the stigmas against suicide at the time (which have endured to the present day), he knows that there are religious, moral, and social risks associated with taking control of his own fate. Hamlet cannot decide whether he should kill Claudius—and can’t even decide whether he should kill himself. He is a man of inaction who has been pressed to go against his very nature, and longs to escape the task laid before him—but can’t even bring himself to undertake the action that would be required to extricate himself from the situation.

Hamlet has attacked Polonius, Claudius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern with his well-considered and condescending wordplay. Now he turns words, the only weapon at his disposal, against Ophelia as well. Hamlet's questioning of Ophelia's "honesty" works on many possible levels. First, it can be taken as meaning that he doesn't believe that she no longer loves him, that she isn't currently being honest. Second, though, it could be taken as him questioning whether she was honest when she previously told him that she did love him—that she wasn't honest with him in the past, and told him she loved him then as some ploy or strategem. Third, "honesty" at the time the play was written was closely tied to the concept of purity and virginity, so he may be questioning whether she is a virgin—which he may in fact be in a position to know. More broadly, in tying all these accusations together Hamlet is suggesting that Ophelia is or was in some way using her beauty and sexual allure to entice or manipulate Hamlet. Given Hamlet's anger about his mother's marriage, he seems to think all women behave this way, that none are "honest" or pure in the way he wants.

Hamlet and Ophelia clearly resent each other, and Hamlet uses sexist and vile language to assault Ophelia’s integrity—even though it’s possible that he was the one who stripped her of her “honor.”

Hamlet’s existentialism and frustration with the world around him is leading him to believe that all men are sinners—and that there is no point in furthering life on Earth when everything ends in deception, pain, and loss. At the same time as Hamlet airs these thoughts—which would be considered “mad” by many—he shows that he’s in control of the situation by indicating that he’s aware of Polonius’s scheme and knows the old man is listening to every word. This casts into doubt whether anything Hamlet is saying—or has said—in this entire scene is real or false, furthering the play’s blurring of appearance versus reality.

Even as Hamlet is, very possibly, engaging in a large spectacle of deceit, he accuses Ophelia—and all women like her—of being the ones conning humanity through false appearances and performances. Hamlet disregards that women of his era are made to behave in ways that conceal or make more attractive their true selves in order to secure the sociopolitical stability necessary for their survival.

Even though Hamlet has behaved hideously towards Ophelia, she doesn’t lament his cruelty towards her—and actually absolves him of it. She instead expresses sadness and pity for Hamlet, demonstrating that in spite of what he believes (or what she has pretended), she does truly have feelings for him.

Claudius and Polonius know they must be careful—if they upset Gertrude by taking Hamlet away, their plans could backfire on them.