ophelia's madness

pgs. 215 to 219--
this scene is probably my favourite scene in hamlet. it's all over the place; first crazy laertes enters, threatening claudius. then claudius belittles him completely and basically eggs him on by cooling down like an iceberg. then gertrude gets all fussy when ophelia bursts in....
it's really ophelia's madness that makes the scene, though. i keep going back and forth on whether or not there's any connection to what she's saying and her brain, if any of it makes sense w/ regards to the circumstances, or if she's just pulling a bunch of.. stuff out of thin air. maybe she has gone utterly insane, or she's pulling a hamlet, with a very legit excuse, just so she can make a big load of metaphors and hope to god that someone will understand them. for instance, the moment when she turns to the king (it was very pointed in branagh's version) and says, "lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be." then again, she goes on to talk about st. valentine's day.. it's hard to tell if she's making it ALL up. or just some of it. or none at all.
personally i think it's a combo. those instances where she clearly has a purpose and a meaning to the words are too often in the scene to discount. especially the passage about hamlet not coming to her bed... which was very visually referenced to sex, thanks to branagh's version... and also the flowers on her father's deathbed.

Cladius and Laertes

In ther conversation between Cladius and Laertes on page 213 - 215, Laertes dominates the conversation with his anger. Cladius keeps egging Laertes on. Laertes runs in with a mob of people and starts screaming at the king. He almost kills Cladius, but Cladius knows he won't and plans everything out in his head. It seems that the conversation goes fast whenever Laertes speaks beacuse he is overcome by anger and just wants to kill Cladius. Yet the small little questions Cladius asks, he asks them slowly. The conversation seems pretty fast beacause there is so much tension between the two, even though Cladius plays it off so cool. When Ophelia comes running into the room and starts being crazy, Laertes is heartbroken and devestated that his sister his become so mad.

Hamlet Act III. Gertrude as mother/wife

We see in these two acts Gertrude in her various roles as mother (note her interaction with Hamlet) as well as wife to Claudius when Laertes comes to exact revenge.  What do you notice about her as a character - are her emotions to Hamlet's news regarding Old Hamlet true?  How so?  How is she as a character, compared to Hamlet?  

Hamlet Act IV: Ophelia, flowers, and madness

What's going on in Ophelia's scene, as she sings and plucks/mentions flowers?  What might flowers symbolize (recall previous mentions of flowers, of gardens, weeds, etc... in the play), and how do they add drama to the scene?  How might this scene be a difficult one for an actress to perform?  

Hamlet Act IV: Claudius & Laertes

Write about Claudius' scene as he deals with Laertes' entrance and need for revenge.  Who initiates the scene, and who controls it?  How fast or slow do you think it is?  Who has more lines?  Why?  We talked about Claudius as a wily politician, how does that wiliness come into play in this scene?  Or... how does Laertes' action compare/contrast with Hamlet's action towards revenging his own murdered father?