Hamlet Nunnery Scene Essay

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Act three, scene one, also known as the nunnery scene is a very important scene in the play. In this scene, Claudius and Polonius listen in on Hamlet and Ophelia’s conversation to try and find out the cause if Hamlets madness. Hamlet enters Ophelia’s room and begins his most famous soliloquy “to be or not to be”. In this soliloquy, he is questioning whether suicide is the answer or not. This soliloquy is very important to the rest of the play because it shoes Hamlets deeper thinking. He Is questioning whether not everyone would kill themselves if they knew about the afterlife. Ophelia then interrupts to tell Hamlet that she is planning on returning the tokens of love that Hamlet gave her. Hamlet then gets upset and tells Ophelia that he loved her once, but …show more content…

This scene is a play within a play. In this scene, Hamlet instructs the play performers to act out the parts that he has written for them. Hamlet then instructs Horatio to watch Claudius’s behavior during the play to see if he reacts to the murder scene. Their plan was to “catch the conscience of the king” (3.3.582). Horatio agrees with Hamlet that if the king reacts, he is guilty. After the actors act out the murder scene, Claudius stand up and demands for light, proving that Claudius in infarct guilty of murder. Hamlet asks his mother how she likes the play and she responds with “the lady protests too much, me thinks,” (3.2.226). The fact that Gertrude thinks the player, queen declares her feelings too strongly is very ironic because it's exactly what she did/is doing. Polonius then informs Hamlet that the queen wishes to speak with him right away. Hamlet reminds himself about his father's wishes, which was to cause no harm to his mother. “I will speak daggers to her, but use none,” (3.2.387), Hamlet tells himself. The scene is significant to the play because Hamlet discovers that the king is guilty of murdering his