Desperate Treatment and the Reoccurring theme of Poison
In act 4, the theme of disease, or lunacy, reveals itself in two places: when Claudius tries to send Hamlet away to England because of his madness, and when Ophelia loses her sanity because of her father’s murder. Poison also plays an important role of act 4, as Claudius and Laertes plan to use it to kill Hamlet.
In act 4, Claudius realizes that Hamlet’s madness could spread out to the “distracted multitude”, or the people of Denmark, and decides that he has to take desperate measure in order to keep his throne “To bear all smooth and even, This sudden sending him must seem Deliberate pause. Diseases desperate grown By desperate appliances are relieved, Or not at all” (Scene 4, lines 4, 10-12). Ophelia, on the other hand, is the only character in the play that we can distinguish has become truly insane “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, Remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts. (Laertes) A document in madness.” (Scene 5, lines199-202). In this passage, the beauty of the flowers Ophelia rambles about contrasts extremely with the dreadful notion of lunacy. The theme of poison in this act ties in with secrecy, as it was hard to trace it back then. Claudius and Laertes resolve to kill Hamlet by dipping Laertes’ rapier before their duel “I’ll touch my point With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly It may be death”(Scene 7, lines 165-68). As a setting to the final act of the play, act four is filled with the themes of poison and lunacy.
http://www.astor-theatre.com/images/hamlet/gertrude2.gif
