Scene summary
Weeks later, a gentleman, in front of Horatio, persuades Gertrude to receive Ophelia, who has gone mad: she speaks much of her father, in riddles, and the gentleman fears the conjectures this provokes. Ophelia enters and sings of true love and of the dead man who sleeps with his head beside the grass. Claudius, who arrives, hears her say that the owl was a baker's daughter and that we know what we are but not what we may be, and then sing of St. Valentine's Day, when a young man promised marriage before dishonoring her. Ophelia says her brother will know, and the king orders Horatio to watch her. Claudius laments that sorrows come in battalions: Polonius dead and buried in secret, the people restless, Hamlet estranged, Ophelia out of her mind, and Laertes back from France, stirring up suspicions against the king.
A courtier warns that Laertes, at the head of a mob that hails him as king, has overpowered the guards. Laertes bursts into the hall and demands his father. Claudius says Polonius was killed, and the queen adds that it was not by him. Laertes declares that he defies damnation to avenge him, and that he will strike only his father's enemies, while to good friends he will open his arms and feed them with his blood, like the pelican. The king declares he has no blame. Then Ophelia reappears, adorned with straw and flowers, and Laertes suffers to see her mad. She hands out flowers: rosemary for remembrance and pansies for thought to Laertes, fennel and columbines, rue, of which she keeps a little for herself, and a daisy, saying the violets withered when her father died. She sings that her father will not return and leaves. Laertes asks God to see that. Claudius proposes that he choose friends to judge between the two of them, offering his own crown as forfeit should he be proven guilty, and Laertes agrees to hear him out.
Analysis
Subscription
The complete analysis of every act of Hamlet comes with a subscription, along with the explanation of each quote, the quiz, the PDF guide, and the study workbook.