Claudius speaks to Hamlets friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern after the play. He tells them that he wants to send Hamlet to England and asks them to escort Hamlet there immediately, Claudius is doing this because he is finding hamlets madness to be dangerous to him and cannot endure it. They agree to do this and leave to prepare for the journey. Polonius enters for a brief amount of time, in this time he reminds the king of the plan that they had previously discussed. Polonius says that it is better that he hides and listens in on the conversation because Hamlets mother will not tell Claudius and the others everything that was said. Polonius then exits. Immediately after he leaves, Claudius cries out, expressing his grief and guilt over killing his brother. In this speech he asks for forgiveness for what he has done, he doesn’t even know what prayer he could use for this forgiveness. He is also unwilling to give up what he has gained from the murder, the queen and the throne. At the end of the speech he kneels and prays.
Hamlet then enters the room silently, this is his chance to kill Claudius and complete his objective, but it occurs to him that if he kills Claudius while he is praying, he will be killing the king when he is asking for forgiveness of the sins he has done. This will send Claudius to heaven, which is something Hamlet does not want. This is because it wouldn’t really be good revenge for what Claudius has done, another reason i the fact that Claudius killed Hamlets father before he could make his confessions. Hamlet plans on killing Claudius when he is drunk, lustful or in a rage. Hamlet leaves. The king then says that he was not able to pray properly ” my words fly up, my thoughts below”, this means he was not willing to repent for his sins.
This scene is ironic, this is because Hamlet thinks he can’t kill the king, when in fact the king is not in a state where he is not repenting for his sins, meaning Hamlet could have easily killed Claudius.
React!