Act 4, Scenes 6 and 7

Hamlet, now bound for England, apparently now is willing to take action against a band of sailing thieves, or so his letter tells us. This seems a little dubious to me, seeing as he really hasn’t done anything regarding another threat to himself and his kingdom, so why be the only man in the boarding party on the high seas? And the pirates giving up the ghost so easily? Unless there is something here that I’m missing, Hamlet’s story just doesn’t seem so plausible.

Again, I might be giving him too much credit here, but it seems to me that he must have had at least some of this escapade planned out. This is just not how Hamlet has been playing out thus far.

Regardless, it doesn’t look as if he’s going to be getting a very fond welcome upon his return. Claudius is busy stoking the coals beneath Laertes’ traumatic fire. Although apparently he’s thought this out quite a bit already, and he’s prepared an ointment to poison his rapier with. Which will come in handy when he goads Hamlet into a fencing match. Woo! Innocent fun, eh? But if it doesn’t work out, and he loses… well… then we’ll have some more poison in the wine to get him then. What schemers!

Do Laertes know that he’s being played a pawn? And does he really care, if so? He doesn’t strike me a particularly brilliant guy, so I’m just going to assume that, no, he doesn’t really know, or care, what Claudius has really got going on.

I’m left wondering, however, what is to become of our friends R&G, who Hamlet just dismisses in his letter. Apparently Hamlet has learned something that should not be related in a letter. We will have to wait to find out?

Ohh, yeah. And Ophelia has drowned.

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