Hamlet Group

Question:

annabirk
annabirk
Student
High School - 12th Grade

Why does Hamlet shift to speak in poetry when talking to his mother?

ACT 3 SCENE 4

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Posted by annabirk on Friday December 7, 2007 at 10:23 AM and tagged with act 3, hamlet poetry talking mother, prose.


Answers:


  1. luannw Teacher
    High School - 11th Grade

    Hamlet speaks in poetry when he is talking with his mother to show her he is not mad.  She thinks that because he sees the ghost of his father and she does not see it, that he is mad.  When Hamlet wants others to believe he is mad, then he speaks in prose.  In this scene, he says, "That I essentially am not in madness / But mad in craft."

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    Posted by luannw on Friday December 7, 2007 at 1:35 PM

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