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   sullymonster Teacher
   Community / Jr. College

   eNotes Editor

   The play within the play is used by Hamlet to give him more evidence against Claudius.  Hamlet has not yet carried through with his plan to avenge his father's death.  He blames himself and believes that this inaction is cowardly:

   Am I a coward?(565)
   Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
   Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face?
   Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat, As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this? Ha!

   However, he also suggests, perhaps to make himself feel better, that he has no concrete evidence that Claudius is guilty.  The ghost may have been a "devil" and not to be believed:

   The spirit that I have seen
   May be a devil; and the devil hath power
   T' assume a pleasing shape

   Therefore, he uses the play to assure himself that Claudius deserves to be punished:

   I'll have grounds
   More relative than this. The play's the thing
   Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.

   The play does indeed do this.  Claudius' reaction is enough to spur Hamlet into action - unfortunately, that action quickly gets stymied, and then transferred into the mistaken murder of Polonius.  But it is the moment of the play that Hamlet begins to move his thought into action.  This "inner play" is significant not just for the plot progression; symbolically, the "acting" of the players mirrors the "acting" that is happening elsewhere - Hamlet "acting" mad, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern "acting" like friends, and Hamlet beginning to "act" upon his vengeance.

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/hamlet

   http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/themes

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   Posted by sullymonster on Sunday May 31, 2009 at 7:13 AM