Discussion Topic

Hamlet's Reflection on Death and Equality

Summary:

In Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 3, Hamlet uses dark humor and wordplay to convey the theme of death as the great equalizer. When asked by King Claudius about Polonius's whereabouts, Hamlet cryptically replies he is "at supper" where worms feast on him. This illustrates how both kings and beggars end up as "worm food," highlighting death's impartiality. Hamlet's grim jest serves to unsettle Claudius and remind him of his own mortality, reflecting Hamlet's irreverent and philosophical view on death.

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What is the significance of "fish" and "king" in Hamlet's lines in Act 4, Scene 3 of Shakespeare's Hamlet?

KING CLAUDIUS: Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?

HAMLET: At supper.

KING CLAUDIUS: At supper! where?

HAMLET: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table: that's the end.

KING CLAUDIUS: Alas, alas!

HAMLET: A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

KING CLAUDIUS: What dost you mean by this?

HAMLET: Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.

KING CLAUDIUS: Where is Polonius?

HAMLET: In heaven; send hither to see: if your messenger find him not there, seek him i' the other place yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

It should be noted that Claudius has only heard about the murder of Polonius from Gertrude. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern only believe it because Claudius tells them what Gertrude told him. Only Hamlet, Gertrude, and the audience really know that Hamlet killed Polonius. Shakespeare probably had Hamlet drag the body off the stage in order to assure the audience that Polonius was really dead.

When Claudius asks, "Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?" he is being friendly and fatherly because he thinks he is dealing with a madman. When Hamlet says, "At supper," he shocks and frightens the King, who is a bundle of nerves anyway. Claudius rises to his feet. He immediately suspects that a coup is underway and that Polonius was in on it. Maybe Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are also involved. They are Hamlet's friends. Maybe Gertrude is involved. She loves Hamlet more than she loves Claudius, and he knows it. Claudius is unarmed, and Hamlet is still wearing his sword. Whether Hamlet is sane or insane doesn't matter at this moment. If he is sane, he could be leading a coup; if he is insane, then outside enemies could be using him as a figurehead.

Hamlet wants to frighten Claudius, to make him lose that hateful smile, that regal self-assurance, and that condescending attitude. But then when he has succeeded, he relieves the King's immediate anxieties by pretending to be mad and telling him that Polonius is not eating but being eaten. The whole speech about the worms is only intended to assure Claudius that Hamlet is insane. It also shows Hamlet's intelligence, creativity, wit, and the other qualities that make him such an interesting and sympathetic character. While the speech about the worms is zany, it is also a thinly veiled put-down of the king, telling him in allegorical fashion that he is just another human who will be food for worms sooner or later.

Claudius does not ask, "Where is the body?" He asks, "Where's Polonius?" He doesn't know whether his crazy stepson realizes he has killed the old man but only thinks they are playing a game of "Hide Fox and All After," a variation of "Hide and Seek." Polonius was actually hiding behind the tapestry, which may have given Hamlet the idea of pretending to be playing "Hide Fox and All After" in his imitation of a lunatic.

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Discuss how the quote from Act 4, Scene 3 of Hamlet relates to the theme of death.

HAMLET: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table: that's the end.

KING CLAUDIUS: Alas, alas!

HAMLET: A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

This quotation from act 4, scene 3 of Hamlet deals with the theme of death by essentially trivializing it. Here, as elsewhere in the play, notably the famous graveyard scene, Hamlet shows us that death is a democracy in that one day everyone will die—rich and poor, high and low.

Hamlet's grotesque language in this particular excerpt is revealing of his attitude towards bodily death. Hamlet, like death itself, is no respecter of persons. He therefore feels fully entitled to engage in some decidedly off-color humor at the expense of Polonius, the man he's just inadvertently killed.

While alive, Polonius was kind of a big deal around the Danish court. Not quite as big of a deal as he thought he was, perhaps, but a big deal all the same. In any case, now that he's dead, he's nothing more than worm food, as Hamlet is only too keen to remind Claudius. Hamlet's wicked uncle/stepfather has been put on notice that precisely the same fate is in store for him at some point in the future.

Hamlet clearly has a very irreverent attitude towards death. We can see this illustrated in the famous graveyard scene when he picks up the skull of a man he supposes to have been a lawyer, and who is no longer in a position to smooth-talk his way through a trial. To some extent, Hamlet's irreverence is a kind of defense mechanism against his fear of death and, in particular, what comes after it. That fear is openly expressed in his famous "To be, or not to be" soliloquy:

Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of? (act 3, scene 1, 80–84).
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Discuss how the quote from Act 4, Scene 3 of Hamlet relates to the theme of death.

HAMLET: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table: that's the end.

KING CLAUDIUS: Alas, alas!

HAMLET: A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

In this scene, Claudius is trying to find out where Hamlet has put Polonius's body. Hamlet, having just seen or hallucinated seeing the ghost in his mother's room and then killed Polonius, is as close to genuine madness as he has been any time in the play. Claudius has sent Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to question Hamlet about the location of the body. When they come back empty-handed, Claudius has them send Hamlet to him.

Claudius asks Hamlet where the body is, and Hamlet says Polonius is at dinner, but one at which he is being eaten by worms rather than eating food himself: "Not where he eats, but where he is eaten."

Hamlet goes on to explain to Claudius in this passage that death is the great leveler. Once a person is dead, whether he is a beggar or an emperor, his body will be eaten by worms. An ordinary man may then fish with a worm that has eaten the body of a king, and a cat may eat the fish that ate the worm gorged on royal flesh. In other words, death ends all worldly greatness and brings all creatures to the same level.

Hamlet will continue pondering the theme of death as the leveler of greatness when he returns from England and visits the graveyard with Horatio.

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Discuss how the quote from Act 4, Scene 3 of Hamlet relates to the theme of death.

HAMLET: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table: that's the end.

KING CLAUDIUS: Alas, alas!

HAMLET: A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

Hamlet extends a metaphor to remind Claudius that it is every man's ultimate fate to die and that death is thus the great equalizer. Hamlet understands that Claudius's need for power has led him to kill his brother and seize his throne and wife, and so by reminding Claudius that in the end, he will be no different than a "lean beggar," Hamlet cleverly delivers a home truth.

This metaphor is Hamlet's way of obliquely reminding Claudius that what he does in his earthly life is what matters most since what we are after we die is inconsequential; we all become fuel for the organisms that succeed us. Titles such as "emperor" and "king" are no more and no less than "beggar," "maggot," "worm," and "fish." Because Claudius has made the choice to commit regicide and fratricide, his life, in Hamlet's estimation, is irredeemable, and death will receive him indifferently. 

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Discuss how the quote from Act 4, Scene 3 of Hamlet relates to the theme of death.

HAMLET: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table: that's the end.

KING CLAUDIUS: Alas, alas!

HAMLET: A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

Hamlet is at once making light of death and exasperating, taunting, and belittling the King.

Outraged Claudius wants to know where Hamlet has stowed Polonius's body. But he doesn't ask Hamlet that, he asks him, "Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?" That's Hamlet's cue to play his little philosophical word games with the King. In the end (pun intended), Hamlet compares the King to a beggar's poop. Funny and gross, it's an idea sure to anger the already fed up Claudius... just what Hamlet wanted all along... to "catch the conscience of the King." Oh, he has the King's attention for sure!

Finally, Hamlet tells the King to go to hell:

KING:

Where is Polonius?

HAMLET:

In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i' the other place yourself.

Ah, perfect!

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Discuss how the quote from Act 4, Scene 3 of Hamlet relates to the theme of death.

HAMLET: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table: that's the end.

KING CLAUDIUS: Alas, alas!

HAMLET: A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

This quote deals with the theme of death because the whole thing is talking about what happens to a person's corpse after that person dies.

In the first part, Hamlet talks about how, when we are dead, worms eat us.  He talks about how we fatten all other animals for us to eat, but we're really being fattened up for the worms to eat.

Hamlet is also talking a bit about how this makes all people equal.  Both a king and a beggar will be worm food when they die.  And a person can take a worm that's eaten a king's flesh and go use it for bait to fish with.

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What does Hamlet mean when he says Polonius is "at supper" and discusses worms and diet?

Hamlet, remember, is pretending to be mad, and so he engages in a bit of tactless wordplay to shock and confuse his uncle and stepfather, King Claudius. When Hamlet says that Polonius is "at supper" where he is not eating but, rather, "where he is eaten," Hamlet is referring to death. You might have heard the expression that, when we die, we become worm food. That is exactly what Hamlet is referring to. He is making a joke about Polonius being dead and suggesting that he is at supper with the worms because he is the main course.

Hamlet says that a group of shrewd and wise worms are likely already eating Polonius's corpse. Gross, right? Next, he explains that the worm is like an emperor when it comes to diet because a worm can and does eat anyone, including kings. He says that we fatten up other animals so that we can eat them, growing fat ourselves, and then our bodies feed the maggots after we die. Thus, worms eat both kings and beggars (and everything in between), and if worms had dinner tables, both "dishes"—the bodies of kings and beggars—would be figuratively served there. There is some sense to these ramblings, as we see Hamlet's idea of death develop as the play progresses. He begins to recognize that death is the great equalizer and that, after we die, nothing that distinguished us in life really matters anymore.

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