Topic: Hamlet: Acts 4&5 Dec. 25, 2010

     Hopefully, you have finished Hamlet by now.  Acts 4&5 dramatize what Hamlet means when he says "there is a divinity that shapes our ends."  Look at the way Laertes confronts Claudius and then witness passion "lose the name of action" as Claudius manages to calm him.  Look at the way Claudius discovers that his planned execution of Hamlet has been thwarted by fate.  Still under the impression he is in control, he draws Laertes into his evil web and both men devise a supposedly failure proof plot for Hamlet's murder.  He knows that time affects our intention to execute our plans, and he wants to make sure Laertes is determined to get his revenge; Claudius,m however, cannot for see that their plans will go completely awry in Act 5.  Hamlet does. 

     I will add more notes during the vacation.  Merry Christmas.