The Conscience of a King
| POLONIUS: My lord, he's going to his mother's closet. Behind the arras I'll convey myself To hear the process... KING: Thanks, dear lord. (III.iii.27) |
One of the qualities that makes Hamlet such an engaging drama is that is not easy to understand. From the very opening lines, there is something confusing and mysterious about it. Many things about the play invite interpretation but defy explanation. This is clearly true about the mousetrap scene.
There are two sides to the cat-and-mouse confrontation that sits at the center of this scene. Just as it is not entirely clear what Hamlet knows or believes at the end of the scene, the same can be said of Claudius. Clearly something is up. His conscience has been pricked, as we can see from his subsequent scene. But it is still not clear that he believes that Hamlet is on to his crime - despite the scene and all the apparent pointedness of the accusation of the play within the play.
Arthur McGee raises some seemingly simple logical questions about Claudius' reaction to the play scene. If Claudius believed that Hamlet had discovered the murder, why would he let him go to his mother? Surely, Hamlet would tell her. Furthermore, if Claudius believed that Hamlet had discovered his murder and was likely to tell Gertrude of his discovery, why would he authorize Polonius to listen in on their conversation? Surely, he would not want Polonius to know either. McGee concludes that Claudius has sufficient confidence in the execution of his crime not to conclude that Hamlet is aware of it.
| But how can he suspect that Hamlet has discovered how his father was
murdered? The answer is, of course, that he cannot, for Hamlet has done
nothing to show that he has fathomed Claudius' secret -- he has not spoken
out against the coronation of Claudius, nor has he attempted to confide
in Gertrude or Ophelia. What is more Hamlet cannot have proof of any kind
or he would have already used it. Besides, he was in Wittenberg when it
happened. Thus Claudius allows Polonius to eavesdrop on Hamlet's conversation
with Gertrude. If he had suspected Hamlet of knowing of the murder he
could not possibly have done so. We must give the Devil his due -- Claudius
never panics. - Arthur McGee, The Elizabethan Hamlet, Yale Univ. Press., New Haven, 1987. pp.118. |
McGee concludes that Claudius' reaction to the presentation of The Murder of Gonzago and to Hamlet's behavior in the scene comes in response to the very same thing that Gertrude and the court audience must have felt - the apparent threat against the king.
| It is so easy for us, knowing beforehand that Claudius is guilty and
believing that the Ghost -- according to tradition -- is good, to interpret
Claudius' actions as indicative of guilt. But if we were Shakespeare's
very first audience how could we be sure? Hamlet has in effect threatened
before the entire Court to assassinate Claudius, and Claudius is very
angry -- 'marvellous distempered ... with choler', as Guildenstern puts
it. Claudius has apparently reacted to a threat, but not to a representation
of the murder as the Ghost described it. - Arthur McGee, pp.117. |
According to McGee, this threat not only serves as a possible explanation of Hamlet's behavior, but it is also something that an Elizabethan audience would have taken quite seriously.
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Whatever sane motive can be ascribed to Hamlet's feigning madness -- Samuel Johnson could not find one -- there can be no doubt that Claudius regards Hamlet as a potential assassin, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern agree that the king is in danger. That being so, while they are sycophants, their attitude to the sanctity of a king was instilled in Elizabeth's subjects by the Catechism and the Homilies which had to be read out to congregations... Regicide could not be tolerated by God or man and for Hamlet to assassinate
Claudius would not only incur civil punishment, but damnation. |
In the beginning of this section, we considered the wide range of readings that are possible in the mousetrap scene. It is paradoxical that a scene which is so central to Hamlet, both in its location within the play and as a turning point in the action, can be understood in quite different ways - each of them dramatically viable in the sense that they enhance the engaging and compelling quality of the play. One of the characteristics of the genius of Shakespeare's play is that it creates a world in which there is ample potential for paradox.
