Hamlet - Hamlet 6 - Hamlet and his Mother (Act 3, Scene 4)

In Act 3, Scene 4, Hamlet goes to his mother, Gertrude, who has asked for him to have a talk with her. When Hamlet asks what there is to discuss, his mother replies: "Hamlet, thou hast they father much offended" (III.iv.12). Hamlet replies by stating: "Mother, you have my father much offended" (III.iv.13). From Gertrude's perspective, Hamlet's "father" is Claudius, yet from Hamlet's perspective his father is still and will always be the late King Hamlet. Both of them see that the other has committed some sort of fault against these fathers. Gertrude is upset that Hamlet staged the play while Hamlet is upset that his mother married his uncle so soon after his father's death. The conversation continues with Gertrude chiding: "Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue," and Hamlet replying: "Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue" (III.iv.14-15). These sentences are structured the same way, but differ quite noticeably when it comes to the words used. This juxtaposes Gertrude and Hamlet's viewpoints. Hamlet then stabs Polonius, believing him to be Claudius, and makes the point that Gertrude has done just as worse a deed when she "[killed] a kind and [married] with his brother" (III.iv.34-35). Hamlet then speaks to the duality of pure and impure, using the example of "[taking] the rose / From the fair forehead of an innocent love / And [setting] a blister there" (III.iv.51-53). The rose represents purity and beauty, while the blister, an open wound, is impure and grotesque. After pointing out just how much better his father was than Claudius, Hamlet finally gets his mother to admit her guilt as she states: "Thou turn'st my eyes into my very soul, / And there I see such black and grained spots / As will not leave their tinct" (III.iv.100-102). Gertrude sees the impurity, the "black and grained spots," that stick on her soul. They will not fade away no matter what she does, for the sin is too far gone. Gertrude later asks Hamlet how to repent and he tells her not to go back to Claudius.