Turning Point

In the Act 3 scene 2 Hamlet is finally able to confirm the Ghost’s words about his father’s murder. He put on a play that looked like the death of his father and watched the reaction of the present king. He also asked his friend Horatio to confirm the reaction that he had noticed. Therefore, now Hamlet has his answers and he might start putting his revenge plan together. Moreover, after the play Hamlet has a significant conversation with his former friend Guildenstern.

Before this scene, the king had asked Guildenstern and Rosencrantz to spy on Hamlet and to find whether he is planning anything against him. They were supposed to be friends from collage and Hamlet was fond of them. However, after the conversation the readers might see that Hamlet suspected them all along. Shakespeare uses the image of some pipe instrument to show that Hamlet knows how much his friends lied to him to please the king. Hamlet asks Guildenstern to play on the pipe for him, but Guildenstern refuses because he cannot. However, Hamlet says that he did not know how to play a spy on Hamlet, but he still did.

Also, this scene is important because Hamlet’s play is revealed and that the spies might realize that Hamlet had been acting insane for a specific purpose. This scene is important for the play since this is a turning point from theory to action. After this action Hamlet is going to start forming a play for the revenge that will lead to multiple deaths at the end of the play.