Hamlet confronts his mother in her chamber, accusing her of incest and complicity in his father's murder. When Polonius cries out from behind the arras, Hamlet kills him, mistaking him for Claudius. The ghost appears, visible only to Hamlet, urging him not to harm Gertrude but to remember his revenge. Hamlet forces his mother to see her sin, and she confesses her blindness. He leaves, dragging Polonius's body away.
This scene pivots the play toward tragedy. Hamlet's killing of Polonius is neither heroic nor justified—it's a violent mistake born from rage and paranoia. The murder transforms Hamlet from an avenger into a killer of innocents, collapsing the moral clarity he sought through the play-within-a-play. Polonius, eavesdropping at Gertrude's request, becomes collateral damage in a family war he never started. This act will destroy Ophelia, trigger Laertes's vengeance, and seal Hamlet's doom. The scene shows how easily power and passion corrupt justice: Hamlet meant to kill the king but kills a foolish old man instead, and feels no remorse.
The ghost's appearance in Gertrude's chamber deepens the play's ambiguity about madness and vision. Only Hamlet sees it; Gertrude perceives nothing. This could mean the ghost is real, or it could mean Hamlet is genuinely mad—a question the play never resolves. More important is what the ghost does: it restrains Hamlet's violence toward his mother and redirects his rage toward revenge. The ghost's command to 'leave her to heaven' suggests that Gertrude, though guilty, is not Hamlet's to punish. Yet Hamlet's words have already wounded her mortally in spirit. By the end, Gertrude has acknowledged her sin and become an unwilling accomplice to the tragedy—a victim of her own weakness and Claudius's seduction, trapped between her son's fury and the corrupted court she helped create.
Look here upon this picture, and on this,
Look here at this picture, and here,
Prince Hamlet · Act 3, Scene 4
In his mother's closet, Hamlet forces Gertrude to look at two portraits—one of his dead father, one of Claudius—holding them side by side to make her see her own betrayal. This line is crucial because it is Hamlet's most direct attempt to make someone else see what he sees, and it works; Gertrude's defenses collapse. It shows Hamlet's power when he stops thinking and starts acting.
Original Shakespeare alongside modern English. Synced read-along narration in the app.
