Claudius

Oh, my offence is rank. It smells to heaven.
It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t,
A brother’s murder. Pray can I not.
Though inclination be as sharp as will,
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursèd hand
Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood?
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offence?
And what’s in prayer but this twofold force,
To be forestallèd ere we come to fall
Or pardoned being down? Then I’ll look up.
My fault is past. But oh, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn, “Forgive me my foul murder”?
That cannot be, since I am still possessed
Of those effects for which I did the murder:
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardoned and retain th' offense?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offense’s gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law. But ’tis not so above.
There is no shuffling. There the action lies
In his true nature, and we ourselves compelled,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? What rests?
Try what repentance can. What can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limèd soul that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels. Make assay.
Bow, stubborn knees, and, heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe.
All may be well. (kneels)
Oh, my crime is so rotten it stinks all the way to
heaven. It has the mark of Cain on it, a brother’s
murder. I can’t pray, though I want to desperately. My
guilt is stronger even than my intentions. And like a
person with two opposite things to do at once, I stand
paralyzed and neglect them both. So what if this
cursed hand of mine is coated with my brother’s
blood? Isn’t there enough rain in heaven to wash it
clean as snow? Isn’t that what God’s mercy is for?
And doesn’t prayer serve these two purposes—to
keep us from sinning and to bring us forgiveness
when we have sinned? So I’ll pray. I’ve already
committed my sin. But, oh, what kind of prayer is there
for me? “Dear Lord, forgive me for my horrible
murder”?
That won’t work, since I’m still reaping the rewards of
that murder: my crown and my queen. Can a person
be forgiven and still keep the fruits of his crime? In this
wicked world, criminals often take the money they
stole and use it to buy off the law, shoving justice
aside. But not in heaven. Up there, every action is
judged for exactly what it’s worth, and we’re forced to
confront our crimes. So what can I do? What is there
left to do? Offer whatever repentance I can—that
couldn’t hurt. But it can’t help either! Oh, what a lousy
situation I’m in. My heart’s as black as death. My soul
is stuck to sin, and the more it struggles to break free,
the more it sticks. Help me, angels! C’mon, make an
effort. Bend, stubborn knees. Steely heart, be soft as a
newborn babe, so I can pray. Perhaps everything will
turn out okay after all. (he kneels)

When Claudius prays, the audience is given real certainty that Claudius murdered his brother: a full, spontaneous
confession, even though nobody else hears it.

Claudius confesses that he has done one of the first and oldest crimes as Cain did, became a
murderer of his own brother. His guiltiness is so great that he cannot even pray for his own
salvation, because his sin is even greater than his intention to pray (does then he really feels that
he has done wrong, or maybe not up to the pint that he is supposed to. Because his sin is greater
then the ability to pray.) he asks himself if there is something like a heaven rain to wash his
bloody hand ( to wash away his sin). He asks himself why he cannot pray when prayers have
2two purposes. To keep people from sinning and to bring repentance to the sinners. Buy foes he
truly repent for his acton, since he is still enjoying the rewrds of is crime, the crown and the king.
So can a person pray and repent and still retain the fruits of his cime? Can he buy repentance
such as criminals buy the law with the stolen money? But that is not the case in the heaven since
every crime is judged by its own weight. Since his heart is dark and the his sinful soul instead of
repenting ,falls deeper into sins. He forces himself to pray hoping that everything will turn
alright at the end.

Claudius is not able to pray he asks for angels to help him.

What follows makes this speech even more powerful and significant, that is the Hamlet’s speech
when he wants to kill him , but does nothing. Why? Because if he killed Claudius, he would go
to heaven, not hell. His hands and mouth would be clean, and his stomach is empty and in
Christian religion it was believed that people with full stomach go to hell. Hamlet will kill him
when he will be committing a crime, gambling or drinking, not praying and calling for the
angels. If so , Claudius might go to hell. Hamlet poses his desire to damn Claudius as a matter of
fairness: his own father was killed without having cleansed his soul by praying or confessing, so
why should his murderer be given that chance? But Hamlet is forced to admit that he doesn’t
really know what happened to his father, remarking “how his audit stands, who knows, save
heaven?” (III.iv.82). The most he can say is that “in our circumstance and course of thought /
’Tis heavy with him” (III.iv.83–84). The Norton Shakespeare paraphrases “in our circumstance
and course of thought” as “in our indirect and limited way of knowing on earth.” Having proven
his uncle’s guilt to himself, against all odds, Hamlet suddenly finds something else to be
uncertain about.
At this point, Hamlet has gone beyond his earlier need to know the facts about the crime, and he
now craves metaphysical knowledge, knowledge of the afterlife and of God, before he is willing
to act. The audience has had plenty of opportunity to see that Hamlet is fascinated with
philosophical questions. In the case of the “to be, or not to be” soliloquy, we saw that his
philosophizing can be a way for him to avoid thinking about or acknowledging something more
immediately important (in that case, his urge to kill himself). Is Hamlet using his speculations
about Claudius’s soul to avoid thinking about something in this case? Perhaps the task he has set
for himself—killing another human being in cold blood—is too much for him to face. Whatever
it is, the audience may once again get the sense that there is something more to Hamlet’s
behavior than meets the eye.