Hamlet
Scene #2 · Act I, Scene 2
Claudius opens the scene with a public speech justifying his hasty marriage to Gertrude, his brother's widow, describing it with oxymorons like "mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage." He then addresses state business regarding Fortinbras before turning to Hamlet, who responds with bitter asides and refuses to abandon his mourning clothes. When Hamlet requests to return to Wittenberg, Claudius denies the request, insisting that Hamlet remain at court as "the most immediate to our throne," and Gertrude adds her plea for him to stay. Hamlet reluctantly agrees to obey his mother, and Claudius celebrates this compliance before the court exits.
This moment establishes the central power dynamic and conflict of the play: Claudius asserts his authority over Hamlet while Hamlet's asides and mourning attire signal his resistance and disgust. Claudius's denial of Hamlet's request traps the prince at Elsinore, ensuring he will remain close to the source of his suspicions and grief. The scene reveals Hamlet's isolation within the court, where everyone else has accepted the new order while he alone continues to mourn and question the legitimacy of recent events.
Seems, madam! Nay, it is; I know not seems. / ’Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, / Nor customary suits of solemn black, / Nor windy suspiration of forc’d breath, / No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, / Nor the dejected haviour of the visage, / Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief, / That can denote me truly.
Act I, Scene 2 · Hamlet
A little more than kin, and less than kind.
Act I, Scene 2 · Hamlet
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, / Th’imperial jointress to this warlike state, / Have we, as ’twere with a defeated joy, / With one auspicious and one dropping eye, / With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage, / In equal scale weighing delight and dole, / Taken to wife;
Act I, Scene 2 · Claudius
But to persevere / In obstinate condolement is a course / Of impious stubbornness. ’Tis unmanly grief, / It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, / A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, / An understanding simple and unschool’d;
Act I, Scene 2 · Claudius