Come, come, and sit you down, you shall not budge. / You go not till I set you up a glass / Where you may see the inmost part of you.
Act III, Scene 4 · Hamlet
Context
When Gertrude tries to leave or call for help, Hamlet physically restrains her and insists she sit down. He tells her he will hold up a mirror so she can see her true self—the 'inmost part' she has been hiding or ignoring.
Analysis
The metaphor of the 'glass' (mirror) casts Hamlet as a moral diagnostician: he will force his mother to look inward and confront what she has avoided seeing. The phrase 'inmost part' suggests buried guilt or corruption, not surface appearance, positioning Hamlet's confrontation as a kind of psychological surgery. This reverses the typical power dynamic—Gertrude summoned him here to scold him, but now he controls the scene and determines what will be revealed.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Hamlet's real weapon in this scene is not his sword but his rhetoric—he traps Gertrude by insisting she see herself through his eyes, refusing her the comfort of self-deception.