Quote Analysis

Claudius speaks alone with his attendants after Hamlet has killed Polonius, explaining why he cannot openly punish Hamlet despite the danger he poses. He justifies sending Hamlet away by comparing the situation to a disease requiring extreme treatment.

Claudius frames his plan in medical language, casting Hamlet as a disease and himself as someone forced into harsh remedies. The parallel structure—'desperate grown / By desperate appliance'—makes his scheming sound like reluctant necessity rather than self-preservation. By ending with 'Or not at all,' he implies there is no middle ground, positioning murder (which he is already arranging) as the only cure available to him.

Support a thesis that Claudius's rhetoric consistently reframes his crimes as unavoidable responses—here he medicalizes his plot against Hamlet to strip it of moral agency, as though killing were a prescription rather than a choice.