The most inopportune moments: Irony and Act III

As we reach the climax that is Act III, Shakespeare makes use of one of the basic literary elements that can add tremendous depth and suspense to the plot of the story - the element of Irony. Irony comes in many forms: dramatic, Socratic, situational, and many more; however in Act III of Hamlet, the audience mainly catches a glimpse of dramatic irony in several of the actions of young Prince Hamlet - the protagonist. The first instance of irony that can be found in this section of the play is immediately following his fabled "to be or not to be" soliloquy, when King Claudius decides to send Hamlet off to England for a while "whereon his brains still beating puts him thus from fashion of himself." The irony to be found here is that in the previous Act as well as the preceding monologue Hamlet was essentially deciding that he would kill Claudius, and realtively soon. He will not be able to do that in England - as, of course, this play takes place in Denmark. Another occurrence of irony within Act III is when Hamlet walks in on Claudius and has a golden opportunity to kill him with ease. However, the ironic twist to be found here is that Hamlet surveyed the scene and concluded that Claudius may have been repenting his sins, as Hamlet had just presented him a reenactment of how he had killed his brother. This is ironic because he was not repenting, but simply praying - negating Hamlet's hesitation due to the fact that killing him then had potential of sending him to heaven as opposed to where he, in Hamlet's mind, belonged. Later in the play, we realize that this irony is increased due to the fact that it likely would have saved many lives in the long run. A final instance of ironic tension within this middle/climax point of the play occurs when Hamlet is visiting his mother. Not only does he kill some stranger hiding behind a curtain and proceed to give his mother a speech about how terrible she is for being with Claudius (whom he believes he just killed), and talk to the Ghost who reappears to chastise Hamlet for being mean, but it turns out that it wasn't Claudius but Polonius who he killed, as well as the awkward situation where he sees and converses with a ghost that his mother can't see. Unfortunately for Hamlet, all of this arouses Gertrude's suspicions of his madness even more and potentially leads her on to what exactly he's up to. All of this irony - of people being in the wrong place, at the wrong time and misinterpreting the situation - adds a tremendous amount of suspense, audience engagement, and overall depth to the play Hamlet.

(Total word count, not including this footnote: 461 words)