45) Mother, you have my father much offended, (III, iv, 11) and Look here upon this picture, and on thisand reason panders will. (III, iv, 54) indicate that Gertrudes adultery and betrayal of love has hurt Hamlets conscience deeply. With these lines, the audience can easily suspect that Hamlet delays his revenge because he has to take care of Gertrude first. This passage confirms this suspicion; go not to my uncles bed. (III, iv, 160-161) Hamlet simply asks her to stay away from Claudius for her own salvation. The revenge against Claudius must be delayed to punish and save Gertrudes soul, whom Hamlet still loves and wants to help in spite of overwhelming disappointment and disgust. Now the audience knows a good and just reason of delay, and sympathizes him even more because Hamlets good intention to help Gertrude, which rooted from his virtue of morality, sets the beginning of his tragic discovery and downfall. Hamlet has been the righteous person before, but now having killed Polonius, he has made himself a scourge, or a sinful person, just like Claudius, and in fact he admits this; For this lord, I do repent; but heaven hath pleased it so, to punish me with this, and this with me, that I must be their scourge and minister. (III, iv, 173) He finds that his fate is sealed here and his downfall begins because the murder of Polonius gives a good reason to open fire against Hamlet. Even now, Hamlets another virtue shine once again; although he became a scourge by killing Polonius, he still wants to be a minister, or an innocent person, by repenting in the future. In this passage, the audience observes the turning point of the play, and they feel the greatest sympathy and fear because his virtues turned out to be the trap that marks his downfall and starts the tragic discovery, despite his desperate desire to hold on to his virtues.There are many other important passages that contain beautiful poetic dictions and convey Hamlets thou...
