TIME+ACT+V

Cara Corder
===Act V, scene I, lines 99-114, page 245  ===  This is where Hamlet and Horatio are watching the gravedigger dig up skulls while he sings. Hamlet then keeps talking about how at one point, these skulls could have been great lawyers or owners of land. Over time, however they all end up with everyone else in the dirt. Time is the only thing that can demonstrate how we are all equal. 

 **“Not shriving time allowed.”**
 Here is when Hamlet is explaining to Horatio how he changed it and what he wrote in the letter to England. Once England then reads the letter, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz will then be put to death suddenly with “[no] shriving time allowed.” Meaning that it will go by so quick they won’t know what hit them, and they won’t have time to confess their sins therefore going to hell. <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">Act V, scene II, line 341- 347, page 285
<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"> <span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">This happens right after Laertes dies. These are some of Hamlets final words before he then dies. He basically says that he has so much to tell everyone but “death is strict in his arrest”, meaning the fact that he is dieing doesn’t give him much time. Because of this time constraint he tells Horatio to tell everyone the whole story and his cause.

Act 5,scene 1, lines 201-209. "Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fashion i' the' earth?"..." 'Twere to consider too curiously to consider so" Act 5,scene 2, lines 336-338. "Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet."..."Nor thine on me" Act 5, scene 2, lines 296-298. "Gertrude, do not drink"..."It is the poisoned cup. It is too late."

In the first lines, Hamlet is talking to Horatio about how in time, death makes us all the same. He's wondering if even Alexander the Great is just like everyone else. It seems that he's stating as time passes, or death occurs, it doesn't really matter who you are, everyone pretty much just ends up the same anyways. In the next set of lines, Hamlet really needs Laertes forgiveness before he dies. Earlier in the Act they were discussing if Laertes could forgive Hamlet for killing his father. It was Hamlet's wish that Laertes would forgive him, so in those last few seconds before he died, Laertes told Hamlet he was forgiven. The last set of lines occurs right before the queen dies. King Claudius had spiked the wine with poison, intending to kill Hamlet. Gertrude had taken a sip, and he mumbles how its too late, she is done for. Which shows that her time was up, and there wasn't much she could do about it.

-Kristen Goedde

<span style="color: rgb(4, 175, 251)"> **Meaghan Goodloe :)**

In these lines Hamlet is talking to Horatio and expressing how he feels about a persons worth after they have died. "He was buried, returneth to dust, the dust is earth..." Hamlet can see that when people die everyone ends up the same way no matter how important that person was from Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar to a simple peasant. The amount of time they lived or what they did with their lives really isn't significant because everyone eventually has their time to go and when they do all end up six feet below.
 * Act 5, scene 1, lines 212 - 219**

These lines reinforce the previous idea of time where after a person dies the life they lived has no meaning to them now. After a person dies they don't miss out on anything because they don't know what they are missing out on. Hamlet refuses to try and forsee the future and therefore decides to go against Horatio's warning to not go to the match against Laertes. His death can occur at anytime so he can't backdown from life because he is scared of dying.
 * Act 5, scene 2, lines 217 - 224**

These lines say that Fortinbras is returning triumphant from Poland and saluting the English ambassadores with a volley of gunfire. This timing of Fortinbras returning right when everyone has died seems too perfect. Hamlet goes on to say the Fortinbras should go on to be the new Danish King. This situation seems so outlandish that right when the King and Queen of Denmark and then the next in line to the throne (Hamlet) all die that a worthy candidate happens to be passing by. Coincidence is supposed to be the case here but the timing of this makes it to unbelievable that this is how the story works out.
 * Act 5, scene 2, lines 357 - 359**