• Hamlet, William Sakespeare

• Introduction
• Short Summary
• Detailed Summary
• Summary Act I-Scene-I
• Summary Act I, Scene II
• Summary Act I, Scene III
• Summary Act I, Scene IV
• Summary Act I, Scene V
• Summary Act II, Scene I
• Summary Act II, Scene II
• Summary Act III, Scene I
• Summary Act III, Scene II
• Summary Act III, Scene III
• Summary Act III, Scene IV
• Summary Act IV, Scene I-II
• Summary Act IV, Scene III-IV
• Summary Act IV, Scene V
• Summary Act IV, Scene VI-VII
• Summary Act V, Scene I
• Summary Act V, Scene II
• Character of Hamlet
• Character of Ophelia
• Themes & Topics
• University Questions & Answers
• Top 10 Quotes from Hamlet
• Best Quotes from Hamlet

Act III Scene-III Detailed Summary of Hamlet, a play by William Shakespeare

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Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. The king deputes them to take Hamlet to England. Polonius comes to inform that Hamlet has gone to the closet of his mother and Polonius would overhear the conversation of the son and the mother for the king. He exits and the king reveals his perturbed heart over the murder of his cousin, father of Hamlet: "My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent". He wants to repent but: "May one be pardon'd and retain th' offence?"

He bends on the knee while praying. Enters Hamlet and thinks of killing him but :

"Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven,
And so am I reveng'd. That would be scann'd.
A villain kills my father; and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven".

So Hamlet does not kill him then. He wishes to kill him at a moment when:


"When he is drunk asleep; or in his rage;
...And that his soul may be as damn'd and black
As hell, whereto it goes."

Hamlet wishes to remain solemn in his revenge.