Hamlet: Acts IV and V

Hamlet Act IV Summary

Swounds! We enter the final two Acts. Everyone gets to get revenge on someone who wronged them...except the most wronged character of all. Who is s/he?

Act I, Scene i

Claudius, Gertrude, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern all meet to discuss what just happened between Hamlet and his mother. She says he’s mad as a hatter because he's just killed Polonius. Claudius questions what should be done with Hamlet, as his freedom puts them all in jeopardy. The king asks where Hamlet is, and Gertrude says he’s gone to bury the body and he is very sorry for what he did. Claudius calls Rosencrantz and Gildenstern to go see about Hamlet and bring the body of Polonius to the chapel.

Scene ii

Actors Gary Oldman and Tim Roth as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern go to Hamlet to find out what he’s done with the body. Hamlet has hidden it, and calls them “sponges,” soaking up favors from Claudius. They don’t understand the reference.

Scene iii

Claudius asks for Hamlet, Hamlet arrives with Rosencrantz and Gildenstern. When Claudius asks his nephew where the body is, Hamlet commences making morbid jokes about the ‘cycle of life’:

“Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain
convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your
worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for
maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but
variable service, two dishes, but to one table:
that's the end.”

When asked what he means, Hamlet replies,

“Nothing but to show you how a king may go a
progress through the guts of a beggar.”

Effectively, Hamlet called Polonius a piece of poopie: a man is eaten by worms, a fish eats the worm, a man eats the fish, and on like that. Yuck. 

Finally, Claudius asks again and Hamlet says, “You shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.”

The king and queen then tell Hamlet of their plans to send him to England; Claudius, when alone, admits that he plans to have Hamlet killed when he gets to England.

*Note: A cicatrice (cicatrix) is new flesh that forms over a wound.

Scene iv

Hamlet encounters Prince Fortinbras with his captains and army and inquires what’s going on. The Captain tells him that they are to attack ‘some part of Poland,’ and that Fortinbras is leading the way. The captain tells him that they are about to attack ‘a little patch of ground’ that’s hardly worth the bother. Hamlet thinks to himself that if Fortinbras can enlist so many men to reclaim such a petty chunk of turf, then he should go on with his plan to avenge his father.

Scene v

Gertrude, “a gentleman,” and Horatio are in Elsinore Castle. Gertrude refuses to speak with Ophelia, who is going around muttering nonsense and in a strange, faraway sort of manner, while others try to humor her. She has been driven mad, no doubt, by Hamlet’s treatment of her, compounded by her father’s sudden death. Exit Ophelia, enter her brother, Laertes, who demands to know what happened to his father. King and Queen are quick to defend themselves. Laertes spots Ophelia, who comes in, still singing little nonsense songs. Then she begins pulling invisible stems:

“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray,

Love, remember: and there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.

There’s fennel for you, and columbines: there’s rue

For you; and here’s some for me: we may call it

Herb-grace o’ Sundays: O you must wear your rue with

A difference. There’s a daisy: I would give you

Some violets, but they withered all when my father

Died: they say he made a good end, --

* She directs these lines to Claudius, offering him ‘herb grace o’ Sundays’ for his repentance; the daisies are for unhappy love; violets for faith.

She sings a song about virginity that raises curiosity about whether Hamlet deflowered her or no:

  

By Gis and by Saint Charity,
Alack, and fie for shame!
Young men will do't, if they come to't;
By cock, they are to blame.
Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
You promised me to wed.
So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.

Claudius encourages Laertes’ demands for revenge.

Below are two versions of Ophelia's "Mad Scene." Take note of the differences--how would you describe the manner in which each interprets madness? First is a scene from Hamlet set in the 20th century, Claudius is played by Sir Patrick Stewart; Ophelia is played by Mariah Gale. 

In Mel Gibson's production of Hamlet, Ophelia is just as expertly interpreted by Helena Bonham Carter. 

Scene vi

Another room in the castle

Horatio receives a letter from Hamlet who has been taken prisoner by pirates.

Act IV, Scene vii

Claudius finds out that Hamlet is alive and well and on his way home. He heaps flattery onto Laertes, hoping to shift suspicion onto Polonius’s son. A plan is hatched that Laertes will have a chance to avenge his father’s death by participating in a duel with Hamlet. Claudius believes it would be easy to convince Hamlet to fence with Laertes. They believe that Hamlet is gullible enough not to examine the swords being used, so Laertes can choose one with a sharp blade (according to sources, the Elizabethans reserved blunted swords for friendly duels). This way Laertes can kill Hamlet. Just for extra measure, Laertes plans to dip the business end of the sword into a poisonous ointment that will finish Hamlet off for sure. As a third option, Claudius may well just poison Hamlet’s drink.

Enter Gertrude with bad news: Ophelia has drowned.

Act V, Scene I, the Palace Graveyard

The talk among the gravediggers is suicide, since poor Ophelia has done herself in. Since suicide was considered a sin against God, those guilty of the offense do not receive a Christian burial—but since Ophelia is in with the royal crowd, things are different for her.

Hamlet and Horatio approach, and Hamlet begins to remark on the skulls that the gravedigger has thrown to the top of the grave. The conversation turns to our fates in death: how we and our material belongings end up dust. The gravedigger tells his companion that Hamlet has lost his mind since he was sent to England—where everyone is also mad as a hatter. The grave digger and the prince talk awhile about how long it takes a body to decay until the grave digger hands him the skull of Yorick, the king’s jester from 23 years ago.

Then the famous speech that begins, “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio…”

Hamlet and Horatio spot a procession with the king and queen and Laertes. Hamlet asks the priest who is being buried, the priest tells him it is a suicide:

Her obsequies have been as far enlarged
As we have warrantise: her death was doubtful;
And, but that great command o'ersways the order,
She should in ground unsanctified have lodged
Till the last trumpet: for charitable prayers,
Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her;
Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants,
Her maiden strewments and the bringing home
Of bell and burial.

So, apparently, because she killed herself, her body should be flung somewhere and pelted with stones.

Then Laertes and Hamlet scramble (in her grave) over who loved her more.

Act V Scene ii

Hamlet discloses to Horatio that while asea headed to England he got hold of the letters between Claudius and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about having him killed. Since he (conveniently) had his uncle’s signet, he altered the letter so that it read R and G were to be killed and sent the letter on its way.

Enter Osric, who tells Hamlet that the king has placed a bet on him in a duel. Will he concede? Yep. The king has bet three fine horses, three fine swords, and three fine carriages to see the fine duel. Let’s go.

All the court appears for the duel, including the King with the poisoned beverage for Hamlet. As the duel commences, Hamlet makes a long apology to Laertes, and declares that “madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.” The devil made him do it. Surprisingly, Hamlet inquires about the length of the foils. The king offers Hamlet a drink of wine while he duels, but he says ‘no.’ Then the queen offers him her handkerchief to wipe his brow; then SHE drinks the poisoned wine!

Laertes wounds Hamlet, and in a scuffle, they swap swords. Meanwhile, Gertrude falls over. Laertes tells Hamlet that his sword is poisoned and Hamlet’s going to die. Meanwhile, Hamlet stabs Claudius. They all shout “Treason!” and Hamlet forces Claudius to drink the rest of the poison. Hamlet lets fly a few parting words and dies. Horatio utters the famous line:

“Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince:

And flights of angels sing the to thy rest!”

Finally, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.

Hamlet Act III Summary

Hamlet confronts his mother in Sir Laurence Olivier's rendition (1948).

Themes:

Woman
Suicide
Setting up a Mirror/Confronting the Truth
Play-within-a-play
Treachery
Drama
Performance
Theater
Consequences
Love
Betrayal
Revenge

Scene I

We find the king, the queen, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Ophelia, and Polonius conversing about what the two schoolmates might have gotten out of Hamlet. The prince is stubborn and won't relent, but he is planning a play, so that's a cheery development. Then ushers in perhaps the most famous soliloquy ever, in which Hamlet, dejected and morose from all that has happened, ponders suicide. Note the moment in which he vacillates:

"To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer 
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die: to sleep; 
No more, and by a sleep to say we end 
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks 
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep; 
To sleep: perchance to dream: aye, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, 
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 
Must give us pause; there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life; 
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns 
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death, 
The undiscovered country from whose bourn 
No traveler returns puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, 
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought 
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action" (56-88).

Immediately after his deep contemplation, Ophelia arrives, her presence seems to agitate him further. She attempts to return some baubles he once gave her, he said he never gave them, and she delivers one pity line, "Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind" (698). Then Hamlet launches into this awful verbal assault on poor Ophelia, in which he renounces his love for her, and remands her to a 'nunnery,' or whorehouse, claiming she would be a "breeder of sinners." In fact, he himself is no good. Then, there's that bit about "If thou dost marry, I'll give the this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny...if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them" (699). And this episode is but another push over the edge for Ophelia as well as for Hamlet. Here we have our first 'mirror' metaphor: as Ophelia bemoans the loss of Hamlet's sanity, she laments by saying that he was once "the glass of fashion (a mirror) and the mould of form," meaning that he was the very image of the proper prince. 

Scene ii

As the second scene the play commences, and Hamlet throws himself into his scheme. The players will perform The Murder of Gonzago, and play out a plot much like the murder of Hamlet's dad. He begins with a few notes to the players about 'overplaying' the scene--and warns also about playing it to soft: he is concerned that they 'hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure'--to reveal the truth and force mom and uncle to face it. 

He has a bit of bawdy fun with his ex girlfriend, Ophelia, before making some remarks about how soon they've all forgotten that his father died just two months prior. Onward.

The scene plays out from the poison dribbled into the king's ear onward, and Claudius is outraged. He takes off for some me time, in which he admits to killing his own brother, and struggles to bring himself to prayer. Meanwhile, Hamlet overhears Claudius and, while he's been ready to strike him dead with his sword, hesitates: He cannot kill his uncle while he's in the act of prayer and send him onto heaven now that he's repented! Hamlet's father didn't get a chance to repent, so that wouldn't be fair. So, Hamlet hesitates.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern report that the queen is mad (angry) and wants a talk with Hamlet. Polonius, ever the snoop, accompanies her so he can overhear and report. Hamlet shows up full of venom as his retort suggests in this exchange:

Gertrude: Hamlet, thou has thy father much offended.
Hamlet: Mother, you have my father much offended. 

It's on: he aims to hold a mirror up to his mother now, to show her the reality of her nature (213). Incidentally, he kills Polonius who stands behind the arras. The two have words, and Hamlet ends up telling his mother that she has done a terrible thing--which she finally admits--that his father was a prince among kings, and Claudius is an 'ear of grain' that has turned all moldy and infects everything around him. Hamlet begs her not to continue having intercourse with Claudius, which would bring back (at least some) of her virtue. The scene ends with an uneasy understanding: that if she blabs about his crazy act, her neck is in danger; however Hamlet appears satisfied his anger for now. 

Hamlet: Act II Summary

Act II

Themes:

Communication
Spying
Artifice
Performance
Madness

Scene I: We are farther ahead in time now by several weeks. We find Polonius bribing a fellow named Reynaldo some cash to spy on his son, Laertes, who is away at school in Paris. He cautions Reynaldo to be cautious, and to slyly bring up the subject by way of conversation with those who might know Laertes. Meantime, Ophelia comes in flustered, going on about how Hamlet had just been to see her while she sat sewing in her chamber. He was all disheveled: his stockings were "fouled" and sagging at the ankles, his shirt was open--in Elizabethan times this look was recognized as his being anguished over love. In truth, Hamlet didn't say much, he only grabbed her by the wrists, dragging her hand the length of his arm and her other hand over his brow and let out a long, anguished sigh. This they believed was the behavior of the anguished lover, indeed. Ophelia convinces her father that she is, indeed, still chaste, and Polonius resolves to take the matter to the King.

In truth, Hamlet has begun his charade of madness. Those around him aren't sure whether he's in earnest, if this is some case of melancholia (a malady thought to be real back then and responsible for such behavior) or perhaps he's bluffing--but no one just steps up and asks.

Scene II:
Claudius has notice his nephew's strange behavior. So, in the tradition of hiring someone to spy on your children, Gertrude and Claudius call on Hamlet's old school friends, Rosencrantz and Gildenstern, to talk to Hamlet and find out what they can, then deliver that news back to the royals.

An interesting note: While the two emissaries are about to enter, Gertrude, in a private conversation with her new husband, acknowledges the "real" reason behind Hamlet's madness:

"I doubt it is no other but the main;
His father's death and out o'erhasty marriage." (lines 56-7).

Yet, no more is said on the matter.

Meanwhile, Voltimand and Cornelius return from their errand in Norway. Claudius has been fearful that young Prince Fortinbras will declare war and reclaim the lands Claudius won in a bet. However, it turns out Claudius's fears were unjustified. Then once that is settled, everyone turns their attentions back to Hamlet, whom they have diagnosed with love-sickness for Ophelia. Hence begins Polonius's ironic address:

"This business is well ended.
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time
Where nothing but to waste night, day and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad:
Mad call I it: for, to define true madness,
What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go." (lines 85-94

To prove his point, Polonius reads from some saucy love letters Hamlet sent to her. The royals and Polonius plan to set the two young lovers up in a situation that will reveal the truth of Hamlet's condition--the young prince has acquired the habit of pacing manically in the lobby each day, so they all decide to choose that spot to reunite the kids.  

As it happens, Polonius and Hamlet have a dialogue in Ophelia's absence. Hamlet trades some loaded words with Polonius, insinuates him as a 'fishmonger,' (or pimp), and wishes aloud that Polonius could be so "honest a man." Hamlet then cautions him not to let his daughter out into the sun, for the sun will breed maggots in a dead dog, so it will breed in Ophelia's womb. Yep. Insulting.

By now you might have picked up on the theme of spying: it appears that almost everyone, particularly Polonius, is tip-toeing around corners and listening in on conversations. It would seem that Polonius thinks of himself as a trusted insider as Lord Chamberlain of the castle, but could it be that his fawning is mere performance to make inroads with the royal house?

Then there is the artifice of Hamlet's performance of madness. How does his performance address the performances going on around him--particularly the double entendre he issues at Polonius and others, the asides and soliloquies that suggest his true feelings.

Enter Rosencrantz and Gildenstern, friends of Hamlet's from way back. Even though he seems softened by their appearance, Hamlet will not tell them what he's up to, or what's happened to trigger his charade of madness. He only asks them why they've been sent. Before long a troupe of actors appears and Hamlet has a telling interaction with one of the players, when he asks that the player recite the Murder of Priam from the Aeneid. While Polonius yawns and balks, Hamlet has a realization or two.

First, the narrative of Priam's death bears a great deal of similarity to what just happened here. Perhaps a play is the thing to catch the conscience of the king. After a long soliloquy in which he chastises himself for doing nothing but speech making (and balking at that player for getting all teary-eyed over Hecuba), Hamlet resolves to stage a play, the Murder of Gonzago, in which true events will be depicted, along with a short monologue Hamlet will pen just for the occasion.

Hamlet: Act I Summary

Act I, Scene I:

British actor Derek Jacoby as Hamlet

Scene I
We are first introduced to the goings-on at Elsinore Castle from the encounter that guardsmen Horatio, Marcellus and Bernardo and Francisco have with the ghost of the former King Hamlet. The others dare Horatio to speak to the phantom, and he does, and he scares it away. Or so they think.

Scene II
We meet Prince Hamlet at the wedding of his Uncle Claudius, and his mother, Queen Gertrude of Elsinore. Hamlet is dressed in mourning clothes and he's surly. Once all have cleared the state room, he embarks on a soliloquy in which he denounces the hasty marriage. Then the guards show up to tell him all about the specter they've just seen. Marcellus and Horatio are old friends of Hamlet's from Wittenberg, who've left school to attend the wedding. Then they tell Hamlet about the ghost who's hanging around the battlements outside.

We also learn of a war raging in the distance beyond the castle: Prince Fortinbras has vowed to avenge the death of his father--an event occasioned by the guy who is now a ghost. Fortinbras aims to collect on the land that Hamlet took from his father.

Hamlet decides to confront the ghost. He and his chums Horatio and Marcellus agree to help him wait for it "twixt eleven and twelve" (line 251).

Scene III
Meanwhile, Polonius, the castle's Lord Chamberlain, is chatting with his kids, Laertes, who is about to take off to college in France, and Ophelia, who has it bad for Hamlet. Polonius dispenses some critical, paternal advice to his son, in which he tells him "Neither a borrower or lender be: For loan oft loses both itself and friend" and "This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow as the night the day, Then canst not then be false to any man" (lines 77-83). Then he tenders advice to his young daughter Ophelia, warning her not to expect much out of this 'romance' with Hamlet: he is royalty and will choose a royal wife. And, she must retain her virtue: if she sleeps with him she has hence lost her chastity and her honor. Ah well, too late.

Scene IV

We're taken back to the battlements, where Hamlet, Marcellus, and Horatio all sit sentry, waiting for a ghost to show up. It shows up, alright. It appears before them, beckoning at them, while the Hamlet's friends urge him not to follow the thing: it could drag him off to hell or drive him mad. Hamlet listens not.

Scene V
The ghost and Hamlet have a chat. Effectively, Claudius is to blame for King Hamlet's death: "The serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown" and all that. While the king was sleeping in the garden (as was his custom), his brother sneaks upon him and pours poison into his ear. The upshot of all this is that the ghost wants Hamlet to avenge his murder, BUT

"...howsoever thou pursuest this act,
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
against thy mother aught: leave her to heaven,
and to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and and sting her. Fare thee well at once!"

Horatio and Marcellus return and want to know the news. Hamlet tells all and swears them to secrecy upon his sword. Hamlet then plans to "put an antic disposition on" which could refer to a. a pantomime that he knows nothing; or b. a pantomime of madness.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy"

The Shakespearean Theater and Hamlet

Hamlet is exalted above all of Shakespeare's other plays not only for its quotable lines ("to be or not to be--that is the question), for its memorable plot (young Danish prince finds out his mom and uncle plotted to kill his dad so that dad's brother can ascend to the throne--follow?); or for the impressive list of actors who have played the Greatest Dane of all: such greats as Sir Ian McKellen, Ralph Fiennes, Sir Laurence Olivier, Sarah Bernhardt (yes, a woman played Hamlet), Mel Gibson, Kenneth Branagh, Jude Law and Ethan Hawke have had turns at interpreting the role. For five centuries, Hamlet has loomed large on the literary--and theatrical list of greats. So, there's the rub: why we should care...

The common practice of interpreting a famous story from the folk archives of Scandinavian bards didn't stop with Beowulf. Hamlet, not unlike Oedipus Rex, is taken from folklore--even though its focus is the royal class. In fact, it is widely accepted that most of Shakespeare's plots were not original to Shakespeare--but that's not the point: it's the execution of the action that makes it his own. Shakespeare's Hamlet explores for the first time the inner conflicts of the individual--as well as the external conflicts of individuals within a society. The play blends humor, treachery, betrayal, a ghost story, madness, bawdiness, unrequited love, disappointment, and revenge in a way that no other work of art can match. But first let's discuss where Shakespeare staged his plays.

The Globe Theater (doublebarreledtravel.com)

The Globe theater was built in 1599 by a company of actors associated with Shakespeare--the Lord Chamberlain's men. The original Globe Theater burned in 1613 and a new Globe Theater was build in 1614 but closed in 1642. The third rendition, Shakespeare's Globe, has survived since 1997 (1).

Our text observes that "[T]he Globe was open to all social classes: anyone who wished could enter the theater by paying a penny, and at the cost of another, get a bench, cushion, and protection (in the boxes) from inclement weather. This mixing of social classes in his audience was echoed in Shakespeare's plays: rather than submitting to the stricter forms of classical drama, Shakespeare mixed comic routines with tragic soliloquies, the speech of common soldiers and bawds with the elegant language of the court. The Globe used almost no scenery and few stage props, so Shakespeare had to evoke the scene through language and deploy stage props sparingly. Only the costumes were lavish and constituted one of the most valuable possessions in the company. Shakespeare knew the theater inside out and his plays used its resources to the fullest, including sudden entrances and concealed eavesdroppers, brutal sword-fights and touching love scenes, witty asides and striking double entendres"(2). 

Hamlet

Sir Laurence Olivier as Hamlet (1948)

Hamlet builds on an ongoing tradition of great canonical dramas--and epics in two ways. As in many of the prominent selections we have studied, this tragedy occupies two distinct time periods: drawn from medieval Scandinavian folklore, the narrative of Hamlet is displaced to the Renaissance period (16th-17th centuries). In much the way Oedipus Rex examines the lives and torments of the ruling class, Hamlet focuses on the vicissitudes of life within the Danish court. However, in this Shakespearean masterpiece, we observe, at closer range, the torments and inner conflicts of a hero outraged at the treachery of his uncle, the passivity of an enabling queen, and the limitations of his own conscience. Hamlet's pantomime of madness mirrors the madness he confronts among the court he is to inherit. As the text points out "Hamlet has struck many later readers as a representative modern, someone forced to make his way in a world no longer ordered by traditional institutions" (656).

Themes: 

Nature of Power
Role/Nature of Women
Fortune
Suicide

Treachery

Vanity

Omen

Societal Breakdown

Juxtaposition between Courtly Manners and Corruption

Play-within-the-play

Helena Bohham Carter as Ophelia

Setting: Elsinore Castle, Denmark

Characters:

Claudius: King of Denmark

Hamlet: Prince of Denmark

Polonius: Lord Chamberlain

Horatio: Friend of Hamlet

Laertes: Son of Polonius

Priest

Marcellus, Bernardo: Officers

Reynaldo: Servant to Polonius

Players

Two Clowns, grave-diggers

Fortinbras: Prince of Norway

Captain

Voltimand, Cornelius, Rosencrantz, Gildenstern, Osric, Gentlemen: Courtiers

English Ambassadors

Gertrude: Queen of Denmark

Ophelia: Daughter of Polonius

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers, and other attendants

Ghost

The Inferno, Cantos VI-X

                              www.pinterest.com

Dante's Hell, which as the artist has rendered in the above depiction, can be imagined as a conical-shaped pit composed of Nine Rings, each of which houses a category of sinners. These categories are structured according to the notion of Contrapasso: A term that means, in the vernacular, to let the punishment fit the crime--a concept built on cosmic retribution. Each beginning with Limbo is hierarchical, with the least offensive transgressions representing the first ring of the Underworld, with the more offensive sins ranked progressively deeper and deeper, ending in the Ninth Circle, which houses those accused of Treachery--betrayal of one's kin, or of earthly (or heavenly) lord. Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus with kiss, is positioned here along with Mordred, from Arthurian legend who murdered his uncle/father, as well as Cain, who murdered his brother. At the very center tip is Satan (or Lucifer) who sits, three-faced in ice, devouring the worst transgressors of this realm. He is said to be the inverse of God: he is ignorant, powerless, and full of hate, doomed to eternity to devour the souls of the unrighteous (1). 

Canto VI: Dante and his guide enter the Third Circle of hell, where those guilty of gluttony are housed. They observe the sinners wallowing in muck while being pelted with filthy rain and hail. The more they struggle to get clean, the filthier they become. Meanwhile, the three-headed dog, Cerberus stands guard, barking and howling at the Pilgrim and the Poet. Virgil throws a handful of slime to the creature who eats it up greedily. While there, Dante encounters Ciacco, a fellow Florentine, who has dire news about the future of Florence. He mentions three other great Florentine officials, Farinato, Tegghiaio, and Rusticucci, and Dante inquires about their fate in the afterlife: "They lie below with blacker souls, by different sins pushed down to different depths," says Ciacco before moving on. 

Canto VII: In this Canto, the two travelers reach two circles of the underworld, the fourth and fifth, that house the Prodigal and Miserly (Avaricious) in the fourth circle; the wrathful in the fifth. Plutus, the god of wealth, who exclaims "Pape Satan, pape Satan aleppe!" - a phrase even Dante geeks cannot figure out. The two pass the demon without comment, and Plutus seems to lose substance. They come upon a group of souls (the avaricious) and the prodigal (reckless spendthrifts) tugging this way and that, one side shouting "Why hoard?" the other shouting "Why waste?" Dante learns that these are the souls of the "priests and popes and cardinals, in whom avarice is most likely to prevail" (414). Dante thinks he should be able to recognized a few of these "tonsured heads," but the truth is, their deeds have earned them this place in hell and they are muddied beyond recognition. Their love of money--and of Fortune--is useless, as all the gold in the world could not save them. Dante poses the question concerning the nature of Fortune and Virgil scoffs. "How overwhelming is your ignorance!" he says to Dante, before holding forth on his explanation that Fortune seeks out her beneficiaries, shifting them every so often to make things fair. Interestingly, Fortune is cast as a woman in Virgil's monologue (think of "Lady Luck"), and she is hated by those who are lucky. Perchance because she was thought of as capricious and fickle? 

   Virgil guides Dante through the fifth circle of Hell. Gustave Dore.

They reach the swampy, murky, icky river Styx. In it are bodies writhing and fighting, "their faces scarred with rage" (415). They fight and squirm and headbutt each other. Directly beneath the Wrathful are the Sullen, who in life could not be swayed from their self-pity to enjoy life, so they are doomed to an eternity in a pool of sludge to sing a hymn which sounds like gurgling noises to those above the surface. Dante and Virgil are grossed out and they leave, encounter a high tower. 

Canto VIII: Virgil and Dante encounter the mythical ferryman Phlegyas (from the Aenead) and Filippo Argenti, who is apparently a jerk, because Dante doesn't mind seeing a mob of souls rip him apart. Then onward to the City of Dis, where Virgil is turned away at the gate. The two are rattled: Dante begs Virgil not to leave him by his lonesome in hell, and the poet assures him that he will not, and don't worry, there will be help from heaven. 

Canto IX: Visibly and understandably shaken, Dante and his guide discussed what just happened. Virgil is visibly shaken, stuttering out words of assurance that help is on the way. Dante's not so sure, and asks Virgil if any soul has ever ventured this far into hell before. Virgil assures him that even he, a well-meaning Pagan from Limbo, has been down there before. He traveled into the depths of hell to retrieve a soul for Erichtho, who sent him all the way down to the pit of Judas (which is way, way, way down there) and bring out that soul. Virgil goes on talking as he is wont; meanwhile, Dante's gaze travels up the tower to spot a graphic site: Three women, covered in blood, dangle from the tower. These women are the Furies, sent to warn them that Medusa is on her way to turn them into stone. Then Virgil covers Dante's eyes so that he won't be turned to stone. Then they hear something coming. Ripping through the sky and making a big ruckus is an angel coming to save the day. Virgil uncovers Dante's eyes and tells him to look: God's messenger has arrived, and the angel opens the gate with one wave of his wand. The angel admonishes the souls inside for trying to resist God's will. The two enter and find more misery: tombs in the ground shoot flames while the souls of Arch Heretics writhe in pain. 

Canto X: Dante and Virgil enter the tombs of the Epicurean heretics, where they encounter a political enemy of Dante, one Farinata. The two talk. Then, Cavalcanti di Cavalcanti arrives in ghostly form to talk about his son, Guido. Then he disappears. Farinata predicts that Dante will "soon know the pain of exile" (more political allegory here); then Dante wants to know how it is the dead can see into the future but not the present.