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Ripple Patel
Mr. Ross Peters
2nd Period
October 12, 2001
A King’s Apology
Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong;
But pardon ’t as you are a gentleman. This presence knows,
And you must needs have heard, how I am punished
With a sore distraction. What I have done
That might your nature, honor, and exception
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
Was ’t Hamlet wronged Laertes? Never Hamlet.
If Hamlet from himself be ta’en away,
And when he’s not himself does wrong Laertes,
Then Hamlet does it not; Hamlet denies it.
Who does it, then? His madness. If ’t be so,
Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged;
His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy. (5.2.240-253)
In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet addresses these lines to Laertes before the
fencing match. After Laertes hears these lines, he states that he cannot yet completely
forgive Hamlet; he wants a better reason for making peace with Hamlet than Hamlet’s
excuse of insanity. Laertes does not reject Hamlet’s apology, however, and the
catastrophic ending soon plays itself out. Through these lines, Shakespeare reaffirms five
important concepts that are explored throughout the play: 1) Hamlet respects and
sympathizes with Laertes, 2) Hamlet does not take responsibility for Ophelia’s insanity
and suicide, 3) Hamlet wishes Laertes to think him insane, 4) Hamlet’s demonstration of
both reason and conscience prove he is sane, and 5) Hamlet is an eligible heir to the
Danish throne.
Hamlet intends Laertes to interpret this passage as follows: Forgive me Laertes. I
have wronged you, but dismiss my wrongs. Everyone here, including you, must know I
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am insane. Whatever I did to provoke you was a product of my madness. Did Hamlet
wrong Laertes? No. If Hamlet is deprived of his usual sanity, then Hamlet is not
responsible for his actions. Who is responsible for these actions? Insanity. Insanity
wrongs Hamlet and acts against Hamlet’s will.
The close repetition of “pardon” in 5.2.240-241 reflects Hamlet’s desire to
appease Laertes. Hamlet wishes to mollify Laertes’ anger towards him because he
respects and sympathizes with Laertes. Hamlet’s respect for Laertes is apparent when he
secretly watches Ophelia’s burial with Horatio. Hamlet refers to Laertes as “a very noble
youth” (2.1.231). Hamlet admires Laertes; a “noble” person is esteemed for his or her
excellent character. Hamlet also realizes that Laertes is foil to himself: “[B]y the image of
my cause I see/The portraiture of his” (5.2.87-88). A “portraiture” is a likeness of
someone or something. Hamlet understands that he and Laertes are in similar situations;
both men want to avenge their fathers’ wrongful deaths.
Although Hamlet wishes to make peace with Laertes, he stops short of taking
responsibility for Ophelia’s death. Hamlet knows Laertes believes he is responsible for
Ophelia’s insanity and suicide because Hamlet overhears Laertes cursing him: “O treble
woe/Fall ten times treble on that cursed head/Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious
sense/Deprived thee of” (5.1.258-261). These lines are an apostrophe from Laertes to the
dead Ophelia. Laertes knows Hamlet is responsible for Polonius’ death. Laertes believes
this “wicked deed” triggered Ophelia’s insanity, which in turn caused her to commit
suicide. Hamlet, however, does not hold himself responsible for Ophelia’s demise. In the
graveyard, he responds to Laertes’ curse: “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand
brothers/Could not with all their quantity of love/Make up my sum” (5.1.285-287).
Hamlet defends himself with the assertion that he would never intentionally harm
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Ophelia. Hamlet emphasizes his love for Ophelia by categorizing Laertes’ love for
Ophelia (“Forty thousand brothers… with… their quantity of love”) as inferior to his own
(“Could not… Make up my sum”). In his plea for Laertes’ pardon, Hamlet does not take
back the harsh words he uttered in the graveyard. Instead, he cunningly replaces a direct
reference to that incident with the phrase, “Whatever I have done/That might your nature,
honor, and exception/Roughly awake” (5.2.244-246). The word “might” implies an
ambiguity concerning the extent of responsibility Hamlet holds for Ophelia’s ruin.
Hamlet finishes this last phrase with the clause, “I here proclaim was madness”
(5.2.246). Hamlet chooses to portray himself as insane because he knows Laertes
believes the insane cannot be held accountable for their actions. Should Laertes believe
Hamlet to be insane, he will not continue to be angry at Hamlet. Laertes expresses his
belief in the innocence of the insane during Ophelia’s burial. He presses for Ophelia’s
corpse to undergo a complete Christian burial, even though she sinned in death by
committing suicide: “Must there no more be done?… [F]rom her fair and unpolluted
flesh/May violets spring!” (5.1.243-250). Laertes’ use of the words “fair” and
“unpolluted” reflect his belief that Ophelia’s soul is pure. Hamlet wants to portray
himself as a foil to Ophelia. His soul is pure, too; insanity is “poor Hamlet’s enemy”
(5.2.254). Hamlet refers to himself in 3rd person in order to distance himself from the
supposedly insane creature that slew Polonius.
Although Hamlet wants Laertes to think him mad, Hamlet’s demonstration of
reason and conscience prove he is sane. Reason is synonymous with logic, and Hamlet
displays a capacity for logic in the following argument: “If Hamlet from himself be ta’en
away,/And when he’s not himself does wrong Laertes,/Then Hamlet does it not”
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(5.2.248-250). This statement is an example of logic because it represents a clear
succession of ideas: If Hamlet is not himself, and if Hamlet wrongs Laertes in this
condition, then Hamlet does not intentionally wrong Laertes.
Hamlet demonstrates reason elsewhere in the novel. For example, when Hamlet
doubts the ghost’s honesty, reason enables him to decide to employ a more trustworthy
method of judging whether Claudius is innocent or guilty of murdering King Hamlet:
“The spirit that I have seen/May be a devil… I’ll have grounds/More relative than this”
(2.2.627-633). Hamlet’s ability to deal with indecision is another example of reason. Not
only does Hamlet understand that ghost may lead him astray (as “devils” are prone to do
with people), but he formulates an effective plan to confirm or erase his doubt of the
ghost’s honesty: “The play’s the thing/Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King”
(2.2.633-634). This plan is effective because Hamlet shifts his focus from a transient,
ethereal entity to a more concrete, tangible source of knowledge—the human being.
Although the insane are frequently incapable of reason, they are just as often
devoid of conscience. Hamlet displays conscience by admitting that he has wronged
Laertes: “I have done you wrong” (5.2.240). Hamlet is aware that he has hurt Laertes,
and more important, he wants Laertes to forgive him. If Hamlet did not experience
remorse, he would not bother to make this conciliatory speech. Hamlet’s conscience also
comes into play after he kills Polonius: “For this same lord/I do repent” (3.4.193-194).
The word “repent” coveys a feeling of regret; Hamlet is aware that he has carelessly
deprived the wrong man of his life.
Hamlet’s conscience is one of several qualities that make him an eligible heir to
the Danish throne. In 5.2.240-253, Hamlet symbolically adopts the behavior of a king by
repeatedly referring to himself in 3rd person. Hamlet also emulates a king’s diplomatic
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impulses; he confronts Laertes’ discontent without compromising his own beliefs. He
does not compromise his own beliefs because he does not assume responsibility for
Ophelia’s death.
Hamlet’s competence as a king can be discerned elsewhere in the play. A good
king places his subjects’ interests before his own. As Hamlet is dying, he appoints a new
king of Denmark: “[Fortinbras] has my dying voice” (5.2.393). “Voice” means “vote” in
this context; Hamlet elects Fortinbras to rule Denmark. Hamlet proves he has the interest
of the Danes at heart, for Fortinbras is an admirable character. He is a man of action, as is
represented by his commanding tone in the following passage: “Go, Captain, from me
greet the Danish king./Tell him that by his license Fortinbras/Craves the conveyance of a
promised march/Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous” (4.4.48-81). Fortinbras is
comfortable in positions of authority; he is an appropriate pick for the throne of
Denmark. Had Hamlet died preoccupied with himself instead of the future of his country,
Denmark would have experienced a period of political chaos. Hamlet’s foresight and
selflessness secures the peaceful ascendancy of a new king.
Though a man of apparent inner strength, Hamlet is not devoid of weakness; in
attempting to make peace with Laertes, he consciously lies about himself. This specific
example can be expanded into a statement about humanity in general: people have good
intentions, but the methods used to enact these intentions are flawed. The question borne
of this statement is such: if people cannot escape sin, can they ever exact positive changes
upon society? Hamlet does not think so; he believes all humans are “arrant knaves”
(3.1.139). Shakespeare dares to hint, however, that Hamlet proves himself wrong.
Word Count: 1482
On my honor, I’ve neither given nor received aid on this work, nor am I aware of any violation of the
Honor Code.