Hamlet has his moment and kills Polonius, believing it to be Claudius. This is his act of revenge, for all purposes, and now he must tell his mother that he has killed his uncle. In response to his mother, he states: “I must be cruel only to be kind: Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind." (Act III, scene iv) He wanted revenge, so he put good behind him, acting “cruel to be kind” to his father’s memory. The second half of the line implies that there’s worse to come: “worse remains behind”.
What does this act and line from the play show the audience in regard to Hamlet’s character development?
B.Hamlet was afraid of Polonius, so he killed him while hiding behind a curtain so he would not retaliate against him.
C.Polonius was the main driving force behind Hamlet’s anger, so killing Polonius was a turning point in Hamlet’s character.
D.Hamlet killing Polonius was accidental, and killing him was kindness due to the type of wound he endured.
Answers
This act and line from the play shows to the audience in regard to Hamlet’s character development that:
A.Hamlet finally made a decision and acted on it, which he had not been able to do up to this point.
Until this act of Hamlet, even the audience and Hamlet himself was confused to think to take any action. When Hamlet kill Polonius mistakenly as he thought that it was Claudius, the ghost of King Hamlet appears. The ghost was only visible to Hamlet and not Gertrude. It is after killing Claudius that this becomes clear that he wished to kill Polonius and take revenge of his father's murder.
The character of hamlet was a good man but, due to the deceit of his uncle, he loses his father.
Consequently, he vows to take revenge for his father and kills Polonius instead of Claudius.
But he is trying to explain that in order to do some good, he needs to do some bad.
The good being getting revenge for his father and making Claudius pay for his sins by doing the bad deed of killing him.