rned the extent of Claudius' guilt, however, Hamlet spends the next act apparently doing nothing. In the soliloquy at the end of Act Two he reflects on his own inaction and reaches a conclusion about what he will do. He compares his own inaction and lack of overt response to the player's ability to express so much over nothing. It is "monstrous" (i.e., unnatural) that he has done so little about avenging his father and Hamlet compares himself to a "rogue and peasant slave," since only a very lowly person would fail to act (2,ii,538). If a mere player had as much cause as Hamlet to be enraged he would astonish the audience with the force of his reaction. Yet Hamlet, able to look clearly at himself, sees th
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