In this scene, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern can’t figure out what the reason is behind Hamlet’s weird behavior, but they tell King Claudius and Gertrude that he was excited by the arrival of the players. The King and Queen, hoping that Hamlet will improve agree to watch the play. Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Gertrude leave. Claudius and Polonius then chose that moment to set up the “accidental” meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia. Polonius tells Ophelia to walk in the courtyard as if she were reading a book.

In his soliloquy, Hamlet agonizes over whether to kill himself: “To be or not to be”. He thinks men would almost always choose suicide over the “slings and arrows” except that they fear what might happen in the afterlife. He says that such thinking turns people into cowards, and action into inaction. Suddenly Ophelia enters and tries to return the gifts Hamlet gave her. He denies having ever given them. Hamlet then asks Ophelia if she’s honest, then says beauty corrupts honesty. Becoming angry, he tells Ophelia he loved her once, then says he never loved her. He commands her to go to a nunnery (a place for prostitutes) rather than become a “breeder of sinners” He condemns women for hiding their faces behind makeup. Hamlet then storms off. Ophelia is left heartbroken.
Claudius then decides that Hamlet neither loves Ophelia nor is mad. Instead, he thinks Hamlet is “brooding” on something, and that this brooding will lead to danger. He decides to send Hamlet to England. Polonius still thinks Hamlet loves Ophelia. He requests that after the play Hamlet be sent to talk with Gertrude , where Polonius will again spy.