Question

Read the excerpt from Act IV of Hamlet.

Gentleman: She speaks much of her father; says she hears
There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her heart;
Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,
That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing . . .

Horatio: 'Twere good she were spoken with, for she may strew
Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.

Gertrude: Let her come in. [Exit Gentleman.]
To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,
Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss:
So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

How does Gertrude’s reaction advance the plot of the play?

by introducing her maternal kindness toward Ophelia
by resolving readers’ concerns about Ophelia’s madness
by reaching a height of conflict as Gertrude decides to punish Ophelia
by suggesting that Ophelia’s madness is a sign of greater troubles

Answer 1

by suggesting that Ophelia’s madness is a sign of greater troubles

Gertrude’s lines link “each toy” (small thing) to “some great amiss” and describe guilt as causing exaggerated fears, so she reads Ophelia’s madness as symptomatic of larger, more serious moral/political problems rather than simply showing maternal care or resolving the situation.