Act 3 Scene 3

As the scene opens, Claudius tells R&G that they need to prepare to accompany Hamlet to England. He no longer trusts Hamlet's madness and obviously sees him as a threat. R&G say that they will gladly do whatever it takes to keep denmark safe, for if ht eKing goes down, the country goes down with him.  Polonius enters and says that he will spy on Gertrude and Hamlet together. Claudius is left alone, and he has a soliloquy in which he reveals his guilt for murdering his brother. He didn't expect to feel so guilty, and he can only hope for divine mercy. He tries to pray. Hamlet enters, intent on killing Claudius, but he refrains from doing so because he feels that, because Claudius is praying, he will go directly to heaven. He remembers how his father was killed and sent to purgatory before he could repent his sins, and Hamlet wants to subject Claudius to the same torture that his father's ghost endures. Hamlet leaves to go to his mother, and Claudius is left unscathed.

Claudius - why did you originally set out to kill your brother? Did you want Gertrude, the power of a King, or both? Why did you feel, before you committed the murder, that you would not feel guilty after it had been executed? Also, what do you want to find out by sending Polonius to spy on Hamlet and Gertrude?

I think that this may be the scene in the play in which Rosencrantz and Guildenstern show where their true intentions lie. They feel as if Hamlet has denounced their friendship, so they might as well go ahead and fulfill the King's orders. However, they may simply have the well-being of the kingdom as their first priority. After all, they do acknowledge that if something were to happen to Claudius, then the country of denmark would be thrown into disarray.