CLAUDIUS      Now out of this –

LAERTES                    What out of this, my lord?

CLAUDIUS      Laertes, was your father dear to you?

Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,

A face without a heart?

LAERTES                    Why ask you this?     (4.7.104-107)

Now out of this—and it seems that Claudius is finally going to ask Laertes to do something—but there’s another delay as Laertes interrupts; either he’s frustrated, really can’t see where this is going, or he’s suddenly uneasy, a bit suspicious. What out of this, my lord? So Claudius pauses, adds another layer of reinforcement, another digression: Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, a face without a heart? Addresses him by name, of course, and it’s an intimate, indecent question: did you love your father? Laertes can look shocked, start to protest even, how can you ask that, how can you doubt that, but Claudius pushes on, makes it even more insulting: or are you just putting on a show, going through the motions? Are you in fact just a total hypocrite? (Even: is this just an excuse for an insurrection, are you just an opportunistic traitor?) (There’s also a gesture back to the opening scene, Hamlet’s sparring with Claudius and Gertrude over the propriety of mourning, the potential for juxtaposition between inward feeling and outward expression.) Why ask you this? Both, why do you even have to ask? And, what are you doing? I don’t understand? OF COURSE I loved my dad!