HAMLET: STUDY QUESTIONS

ACT / QUESTIONS
1.1 /
  1. Why did Marcellus bring Horatio to the post?
  2. Horatio noted the ghost’s armour to be that worn when King Hamlet fought whom?
  3. How is King Hamlet’s haunting interpreted?
  4. Why is Fortinbras of Norway significant to the story?

1.2 /
  1. Whom did Claudius, the late King Hamlet’s brother, marry?
  2. Young Fortinbras, according to Claudius, had pestered him to do what?
  3. Why did Hamlet say “frailty, thy name is woman!” (146)?
  4. Analyze the rhetorical device being used here, “...the funeral bak’d meats/Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables” (181-181)?
  5. How was it that Horatio could see King Hamlet’s face?
  6. Hamlet pledged to speak to his noble father even if what condition occurred?

1.3 /
  1. According to Ophelia’s brother, Laertes, why could Hamlet not do as he liked?
  2. What advice did Laertes give to Ophelia regarding her relationship with Hamlet?
  3. What is Polonius’ advice to his son, Laertes?

1.4 /
  1. What reasons did Hamlet have for following the ghost?

1.5 /
  1. What deception did Denmark believe was the cause of King Hamlet’s death?
  2. What suggestion was given for Gertrude’s punishment for her “adultery”?
  3. Why did Hamlet make Oration and Marcellus swear by his sword?

2.1 /
  1. What is Reynaldo’s assignment?
  2. What worries Polonius about Hamlet and Ophelia?

2.2 /
  1. What assumption does Gertrude make about Hamlet’s melancholy?
  2. What assumption does Polonius make about Hamlet’s state of mind?
  3. Why does Hamlet assert that Denmark is a prison?
  4. How does Hamlet spare Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from breaking their promise to the king and queen?
  5. What, according to Hamlet, is the effect of giving more to someone than they are worth?
  6. What is Hamlet’s plan for the actors?

3.1 /
  1. Who are the two lawfully appointed spies who determine if love sickness is the cause of Hamlet’s insanity?
  2. In Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be?” soliloquy, what does he list as the turmoils of mortal life?
  3. “Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind” (101). What does Ophelia mean?
  4. Why does Hamlet urge Ophelia to “Get thee to a nunnery”? (121)
  5. Hamlet’s fine and powerful intellect is compared to what?
  6. What is the king’s first plan for diverting the possible dangers from Hamlet’s brooding depression?

3.2 /
  1. What must the actors achieve to make the performance credible?
  2. “Observe my uncle: if his occulted guilt/Do not itself unkennel in one speech, /It is a damned ghost that we have seen” (82-84). What does Hamlet mean?
  3. Who played Caesar in university?
  4. How many months have passed since King Hamlet’s death?
  5. What is the queen’s opinion of the Player Queen’s resolutions about a second marriage?
  6. Why are references made to Gonzago and Baptista?
  7. What resolve does Hamlet make prior to meeting with his mother?

3.3 /
  1. Explain: “”Tis meet that some more audience than a mother, /Since nature makes them partial,” (31-32).
  2. Explain: “”My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; /Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” (97-98) What rhetorical device is being used?

3.4 /
  1. Hamlet, after killing Polonius, confesses that he thought the meddler to be whom?
  2. Who is the “fair mountain” and who is the “moor”? (66)
  3. What rhetorical devices are used here: “A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, /That from a shelf the precious diadem stole? /And put it in his pocket!” (98-101)?
  4. What rhetorical devices are used here: “I must be cruel, only to be kind:” (178)?
  5. Who are the poisonous snakes that Hamlet will not trust?
HAMLET: STUDY QUESTIONS
ACT / QUESTIONS
4.1 /
  1. To prevent his reputation being slandered, who does Claudius consult?

4.2 /
  1. Explain the two-fold nature of the sponge metaphor?
  2. Provide the meaning and/or motive behind this statement. “The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body” (28-29).

4.3 /
  1. What does the following show about how Claudius feels about his people? “[Hamlet is] loved by the distracted multitude, /Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes” (4-5).
  2. What secret plan did Claudius conceal in a letter to the King of England?

4.4 /
  1. How is Hamlet inspired by Fortinbras’ army?
  2. How are the two characters different, yet similar?

4.5 /
  1. Why does Horatio urge the queen to talk to Ophelia?
  2. The king feels Ophelia’s madness is a result of what?
  3. According to the king who do people resemble “mere beasts”?
  4. That Laertes will “dare damnation” means what?
  5. If Laertes finds the king not guilty, what will the king do for Laertes?

4.6 /
  1. What is revealed in the letter Horatio receives?

4.7 /
  1. Why does King Claudius introduce Lamond into his conversation with Laertes?
  2. Why does Claudius ask Laertes if he is “like the painting of sorrow”? (106)
  3. What is the first planned method of killing Hamlet?
  4. What is Claudius’ alternate plan?
  5. What is Ophelia’s fate?
  6. Why do Claudius and Gertrude go after Laertes?

5.1 /
  1. From whom did Hamlet realize that it was Ophelia being buried?
  2. What is significant about the gravediggers’ view on death?
  3. What happens between Laertes and Hamlet in this scene?

5.2 /
  1. What provokes Hamlet to break the royal seal and open the letter that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were transporting to England?
  2. How does “my father’s signet” and “the model of that Danish seal” help Hamlet reverse his position with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?
  3. Who represents the “canker of our nature”? Analyze the rhetorical device.
  4. Why is Osric made to seem like such a despicable character?
  5. Who is the first to be poisoned during the match?
  6. How does Claudius lie?
  7. Why does Laertes clarify the king’s villainy that made certain that Hamlet knew the origin of the vicious plot?
  8. Fortinbras commands: “Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage, / For he was likely, had he been put on, / To have proved most royal:” (386-387). Why is this ironic?