HAMLET

CLOSE READING AND DISCUSSION GUIDE

Act I.Scene 1
1. How many times has the ghost previously appeared?
2. Explain the humor in Marcellus insistence that Horatio speak to the Ghost.
3. After failing to get any information from the Ghost, what action does Horatio
propose?
4. What details are revealed about Horatios character? Compare him to the soldiers.
Summarize his account of the conflict between Norway and Denmark.
Scene 2
1. What three matters of business does King Claudius take up at his first Council
session?
2. Analyze the periodic sentences in the Kings first speech. What is the literal
interpretation of his remarks?
3. How does Claudius speech gain approval for his hasty marriage and his takeover
of the throne?
4. Why are Claudius and Gertrude critical of Hamlets dress and behavior? Hamlets
response?
5. Hamlet uses three puns when he first appears. What does this suggest about (a) his
personality (b) his intelligence (c) his attitude toward Claudius (d) his attitude
toward Gertrude?
6. What does the King mean when he calls Hamlets grief unmanly?
7. What does he mean when he says it shows a will most incorrect to heaven?
8. How does the King insult Hamlet when he says, let the world take note/ You are
the most immediate to our throne?
9. How does Hamlet insult the King when he tells Gertrude, I shall in all my best
obey you, madam?
10. A soliloquy is a dramatic convention in which a character voices thoughts while
alone on stage. What do Hamlets first thoughts reveal about his state of mind and
the reasons for it? Outline his thinking; identify the images and the central theme
of the speech.
11. Of whom is Hamlet thinking when he says, frailty, thy name is woman? What
does he mean by this statement?
12. In what context does Hamlet compare his mother to a beast that wants discourse
of reason? How is the using the word want?
13. What is the tone of Hamlets word play with Horatio about the events in his
family?
14. What does Hamlet mean when he says, Foul deeds will rise,/ Though all the
earth oerwhelm them to mens eyes? Foreshadowing or philosophy?

Scene 3
1. What event brings the family of Polonius together in this scene?
2. What is the tone of Laertes advice to Ophelia? Her response to him?
3. Explain Polonius pleasure with his puns on the word tender. Explain the double
meaning.
4. Explicate Polonius observation that When the blood burns, now prodigal the
soul/ Lends the tongue vows. Explain the blazes metaphor that follows.
Scenes 4-5
1. What is going on in the castle while Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus await the
Ghost?
2. What do Horatio and Marcellus fear will happen to Hamlet if he follows the
Ghost?
3. Look at Hamlets first response to the ghost. What is revealed about his feelings?
4. What does Horatio fear from the ghost? When Hamlet insists on following the
ghost, he says, My fate cries out. Consider the existential possibilities in
Hamlets exclamation.
5. What earlier lines are echoed in Marcellus belief that Something is rotten in the
state of Denmark? At this point, what might that perception be?
6. Explain the Ghosts serpent metaphor.
7. Quote the lines in which the Ghost suggests that the Queen committed adultery
before his death. What other interpretations might those lines suggest?
8. Discuss the parallel structure in the Ghosts reflection that he was sleeping, by a
brothers hand/ Of life, of crown, of Queen at once dispatched. How does it
contribute to the impact of his message?
9. List the three specific commands of the Ghost to Hamlet. How possible are they
to accomplish?
10. Explicate Hamlets statement that There are more things in heaven and earth,
Horatio,/ Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
11. What change in behavior in the future does Hamlet prepare Horatio and the
guards to expect?
12. Explain Hamlets rhyming couplet at the end of the act.

Act . Scene 1
1. What two tasks does Polonius ask Reynaldo to accomplish on his trip to Paris?
2. What suggestions does Polonius make to Reynaldo that make Reynaldo
uncomfortable?
3. How would Polonius endanger Laertes reputation by these instructions?
4. What frightens Ophelia about Hamlets visit?
5. How does Hamlet abuse Ophelia in this visit?
6. How does Polonius react to her story? What does he intend to do about it? Are his
interpretations correct?

7. What dramatic function does this scene serve?

Scene 2
1. What do Claudius and Gertrude tell Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about Hamlet?
What kind of thanks might they give? What the emphasis on obedience and
thanks?
2. In what way does Polonius display his failure to practice his assertion that
brevity is the soul of wit? What does Gertrude mean when she says, More
matter and less art?
3. What do the two above remarks reveal about Polonius character?
4. Examine Hamlets repartee with Polonius. Why does Hamlet move out of iambic
pentameter and into prose? Find Hamlets puns/jokes on: fishmonger, honest,
kissing, carrion, conception, words, reading, old men, a crab, and air/grave.
Explain at least 4 of these and Hamlets hidden meanings.
5. In what way does Hamlet make fun of Polonius with fishmonger. And yet at the
same time warn him about Ophelia?
6. Identify Hamlets tone in each repetition of except my life, except my life,
except my life.
7. Examine Hamlets repartee with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; consider the
image of clothing and body of Fortune, the reference to honesty, and images of
prisons and dungeons. Why does Hamlet equate Denmark to the world? What
themes are revealed by the references to ambition/kingship; dreams/shadows/ and
hero/beggars?
8. George Eliot says that in nothing does a man reveal himself more clearly that in
what he finds laughable. Granted that Hamlet encourages them, apply this to R
& G. What does their sense of humor reveal about them?
9. What does Hamlet mean when he tells R & G I am but mad north-northwest:
when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw? Compare that to his
earlier remarks to Polonius. What is revealed about Hamlets character?
10. Read Judges 11 to clarify Hamlets allusion to Jeptha. Where else has Hamlet
implied a similar interpretation of Polonius motives?
11. Closely analyze Hamlets long soliloquy (O What a rogue and peasant slave am
I!) that ends this act. What motivates this speech, and what comparisons does
Hamlet make between himself and the actor? How does he feel about his own
behavior, and what action does he now resolve to take?
12. Why does Hamlet suspect that The spirit I have seen may be a devil when he
has assured Horatio that It is an honest ghost?
13. What does Hamlet reveal about himself that having once believed the Ghost, he
suddenly says, the plays the thing/ Wherein Ill catch the conscience of the
King?

Act 3 Scene 1
1. What plotting against Hamlet is indirectly revealed in the opening scene? What
characters are involved?
2. How does Gertrude treat Ophelia? How does that contrast Polonius and Laertes
earlier suppositions?
3. What oxymoron does Claudius use with Gertrude to justify his spying on Hamlet?
4. What does Polonius say that touches the conscience of the King?
5. What human griefs, according to Hamlets To be or not to be soliloquy, would
suicide spare one from enduring? What reason does Hamlet give for refraining
from suicide?
6. What is existential about his opening lines?
7. Discuss Hamlets attitude toward the undiscovered country?
8. In what way does Hamlet still see himself as a coward?
9. In what way does Ophelia go beyond the Kings instructions to her? What is her
motive in returning Hamlets gifts?
10. Discuss Hamlets first reaction to her. Discuss Hamlets change in tone in his
scene with Ophelia? What does that indicate about his feelings toward her? What
accusations does he make against Ophelia? Consider the pun on nunnery as a
brothel. What might Hamlet be suggesting to Ophelia? Is her just in accusing her?
11. How does Ophelia react to Hamlet? What lie does she tell him? Why does she lie?
12. In what way is Ophelia bound to her fathers decisions? How is she like R & G in
this situation? Does Hamlet take this into account in his abuse of her? Compare
Hamlets filial duty to Ophelias.
13. Quote Ophelias lines that respond to Hamlets remarks. Note the syntax of these
lines and what that indicates about her state of mind.
14. Why does she say woe is me?
Scene 2
1. How does Hamlet contrive to watch Claudius and Gertrude as they watch the
play? What task does he assign Horatio?
2. What does Hamlet reveal about himself to Horatio? Why does Hamlet trust him
and no one else? What does he not reveal? What does that indicate?
3. Why does Hamlet treat Ophelia with such disrespect as he converses intimately
with her before and during the play? What is his mood? His purpose? What effect
does this behavior have on her? What similarity is seen in his dealing with R&G,
Polonius and Ophelia?
4. What does Hamlet call the play? Why is it performed first in pantomime and then
acted? What parallels are there between the play-within-the-play and the play
itself? How does this event develop the appearance vs. reality, seems vs. is
motif?
5. What causes Gertrude to remark, The lady doth protest too much, me thinks.?
6. Describe Hamlets tone when he says, Your Majesty, and we that have free souls,
it touches us not?

7. What would make Guildenstern think that he could be so impertinent as to Hamlet

to, put your discourse into some frame? And that this courtesy is not of the right
breed?
8. Explain the metaphor of the recorder Hamlet uses with Guildenstern.
Scene 3
1. What does Claudius reveal about himself when he is alone?
2. Explain the Biblical allusion in the Kings confession that his crime hath the
primal eldest curse upont
3. Explain the Kings reasoning when he complains, But I, what form of prayer/
Can serve my turn? Forgive my most foul murder/ That cannot be, since I am still
possessed/ Of those effects for which I did the murder,/ My crown, mine own
ambition, and my queen.
4. Why does Hamlet say he wont kill the King when he sees Claudius praying? Can
Hamlet be believed? What is another reason for his delay?
5. What makes this scene one of the greatest ironies in the play?
Scene 4
1. What instruction does Polonius give Gertrude? In what way is he being
impertinent?
2. What does Gertrude mean when she tells Hamlet, thou hast thy father much
offended?
3. Describe Hamlets tone when he says, You are the Queen, your husbands
brothers wife./ And would it were not so, you are my mother.
4. What interpretation can be given when hamlet take only three lines to mourn
Polonius death before changing the subject? What does Shakespeare reveal about
Hamlets state of mind? What does Shakespeare suggest about the contaminating
power of evil?
5. In Hamlets interview with his mother, find examples of puns and double
entrendres. What images and symbols are most important in this scene? What is
revealed about the Queens character? Hamlets?
6. In holding up a mirror to his mother, what faults does Hamlet force her to see?
7. What does Hamlet ask his mother NOT to do? Why? Does he trust her?
8. Cite what evidence occurs in this scene that suggests that Hamlet suffers from an
Oedipal complex.
9. Discuss the shift in tone when Hamlet announces he will, lug the guts into the
neighbor room.
10. In what way does Gertrude shift her allegiance to her son and away from her
husband at the end of the scene?
11. According to Shakespeare, the purpose of drama is to hold a mirror up to nature
and thereby provide a true reflection of society. Explain how the play-within-theplay and the scene thereafter serve as this kind of mirror for the Danish court
and the royal family.

Act 4. Scene 1-3

1. Gertrude tells Claudius that Hamlet is Mad as the sea and the wind when both
contend/ Which is the mightier. How does she keep her promise to Hamlet, or
does she really believe what she says?
2. How does Claudius immediate reaction to the new of Polonius death reveal his
character?
3. Explain Hamlets metaphor in calling Rosencrantz a sponge.
4. Hamlet observes that a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
Obviously he has annoyed the King, but what theme does he suggest as well?
5. Why does Hamlet call Claudius mother? Or does he?
6. What parallel does Claudius make between Hamlet and his own blood?
Scene 4
1. What dramatic purpose is there in Forbinbras appearance at this point in the
action?
2. In Hamlets soliloquy, what comparison does Hamlet draw between himself and
Fortinbras?
3. Fortinbras troops go to gain a little patch of ground/ That hath in it no profit but
the name, and it is already garrisoned. What does Hamlet mean when he says,
This is the impostume of much wealth and peace?
4. How is Hamlets soliloquy similar in motivation and ideas to the O what a rogue
and peasant slave speech at the end of Act 2?
5. Explain the changes in Hamlet as he delivers this speech from his earlier
soliloquies. In what way has he changed? Are the changes for the better?
Scene 5
1. What reason does Claudius give for what happens to Ophelia?
2. Despite her distress, what does Ophelias choice of the Saint Valentine Day song
suggest about her heartache? Is she focused on Polonius or Hamlet? How is her
fathers death a double blow to her?
3. Claudius says, When sorrows come, they come not in single spies,/ But in
battalions. With what five major troubles must he simultaneously deal?
4. Describe Gertrudes reaction when Laertes breaks into the Kings presence? How
does Shakespeare clue the read into see her behavior? What do the stage
directions suggest about her?
5. Assess Claudiuss overall handling of the emergency with Laertes entrance and
subsequent threats. What does his behavior in this scene further reveal about his
character and abilities?
6. Is Ophelias madness in keeping with her temperament and character as earlier
revealed in the play, or is her emotional collapse a surprise? What dramatic
function does it serve?

Scenes 6-7
1. What is implied by the action of the pirates and the sailors delivery of Hamlets
letter to Horatio?
2. What two explanations does Claudius offer Laertes for having proceeded not
against Hamlets crimes?
3. What proposal does Claudius make to Laertes? What subjects of discussion does
Claudius use to lead up to and prepare for his daring proposition?
4. In Act 1, Polonius advises Laertes, to thine own self be true. In what way does
Laertes ignore his fathers advice once he agrees to Claudiuss proposal? In what
way is Laertes being manipulated through his own anger? What does he not
recognize about Claudiuss character through this proposition?
5. Reread the lines in which Claudius pauses to philosophize. Where have similar
ideas been presented in the play? What might be happening to Claudiuss
relationship with Gertrude and to his outlook on life to make him say what he
does?
Act 5 Scene 1
1. What dramatic purposes are served by starting this act with the comic graveyard
scene?
2. What is the grave digger doing when Hamlet joins him? Consider the
appropriateness of this behavior. What are the puns and jokes which Hamlet and
the clown make? [Note that the clown is the only character in the play who
understands Hamlets puns] Is there conversation appropriate at the point in the
play? during such a scene? What attitude toward human existence does it reflect
in Hamlet and in the grave digger?
3. Describe the character of Yorick and Hamlets relation to him. Consider the
passage in relation to the opening scene when Hamlet meets Horatio and declares
him friend and not servant.
4. After having contemplated Yoricks skull, Hamlet enjoins Horatio to get you to
my ladys chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must
come. Explain the irony.
5. What provokes Laertess outburst of anger to the priests officiating at Ophelias
funeral? What similar outburst did he make about his fathers funeral? Relate his
reaction to Hamlets earlier connotation of show.
6. During their meeting in Act 3, Hamlet tells Ophelia, I loved you not. Not he
declares, I loved Ophelia. What is the truth?
Scene 2
1. How does Hamlet feel about what happens to R & G?
2. How does Horatios tone suggest that his attitude toward the deaths of R & G
differs with Hamlets? Does Hamlet take moral responsibility for their deaths?
Does he for Poloniuss? Ophelia? Compare and contrast his responses to each
death. What does that reveal about his character?
3. What is hamlets reference when he says, If it be now, tis not to come; if it be
not to come, it will be now/ if it be not now, yet it will come? Compare these
remarks to Hamlets other references to fate. Has his attitude changed?

4. What is ironic about Hamlets telling Laertes Ill be your foil.?

5. The Queen finally stands up to Claudius when he tells her not to drink; she says,
I will my lord. Is this a gesture of loyalty to Hamlet? Explain the irony.
6. What crucial act does the king permit that reveals his treachery? What is
symbolized by the cup of wine and poison as an instrument of murder?
7. Earlier Hamlet says, Time is out of joint and that time is histhe interim is
mine or that time does not matterthe readiness is all. Why does he declare,
Had I but time? Whose words does he echo from the beginning of the play?
8. As Hamlet dies, Horatio says, Now cracks a noble heart, and we agree. Why?
His behavior has been questionable at times, but we dont like to question it. Is he
perceived as a victim? Of what? In what way is he the existential man?