1. a) “O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven.

It hath the primal eldest curse

upon’t, A brother’s murder.”
b) Claudius
c) Act 3, Scene 3
d) Oh, my crime is so rotten it stinks all the way to heaven. It has the mark of
Cain on it, a brother’s murder.
e) Claudius feels regret about his crime and this quote informs the audience that
he did murder King Hamlet

2. a) “This above all: to thine ownself be true”

b) Polonius
c) Act 3, Scene 3
d) Above all, be true to yourself
e) Irony, Polonius gives advice that he himself does not follow.

3. a) “There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. 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. The
readiness is all.”
b) Hamlet
c) Act 5, Scene 2
d) God controls everything, even something as trivial as a sparrow’s death.
Everything will work out as it is destined. If something is supposed to happen now, it
will. If it’s supposed to happen later, it won’t happen now. What’s important is to be
prepared.
e) Hamlet is no longer afraid of death and therefore no longer a coward. He can
now avenge his father’s murder.

4. a) “O that this too too sullied flesh would melt. Thaw and resolve itself into a
dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fixed his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter!”
b) Hamlet
c) Act 1, Scene 2
d) Ah, I wish my dirty flesh could melt away into a vapor, or that God had not
made a law against suicide.
e) To show Hamlet’s despair and internal turmoil.

5. a) “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

b) Marcellus
c) Act 1, Scene 4
d) Something is rotten in Denmark.
e) Introduces misogyny to the play

6. a) “The time is out of joint. O cursed spite that ever I was born to set it right.”
b) Hamlet
c) Act 1, Scene 5
d) There is so much out of whack in these times. And damn the fact that I’m
supposed to fix it!
e) Theme of something rotten in Denmark. Hamlet shows inner turmoil about his
vendetta.
7. a) “And keep you in the rear of your affection, out of the shot and danger of
desire. The chariest maid is prodigal enough if she unmask her beauty to the
moon.”
b) Laertes
c) Act 1, Scene 3
d) Just keep your love under control, and don’t let yourself become a target of his
lust. Simply exposing your beauty to the moon at night is risky enough, you don’t
have to expose yourself to him.
e) Theme of gossip

8. a)
“
b)

c)

d)
e)

9. a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

10. a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

11. a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

12. a)
b)
c)
d)
e)