Hamlet Pre-Reading

Questions
1.

What would it feel like to return home after being away

for the summer to discover that your father is dead and
your mother had already remarried?

2.

What if the man your mother remarried was a lowlife

and took over all of your fathers affairs and successes?
How would you feel and what, if anything, would you do
about it?

3.

What if someone gave you reason to believe that your

new stepfather murdered your father?

Hamlet Pre-Reading
Questions
1.

How would you go about getting your stepfather to

confess to the murder of your father?

2.

If you wanted to make people believe youre insane, how

would you do it?

3.

How would you feel and what would you do if you found
out that a close friend has been spying on you?

Hamlet Pre-Reading
Questions
1.

What does being alive mean to you? How do you assign

value to life? What makes life challenging? What makes
it worth living? Describe a few examples that help to
show your thinking about how people should value life.

Hamlet Thematic Ideas

Revenge: Hamlet searches continuously for the answer to the
question of whether or not he should avenge his fathers death. His
concern with right and wrong in religious, moral, and political terms
causes him much inner turmoil.
Appearance vs. Reality: The play contains many situations in
which the surface appearance of things does not always match reality.
Hamlet struggles to determine who his true friends are; the players in
the acting troupe assume new identities; Claudius appears to be a true
and just king and Gertrude his virtuous queen.
Sanity vs. Insanity: In many ways this conflict is intertwined with
the theme of appearance vs. reality. Hamlets sanity or insanity has
baffled critics for years. Even the characters in the play discuss
inconsistencies in Hamlets behavior, sometimes assuming he is really
insane, at other times amazed by his clarity of thought.
Decay and Corruption: Among the most powerful images of the
play are those which reveal disintegrating situations, especially in
personal terms for Prince Hamlet. Also, Shakespeare considered evil to
be a disease that spreads. Notice how even the natural world is
affected by the sins in the play.

Hamlet Act I Questions

1. What does Hamlets first soliloquy (730) reveal about
his state of mind? What is the source of his
discontent?
2. What do we learn from the Ghost in Act I? How does
Hamlet respond to the Ghosts instructions? What
does he mean by saying, O my prophetic soul!
(742)? How does the Ghosts diction and imagery
support the theme of Decay and Corruption?
3. Why do you think Hamlet tells his companions he
likely to put on an antic disposition (746)? Is his
behavior a deliberate strategy or a natural reaction
to his anger and grief? Explain.

Hamlet Act II Questions

4. Compare the way Hamlet responds to Polonius in
act II (755-766) with how he responds to his friends
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (757-758). What do
you learn about Hamlet from these responses?
5. On page 758 (lines 270-282) Hamlet delivers a
lengthy explanation to Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern, ending with a rhetorical question.
What is the substance of his speech? How does the
imagery that Hamlet uses transition his speech
from an assessment of himself to that of humanity
as a whole?

Hamlet Act III Questions

6. In act III, Hamlet delivers his famous To be, or not to be
speech, arguably the most recognized passage in English
literature (768). What is he contemplating? What inner
conflict is he pondering? What conclusions does he reach?
7. Claudius aside in act III (783) is the first definitive evidence of
his guilt. Structurally, why do you think this revelation takes
place halfway through the play as opposed to earlier? No
quote needed for this one.
8. In act III Hamlet has a perfect opportunity to kill his uncle and
avenge his murdered father (783). Instead, he hesitates.
Why? Do you think we are meant to respect the kings piety
or despise his cowardice?

Hamlet Act V Questions

9. How does Laertes respond to his fathers death? to
Ophelias? How do his responses compare to Hamlets
reaction to the death of Hamlet, Sr.?
10. Hamlet seems preoccupied with death for much of the
play; what new insight does the graveyard scene reveal
regarding his attitude toward mortality? Toward life,
fame, and accomplishment? How does this attitude
connect to his central conflict in the play?
11. Why does Hamlet give his dying support to Fortinbras?

Hamlet Essay Prompt

Write a literary analysis in which you explain how a

specific literary device is used to convey one of the four
themes we explored in our study of Hamlet. Be sure to
focus on a few aspects of your theme instead of trying to
analyze all of it.
Four direct quotes from Hamlet. Three pages, doublespaced, Times New Roman, 12 point font. Due Thursday,
October 10.