Q&A SummaryStory

Story of Hamlet is based on a Danish revenge story from the 1100s -Shakespeare modified to fill with dread and uncertainty … Product of Reformation (protestants broke away from church & skeptical humanism) Hamlet has constant anxiety about appearance vs.…

Hamlet & Mortality – Hamlet believes life is meaningless and the living world is made of death and decay. – His philosophy: if we all die eventually, does it matter who kills us? – The fact that Hamlet still contemplates…

Summary Claudius and Polonius use Ophelia as a decoy when they spy on Hamlet, and the kind decides to send Hamlet to England What does the king suspect? Hamlet’s antic disposition and purposely foolish behavior What were Rosencrantz and Guildenstern…

Hamlet’s to be or not to be soliloquy speculates about the advantages and disadvantages of suicide Hamlet says that people don’t take their own lives because… people fear and don’t know what happens after death _____ tells _____, “your honesty…

“Who’s there?” Barnardo- first line; establishes a mood of uncertainty/unrest “Sit down a while, And let us assail your ears” Barnardo- talking to Horatio to disprove his skepticism; military imagery; synecdoche “Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio” Marcellus…

conscience knowledge of right and wrong The Mousetrap the name of the play within the play, according to Hamlet Claudius who convinces Laertes how to get revenge against Hamlet? Ophelia sister to Laertes stay away from Hamlet Laertes’s advice to…

Horatio Hamlet’s best friend who is a student and attends Wittenberg Bernardo, Marcellus, Fransisco guards of Denmark who are all afraid because they keep seeing the ghost Polonius Aide to King Claudius Laertes son of Polonius who wishes to return…

How are Claudius, the dead King Hamlet, and Queen Gertrude related? Claudius is the brother of KIng Hamlet, brother-in-law to the queen and Prince Hamlet’s uncle. What is in the letter Claudius is sending to the ailing kind of Norway?…

A little more than kin and less than kind. King Claudius and Hamlet talking about their new relationship as familyTwice related: uncle and “son”a less than unnatural relationship I am too much in the sun. pun sun/sonHamlet is depressed over…

Guilt/Remorse “Sir in my heart there was a kind of fighting that would not let me sleep.” – Hamlet”My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” – Claudius”‘Forgive me my foul murder’? That…