Extra Credit
Questions for Understanding Hamlet
Note: To receive the extra credit, you must answer ALL questions. There is no partial credit for incomplete question packets.
Answer each of the following questions IN COMPLETE SENTENCES and using specific details and textual references when appropriate. All responses should be recorded on these pages and IN YOUR OWN HANDWRITING. (You may change the spacing before printing if you wish).
Act I – What happens?
Scene 1
1. What is the mood of the men on watch?
2. Why is Horatio appointed to speak with the Ghost?
3. What political entanglement between Denmark and a neighboring land contributes to the alertness on guard duty?
4. What questions does Horatio ask the ghost?
5. Explain the allusion to Roman history.
6. How has the mood changed by the end of the scene?
Scene 2
1. From Claudius’s opening address, what subjects does he discuss?
2. How does Hamlet’s feeling about a suitable period of mourning conflict with that held by Claudius and by Gertrude? How is he distinguished from them – in clothes, words, and attitude?
3. Why does Claudius want Hamlet to stay in Elsinore?
4. What are Hamlet’s feelings about the world in general and Denmark in particular before he hears anything about the Ghost (look at first soliloquy)?
5. After Hamlet hears news of the ghost, what does he fear?
Scene 3
1. In the previous scene, Hamlet described himself in relation to Claudius as “a little more than kin and less thankind.” How does this relationship with his family compare to the relationships within the family of Polonius?
2. What is the advice Laertes and Polonius give to Ophelia and how does she respond?
3. How do Polonius and Laertes differ in the message, tone, and delivery of their advice?
Scene 4
1. How much time has passed between Scene1 and Scene 4?
2. What helps Hamlet to overcome his fears and follow the Ghost?
Scene 5
1. Describe the nature of the Ghost’s charge to Hamlet. What responsibilities does the Ghost entrust to Hamlet?
2. Whom does the Ghost exempt from his call for revenge?
3. How does the Ghost make the King’s crime seem particularly loathsome?
4. What word is repeated urgently many times toward the end of the scene?
5. How does Hamlet’s understanding of his duty at the end of Scene 5 compare with his mood at the beginning of Scene 2?
6. The object of Hamlet’s plan for vengeance is the King. How might this affect the state of Denmark?
7. How does Hamlet describe the times in which he lives?
8. Previously, Hamlet told Horatio that men’s features were formed either by “nature’s livery, or fortune’s star.” What does he say in his final speech that would make you suspect that he is more influenced by one than by the other?
Act I Questions about Characters
1. Why is the Ghost correct to call Claudius a “smiling villain”?
2. How does Gertrude deserve the Ghost’s sympathy and concern?
3. Hamlet does not appear to be the man best suited to carry out a plan of revenge. What instances in his speeches or actions support this view?
Act II - What happens?
Scene 1
1.What job has Polonius hired Reynaldo to do? By what means does Polonius recommend that Reynaldo accomplish this task?
2. Describe Hamlet’s appearance when he entered Ophelia’s room.
3. How does Polonius react to Ophelia’s story? How does it change the attitude he had toward Hamlet and Ophelia in Act I?
Scene 2
1. Why did the King ask Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to come to Denmark? Why are they particularly qualified for the job they have been asked to do?
2. Give a clear account of the news brought by the ambassadors who have returned from Norway.
3. What evidence does Polonius introduce to help his case against Hamlet? What trap does Polonius set for Hamlet?
4. Describe Hamlet’s “antic disposition.” What does Polonius say that indicates that he has some doubt about Hamlet’s madness?
5. What new fact about Hamlet’s interests is brought to light by his meeting with the players? What does Hamlet want the players to do? What does hamlet hope to accomplish by using the players in this way?
6. Hamlet takes stock of himself in the last speech of the act. What is the result of his self-estimate? Do you agree with him?
Act Two Questions about Characters
1. The traveling players innocently come to Elsinore to perform. How do they become crucial to the plot of the play?
Act III - What happens?
Scene 1
1. What part does Ophelia play in the plan of Polonius and the King? What is her reaction to the way Hamlet speaks to her?
2. How does Claudius’s opinion of Hamlet’s condition differ from Ophelia’s? To what in Hamlet’s speeches is Claudius sensitive that Ophelia is not?
3. What new move does Polonius suggest?
Scene 2
1. What does Hamlet expect of Horatio? How does the way he speaks to him differ from the manner in which he speaks to everyone else?
2. Describe the dumb show. Describe both Hamlet’s and Claudius’s actions from the beginning of the “play within the play” to its end.
Scene 3
1. What steps does Claudius take to rid himself of Hamlet?
2. Why does Hamlet hesitate to kill Claudius when Claudius is at prayer?
Scene 4
1. Whom does Hamlet think he is stabbing when he strikes through the curtain?
2. What results from Hamlet’s interview with Gertrude?
3. What new part of the King’s plan comes to the surface at the end of the scene?
Act III Questions about Characters
1. What is Hamlet’s estimate of Horatio? Compare his earlier talk with Horatio with that in Act III. Is there any change or development?
2.What can you tell about Ophelia from her reactions to Hamlet’s sharp retorts?
3. In Scene 1, Hamlet sinks to the darkest depths of all his black moods. Compare his thoughts about suicide, pro and con, in Scene 1 to his first statements about it in Act I, Scene 2, ll. 129. ff. How have his feelings changed?
4. What character trait brings about Polonius’s death?
5. What are Gertrude’s feelings when she says, “O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.”
6. What is the result of Claudius’s self-appraisal when at prayer?
Act IV - What Happens?
Scenes 1, 2, 3
1. Where has Hamlet hidden Polonius’s corpse?
2. What excuse does Claudius use for sending Hamlet to England? What has he planned for Hamlet upon his arrival there?
Scene 4
1. What is Hamlet’s reaction to his encounter with Fortinbras’s army? Why is Fortinbras’s army on the march? What is its destination?
2. To what physical ailment does Hamlet compare the faults of nations as he sees them displayed in Fortinbras’s war with Poland?
Scene 5
1. What are the outward signs of Ophelia’s madness?
2. On whom does Laertes blame his father’s death? How does Laertes’ response to his father’s murder compare with Hamlet’s movement toward revenge?
Scene 6
1. What are the contents of Hamlet’s letter to Horatio?
2. Compare Hamlet’s mood and attitude toward other characters as expressed in this letter with what he displayed in Act III.
Scene 7
1. How does Claudius win Laertes’ confidence?
2. Claudius tells Laertes that Hamlet is very popular with the common people. How does Hamlet’s letter to Horatio bear this out? What earlier scenes in the play support this view of Hamlet?
3. Who is Lamond? How does Claudius use Lamond’s reputation for his own purposes?
4. Outline Claudius’s new plan for trapping Hamlet.
5. How does Ophelia’s condition lead to her death?
Act IV Questions about Characters
1. Compare Laertes’ response to the news of his father’s murder to Hamlet’s first response to the news of the murder of his father. Compare also the circumstances in which each character finds himself at the time he learns of the murder, and the relative definiteness and reliability of the reports he receives.
2. Ophelia has gone mad from grief, but other sources of remorse appear in her songs and remarks. What else does she appear to be mourning besides her father’s death?
3. Try to put yourself in Gertrude’s place and plot her mental action and her thoughts and emotions during the course of Act IV. To whom is she most loyal? Does she act as if she knows what she wants? In what ways is she similar to Ophelia?
ACT V - What Happens?
Scene 1
1. What is the occupation of the clowns? What is their attitude toward their work? How is this attitude expressed?
2. Who is Yorick?
3. What rites take place in the graveyard? Why are they “maimed”?
4. What act of Laertes prompts Hamlet to reveal his presence?
5. How does Hamlet’s move play directly into the King’s hand?
Scene 2
1. Give a brief synopsis of Hamlet’s escape from the trap Claudius has set for him.
2. What kind of man is Osric? How does his fashion of speaking differ from that of those around him?
3. What does the Queen ask of Hamlet before his contest with Laertes?
4. What is the King’s bet?
5. Describe the scene and equipment of the duel.
6. When does the King offer Hamlet the poisoned wine?
7. How is Laertes poisoned? How is Gertrude poisoned? How is Hamlet poisoned? How does the King die?
8. What is Hamlet’s charge to Horatio? To whom does he bequeath his political property?
9. What news do the ambassadors bring from England?
10. Who assumes power in Denmark at the end of the play?
Act V Questions about Characters
1. One function of the clowns and of Osric is to provide comic relief. Why are these comic scenes more necessary here in Act V than in previous acts? How does the philosophy expressed by the clowns contrast with Hamlet’s philosophy?
2. What final revelation about Hamlet’s character is hinted at in his graveyard conference with Horatio and stated explicitly in Hamlet’s reply to Horatio’s suggestion, in Scene 2, that he withdraw from the duel?
3. Reconstruct the character of Yorick from the reminiscences about him. Why should Hamlet’s memory of him be so poignant now? How does Yorick compare to Osric?
Howard, D. (1970). Lessons in Critical Reading and Writing: William Shakespeare: Hamlet. New York: Harcourt