...Hamlet study questions and answers on Act 5 Act 5 scene 1 Gravediggers and Hamlet 1 – 171 1. Who are the actors on stage here? What role do they play? 2. What class of society do we see for the first time, and why is it significant? 3. What are the gravediggers talking about in the first 30 lines? What is behind their difference of opinion? Give quotes to back up your ideas. 4. Some of the humour of this scene comes from the linguistic mistakes the men make. Identify them. 5. Who do they decide is the strongest builder and why? 6. What do you feel is the point of the gravedigger’s riddles and songs? 7. Who else creates humour in this first part of the scene? 8. What does this show about Hamlet’s development? 9. How do the references to Adam (lines 30 – 40) and his sons (lines 75 – 79) play a role in the plot? When were these ideas used before? 10. What means does Shakespeare use to raise suspense during the graveyard scene? 11. What does the gravedigger’s mention of King Hamlet in lines 141 - 143 reveal to the audience? How is this important here? 12. Does it contradict information we have had previously? Why do you think Shakespeare has done this? Thoughts about Yorick , life and death 172 – 213 13. Find the hyperboles in Hamlet’s speech, and explain why he uses them. 14. Identify the misogynistic lines. Who is he talking about? 15. In what ways do Hamlet’s reactions to the skulls in the graveyard seem to suggest...
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...English 203 October 24th 2012 Hamlet Question Set ACT I 1. What happens when Francisco and Bernardo meet at the beginning of scene1? Where are they, and when? Why is Horatio with Bernardo and Marcellus there? The play, begins in Elsinore with Francisco, who is waiting for Bernardo to relieve him of his duty right after midnight. Bernardo calls wondering who is there, to which Francisco replies that Bernardo should tell him who he is first. 2. What is Horatio's initial response to the story of the apparition? Horatio’s initial response is skepticism, as in disbelief. 3. What does Horatio first assume the appearance of the ghost means (1.1.)? He assumes it must mean that there is something wrong with the government. 4. What happens when the ghost appears for the second time (I.I)? Horatio asks the ghost why it had come in the first place and the reason behind such appearances 5. What do we know so far about the nature of the ghost? Do we know yet if it is a "good" ghost? Summarize the circumstances surrounding the first encounter with the ghost. The ghost is Hamlet’s father; one can categorize him as good because he explains to Hamlet the real reason behind his death. 6. Identify Hamlet’s first Soliloquy in Scene 2. What is it that is really bothering him about what has happened since his father's death? How would you describe the tone of his feelings? In his first soliloquy he mourns his father. It is a passionate and startling passage that...
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...ROLES Hamlet: Son Huynh Laertes: Queenie Lee Ophelia: Cecilia Young Horatio: Sam Ng Messenger/ Captain: Mark Bengco Queen (Gertrude): Maggie Guan Gentleman: Brian Flores Narrator: Tracy Santa Ana Fortinbras: Hung Dam King (Claudius) Eric Tan Sailor: Hannah Ramierz Guildenstern: Norman Chen Rosencrantz: Delmy Lopez ACT IV Scene 1: [Enter KING and QUEEN, with ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN] King: What’s wrong? Where’s Hamlet? Queen: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, can you give us a moment? [ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN exit] You won’t believe what I saw today! King: What do you mean? What did Hamlet do? Queen: He was acting crazy! He was mad as hell. He apparently heard something behind the curtains and thought it was a rat so he pulled out his knife and stabbed it. The rat turned out to be Polonius! King: What?! Well, well, well.. what should we do now?! We were supposed to keep an eye on him and now look what happened… We can’t let anyone know about this. Where is he? Queen: He took the Polonius’s body with him. But please don’t be too harsh on him. He’s my only son. I think he regrets what he has done. King: Gertrude, you don’t understand. We need to send Hamlet away before anyone finds out about this. Rosencrantz! Guildenstern! Come in! [Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN] Listen to me, you two. Hamlet just killed Polonius and took the body with him. You need to find him immediately and bring the body back to church. HURRY! [ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN...
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...Hamlet: Analysis of Act IV Soliloquy Hamlet by William Shakespeare is a tragic play about a young prince named Hamlet and his struggle to avenge the death of his father. Hamlet is outraged when he learns that what appeared to be an accidental death was actually a murder carried out by his uncle. He vows to get revenge on the murderer at all costs. Throughout the play, Hamlet is hesitant about his actions until he sees a group of soldiers preparing to battle over a very small piece of land. At this point Hamlet has a soliloquy; he reflects on his actions and is upset with himself for not fulfilling his plan yet. He decides that it is time to complete what he has started and kill his uncle. This speech directly affects the target audience, the people of the Elizabethan Era. The audience is captured by the use of poetic devices, they can relate to Hamlet and feel his pain, and his speech adds excitement as the audience knows there will be a change of events. Shakespeare uses an abundance of literary devices to enhance his work. In this soliloquy there are multiple examples that draw in the viewer and intensify the meaning of his words. The speech opens with an example of assonance: “How all occasions do inform against me,/ And spur my dull revenge!” (4.4.31-32). The repetition of the “o” sound in the first line and the “u” sound in the second line make the words flow together. This captures the audience’s attention because it makes the phrase easy to listen to. The words are...
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...carrying a very key role in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is his confidant and best friend Horatio with whom he attends University in Wittenberg prior to his return. Understanding why Hamlet confines in Horatio and loves him dearly offers the reader insight into Hamlet’s mind and story. By studying the relationship between the two and it’s importance as well as viewing Hamlet’s decisions through the eyes of Horatio allows us to learn a lot about Hamlet as a character and better understand the tragedy. Horatio is first presented in the story because of knowledge and intelligence when the guards call him about the ghost they have seen. We immediately figure that he is an intelligent and perceptive man. Due to this he acts as a cornerstone of logic and sanity in contrast to his dear friend’s chaos and madness, providing the reader with a reasonable...
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...downstairs and watch Hamlet!” A statement which might sound ludicrous at first, is in reality, more sensible than one might think. Since 1994, The Lion King has been a must-see film for children all around the world. Its 8.5 rating on IMDB lists it alongside of some of the greatest movies ever made. Children’s movies that were released around this time were all shallow and simplistic. The reason why The Lion King was so successful is because it was an unexpected and pleasant anomaly. The Lion King is a story of responsibility and revenge, masked by a setting that is known to be appealing to children. However, this is not the first time something with this same story line has been told. In fact, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, one of the most popular pieces of literature of all time, parallels The Lion King in many more ways than one. The Lion King and Hamlet are best compared through the actions of the secondary characters, the exploration of the theme of death, and the striking similarities present in each works’ protagonist. Obviously, all plot events are not exactly the same, however the differences are insignificant to the point that the majority of the storyline and major characters still remain the same. The reflections of Hamlet in The Lion King are so strong that there are 3 sets of secondary characters that bear a striking resemblance to one another: Mufasa and King Hamlet, Claudius and Scar, as well as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and the hyenas. King Hamlet ruled his country...
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...ENG 4U Ms. Straus May 23, 2015 Hamlet Quotation Test Quotation 1: “How all occasions do inform against me And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. Sure he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and godlike reason To fust in us unus’d.” (Hamlet: IV, iv, 3238) Literal Level: This quotation is from Act IV, Scene IV, when Hamlet observes Fortinbras leading the army through Denmark towards Poland. Hamlet learns that the Norwegians are going to war with the Polish over a small, worthless patch of land. In this soliloquy, Hamlet ponders how these men are willing to risk their lives for such a small cause, when he is still so hesitant to act on his revenge on Claudius for his father's murder. 1. This passage helps to develop Hamlet’s character and the plot of the play because it is in this scene that Hamlet realizes that he must act on his revenge plan or else he is just going to be a purposeless “beast”. Throughout the play, Hamlet struggles with whether or not to exact revenge on Claudius because he is not certain of all of the facts. When Hamlet sees how willing the soldiers are to fight over such a small piece of land, he realizes that without action Hamlet is not taking advantage of the gift of life that God has given him. Hamlet realizes that humans have “capability and godlike reason” and that ...
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...themes of William Shakespeare's Hamlet is the ineffectuality of vengeance. The most obvious revenge in the play is Hamlet himself; he seeks to avenge his father’s death by killing Claudius. Although killing Claudius is his main goal, he tends to delay his revenge to the end of the play. The delay is one of the utmost important answers in the play because, it affects the whole story. Throughout the centuries, there have been many scholars with different reasoning; but, what is Shakespeare reason for not clearly presenting the motive of the delay. William Shakespeare reasoning is to direct us into finding our own conclusion by using our emotional connection and experience. “Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit. That from her working all his visage wan'd; Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing! For Hecuba? What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do, Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears And cleave the general ear with horrid speech; Make mad the guilty, and appal the free; Confound the ignorant, and amaze, indeed, The very faculties of eyes and ears…..Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! O, vengeance! Why, what an ass am I! This is...
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...unwilling bride” I wanted to know why you still married me if you don’t love me, Gertrude. I never felt so much love until I got married to you. Your love to me is a lot different than King Hamlet. He was always busy with state affairs and fights and he never cares about me as much as you do. I wasn’t in love with you when I first got married to you, I have no other choices. What do you mean by “no other choices”? I know that once the King Hamlet is dead, I will lose everything. I will be lacking both strength and power. I won’t stay as a queen forever, because a woman is not allowed to take over a kingdom. I will be a useless woman when I am not the queen anymore. You aren’t doing this for yourself, are you? You were trying to protect Hamlet because he is your only son. You want him to take over the kingdom in the future. I know that’s your purpose, right? You will do everything that could keep you as a queen. Marrying a man that you don’t love, like me! Yes, I first married you because I wanted to protect Hamlet. I wanted him to take over this kingdom in the future; this was always his kingdom and never changed. I didn’t love you at the first place because I suspect you were the one who killed King Hamlet. This thought changed after the death of King Hamlet, you supported and sympathized me and gave me a solution to overcome the situation and grief. You loved me so much and you had been nice to me. A nice person like you won’t kill anybody. I am thy murderer...
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...Horatio, to watch with them. When he sees the ghost, he decides they should tell Hamlet, the dead King's son. Hamlet is also the nephew of the present King, Claudius, who not only assumed his dead brother's crown but also married his widow, Gertrude. Claudius seems an able King, easily handling the threat of the Norwegian Prince Fortinbras. But Hamlet is furious about Gertrude's marriage to Claudius. Hamlet meets the ghost, which claims to be the spirit of his father, murdered by Claudius. Hamlet quickly accepts the ghost's command to seek revenge. Yet Hamlet is uncertain if what the ghost said is true. He delays his revenge and begins to act half-mad, contemplate suicide, and becomes furious at all women. The Lord Chamberlain, Polonius, concludes that Hamlet's behavior comes from lovesickness for Ophelia, Polonius's daughter. Claudius and Gertrude summon two of Hamlet's old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to find out what's wrong with him. As Polonius develops a plot to spy on a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia, Hamlet develops a plot of his own: to have a recently arrived troupe of actors put on a play that resembles Claudius's alleged murder of Old Hamlet, and watch Claudius's reaction. Polonius and Claudius spy on the meeting between Ophelia and Hamlet, during which Hamlet flies into a rage against women and marriage. Claudius concludes Hamlet neither loves Ophelia nor is mad. Seeing Hamlet as a threat, he decides to send him away. At the play that night, Claudius runs...
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...Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern talk about Hamlet and his lunacy. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell the King and Queen that they have tried to find out the reason for Hamlet’s madness, but he avoids their questions. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell the King and Queen about the actors that have arrived at the court and will be giving a performance. After Rosencrantz and Guildenstern leave, Claudius tells Gertrude that he has arranged for Hamlet to run into Ophelia, and Polonius and the King will hide and spy on their conversation to see if Hamlet is truly going crazy because he is in love. Gertrude tells Ophelia that she hopes that Hamlet’s madness is due to his love for her. Polonius tells Ophelia to read from a prayer book while waiting for Hamlet, which makes Claudius feels guilty as he remembers his own sin that he disguises with kind words. Then, Hamlet arrives speaking his famous to be or not to be speech. He is contemplating suicide, but he decides against it because he is worried that the environment after death will be even worse than the one he is living in right now. Ophelia then tells Hamlet that she has some of his mementos that she needs to return, which Hamlet denies ever giving her. Hamlet then goes into a dialogue with Ophelia that focuses on women and marriage. He is telling Ophelia to go to a nunnery because he does not believe in women or marriage anymore. Hamlet says that women use their beauty and power to fool their husbands. Hamlet also tells Ophelia that if she does...
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...The Foils of Hamlet Hamlet is dominated by an emotion which is inexpressible, because it is in excess of the facts as they appear.... We should have to understand things which Shakespeare did not understand himself." T.S. Eliot (Hamlet and His Problems) In the play Hamlet [Titles] by William Shakespeare the cast of main characters use the support given to them by the foils to enhance the play. A foil is a minor character who by simulations [?] and differences reveals character, and who, as an element of plot, is there for the more important character to talk to (vevra [sic] ). Such an example is Laertes is a foil to Hamlet. [SS -1] [Is the last sentence in this paragraph the thesis?] Before the events of the play Ophelia[,] the daughter of Polonius and sister of Laertes, tells us that Hamlet was a model courtier, soldier, and scholar, ["?]The glass of fashion and the mould of form, Th’ observed of all observers."( pg 676) [Citation] With the death of his farther [sic] and the hasty remarriage of his mother to mother [sic & sloppy] to his uncle, throws Hamlet into a frustrated state were [where-H50] he lashes out at evil he sees and then relapse into a suicidal misery. [SS] It is in the [this?] state of mind that he meets the ghosts [more than one?] of his father. When he meets the ghost he isn’t afraid of the ghost but instead wants to confront the ghost face to face. It is at this point in the play were [that] Hamlet finds out that his uncle murdered his father[...
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...The idea of friendship is an important theme that has been explored and explained through countless stories and books over time. Shakespeare's Hamlet is no exceptions as the character Hamlet has unique relationships with Horatio as well as Rosencrantz and Gildenstern which dictate different types of friendships. Hamlet seems to have a genuine relationship with Horatio and trusts him while his interactions between Rosencrantz and Gildenstern show another story. He is more suspicious of them and knows that they are working for the king and queen so he isn't always honest with them and ends up turning on them. These two types of friendships show the idea of a real friend and someone playing the part or befriending someone to gain something else....
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...Importance of Hamlet’s Soliloquies in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Shakespeare often has his characters speak in soliloquies during the course of his plays. Soliloquies are essential to the presentation of a story through the medium of a play because they provide the opportunity the chance to tell the audience specific pieces of information which cannot be disclosed through normal conversation. In his work, Hamlet, Shakespeare’s title character is shown to speak in seven soliloquies. Each soliloquy advances the plot, reveals Hamlet’s inner thoughts to the audience and helps to create an atmosphere in the play. The first soliloquy which Hamlet delivers gives the audience their first glimpse of him as a character. Hamlet is reflective and depicts the way he views his own position; he tells of his father’s death and then his mother’s quick remarriage. He says, “It is not, nor it cannot come to good” (I, ii, 163), when referring to the marriage of his mother. This gives the audience a hint of foreshadowing because it is the first time when Hamlet mentions the future. This speech also reveals his thoughts further when he says that his mother is frail because she is a woman, while he also admits that he knows he must hold his tongue. During the course of this speech Hamlet makes several allusions to historical figures and this demonstrates to the audience that he is an intelligent young man. One of these allusions is when he compares the love his late father had for his mother to Hyperion...
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...Drama Review of Hamlet By studying the Stage Show of Wuhan University Abstract As the longest masterpiece of Shakespeare, Hamlet impresses us with its tragic revenge of prince Hamlet. This stage show presents us the core part of Hamlet through performance of “nunnery scene”, “closet scene” and Hamlet’s monologue. Thus, this article will mainly focuses on drama review of the stage show from aspects of technical arts, adaption and editing as well as performance of the actor and actresses and a character analysis combing with Oedipus complex, Electra complex together with the author’s personal reactions. Keywords: drama review; technical arts; performance, character analysis Contents I. Introduction………………………………………………………………………....3 II. Technical arts………………………………………………………………………4 A. Lighting &Music.……………………………………………………………..4 B. Stage Properties…………………………………………………………..........4 C. Costumes………………………………………………………………………4 III. Editing& Adaption………………………………………………………………..5 IV. Performance……………………………………………………………………….6 A. Hamlet…………………………………………………………………………...6 B. Ophelia………………………………………………………………………….6 C. Gertrude…………………………………………………………………………7 V. Character Analysis………………………………………………………………....7 A. Hamlet………………………………………………………………………….7 B. Ophelia…………………………………………………………………………8 C. Gertrude………………………………………………………………………..9 VI. Conclusion…………………………………………………………….................9 Introduction The original play of Hamlet is a masterpiece...
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