READING GUIDE
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Notes and Questions
Act I, Scenes i-v
Act I, Scene i
1. Where and what times does the action take place in this scene?
2. How are the guards acting as the scene opens?
3. Who says, “Tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart”?
4. What is Horatio referring to in line 25 when he says, “this thing”? What does it look like?
5. Note some of the historical background that guards discuss on their watch. What is
Fortinbras of Norway planning?
6. Are the guards successful in getting the ghost to speak to them?
7. What does the ghost do when the cock crows?
8. Note that Horatio and Marcellus have differing views about the crowing of the cock.
9. Have the guards decided if the ghost is good or evil?
10. The guards believe that the ghost will surely speak to whom?
Act I, Scene ii
1. Where does Act I, Scene ii take place?
2. Who is Claudius? Gertrude?
3. Summarize Claudius speech in lines 1-16. Also lines 17-41. What is the purpose of the
letter?
4. Who is Laertes? What does he want from the King?
5. What is Hamlet wearing? Why?
6. Who says, “A little more than kin, and less than kind”? What does the statement mean?
7. Where does Hamlet go and why?
8. Note Hamlet’s first soliloquy. What is the content of this passage? What is Hamlet’s tone
of delivery?
9. What does Hamlet suspect the ghost’s presence means?
10. What is Hamlet’s reaction to the news that Horatio and Marcellus bring?
Act I, Scene iii
1. Where does Act I, Scene iii take place?
2. Who is Ophelia?
3. What does Laertes say to Ophelia concerning Hamlet?
4. Describe the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia.
5. Who is Polonius?
6. What does Polonius ask Ophelia top do in regards to Hamlet? Why?
Act I, Scene iv
1. Where does Act I, Scene iv take place?
2. What sound effects do we hear as the scene opens? How does Hamlet interpret these
sounds?
3. Summarize what Hamlet says in lines 13-38.
4. What is Hamlet’s response to the ghost?
5. Why does Horatio argue that Hamlet should not go with the ghost?
6. Who says, “There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark”?
Act I, Scene v
1. Who is the ghost?
2. What does the ghost ask Hamlet to do?
3. What does the ghost say to Hamlet regarding Gertrude?
4. Who says, “”That one may smile and smile, and be a villain”?
5. What does Hamlet ask Horatio and Marcellus to do?
6. When the ghost asks Horatio and Marcellus to “swear” to secrecy, from where does the
voice come? Why is this positioning significant?
7. What does Hamlet mean when he says, “As I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To
put an antic disposition on—”?