Act One
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Claudius- the new King- addresses the court.
Laertes asks Claudius’ permission to return to
his studies. This is granted.
Hamlet asks to also return to his studies.
Claudius refuses.
Hamlet’s first soliloquy reveals his suicidal
despair
Hamlet is disgusted by the new King (his
uncle) and the Queen (his mother).
Horatio tells Hamlet about the Ghost.
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Reveals that Hamlet’s father has only recently
died (the memory be green).
Reminds everyone that until very recently
Gertrude was his sister-in-law and is now his
wife. Such a marriage would be regarded in
Elizabethan times as incestuous and unlawful.
He mentions and dismisses Fortinbras’ claims
to Danish lands. He sends messengers to his
uncle in Norway.
Claudius is portrayed as a diplomat and an
adept user of rhetoric.
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Claudius presents himself as someone whose
judgement controls his passion ‘so far hath
discretion fought with nature.’
Shakespeare skilfully uses language to
undermine what Claudius is saying.
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Carefully reread lines 8-14 of Claudius’
speech.
What is unusual about the language here
(particularly lines 10-13)?
How does this match what is being
discussed?
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
Th' imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we—as ’twere with a defeated joy,
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in
marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole—
Taken to wife.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
Th' imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we—as ’twere with a defeated joy,
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in
marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole—
Taken to wife.
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Addresses Claudius in a most deferential
manner.
Uses many doubles in his speech ‘leave and
favour’, ‘thoughts and wishes’, ‘gracious
leave and pardon’.
Mentions Claudius’ Coronation, but not Old
Hamlet’s funeral.
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Addressed by Claudius as ‘my cousin Hamlet,
and my son’.
This remark sums up the evil doubling that is
at the heart of the play.
Hamlet replies with a witty pun :
‘A little more than kin, and less than kind.’
‘more than kin’ now he’s both Claudius’
nephew and his stepson. ‘Less than kind’ in
two senses: not kindly disposed to Claudius,
nor does he think he is of the same kind.
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‘ I am too much i’ th’ sun.’
He is having too much of his uncle calling
him sun, and also of the Sun. Hamlet, we will
soon discover, longs for death- to be out of
the sun.
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‘Seems Madam? Nay, it is: I know not seems:’
This speech develops the theme of
appearance and reality. Hamlet reacts
furiously, feeling that his mother is implying
that his mourning is playacting.
Hamlet feels it is his mother who must have
been acting the bereaved widow just a week
or two previously.
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Death is natural and inevitable ‘your father
lost a father/ That father lost, lost his,’
It is right to mourn, but it is unnatural and
unmanly to do so for too long.
To do so also reveals weakness of mind and
character.
To do so offends Heaven/ God.
This is hypocritical, as Claudius’ marriage to
Gertrude would be seen as an offence to God
and nature by an Elizabethan audience.
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A dramatic convention which allows a
character in a play to speak directly to the
audience about his motives, feelings and
decisions as if he were thinking aloud. Part of
the convention is that a soliloquy provides
accurate access to the character’s innermost
thoughts.
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O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!
Hamlet reveals his deep anguish and melancholy.
He wishes to die, but suicide is viewed as a sin. He
desires to dissolve into dew- an impermanent
substance.
Contrast established between what is seen as
divine and what is seen as earthly (soiled flesh).
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How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
State of ennui (world weariness). For Hamlet,
life has gone past its best and has nothing
left to offer.
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Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in
nature
Possess it merely.
Image of an untended garden leading to
disease and corruption. Shakespeare’s
imagery suggests that incestuous marriage is
a violation of nature, which creates disease in
the King’s court.
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So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly.
Juxtaposition used to highlight difference between
Old Hamlet and Claudius. Hyperion-the Titan god
of light, represents honour, virtue, and regality -all traits belonging to Hamlet's father, the true
King of Denmark.
Satyrs, the half-human and half-beast companions
of the wine-god Dionysus, represent lasciviousness
and overindulgence, much like Hamlet's usurping
uncle Claudius.
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Must I remember? why, she would hang on
him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on:
Hamlet is disgusted by memories of his
mother behaving tenderly towards his father.
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O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets.
Sibilance is used here to convey Hamlet’s
disgust at the incestuous union of his mother
and uncle.
Here he is picturing them in bed together.
Imagine him hissing the words.
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My father's brother, but no more like my
father
Than I to Hercules
Hercules was the son of Zeus (Greek god).
Hamlet saying that he is as like Hercules as
Claudius is like Old Hamlet. This suggests
that his feelings of self-worth have suffered
as a result of Claudius and Gertrude’s
marriage.
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But break, my heart; for I must hold my
tongue.
Hamlet feels he must suffer in silence.
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In this soliloquy what is revealed about
Hamlet’s attitude to life, Claudius and his
mother?
You should answer each point separately and
include quotations for each answer.