Themes
1)Hesitation
2)Inherited Sin and Corruption
3)Sons Seeking Revenge
4)Deception
5)Ambition
6)Loyalty
7)Mischance and Serendipity
8)Christ-like Hamlet
9)Madness: Pretended and Real
10)Serpentine Satan- Garden of Eden
11)Ambiguous Spirit World
12)Empty Existence
How Old Is Hamlet?
Early in the play, Shakespeare suggests that Hamlet is in his teens or perhaps about twenty. But in the churchyard in Act 5, the first gravedigger—holding up the skull of the late King Hamlet’s jester,
Yorick, who was Hamlet’s childhood babysitter—says that “this skull hath lain you i’ the earth three-and-twenty years” (5.1.73). Hamlet’s age when Yorick died was about seven. According to this information,
Hamlet should be about thirty. What’s going on? Probably this: In an edition of the play published in the early 1600s, the gravedigger says
Yorick has been dead for only twelve years, which would make Hamlet about nineteen. Here is the line spoken by the gravedigger in that edition: “Here’s a scull [skull] hath bin here this dozen yeare [year].”
However, in the 1623 folio edition of the play, Yorick has been dead for twenty-three years, as stated by the gravedigger. Apparently, the eleven-year discrepancy between the two editions was the result of an

editing error. What it all means is that Hamlet is only nineteen or twenty.
Female Hamlet
About twenty centuries before the birth of Shakespeare, the Greek playwright Sophocles (circa 497-406 BC) completed one of the finest plays in history, Electra, about a young woman from Greek myth who resembles Hamlet in temperament and who struggles against circumstances almost identical to Hamlet’s. Her father, King
Agamemnon, had been murdered by her mother, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus, who succeeds to the throne. (Hamlet’s father, old King
Hamlet, was murdered by Claudius, who succeeds to the throne and marries the late king’s wife—Hamlet’s mother—Gertrude.) Like Hamlet,
Electra seeks to avenge her father’s death. But in plotting the deed with her brother, Orestes, she suffers deep anguish, like Hamlet, marked by bouts of melancholy. At times Hamlet seems a carbon copy of Electra.
There is no evidence suggesting that Shakespeare used Sophocles as a source for Hamlet, but it would be no great surprise if a historical document turned up suggesting that he did.
What's in a Name?
It is possible that the first syllable of Hamlet's name derives from a
German word, hamm, meaning enclosed area. But his name could mimic the English word hamlet, suggesting that Hamlet is a small world unto himself. Claudius, the name of King Hamlet's murderer, derives from the
Latin word Claudius, meaning lame. In one sense, Claudius is indeed lame. His evil deeds hamstring him, making him incapable of ruling
Elsinore while Hamlet is on the prowl. Horatio, the name of Hamlet's loyal friend, is of Latin origin and may well refer to the Roman poet
Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known as Horace, whose major themes include love and friendship. Fortinbras, the level-headed Norwegian prince who arrives in Elsinore at the end of the play to take command and bring stability, may be so-named to suggest strength of arm (Latin, fortis: strong; French, bras: arm). Gertrude, the name of Hamlet's mother, who is Claudius's queen, means in old German spear (Ger-) and dear (-trut). Gertrude, of course, wounds Hamlet by marrying Claudius
(hence, Ger-) but remains special to him as his mother (hence, -trut).

Figures of Speech
Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds, as indicated by the boldfaced letters below.
The potent poison quite o’er-crows my spirit. (5.2.298)
Anaphora
Anaphora is the repetition of a word, phrase, clause, or sentence at or near the beginning of word groups occurring one after the other, as indicated by the boldfaced words below.
Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love. (2.2.125-128)
Epithet
An epithet is a miniature portrait that identifies a person or thing by a prominent characteristic of that person or thing. Often, an epithet follows a name to form a title, as in Ivan the Terrible. Sometimes an epithet appears without a named person. The Great Emancipator, for example, is an epithet for Abraham Lincoln.
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is an exaggeration or overstatement, as the following examples demonstrate.
By ’r lady, your ladyship is nearer heaven than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine. (2.2.301)
[Hamlet tells one of the players that he is nearer to heaven because of the thick-soled shoes (chopines) that he wears. (Males played women's parts in the plays of Shakespeare's time.

Irony, Dramatic
Dramatic irony is a situation in a play or another literary work in which the audience or the reader grasps the irony or incongruity of the words or attitude of a character when the character does not. Here is an example:
Our late dear brother’s death (1.2.21)
The king is speaking to Gertrude and other characters. The audience is aware that Claudius, who refers to the late King Hamlet as dear, murdered the king. Gertrude is not aware of his foul deed.
Metaphor
A metaphor is a comparison between unlike things. In making the comparison, it does not use like, as, or than. Note the following examples.
The moist star
Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. (1.1.135-137)
[Comparison of the moon to a star and the oceans to an empire. In
Roman mythology, Neptune's empire was the sea.]
[Comparison of the moon to a sick creature]
Oxymoron
An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory words, as in the following example.
[His words] are like sanctified and pious bawds. (1.3.138)
[A bawd is a prostitute. Therefore, pious and bawds are contradictory words.]
Personification and Metaphor
Personification is a type of metaphor that compares a place, a thing, or an idea to a person, as in the following example.
Never did the Cyclops’ hammers fall
On Mars’s armour, forg’d for proof eterne,

With less remorse than Pyrrhus’ bleeding sword
Now falls on Priam. (2.2.342-345)
[Personification and metaphor: comparison of a sword to a person with little remorse; metaphor: comparison of a sword to a bleeding creature]
Play on Words
A play on words, or pun, is the use of a word or words that can be interpreted in more than one way. The purpose is to achieve an ironic or a humorous effect. Here is an example from Hamlet.
CLAUDIUS: How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
HAMLET: Not so, my lord; I am too much i’ the sun. (1.2.69-70)
[Claudius asks why dark clouds still hang over Hamlet—that is, why
Hamlet continues to be depressed. Hamlet replies that he remains in the shadows because he is too much i' the sun. Here, Hamlet is saying that he dislikes being regarded as the son (sun) of Claudius.
Simile
A simile is a comparison between unlike things. In making the comparison, it uses like, as, or than. Note the following examples.
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres. (1.5.21-23)
[Use of like to compare Hamlet's eyes to stars]
Why Claudius, Not Hamlet, Became King of Denmark
Keen readers and audiences often ask why Claudius acceded to the throne in Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Should not the crown have passed to the dead king’s son, Prince Hamlet?
Not necessarily. In Denmark, the setting of the play, an elective monarchy held sway until 1660, when a hereditary monarchy replaced it. Therefore, Shakespeare’s fictional Hamlet, based on a legendary Dane of the Middle Ages, could not claim the crown as a birthright.

In an elective monarchy, court officials—noblemen in high standing— selected the new king by vote. The son of a king was, to be sure, the prime candidate for the royal chair, and usually he won it. But the voting nobles had the right to reject him in favor of another candidate.
And that was precisely what happened in fictional Elsinore. The nobles approved the king’s brother, Claudius. In a hereditary monarchy, the king’s oldest son automatically ascended the throne when his father died.
But of course Danish laws do not explain why the nobles chose Claudius over Hamlet. Shakespeare offers no explanation of their vote. However,
Hamlet refers to the election of Claudius, saying, “He that hath kill’d my king and whor’d my mother, / Popp’d in between the election and my hopes” (5.2.71-72). These lines appear in a passage in which Hamlet— conversing with his best friend, Horatio—is discussing Claudius’s murder plot against him and his moral right to kill Claudius. The words “my hopes” may signify that Hamlet expected to succeed his father.
That Hamlet did not gain accession after the murder of his father could have been due to one or all of the following reasons: (1) Claudius actively campaigned for the kingship, winning votes by promising political favors. (2) Gertrude, eager to remarry and remain queen, campaigned on his behalf. (3) The nobles perceived Hamlet as too young and callow— and perhaps more likely to support the views of the common people instead of their views—and thus denied him succession.
In the tale on which Shakespeare based Hamlet—Amleth, a Latin work by Saxo Grammaticus (1150?-1220?)—Feng (the character after whom
Shakespeare modeled Claudius) murders his brother, King Horwendil, out of jealousy. The opening paragraph of Amleth explains the cause of the jealousy:
Denmark has had three monarchical systems since the tenth century:
(1) Elective system. In 940, Harald Bluetooth became the first king of a unified Denmark under an elective system requiring the monarch to sign a charter guaranteeing a division of power between the king and the people.
(2) Hereditary system and absolutism. In 1660, Denmark adopted absolutism, granting the king full power, under a hereditary system

conferring the right of succession on the oldest son. In 1665, a royal edict affirmed the hereditary system under the principle of primogeniture, a legal term referring to the right of the oldest son to inherit his father’s property.
Hamlet, Oedipus, and Freud
In an 1899 book entitled Die Traumdeutung (Interpretation of Dreams)
Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the founder of psychoanalysis, introduced the term Oedipus complex. This term describes a psychological stage of development in which a male child desires sexual relations with his mother or a female child desires sexual relations with her father. The child also exhibits hostility toward the parent of the same sex. In normal development, a child outgrows this desire. However, in abnormal development, a child may retain his or her sexual fixation on the parent of the opposite sex.
After Freud coined the term Oedipus complex, Shakespeare scholars noted that Hamlet exhibits the symptoms of this condition in his relationship with his mother, Gertrude, and stepfather-uncle, Claudius.
In a soliloquy in the second scene of Act I, Hamlet condemns Claudius as a “satyr” (line 144) and agonizes over his mother’s hasty marriage to him, saying, “O! most wicked speed, to post / With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” (160-161). Ample evidence exists elsewhere in the play to support the Freudian interpretation of Hamlet’s character while buttressing the view that Hamlet is mentally deranged.
Hamlet, of course, does not marry his mother. But, according to
Freudian interpreters of the play, he does desire her—at least subconsciously. What is more, he solves a riddle of sorts, a homicide case, and kills his father—that is, stepfather. However, unlike Oedipus,
Hamlet does not live on to anguish over the past.
References to Ancient Mythology
Shakespeare often alluded or referred directly to figures in Greek and
Roman mythology, usually to make a description or comparison clear or vivid.

Aeneas: Trojan soldier who fought against the Greeks in the Trojan War, a conflict that is the source of myths, legends, and some historical accounts. It is said to have taken place in the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. After the Greeks captured Troy, Aeneas and other Trojans escaped on a ship. When the ship stopped at Carthage in North Africa,
Aeneas had a love affair with its queen, Dido, and told her what happened at Troy. He abandoned her and sailed on to Italy, where he was a pioneer in the development of ancient Rome. Heartbroken, Dido killed herself.
Cyclops: One-eyed giant in Homer's Odyssey.
Dido: See Aeneas.
Hecate (3.2.196): A goddess of the moon, earth, and underworld who became associated with witchcraft and magic.
Hecuba: Wife of Priam, king of Troy during the Trojan War.
Hercules (1.2.157): Roman name of the Greek hero Heracles, known for his great strength. He was the son of Zeus and Alcmene, a mortal. Hercules was famous for his his completion of twelve seemingly impossible labors, including slaying a lion and killing a nine-headed monster.
Hymen (3.2.102): God of marriage.
Hyperion (1.2.144): Father of the Titan sun god, Helios.
Hyrcanian beast (2.2.304): Tiger known for great ferocity.
Jove: Another name for Jupiter. Jupiter was the Roman name for Zeus, the king of the gods in Greek mythology.
Lethe: In Greek mythology, the river of forgetfulness in Hades.
Mars: Roman name for the Greek god of war, Ares.
Nemean lion: Lion killed by Hercules.
Neptune: Roman name for the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon.
Niobe: Woman who bragged to the goddess Leto that she had six sons and six daughters. Leto had only two children, the god Apollo and the goddess Artemis, known as Diana in Roman mythology. Because of
Niobe's boastfulness, Apollo killed her sons, Diana killed her daughters,

and Jupiter (Zeus) turned her into a mass of stone on Mount Sipylus (in present-day Turkey). The block of stone cried tears ceaselessly as Niobe wept for her dead children.
Phoebus (3.2.102): Apollo, god of medicine, music, prophecy, poetry, and the sun. When spoken of as the sun god, he is usually referred to as
Phoebus or Phoebus Apollo.
Priam (2.2.303): King of Troy during the Trojan War.
Pyrrhus (2.2.304): Son of the Greek soldier Achilles, the greatest warrior in the Trojan War and the most complete and terrifying warrior in all of ancient mythology. Pyrrhus was among the soldiers hiding in the belly of the Trojan horse.
Satyr (1.2.144): Minor deity that inhabited forests. It had horns and pointed ears, the head and trunk of a man, and the legs of a goat. It was a follower of the god of wine, Dionysus (Roman name: Bacchus), and engaged in merrymaking and lechery.
Tellus (3.2.103): Roman name for Gaea, the Greek goddess of the earth.
Trojan Horse: Gigantic wooden horse constructed by the Greeks during the Trojan War and left before the gates of Troy. The Greeks presented it as a gift to the Trojans after pretending to abandon the battlefield. After the Trojans pulled the trophy inside the city walls, Greek warriors concealed in the belly of the horse descended during the night and opened the gates to Greeks hiding outside. Surprising the sleeping
Trojans, the Greeks easily captured and burned Troy, slaughtering many of its inhabitants.
Vulcan (3.2.48 ): Roman name for Hephaestus, the god of fire and the forge who made armor in his smithy on Mount Olympus.
Writing Format: Verse, Prose, and Poetry
Shakespeare wrote his plays partly in verse and partly in prose, freely alternating between the two in the same acts and scenes. It is not unusual, in fact, for one character to address a second character in verse while the second character responds in prose. Sometimes, the same character speaks in verse in one moment and in prose in another.

Verse is a collection of lines that follow a regular, rhythmic pattern. In
Shakespeare, this pattern is usually iambic pentameter, a rhythm scheme in which each line has five pairs of syllables. Each pair consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Verse resembles poetry. Prose, on the other hand, is the everyday language of conversation, letters, lectures, sermons, newspaper articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles. Prose has no rhyme or metric scheme.
Why did Shakespeare mix verse (including poetry) and prose in his plays? That is a question that inevitably occupies anyone studying
Shakespeare’s writing techniques. Before considering that question, the
Shakespeare analyst first needs to learn how to identify the verse and prose passages in a play. That task is easy. Here’s why:
In most modern editions of the plays, each line in multi-line verse passages begins with a capital letter, and each line in multi-line prose passages begins with a small letter except the first line or a line beginning with the opening word of a sentence. In addition, verse passages have a shortened right margin, but prose passages have a full right margin. Following are examples of these visual cues in verse and prose passages from Hamlet:
Verse Passage Spoken by Hamlet
Look here, upon this picture, and on this;
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion’s curls, the front of Jove himself,
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command,
Prose Passage Spoken by Hamlet (full right margin)
Alas! poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own

grinning? quite chapfallen? Now get you to my lady’s chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing. (5.1.80)
Now, then, what about single lines—those spoken in conversation as questions or replies? They are in prose if one line has no paired rhyming line or is too abrupt to contain a rhythmic or rhyming pattern. The following exchange between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth contains such short lines.
HORATIO: Friends to this ground.
MARCELLUS: And liegemen to the Dane.
FRANCISCO: Give you good-night.
MARCELLUS: O! farewell, honest soldier:
But what of the multi-line passages? Why are some in verse and others in prose? The answer some Shakespeare commentators provide—an answer that is simplistic and not wholly accurate—is that Shakespeare reserved verse for noble, highborn characters and prose for common, lowborn characters. It is true that royalty and nobility often speak in verse and that peasants and commoners often speak in prose. But it is also true that noble characters sometimes speak in prose and that lowborn characters, like the witches in Macbeth, often speak in verse. Why, then, does Shakespeare alternate between verse and prose?
Shakespeare used verse to do the following:
(1) Present a play with an elegant format that was a tradition of the times. He also used verse to express deep emotion requiring elevated language. Because nobles and commoners were both capable of experiencing profound emotion, both expressed their emotions in verse from time to time.
(2) Make wise and penetrating observations or reflect in soliloquies on one's response or reaction to conditions and circumstances. For example, in the following soliloquy, Hamlet reflects on his failure to act decisively to gain revenge against Claudius. He chastises himself for not being like those who act without delay even on trivial matters.

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 god-like reason
(3) Present a poem within a play. Here is a poem recited by Hamlet after
Claudius, guilt-stricken by the performance of The Mouse-Trap in the second scene of the third act, stops the play and abruptly walks out.
Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungalled play;
For some must watch, while some must sleep:
So runs the world away. (3.2.206-209)
And here is a poem sung by the First Clown (first gravedigger) as he shovels dirt while Hamlet and Horatio look on.
In youth, when I did love, did love,
Methought it was very sweet,
To contract, O! the time, for-a my behove,
O! methought there was nothing meet. (5.1.29)
(4) Suggest order and exactitude. A character who speaks in precise rhythms and patterns is a character with a tidy brain that plans ahead and executes actions on schedule.
Shakespeare used prose to do the following:
(1) Express ordinary, undistinguished observations coming from the surface of the mind rather than its active, ruminating interior.

(2) Make quick, one-line replies such as “Ay, my lord” that are the stuff of day-to-day conversations.
(3) Present auditory relief for audiences (or visual relief for readers) from the intellectual and connotative density of some verse passages.
(4) Suggest madness or senility, as in Shakespeare's play King Lear. Lear shifts from measured verse to rambling, aimless, slapdash prose to reflect the deterioration of his mind. Prose lacks the regular beat and meter of verse passages.
(5) Depict the rambling, desultory path of conversation from a tongue loosened by alcohol.
(6) Poke fun at characters who lack the wit to versify their lines.
(7) Demonstrate that prose can have merits as a literary medium. In
Shakespeare’s day, verse (and its elegant cousin, poetry) was the sine qua non of successful writing. As an innovator, Shakespeare may have wanted to tout the merits of prose. Thus, on occasion, he infused his plays with prose passages so graceful and thought-provoking that they equaled, and sometimes even surpassed, the majesty of verse or poetry passages. Such a prose passage is the following, spoken in Hamlet by the title character:
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so. (2.2.250)
Blank Verse and Iambic Pentameter
Under Writing Format: Verse, Prose, and Poetry, you read that
Shakespeare wrote his plays in verse, prose, and poetry and that he used a rhythm format called iambic pentameter.
When his verse lines in iambic pentameter do not rhyme, they are said to be in blank verse.

To understand iambic pentameter, you first need to understand the term iamb. An iamb is a unit of rhythm consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Consider the words annoy, fulfill, pretend, regard, and serene. They are all iambs because the first syllable of each word is unstressed (or unaccented) and the second syllable is stressed (or accented): an NOY, ful FILL, pre TEND, re GARD, and ser
ENE.
He took me by the wrist and held me hard,
Then goes he to the length of all his arm,
And, with his other hand thus o’er his brow,
He falls to such perusal of my face (2.1.99-102)
Study Questions and Essay Topics
1)Hamlet faces a moral dilemma. On the one hand, the ghost of his father urges him to gain revenge by killing Claudius. On the other hand,
Hamlet's conscience tells him that killing is wrong. After all, he is a college boy who has been exposed to the teachings of theologians, philosophers, and other thinkers who condemn revenge. What was the attitude of people in Hamlet's day—as many as a thousand years ago— toward law and order and revenge?
2)Another dilemma Hamlet faces is whether the ghost is trustworthy. Is it really the ghost of his father? Is it a demon? Is there really a ghost at all? What was the attitude of people in Shakespeare's time—he was born in 1564 and died in 1616—toward the supernatural: ghosts, witches, etc.?
3)In Act I, Scene II, Claudius refers to Gertrude as "our sometime sister."
What does he mean by this phrase?
4)Does Hamlet himself covet the throne? Why didn't he—the son of old
King Hamlet—inherit the throne? (Look for a clue in these lines: He that hath kill'd my king and whored my mother, / Popp'd in between the election and my hopes (5.2.4). The play is full of deceit. Who attempts to deceive whom?
5)Before he leaves to study at the University of Paris (Act I, Scene III),
Laertes warns his sister, Ophelia, to be wary of Hamlet's attentions toward her, saying Hamlet regards her as little more than a "toy." Is it

possible that Laertes is right, that Hamlet really is not serious about
Ophelia?
6)Hamlet is angry because his mother married Claudius so soon after the death of old King Hamlet. Was Gertrude having an affair with Claudius before her husband's death? Was she in on the murder?
7)Hamlet puts on an "antic disposition"—that is, he pretends to be insane.
But is he, in fact, insane or mentally unstable?
8)Does Ophelia go insane? Does she commit suicide or was her death an accident?
9)What circumstances do Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras have in common? Do they share similar character traits?
10) Identify metonymy (a figure of speech) in the following excerpt from the play: "O that . . . the Everlasting had not fix'd / His canon 'gainst selfslaughter! What does Shakespeare mean by canon and self-slaughter?
Essay Topics
1)Argue that Elsinore represents the Garden of Eden after the serpent
(Satan) does his dirty work. In your argument, point out that the reason
Elsinore is corrupt is that it yielded to—and continues to yield to— diabolical influence. Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses imagery that appears to support this view. For example, old King Hamlet is poisoned in an Eden-like setting by a "serpent" (Claudius). Later, Elsinore becomes a place of darkness and deception; Hamlet is urged by a ghost (who could be the devil) to commit a sin, revenge. Hamlet's old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, turn against him. While researching the play, notice the many references to the devil, as in this line spoken by Hamlet to
Gertrude in Act 3, Scene 4: What devil was't that thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman blind? In addition, consider the many references to hell, as in this line spoken by Ophelia about Hamlet in Act 2, Scene 1: As if he had been loosed out of hell / To speak of horrors,—he comes before me.
2)Write an informative essay explaining the attitude of people in
Shakespeare's time toward supernatural phenomena and the occult. As part of this assignment, you may wish to consider another Shakespeare play, Macbeth, in which three witches play important roles. In
Shakespeare's time, many people believed in the power of witches. One

was King James I, who succeeded Queen Elizabeth I as the ruler of
England. In 1591, when he was King of Scotland during Elizabeth's reign, a group of witches and sorcerers attempted to murder him. Their trial and testimony convinced him that they were agents of evil. Thereafter, he studied the occult and wrote a book called Daemonologie
(Demonology), published in 1597. This book—and an earlier one called
Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches' Hammer, 1486), describing the demonic rites of witches—helped inflame people against practitioners of sorcery.
3)Probe Hamlet's mind. Get inside it and explore every niche and crevice. Then, attempt to explain why he acts as he does. True, his behavior is in large part a reaction to his father's death and his mother's marriage to Claudius. But what else bothers Hamlet? Is he angry because he himself did not succeed to the throne? Does the ghost cause him to dwell morbidly on the afterlife? Does he suddenly hate all women because of what his mother did?
4)Write an essay entitled "Hamlet's Deepest Secrets." In this essay, argue that Hamlet harbors disturbing secrets, such as the following: (1) as a child, he was neglected by King Hamlet and Gertrude and, therefore, grew up resenting them; (2) he believes he might really be the child of
Claudius; and (3) he is sexually attracted to his mother (Oedipus complex). Evidence appears in the play to support—but not prove—such theories.
5)To what extent does the main setting, Elsinore Castle, contribute to the atmosphere of the play? To what extent does this setting affect the mindset of Hamlet and/or other characters?
FAMOUS QUOTES
-Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
-Frailty, thy name is woman
-Neither a borrower nor a lender be.
-This above all – to thine own self be true.
-There are more thingsin heaven and earth,
-Horatio, then are dreamt of in your philosophy.

-Words, words, words.
-Brevity is the soul of wit.
-Thou this be madness, yet there is method in’t.
-What a piece of work is a man.
-I could be bounded ina nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
-The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.
-To be or not to be – that is the question.
-Get thee to a nunnery.
-The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
-My offence is rank,it smells to heaven.
-The rest is silence.
-My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
-Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?
-I will speak daggers to her, but use none.
-Alas, poor yorick! I knew him, Horatio.
-The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.
-A hit! A very palpable hit!
-Good-night, sweet prince, and flights ofangels sing thee to thy rest.

STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS
ACT I
1. What reasons do Laertes and Polonius give for their command to
Ophelia to stop seeing Hamlet?
Are they reasonable?
2. What country is Horatio from? What makes it difficult to decide?
3. What similarities are there in the thoughts containe d in each of the soliloquies in this act? (In I.ii. after Claudius and the court leave and in Act I.Scene v. after the ghost leaves)
4. The first scene could be (and has been) cut without damaging the plot.
For what reasons would you wish to include it in a performance?
5. In what ways is the language spoken by the apparition different to the normal language of the play?
6. What signs are we given of a potential for madness on Hamlet's part?
7. How does Claudius attempt to establish his popularity in the second scene?
8. How can we tell Denmark is a Catholic country? Find TWO references which help to suggest this.
9. How did Old Hamlet tackle foreign policy, and how does this contrast with Claudius?
10. What does Hamlet believe about his father's death before he meets the apparition?
Stagecraft
1. How does Shakespeare create tension in the first scene? How does he surprise us? How does he mislead us?

2. How does Shakespeare invite us to compare and contrast Hamlet with
Laertes and Fortinbras?
3. How does Shakespeare create tension in the second scene?
Imagery and Symbolism
1.Find TWO references to disease or decay
Themes
1. The ghost comes in 'questionable shape'. Find THREE references to the idea that it may not be whatit seems.
2. Find THREE other references to characters not being what they seem.
3. The prince must decide whether and how to act according to his dead father's wishes. Find THREE references to remembering or forgetting.
4. The play suggests that our lives may be controlled by a divine power.
Find THREE references to Fate or Providence.
ACT II
1. In what ways is the Pyrrhus character similar to Hamlet? and to
Claudius?
2. How might the answer to (1) above help to explain Hamlet's desire to be reminded of this speech 'in particular'?
3. How might we connect the content of Hamlet's supposedly crazy remarks to Polonius to what the prince is actually feeling?
4. Name FIVE different characteristics of Polonius that can be proven on the basis of this act.
5. Why might one suspect that Hamlet's theory that the ghost may be devil is not what has actually stopped him from taking action?
6. What reasons for not acting are suggested by Hamlet himself?
7. What different types of madness do we see in Hamlet during this act?

8. What do each of the main characters feel to be the cause of Hamlet's madness?
ACT III
1. What do Claudius and Polonius do in scene one, that Hamlet and
Horatio do in scene two, that
Hamlet does in scene three and Polonius does in scene four?
2. In what respects is the 'Play Scene' (III.ii) a turning point in the play?
How is this turn compounded by Hamlet's actions in the 'Closet Scene' (III.iv)?
3. What does the fact that Hamlet's soliloquy in the 'Prayer Scene' (III.iii) was cut from performances of the play for nearly 200 years tell us about Shak espeare's likely intentions in writing this speech for the prince?
4. Does Claudius' soliloquy revise or co mpound your opinion of this character?
5. Hamlet is often thought to have a lot of soliloquies, though in actual fact, he has fewer thanMacbeth and around the same number as Othello, who are thought to be men of action rather than meditation. How does the placing and subject of Hamlet's soliloquies in this act encourage the idea of a meditative prince?
6. 'I essentially am not in madness' says Hamlet (III.iv.188). Name four lines spoken by Hamlet in this act which might make you doubt this.
7. Is Hamlet at his worst in scene three or scene four of this act?
8. How do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern seem to have become more immoral since their first appearance in II.ii.?
9. For what reasons might you think that the Ghost in III.iv is an hallucination, and for what reasons might you think it is real?

10. After III.ii., the next time we see Ophelia she is mad. How are the seeds for this planted in this act?
11. Find three references to disease or rottenness.
ACT IV
ACT 4
1. Claudius begins and ends the act by lying to Gertrude. Name FOUR other aspects of his character that are provable on the basis of what he says and does in this act. Is he still wracked with guilt, do you think?
2. Has Gertrude reformed after her confrontation with Hamlet in III.iv.?
3. In what ways does Hamlet appear to change during this act?
4. When Laertes speaks in this act, he often uses hyperbolic (over exaggerated) expressions. What might this imply about him?
5. Why has Ophelia gone mad? How might this be proven?
6. What does the Queen's speech about Ophelia's drowning suggest about her madness and the reasons for her death?
7. Where is disease imagery used in this act? Find FOUR examples. How is the meaning of this imagery made explicit?
8. What do scenes five and seven suggest about what commitment to taking revenge does to people?
9. Nonetheless, in what ways might Hamlet appear to be (morally) better than (a) Fortinbras and (b)Laertes?
ACT V
1. What do you feel is the point of the gravedigger's riddles and song?
2. In what ways do Hamlet's reactions to the skullsin the graveyard seem to suggest a change in his outlook?
3. What does the violent argument between Hamlet and Laertes add to the play?
4. What developments in Hamlet's character are presented through the story of what happened on the

boat? (V.ii.)
5. How do Hamlet's motives in killing Claudius seem to have shifted according to his speech beginning 'Does it not, think thee ... ' (V.ii)?
6. What concerns of the play are reinforced in the Osric episode? (V.ii.)
7. Why does Hamlet 'defy augury'? (V.ii.)
8. What does Laertes say is his motive in still resenting Hamlet? How has he already lost this? How does this contribute to the presentation of revenge in the play? (V.ii.)
9. How might the dying lines of Gertrude, Claudius and Laertes be viewed as typical of the way their characters have been presented throughout the play?
10. What means does Shakespeare use to raise suspense during the graveyard scene?
11. Which characters view the ending as bloody carnage and which as poetic justice? Why such confusion?
12. Who "wins" in Hamlet? How?