“Hamlet” – Act I, Scene i. 1. What do Bernardo and Marcellus discuss with Horatio? What/who do they hope to show him? 2. How does Horatio prove that this apparition resembles King Hamlet of Denmark? 3. What is Horatio’s opinion of why the King’s ghost as appeared? 4. What is his example of your answer in #3? 5. What happens when Horatio sees the ghost for the second time? 6. What is Horatio’s strategy to make the ghost speak? Textual analysis 7. Give the situation presented at the beginning of the play. 8. When the ghost appears at Elsinore Castle, what is the immediate reasoning behind its appearance? 9. What does Horatio compare the ghost? 10. Why does Horatio’s believing the ghost lend credibility? “Hamlet” – Act I, scene 2 1.
What is strange about King Claudius’s recent marriage? 2. Discuss the contents of Fortinbras of Norway’s letter. 3. Where do Polonius and Claudius allow Laertes to return to? 4. What do Claudius and Gertrude urge Prince Hamlet to do? What philosophical truth does Claudius offer? 5. What does Claudius now urge the prince to do? Why? 6. What does Prince Hamlet now agree to do and why? 7. What does Hamlet lament out of his misery? 8. Why has Horatio come to Denmark? What is Hamlet’s reply? 9. What does Horatio tell Hamlet he has seen? What is Hamlet’s reaction? Analysis 10. Contrast the outside of the castle to the inside with Claudius’s court. 11. How is balance of society awry here? 12. Give contradictions in Claudius’s speech in this scene. 13. What is the overall mood in Denmark? 14. How is Hamlet a foil for Claudius? 15. What shatters Hamlet’s opinion of womanhood? 16. In lines 129­130 of scene ii., what is questioned? 17. What is “an unweeded garden/That grows to seed: things rank and gross in nature/Possess it merely”? 18. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy, name 2 things of the utmost importance that have already failed him.