Hamlet Test Review
English 12
Test Date: December 18, 2014
Question types:
Multiple Choice
Match
Fill in the Blanks
True/False
Short Answer
Labelling
Notes to Review: (From the Introductory Powerpoint)

Figurative Language: be able to identify the figure of speech being used in a given quotation

Character (Concept) Map – be able to make connections between characters and how they
relate to each other (relationships, conspiracies, deaths) Study the Concept Map from the
Powerpoint

Definition for tragic flaw (hamartia) and identify what Hamlet’s tragic flaw is

Elements of a tragedy – explain how Hamlet fits into each element

Formula of a revenge play – explain how Hamlet fits the revenge play formula

Shakespeare’s Writing Style – poetry (blank verse) vs. prose – which characters speak in
which form and when

Iambic pentameter
o understand the definition - how many syllables in an iamb (2 – 1 stressed and 1
unstressed) and what the prefix “penta” indicates (5 sets) – five sets of 2 syllables
each means that each line has 10 syllables.
o Understand that Shakespeare did not rigidly adhere to this rule – some of his lines
have more than 10 syllables, while others have less
o Be able to identify which syllables are unstressed and stressed in a given quotation
o Use the appropriate symbol to identify unstressed (~) and stressed (/) syllables

Analysis and Dramatic Significance – study notes. All quotations that appear on the test will
be taken from the ones we did in class.
o identify speaker and to whom the quotation is addressed
o analyze the quotation – explain what it means
o Explain the dramatic significance - what the connection of the quotation is to the
greater text. Why is it significant to the play? You must be able to explain your
answer in detail. For example, you must go beyond just telling me what theme the
quotation connects to and be able to tell me how and why it connects.
1
Quotations for Analysis and Dramatic Significance
Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
To give these mourning duties to your father.
But, you must know, your father lost a father.
That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
In filial obligation for some term
To do obsequious sorrow. But to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness. ‘Tis unmanly grief.
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
An understanding simple and unschooled.
For what we know must be and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we in our peevish opposition
Take it to heart? Fie! ‘Tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd, whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corpse till he that died to-day,
‘This must be so.’ We pray you, throw to the earth
This unprevailing woe, and think of us
As of a father. For let the world take not,
You are the most immediate to our throne,
And with no less nobility of love
Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. (1.2.89-110)
Speaker:______________________
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Analysis:
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Dramatic Significance:
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2
O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on it, ah fie. ‘Tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead – nay, not so much, not two –
So excellent a king, that was to this
Hyperion to a satyr (1.2.131-142)
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Analysis:
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Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou com’st in such a questionable shape
That I will speak to thee. I’ll call thee Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane. O, answer me. (1.4.42-48)
Speaker:______________________
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Analysis:
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3
I find thee apt,
And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now,
Hamlet, hear.
‘Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged process of my death
Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting they father’s life
Now wears his crown. (1.5.36-45)
Speaker:______________________
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Analysis:
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Dramatic Significance:
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My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,
No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,
Ungartered, and down-gyved to his ankle,
Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,
And with a look so piteous in purport
As if he had been loosed out of hell
To speak of horrors, he comes before me. (2.1.85-92)
Speaker:______________________
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Analysis:
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4
I’ll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks,
I’ll tent him to the quick. If he but blench,
I know my course. The spirit I have seen
May be the devil, and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape. Yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses to damn me. I’ll have grounds
More relative than this. The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King. (2.2.606-617)
Speaker:______________________
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Analysis:
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Dramatic Significance:
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To be or not to be, that is the question.
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. (3.1.63-70)
Speaker:______________________
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Analysis:
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Dramatic Significance:
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5
If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not
escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know
well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery go, and quickly too. (3.1.146-151)
Speaker:______________________
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Analysis:
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Dramatic Significance:
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’Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself
Breathes out
Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood,
And so such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on. Soft! Now to my mother.
O heart, lose not thy nature. Let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom.
Let me be cruel, not unnatural.
I will speak daggers to her, but use none.
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites.
How in my words soever she be shent,
To give them seals never, my soul, consent! (3.2.381-392)
Speaker:______________________
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Analysis:
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Dramatic Significance:
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6
O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven.
It hath the primal eldest curse upon it,
A brother’s murder. Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will,
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? (3.3.39-49)
Speaker:______________________
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Analysis:
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Dramatic Significance:
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Now might I do it pat, now he is praying.
And now I’ll do it. And so he goes to heaven.
And so I am revenged. That would be scanned:
A villain kills my father, and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.
O, this is hire and salary, not revenge. (3.3.76-82)
Speaker:______________________
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Analysis:
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Dramatic Significance:
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7
Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam, and
why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?
Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter’s flaw! (5.1.212-219)
Speaker:______________________
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Analysis:
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Dramatic Significance:
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Her obsequies have been as far enlarged
As we have warranty. Her death was doubtful,
And, but that great command oversways the order,
She should in ground unsanctified been lodged
Till the last trumpet. (5.1.229-237)
Speaker:______________________
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Analysis:
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Dramatic Significance:
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8