Hamlet, Act One - Study Questions
by William Shakespeare
Questions will be collected periodically by various means. Questions in bold
require answers with more development than the others and need
sentences of response. Other questions may be answered with just a few
words if possible. When possible, use quotations within your answers. These
questions will help you focus on the most important events and speeches in each
scene.
See Academic Honesty Policies, in the student handbook and on the junior
course policy sheet.
Answers to these questions must be in your own words and in direct quotations
from the play. You are not permitted to share answers. As we go over these in
class, make corrections to your answers (use a different color font) so that we
can see your first impressions and your final, corrected answers. You are
expected to use our designated Hamlet text; parallel translations, Cliff’s/ Spark
Notes or any other versions are not permitted.
ACT ONE
ACT ONE - Scene one
1. Where does the play take place (include the name of the country and
the name of the castle)?
2. As the play opens, Horatio joins Bernardo and Marcellus at their night
watch. Why has Horatio joined them?
3. In line 73, how does Horatio interpret the appearance of the Ghost?
4. What three questions does Marcellus raise?
5. In a long speech (ll. 84-111), Horatio answers Marcellus.
Summarize briefly the events that have led to preparations for war.
6. In ll. 131-142, what three reasons does Horatio list for the superstition
of a ghost's returning from the grave?
7. Why do Horatio and Marcellus decide to tell Hamlet about the Ghost?
ACT ONE - Scene two
1. What news does King Claudius announce at the opening of Scene 2 (ll.
8-14)
2. Why does Claudius send Cornelius and Voltimand to Norway? (ll.
26-39)
3. What is Laertes' request and Claudius' response?
4. What bothers Claudius and Gertrude about Hamlet's clothing?
5. Why does Claudius want Hamlet to remain at court (ll. 106-117)?
6. About how long has Hamlet's father been dead?
7. Explain why Hamlet says, "Frailty, thy name is woman!" (l. 146)?
8. At the end of Scene two, what is Hamlet's plan?
ACT ONE - Scene three - The Advice Giving Scene
1. What does Laertes say must govern Hamlet's marriage choice?
2. Why does Laertes warn his sister Ophelia not to place too much
hope in Hamlet's attentions to her (ll. 29-38)?
3. What advice does Ophelia in turn give to Laertes?
4. In ll. 58-80, Polonius gives a great deal of advice to this son
Laertes. In this speech, Polonius covers nine items of advice. In
your own words, explain what the following items mean:
(ll. 59-60) "Give thy thoughts no tongue,/Nor any unproportioned
thought his act."
(l 68) "Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice,"
(ll. 75-77) "Neither a borrower nor a lender be,/For loan oft loses
both itself and friend,..."
5. What are Polonius's instructions to Ophelia about Hamlet?
ACT ONE - Scene four
1. Why does Hamlet denounce the custom of drunken celebration?
2. According to Hamlet, what can be the effects of a “vicious mole of
nature” (line 24) upon an individual?
3. Why, according to Marcellus, is "something...rotten in the state of
Denmark"?
4. What happens at the end of Scene four?
ACT ONE - Scene five
1. In lines 35-41, what does the Ghost reveal as the public’s
knowledge of his death?
2. What does the Ghost reveal about the manner of his death (ll. 6080)?
3. In lines 83-89, what three requests does the Ghost make of
Hamlet?
4. In his second soliloquy (ll. 93-113), what does Hamlet say will dominate
his mind from
henceforth?
note: soliloquy questions
5. How does Hamlet behave with Horatio and Marcellus after seeing the
ghost?
6. In lines 178-181, what does Hamlet imply he may decide to do?
Thinking about Act One
What future events does Act One prepare us to anticipate
in the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia?
in Hamlet's behavior?
ACT TWO - THE SPYING ACT
ACT TWO - Scene one
1. At the opening of the scene, where is Polonius sending Reynaldo?
2. Why does Polonius send him on this journey? What sort of information
does Polonius want to find out about his son?
3. By what trick is Reynaldo supposed to get information about
Laertes (see especially, ll. 64-67)?
4. What does this reveal about Polonius's character? What kind of
father is he, and what are his priorities?
5. How did Hamlet look and behave when he visited Ophelia?
6. What is Polonius's conclusion about Hamlet?
ACT TWO - Scene two
1. At the beginning of Scene 2, for whom has Claudius sent?
2. Why has he sent for them?
3. What news do Voltimand and Cornelius bring back from Norway?
4. In lines 76-80, what request does Norway make of Claudius?
5. What is humorously ironic about Polonius saying, "Brevity is the soul of
wit"?
6. What is the topic of the letter from Hamlet that Polonius shows the King
and Queen?
7. In lines 141-142, what lie does Polonius tell?
8. In lines 160-167, what plan is formed to test Polonius's hypothesis
that Hamlet is mad from rejected love?
9. Hamlet calls Polonius a "fishmonger." Why?
10. In lines 205-213, what does Polonius say about the contrast
between madness and sanity?
11. Between lines 236 and 291, what does Hamlet repeatedly request of
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?
12. Why does Hamlet tell Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, that "Denmark's
a prison"?
13. In lines 296-304, what reason does Hamlet give to his friends for
his current condition?
14. According to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, why are the players
traveling?
15. Hamlet realizes that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern cannot be trusted.
What does he let them know in lines 378-380?
16. Why does Hamlet call Polonius "Jephthah" in line 403?
17. In lines 450-518, Hamlet and the First Player recite lines from a
play. This play tells how Pyrrhus slays the Trojan king Priam to
avenge his father's murder. How is Hamlet like Pyrrhus? How is he
unlike Pyrrhus?
18. In lines 519-520, what does Polonius notice about the Player?
19. In lines 537-543, what two questions does Hamlet ask the First
Player?
20. What causes Hamlet to exclaim, "O, what a rogue and peasant
slave am I” (line 550)?
21. In the passage beginning with line 589, what plan does Hamlet
devise?
22. In lines 599-606, why does Hamlet feel he must have evidence of
Claudius's guilt?
Thinking about Act Two
List three examples of one or more characters spying on another
character.
HAMLET, ACT THREE
ACT THREE - Scene one
1. What do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern report to Claudius?
2. What hope does Gertrude express to Ophelia?
3. How does Claudius react when Polonius says, "with devotion's visage,/
And pious action we do sugar o'er/The devil himself"?
4. What plan do Polonius, Claudius, and Ophelia now put into action?
What, exactly, will Ophelia be doing when Hamlet finds her?
5. What are Hamlet's main arguments against suicide in the soliloquy at
lines 57-91?
6. Why does Hamlet treat Ophelia as cruelly as he does? What has
changed him?
7. Why does Hamlet say to Ophelia, "Get thee to a nunnery"?
8. What thinly veiled threat to Claudius does Hamlet voice, after he
becomes suspicious of Claudius's hidden presence (lines 131-152)?
9. How does Ophelia react to Hamlet's behavior (ll. 153-164)?
10. At the end of the scene, what does the King decide to do with
Hamlet? What does Polonius suggest or plan?
ACT THREE - Scene two
1. What qualities in Horatio cause Hamlet to enlist his assistance (ll.
62-73)?
2. What does Hamlet ask Horatio to do?
3. Summarize the events in the "dumb show.”
4. Why, in line 235, does Hamlet refer to the play-within-a-play as "The
Mouse-trap"? What other name does the play have?
5. How do the Player King and the Player Queen contrast in their views
on remarriage?
6. What is the King's reaction to the play?
7. In lines 350, and 363-371, to what object does Hamlet compare
himself? Why?
8. As Hamlet goes to his mother at the end of the scene, what does he
admonish himself to do?
ACT THREE – scene three
1. What does Claudius ask Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to do?
2. In lines 7-23, what do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern say in support of
Claudius?
3. In lines 38-39, what does Claudius find impossible to do? Why?
4. Why doesn't Hamlet kill Claudius when he discovers him in an
attitude of prayer?
ACT THREE - Scene four
1. What does Polonius urge the Queen to do?
2. Who did Hamlet think was hiding behind the arras (the curtain)?
3. In lines 19-20, Hamlet says to his mother, "You go not till I set you
up a glass/ Where you may see the inmost part of you." Beginning
with line 54, in what way does he do this?
4. Why does the Ghost appear to Hamlet again (ll. 114-118)?
5. What two requests does Hamlet make of his mother in lines 166-77,
and lines 188-95?
6. How does Hamlet feel about the murder of Polonius?
7. How does Hamlet feel about his journey to England with Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern?
Thinking About Act Three
The climax is the turning point in a story or play when the action changes
course and begins to resolve itself. It is generally agreed that the climax
of Hamlet occurs in Act Three. When does it occur?
HAMLET, ACT FOUR
ACT FOUR - Scene one and two
1. How does the queen protect Hamlet?
2. What does Claudius ask Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to do?
3. What does Hamlet mean when he calls Rosencrantz a "sponge"?
ACT FOUR - Scene three
1. Why does Claudius say he must hide the haste with which Hamlet is
being sent away?
2. In lines 34-39, what does Hamlet tell Claudius he has done with
Polonius?
3. What does Claudius arrange to happen to Hamlet when he arrives in
England?
ACT FOUR - Scene four
1. Whom does Hamlet meet in this scene?
2. What type of land are Fortinbras' troops poised to attack?
3. Soliloquy: “How all occasions do inform against me….” What is the
difference between men and beasts, according to lines 34-40 of Hamlet’s
soliloquy?
4. What difference does Hamlet see between himself and Fortinbras's
army?
5. What pledge does Hamlet make at the end of the soliloquy?
ACT FOUR - Scene five and six
1. What has happened to Ophelia?
2. Why does Horatio suggest that the Queen should see her (ll. 14-15)?
3. What five problems does Claudius enumerate in lines 76-97?
4. What are Laertes' followers shouting?
5. In lines 133-139, what does Laertes demand and pledge?
6. What does Claudius tell Laertes to do in lines 206-215?
7. According to his letter to Horatio in scene six, what happened to
Hamlet during his passage to England?
ACT FOUR - Scene seven
1. In lines 5-9, what does Laertes ask Claudius?
2. What are the King's two responses/reasons?
3. What skill of Laertes' did Hamlet envy (ll. 96-106)?
4. How far will Laertes go to get revenge?
5. What scheme is planned by Claudius and Laertes?
6. What are their backup plans, and who suggests which one?
7. What news does the Queen bring?
8. What lie does Claudius tell Gertrude at the end of the scene?
HAMLET, ACT FIVE
ACT FIVE - Scene one
1. The clowns/gravediggers in this scene provide comic relief. Identify
one humorous element or line in the clowns' opening conversation.
2. Why does the manner of Ophelia's burial cause so much comment?
3. What reason is given for her having a Christian burial? (ll. 23-29)
4. What is ironic about Hamlet's joking with the gravedigger?
5. In lines 183-216, what is Hamlet's perspective on the culmination
of human life?
6. What is Hamlet's attitude toward Laertes in line 224?
7. In line 228, how does the priest account for Ophelia's Christian burial?
8. What expectation did Gertrude have for Ophelia?
9. What does Laertes do that angers Hamlet?
10. What is Hamlet's response to these actions of Laertes?
ACT FIVE - Scene two
1. What did Hamlet do to the commission letters that Claudius had sent
with him?
2. In line 62, Horatio exclaims, "Why, what a king is this!" What change
has taken place in Hamlet?
3. What does Hamlet mean when he says "...by the image of my cause, I
see the portraiture of his..."?
4. What are the terms of the wager that Osric explains?
5. In lines 210-222, how does Hamlet feel about the fencing match?
6. What does Hamlet mean by "the readiness is all" (l. 220)?
7. What is the nature of Hamlet's speech to Laertes before they fence?
8. Who accidentally drinks the poisoned wine?
9. How is Hamlet mortally wounded?
10. What long-anticipated act does Hamlet finally complete? How does
he do it?
11. Why does Hamlet entreat Horatio to remain alive?
12. What is Hamlet's final act in his brief moment as King of Denmark?
13. What does Hamlet mean by "the rest is silence" (l. 360)?
14. What is Fortinbras’ assessment of Hamlet’s character?