Hamlet – Act 5 Study Questions
Answer each of the following questions in complete sentences on a separate piece of paper.
Act V, Scene I
1. Why does Shakespeare include the grave digger scene?
2. Define the following terms:
a) Parody
b) Comic Relief
c) Explain how the grave digger scene fits both the terms stated above.
3. a) What is Hamlet’s philosophy when he looks at the skulls?
b) Explain how Hamlet’s view of death progressed and changed throughout the plot of the play.
Please cite examples from the text to support your answers.
4. What do we learn about Hamlet’s childhood from his comments as he looks at Yorick’s skull?
5. Describe quarrel between Hamlet and Laertes. Why does it occur?
6. How does the scene end?
Act V, Scene II
1. In the previous scene, Hamlet claims to have loved Ophelia. What evidence is there in
this scene that perhaps he did not?
2. What is Hamlet referring to when he says “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
rough-hew how we will”?
3. How did Hamlet get a hold of the letter which Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were
supposed to deliver to England for Claudius?
a. How does he alter the letter?
4. According to Hamlet, he does not feel guilty about the deaths of Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern. How does he justify sending them to their deaths?
5. What news does Osric bring Hamlet? Explain completely.
6. What purpose does the character Osric serve?
7. Find a quotation that shows that Hamlet is aware of upcoming trouble.
8. What good advice does Gertrude give Hamlet before the duel?
9. In the final scene, explain how each of the following characters die:
a. Gertrude
b. Laertes
c. Claudius
d. Hamlet
10. Why does Hamlet beg Horatio not to commit suicide?
11. How is order restored at the end of this play?
Hamlet – Act 5 Quotations
ELA B30
For each of the quotations below, provide the following:
a) the speaker
b) whom the speaker is speaking to
c) the circumstances (what is happening in the play when the quotation is spoken)
d) paraphrase each quotation
1.
2.
3.
4.
“Is she to be buried in Christian burial that willfully seeks her own salvation?”
“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest…”
“Hold off the earth a while till I have caught her once more in mine arms”
“I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my
sum”
5. “So Rosencrantz and Guildenstern go to’t.”
6. “I dare confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence; but to know a man
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
well, were to know himself.”
“You will lose this wager, my lord.”
“I will be your foil, Laertes; in mine ignorance your skill shall, like a star i’ th’ darkest
night, stick fiery off indeed.”
“Look to the queen there, ho!”
“The drink, the drink! I am poison’d!”
“The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, unbated and envenom’d…”
“I can no more: the king, the king’s to blame.”
“Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, drink off this potion. Is thy union
here? Follow my mother.”
“Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet.”
“Absent thee from felicity a while, and in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, to tell
my story.”
“Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince…”
“To tell him, his commandment is fulfill’d, that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.”
17.
18. “How these things came about: so shall you hear of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts…”
19. “Let four captains bar Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage.”