Hamlet Pre-Reading Questions
1.
What would it feel like to return home after being away for the
summer to discover that your father is dead and your mother had
already remarried?
2.
What if the man your mother remarried was a lowlife and took over
all of your father’s affairs and successes? How would you feel and
what, if anything, would you do about it?
3.
What if someone gave you reason to believe that your new stepfather
murdered your father?
Hamlet Pre-Reading Questions
1.
How would you go about getting your stepfather to confess to the
murder of your father?
2.
If you wanted to make people believe you’re insane, how would you
do it?
3.
How would you feel and what would you do if you found out that a
close friend has been spying on you?
Hamlet Pre-Reading Questions
1.
What does being alive mean to you? How do you assign value to life?
What makes life challenging? What makes it worth living? Describe a
few examples that help to show your thinking about how people
should value life.
Hamlet Thematic Ideas
• Revenge: Hamlet searches continuously for the answer to the question of
whether or not he should avenge his father’s death. His concern with right and
wrong in religious, moral, and political terms causes him much inner turmoil.
• Appearance vs. Reality: The play contains many situations in which the
surface appearance of things does not always match reality. Hamlet struggles
to determine who his true friends are; the players in the acting troupe assume
new identities; Claudius appears to be a true and just king and Gertrude his
virtuous queen.
• Sanity vs. Insanity: In many ways this conflict is intertwined with the theme
of appearance vs. reality. Hamlet’s sanity or insanity has baffled critics for
years. Even the characters in the play discuss inconsistencies in Hamlet’s
behavior, sometimes assuming he is really insane, at other times amazed by
his clarity of thought.
• Decay and Corruption: Among the most powerful images of the play are
those which reveal disintegrating situations, especially in personal terms for
Prince Hamlet. Also, Shakespeare considered evil to be a disease that
spreads. Notice how even the natural world is affected by the sins in the play.
Hamlet Act I Questions
1. What does Hamlet’s first soliloquy (730) reveal about his
state of mind? What is the source of his discontent?
2. What do we learn from the Ghost in Act I? How does
Hamlet respond to the Ghost’s instructions? What does he
mean by saying, “O my prophetic soul!” (742)? How does
the Ghost’s diction and imagery support the theme of
Decay and Corruption?
3. Why do you think Hamlet tells his companions he likely to
put on an “antic disposition” (746)? Is his behavior a
deliberate strategy or a natural reaction to his anger and
grief? Explain.
Hamlet Act II Questions
4. Compare the way Hamlet responds to Polonius in act II
(755-766) with how he responds to his friends Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern (757-758). What do you learn about
Hamlet from these responses?
5. On page 758 (lines 270-282) Hamlet delivers a lengthy
explanation to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, ending with
a rhetorical question. What is the substance of his speech?
How does the imagery that Hamlet uses transition his
speech from an assessment of himself to that of humanity
as a whole?
Hamlet Act III Questions
6. In act III, Hamlet delivers his famous “To be, or not to be” speech,
arguably the most recognized passage in English literature (768).
What is he contemplating? What inner conflict is he pondering? What
conclusions does he reach?
7.
Claudius’ aside in act III (783) is the first definitive evidence of his guilt.
Structurally, why do you think this revelation takes place halfway
through the play as opposed to earlier? No quote needed for this one.
8.
In act III Hamlet has a perfect opportunity to kill his uncle and avenge
his murdered father (783). Instead, he hesitates. Why? Do you think
we are meant to respect the king’s piety or despise his cowardice?
Hamlet Act V Questions
9. How does Laertes respond to his father’s death? to Ophelia’s? How
do his responses compare to Hamlet’s reaction to the death of
Hamlet, Sr.?
10. Hamlet seems preoccupied with death for much of the play; what
new insight does the graveyard scene reveal regarding his attitude
toward mortality? Toward life, fame, and accomplishment? How
does this attitude connect to his central conflict in the play?
11. Why does Hamlet give his dying support to Fortinbras?
Hamlet Essay Prompt
 Write a literary analysis in which you explain how a specific literary
device is used to convey one of the four themes we explored in our
study of Hamlet. Be sure to focus on a few aspects of your theme
instead of trying to analyze all of it.
 Four direct quotes from Hamlet. Three pages, double-spaced, Times
New Roman, 12 point font. Due Thursday, October 10.