Hamlet
Act I
1. Identify Bernardo, Francisco,
Marcellus, Horatio, and King Hamlet.
• Bernardo, Francisco and Marcellus are
guard soldiers at Elsinore.
• Horatio is Hamlet's friend.
• King Hamlet is Hamlet's father who was
murdered prior to the beginning of the play.
2. What had Bernardo seen at a
prior watch?
• Bernardo had seen King Hamlet's ghost.
3. Why does Marcellus think
Horatio should speak to the
ghost?
• Horatio was a scholar who should know the
proper way to address a ghost.
4. What does young Fortinbras
want to do?
• Young Fortinbras wants to regain the lands
his father had lost.
5. Who do the soldiers/guards
want to tell about the ghost?
• They think Hamlet (King Hamlet's son)
should know about the ghost.
6. Identify King Claudius, Queen
Gertrude, Laertes, and Polonius.
• King Claudius is King Hamlet's brother,
Hamlet's uncle. He came to the throne and
married King Hamlet's wife after King
Hamlet's death.
• Queen Gertrude is Hamlet's mother.
• Laertes is Polonius' son.
• Polonius is Lord Chamberlain.
7. Where does Claudius send
Cornelius and Voltimand?
• He sends them to the King of Norway with
letters asking the King to try to keep young
Fortinbras from going to battle.
8. What does the King tell
Hamlet?
• He tells Hamlet that Hamlet should not
grieve so deeply for his father's death; it is
time to think of other things. He says he
wants Hamlet to think of him as his father
and to remain at cheerful Elsinore for a
while longer.
9. Hamlet is upset for two
reasons. What are they?
• His father has died, and his uncle has
married his mother less than two months
after his father's death. It was not a
respectable period of time to wait, besides
which the marriage in Hamlet's time was
considered incestuous.
10. What news does Horatio
bring Hamlet?
• Horatio tells Hamlet of King Hamlet's
ghost.
11. What does Hamlet decide to
do after he hears Horatio's news?
• He decides to go on watch with the guards
at midnight in hopes of seeing the ghost
himself.
12. What is Laertes' advice to
Ophelia?
• He warns her to stay away from Hamlet and
tells her to protect her virtue.
13. What is Polonius' advice to
Laertes?
• Polonius tells Laertes to not always voice
his thoughts, to be familiar but not vulgar,
to hold on to his closest friends, to beware
of getting into quarrels, to listen to everyone
but not to always give advice, to listen to
others' opinions without always judging
them, to buy good clothes, to not be a
borrower or lender, and above all else, to his
own self be true.
14. At the end of Scene III,
Ophelia agrees to "obey." What
will she do?
• She agrees to obey Polonius' wish that she
would stay away from Hamlet and reject his
affections.
15. What did the ghost tell
Hamlet?
• The ghost told Hamlet that King Hamlet
was murdered by Claudius, and it asked
Hamlet to avenge the murder.
16. Hamlet swears Horatio to two
things. What are they?
• He swears him to secrecy about the events
of this evening (seeing the ghost) and to go
along with him should he pretend to be
crazy.