Hamlet Act 1 Scene 2 Guiding Questions (Due 10/3)
Read these over and take them into consideration as you read. They are meant to guide your
reading so you have a better focus. They will also make excellent study tools for your quizzes
and tests on the play. You should answer them as you go, making note of the lines where you
found your answers. These are in addition to your double-entry journal and the quotes
identification sheet. You should still be completing those as well.
*Read Hamlet’s first soliloquy (lines 131-161) on the handout you got in class Monday. Take
notes on it as you read, keeping the questions on the back in mind as you go. We will complete
the questions in class on Wednesday.
Act 1, Scene 2
1) What is King Claudius talking about at the start of the scene? Focus on what he says about
Old Hamlet (the previous King), his wife Gertrude (Old Hamlet’s former wife), what young
Fortinbras is up to and why, and what Cornelius and Voltemand are sent to accomplish.
2) What does Laertes ask for? Who gives the final okay?
3) How does line 78 spoken by Hamlet relate to the theme of appearance vs. reality?
4) Analyze lines 78-88. What does Hamlet seem to be saying (hint: it deals with appearance vs.
reality).
5) What do Queen Gertrude and King Claudius ask Hamlet not to do?
6) Read Hamlet’s first soliloquy (lines 131-161) on the handout you got in class Monday. Take
notes on it as you read, and use the questions on the back to guide you. We will discuss the
soliloquy and answer the questions in class on Wednesday.
7) Why do Horatio and Marcellus tell Hamlet they are there, at first?
8) Horatio tells Hamlet why he thinks the Ghost appeared to them. What is that reason?
9) What does Hamlet suspect at the end of Scene 2?
10) What quotes did you identify in this scene from your sheet? (you can just write the
corresponding numbers)