Hamlet
Act I Picture Partners
Scene i
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Scene ii
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Scene iii
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Scene iv
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Scene v
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Act I Scene i Analysis Questions
Directions: For each question you must refer to your text for support (and cite those
lines in your answer), as well as annotate your text for the specifics of the question.
1. How does Shakespeare begin the play with an immediate sense of suspense?
What is the tone of the first two lines of the play & how does it later characterize
the major characters & their supporters?
2. Why has Horatio been asked to join the soldiers in the night watch? What has he
decided to do? What is the significance of Horatio’s first few remarks in terms of
his character? Identify and cite both his opening remarks and what we learn later
about his Stoic philosophy/education.
3. How does scene I serve as an “exposition”? Who serves as a messenger in
scene I and what offstage action occurs?
4. Cite evidence of the supernatural, superstitions and supernatural manifestations.
What do the reactions of the characters suggest about the relationship between
the religion of Christ in the drama and supernatural manifestations? Where else
is this relationship addressed in Act I?
Act I Scene ii
1.
Rhetorical Analysis of Claudius’ Speech Act I,ii
Name __________________________________
Claudius has a difficult rhetorical task when he speaks to his subjects. The way in which he handles what seems
to be his first “state of the union” address reveals quite a bit about his character. From the beginning, it is clear
that he is more than your average moustache-twisting villain. You will look closely at his speech, and then
analyze his rhetoric.
Rhetorical analysis: Analyzing text to determine how the author has shaped the content in order to achieve an
identifiable purpose for a given audience (paraphrased from Covino and Jolliffe).
Please describe the key rhetorical elements in Claudius’ speech:
1. Exigence -- What needs doing at this point? In other words, what is compelling Claudius to speak at this moment
in the play?
2. Audience – The audience is comprised of people who can in some way act on this exigence. Who is Claudius’
primary audience and what impression do we get about those individuals? Who is Claudius’ secondary audience
and what impressions to we glean about them?
Primary
speech is directed at these particular people in the
audience
Impressions
Secondary—,
while they hear the speech or may hear about the
speech, they are not directly addressed
Impressions
3. Purpose : List the transitional words used. How does their use support Claudius’s purpose?
4. Appeals: Identify the appeals Claudius uses to convince and/or motivate his audience? Reference specific lines.
Think of it this way.
Ethos: Appeal to the character of the speaker (or persona)
Ethos: “Buy my old castle because I’m Claudius.”
Logos: Appeal to the structure of the argument (logic)
Logos: “Buy my old castle because yours is ransacked
and mine is the only one on sale.”
Pathos: “Buy my old castle because my brother just died
and I want to take the money from the castle and donate it
to a foundation in his honor.”
Pathos: Appeal to the emotions or interest of the audience
5. Figures of speech, imagery, diction, syntax:

What literary devices does Claudius employ? Provide both the quoted device and identify the device.
o Example: “with mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage = oxymoron
o
o
o
o
6.
Tone: Look at your tone sheet. Carefully choose word(s) to capture Claudius’s tone. (Hint: look out for
and identify any tone shifts if you observe them.)
KING CLAUDIUS
Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
The memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe,
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,-With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,-Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along. For all, our thanks.
Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands
Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,
To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
Now for ourself and for this time of meeting:
Thus much the business is: we have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,-Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose,--to suppress
His further gait herein; in that the levies,
The lists and full proportions, are all made
Out of his subject: and we here dispatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king, more than the scope
Of these delated articles allow.
Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.
Directions: For each question you must refer to your text for support (and cite those
lines in your answer), as well as annotate your text for the specifics of the question.
Act I Scene ii Continued
2. How does the scene function as an introduction to the two main characters of the
drama- Hamlet and Claudius? How is each character presented (cite evidence)
and examine how they are foils.
3. What important metaphor is introduced in Hamlet’s soliloquy that will be
developed later in the play?
4. What is the significance of Hamlet’s decision to stay in Denmark in regards to his
now being involved in the action of the play? What two choices does he make
and how do they reflect the duality of his character?
Act I, Scenes iv
1. Other than the fact of the ghost itself, why is this Ghost thought to be an evil
omen?
2. Marcellus states, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” What does he
mean?
Act I, Scene v
1. In what region of the universe does the Ghost reside?
2. What possible theme is introduced by the Ghost’s afterlife?
3. What does the Ghost warn Hamlet about his mother? Why?
4. What does Hamlet mean when he says, “The time is out of joint”?