English 12
Mrs. Nollette
BHS
Name _____________________________________________
Class ________
Answer the questions below as you read Act I of Hamlet. Your answers do not need to be in
complete sentences.
Scene 1
1. Where does the play take place (name of the castle and the country)?
2. What is Horatio’s reaction when Marcellus and Bernardo first tell him about the ghost?
3. Why do Marcellus and Bernardo want Horatio to speak to the ghost?
4. What three reasons does Horatio give for the superstition of a ghost’s returning from the
grave?
5. Why do Horatio and Marcellus decide to tell Hamlet about the ghost?
Scene 2
6. What news does King Claudius announce at the opening of scene 2?
7. What does Laertes ask of Claudius?
8. What does Hamlet mean by “a little more than kin, and less than kind”? How does Hamlet
seem to feel about the current situation?
9. Why does Claudius want Hamlet to remain at court?
10. About how long has Hamlet’s father been dead?
11. What does Hamlet wish in his first soliloquy that begins with “O, that this too too solid flesh
would melt”? What does he mean when he wishes “that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon
'gainst self-slaughter”?
12. What does Hamlet mean when he says, “Frailty, thy name is woman”? To whom is he
referring? What is he so angry about?
13. What does Hamlet plan to do at the end of scene 2?
Scene 3
14. What warning does Laertes give his sister Ophelia at the beginning of his speech? What
does he mean by “his will is not his own?”
15. Paraphrase these pieces of advice that Polonius gives Laertes in this scene:
“Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried / Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of
steel”
“Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, / Bear't that the opposed may beware of
thee.”
“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; / Take each man's censure, but reserve thy
judgment.”
“Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, / But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy; / For
the apparel oft proclaims the man,”
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be; / For loan oft loses both itself and friend, / And
borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.”
“To thine ownself be true, / And it must follow, as the night the day, / Thou canst not then
be false to any man.”
16. How does Polonius react when Ophelia tells him about Hamlet? How does he treat her? What
does he command her to do?
Scene 4 Summary
Hamlet keeps watch outside the castle with Horatio and Marcellus, waiting in the cold for the
ghost to appear. Shortly after midnight, trumpets and gunfire sound from the castle, and Hamlet
explains that the new king is spending the night partying, as is the Danish custom. Disgusted,
Hamlet declares that this sort of custom is better broken than kept, saying that the king’s revelry
makes Denmark a laughingstock among other nations and lessens the Danes’ otherwise
impressive achievements. Then the ghost appears, and Hamlet calls out to it. The ghost beckons
Hamlet to follow it out into the night. His companions urge him not to follow, begging him to
consider that the ghost might lead him toward harm.
Hamlet himself is unsure whether his father’s apparition is truly the king’s spirit or an evil
demon, but he declares that he cares nothing for his life and that, if his soul is immortal, the
ghost can do nothing to harm his soul. He follows after the apparition and disappears into the
darkness. Horatio and Marcellus, stunned, declare that the event bodes ill for the nation.
(Famous Quote: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”) Horatio proclaims that heaven will
oversee the outcome of Hamlet’s encounter with the ghost, but Marcellus says that they should
follow and try to protect him themselves. After a moment, Horatio and Marcellus follow after
Hamlet and the ghost.
Scene 5
17. What is the identity of the ghost? Why does he keep appearing?
18. The ghost tells Hamlet that he was murdered when? By whom? What metaphor does the
ghost use to describe the murderer?
19. What task does the ghost assign to Hamlet?
20. The ghost tells Hamlet, “nor let thy soul contrive / Against thy mother aught.” What does
this mean?
21. What is Hamlet’s “one poor request” of Horatio and Marcellus?
22. At the end of Act I, how does Hamlet seem to feel about these tasks the ghost has assigned
to him?
23.
Let us impart what we have seen tonight
Unto young Hamlet; for upon my life,
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
Spoken by ______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
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24.
And a little month…she…
married with my uncle,
my father’s brother, but no more like my father
than I to Hercules.
Spoken by _______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
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25.
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her.
Spoken by _______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Questions I still have about Act I …
My favorite / most memorable quote from Act I … (and explain why)
Name _____________________________________________ Class ________
Answer the questions below as you read Act II of Hamlet. Your answers do not need to be in
complete sentences.
Scene 1
The scene opens as Polonius instructs Reynaldo, his servant, to spy on his son Laertes in Paris.
Ophelia enters, obviously upset. She tells her father that Hamlet, dressed in dirty, messy clothes,
met her, studied her face and left without saying a word. Polonius believes that Hamlet is acting
so strangely because of Ophelia’s rejection of him and decides to tell King Claudius the reason
for Hamlet's “madness.”
Scene 2
1. For what purpose do Gertrude and Claudius hire Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? Why?
2. What does Gertrude think is the cause of Hamlet’s behavior?
3. What news do Cornelius and Voltemand bring from Norway?
4. What does Polonius mean by “brevity is the soul of wit”? What is ironic and humorous about
this?
5. How does Polonius plan to test his theory about the cause of Hamlet’s madness?
6. Why does Hamlet tell Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that “Denmark’s a prison”?
7. What lines show that Hamlet suspects Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are up to something?
Quote them and give line numbers.
8. What request does Hamlet make to the First Player?
9. Why does Hamlet refer to himself as a “rogue and peasant slave” at the beginning of his long
soliloquy at the end of Act II? Why does he call himself a “coward”?
10. How does Hamlet intend to obtain proof of his uncle’s guilt in the murder of his father?
11. Why does Hamlet feel that he needs such proof?
12. List three examples of characters spying on each other thus far in the play.
13. And I do think…
that I have found
the very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.
Spoken by _______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
14. Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing
either good or bad, but thinking makes it so
Spoken by _______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
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15.
… The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.
Spoken by _______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
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Questions I still have about Act II …
My favorite / most memorable quote from Act II … (and explain why)
Name _____________________________________________
Class ________
Answer the questions below as you read Act III of Hamlet. Your answers do not need to be in
complete sentences.
Scene 1
1. What do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern report to Claudius?
2. What plan do Polonius, Claudius, and Ophelia now put into action?
“To be or not to be” is probably the most famous speech in all of drama. Let’s take a closer look:
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them?
3. In your own words, what is the question Hamlet is asking?
To die: to sleep—
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.
4. For what is “sleep” a metaphor? How does Hamlet seem to feel about it?
To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
5. Why don’t people really want to die? What “gives us pause”?
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin?
who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Words to Know
consummation—fulfillment
contumely—contempt or
humiliating treatment
bare bodkin—unsheathed
dagger
fardels—burdens
bourn—limit
6. According to Hamlet, why do we put up with burdens and troubles in life?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.
7. What happens when we really start thinking about death?
8. Why does Hamlet treat Ophelia as cruelly as he does? What has changed him?
9. At the end of the scene, what does the King decide to do with Hamlet? Why?
Scene 2
Hamlet reminds the actors how they are to play the parts he has given them. Hamlet’s friend
Horatio enters. After praising Horatio’s self-control, Hamlet tells Horatio about what the ghost
revealed to him (that Claudius murdered Hamlet’s father) and asks for his help in carrying out his
plan. He wants Horatio to watch Claudius for any sign of guilt during the play and report it back
to Hamlet. He also warns Horatio that he (Hamlet) has been acting crazy—so Horatio shouldn’t be
worried if Hamlet starts saying weird things.
The King, Queen, and others enter. During a conversation with Polonius, Hamlet asks if he has
ever been in a play. Polonius tells Hamlet that he played Julius Caesar and was killed by Brutus.
He also continues to make mean remarks to Ophelia. The actors then begin the play, which is—
by Hamlet’s design—remarkably similar to the circumstances under which Hamlet’s own father
died. Right after the murder pours the poison in the king’s ear, Claudius stands up and says,
“Give me some light!” and everyone leaves except Hamlet and Horatio. The two of them agree
that Claudius’s behavior was very revealing of his guilt. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern re-enter
the scene, and Hamlet asks them, “do you think I am easier to be played than a pipe? Call me
what instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me,” meaning that
they will never get the best of him.
Polonius re-enters and tells Hamlet that Gertrude wants to see him. While he is alone at the end
of the scene, Hamlet says he could “drink hot blood and do such bitter business as the day
would quake to look on.” As he heads off to see his mother, he says that he will “speak
daggers” to her but “use none”; although he may speak hatefully to Gertrude, he won’t physically
harm her.
Scene 3
10. What does Polonius plan to do while Hamlet speaks to Gertrude?
11. What is the reason Hamlet offers for not killing Claudius when Claudius is alone at prayer?
12. How is Hamlet’s decision to spare Claudius ironic? What type of irony is this?
Scene 4
13. Why does Hamlet kill Polonius?
14. Why does Hamlet tell Gertrude to “look into her soul”? What does he want her to admit?
15. Why does the Ghost appear to Hamlet again? How does this appearance of the ghost differ
from its earlier appearances?
16. The climax is the turning point in a story or play when the action changes course and
begins to resolve itself. It is generally agreed that the climax of Hamlet occurs in Act III. When
specifically does it occur, and why do you think this?
17.
Get thee to a nunnery. Why woulds’t thou be a
breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I
could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother
had not borne me.
Spoken by _______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
18.
O my offense is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon ‘t,
A brother’s murder. Pray can I not,
Though inclination be sharp as will.
Spoken by _______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
19.
Now might I do it pat, now he is a-praying;
And now I’ll do ‘t, and so he goes to heaven;
And so I am revenged. That would be scanned:
A villain kills my father; and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven.
Spoken by ______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
20.
There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard:
Spoken by _______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
Name _____________________________________________ Class ________
Answer the questions below as you read Act IV of Hamlet. Your answers do not need to be in
complete sentences.
Scene 1
Gertrude reports to Claudius that Hamlet has killed Polonius in a fit of madness. She protects
Hamlet by lying, telling Claudius that Hamlet “weeps for what is done,” implying that Hamlet feels
remorse for Polonius’s death. Claudius sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to take the body to
the chapel, and plans to send Hamlet away that very night.
Scene 2
1. Why does Hamlet call Rosencrantz a “sponge”?
2. What does Hamlet say when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ask where Polonius’s body is?
Scene 3
3. What does Claudius arrange to happen to Hamlet once he arrives in England?
Scene 4
Fortinbras arrives in Denmark on his way to invade Poland. In a soliloquy at the end of the scene,
Hamlet considers whether his inaction results from indifference (like an animal) or from
cowardice. Hamlet finally states that he no longer questions the rightness of his cause and
appears ready to take action to avenge his father’s murder.
Scene 5
4. What has happened to Ophelia?
5. What “sorrows” does Claudius list after Ophelia and Horatio leave?
6. Why does Laertes break into Claudius’s chamber?
7. What does Laertes’ comment, “I’ll not be juggled with” suggest about his state of mind?
Scene 6
A servant brings Horatio a letter from Hamlet. In this letter, Hamlet tells how pirates overtook the
ship he was on, and during the course of the battle, Hamlet boarded the pirate ship. The pirates
agree to take Hamlet back to Denmark if he will “do a good turn for them.” Hamlet has also sent
letters for the king with the servant. He instructs Horatio to take them to Claudius, and the
servant will take Horatio to where Hamlet is hiding in the Danish countryside.
Scene 7
8. How does Claudius justify sparing Hamlet’s life after Hamlet killed Polonius?
9. What plan do Claudius and Laertes come up with?
10. What are their “backup” plans?
11. How does Claudius persuade Laertes to go along with this plan?
12. What news does Gertrude report regarding Ophelia?
13. In this act, which character could be considered “passion’s slave”? Could this description
apply to more than one character? Explain.
14. [Polonius is] in heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him in th’ other
place yourself.
Spoken by _______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
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15.
And, for that purpose, I’ll anoint my sword.
… I’ll touch my point with this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,
It may be death.
Spoken by _______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Name _____________________________________________
Class ________
Answer the questions below as you read Act V of Hamlet. Your answers do not need to be in
complete sentences.
Scene 1
1. What does the gravediggers’ (clowns) conversation reveal about how people viewed Ophelia’s
death?
2. What reason is given for Ophelia’s Christian burial?
3. Why is Hamlet so upset about when he hears the gravediggers’ conversation? Who was
Yorick?
4. What does Laertes do that angers Hamlet? How does Hamlet respond?
Scene 2
5. What did Hamlet do with the commission letters that Claudius had sent with him?
6. Who accidentally drinks the poison wine?
7. How is Hamlet fatally wounded?
8. What long-awaited act does Hamlet finally perform?
9. What does Laertes ask of Hamlet before he (Laertes) dies?
10. What does Horatio attempt to do? Why?
11. Why does Hamlet beg Horatio to remain alive?
12. Who will become the next king of Denmark?
13. Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of
infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on
his back a thousand times. And now, how abhorred in my
imagination it is!
Spoken by _______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
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14.
Stay, give me drink.—Hamlet, this pearl is thine. Here’s to thy health.
Spoken by _______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
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15.
I am justly killed with mine own treachery.
Spoken by _______________________________ to _______________________________
Paraphrase___________________________________________________________________
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