Hamlet Act I Study Guide
Scene 1
1. Where and at what exact hour does this scene take place?
2. What appears to the watchmen and what does it look like (I.i.47-48)?
3. What concerns do the watchmen have?
4. What three questions does Marcellus raise?
5. What is the discussion about Caesar and three signs, and how is it relevant to *this* play?
6. What three reasons does Horatio list for the situation of a ghost returning from the grave (l. 130-39)?
6. Why and when does the ghost disappear?
Scene 2
1. What two conflicting moods does Claudius describe in the first two sentences of the scene?
2. What new does King Claudius announce at the opening of this scene?
3. As soon as he is acknowledged on stage, Hamlet is criticized by his mother and uncle for his mood. What is
it and what are the signs?
4. Why does Claudius want Hamlet to remain at court? What three things does he ask of Hamlet?
5. Why is Hamlet depressed? What is his plan at the end of the scene?
Scene 3
1. Why does Laertes warn Ophelia not to place too much hope in Hamlet’s attention to her?
2. What advice does Polonius offer Laertes? (lines 58-77)
3. In Polonius’s speech to Ophelia he uses the word “tender” in four ways. What are the ways and what is the
effect of this repetition?
4. What are Polonius’s instructions to Ophelia about Hamlet? Will she listen?
Scene 4
1. What is the season of the year and the time of night?
2. What is happening at court while Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus are on the platform?
3. Why does Hamlet denounce the custom of drunken celebration?
4. Lines 40-41 suggest two divergent explanations of ghosts—explain the two.
5. What does Horatio fear the ghost will do?
6. What provokes Marcellus to say, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”?
Scene 5
1. What does the ghost reveal about the manner of his death? Hamlet’s mother?
2. In line 76-83 what three tasks does the ghost tell Hamlet to undertake?
3. In line 171-72 what does Hamlet imply he may do?
4. What is meant by the following lines:
“cut off even in the blossom of my sin”
“Leave her to heaven…”
“antic disposition”
“O cursed spite/That ever I was born to set it right”
Think About It:
What future events
does Act I prepare us
to anticipate in
1) the relationship b/t
Hamlet and Ophelia
2) Hamlet’s behavior