Appearance vs.
Name:
Teacher:
Class:
Date:
- Before Reading Act IILook at the images below. Write what APPEARS first when you look at each image. Then, record what else
you see in the drawing.
1. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
6. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
- After Reading Act II 1. Give a couple examples from Act II of when there is a difference between what "seems" to be (APPEARANCE)
and what really "is" (REALITY).
•
______________________________________________________________________________________________
•
______________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Hamlet appears in line 185 in Scene 2. Follow him through the Scene and list 10 words to show the range of
emotions he experiences. Link each of your “mood” words to a line from the Scene. Draw a chart or graph
on a separate sheet of paper to portray Hamlet’s mood swings
- Reading Questions: Act II 1. Why does Polonius send Reynaldo to Paris? What does Polonius mean when he suggests that “by indirection”
Reynaldo might seek “directions out.” Hint: How does Polonius suggest that Reynaldo gather information?
2. Ophelia goes to her father in this scene; she is very upset. Why? What advice does Polonius give her?
3. To what causes does Gertrude attribute Hamlet’s “distemper” or “lunacy”?
4. What does the following quote mean: “More matter with less art”? (Gertrude: 2.2.103) To whom is this
directed?
5. When Hamlet appears in this scene, how does he treat Polonius? How does Polonius interpret this?
6. Compare Hamlet’s conversation with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with his preceding conversation with
Polonius. What can you conclude about Hamlet’s madness?
7. Hamlet gives a few characters the opportunity to prove themselves and be truthful to him in this Act. Who
are the characters and what is the result?
8. Hamlet asks the player to speak a speech from a play. What is the subject of that speech, which Hamlet begins
and the Player King completes, and why is it significant? What does it indicate about Hamlet’s values and state
of mind?
9. With what famous words does Act II end? Why is this couplet important?
Rhetorical Analysis
At the end of Act II, Hamlet delivers his second of four major soliloquies (2:2:529-586). He is plagued by his own
inaction up to this point, but also feels that he is in some ways justified for waiting. His rhetorical task is
complicated, and the language of his soliloquy reflects the challenge. Shakespeare (and by extension, Hamlet)
was a master of rhetoric; your task is to unlock the rhetoric of this soliloquy by completing a PAPA Square.
O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
530
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all his visage wann’d,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
535
With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!
For Hecuba!
What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her? What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
540
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech;
Make mad the guilty and appall the free,
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears.
Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing! No, not for a king,
545
Upon whose property and most dear life
550
A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,
As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this? Ha!
555
'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be
But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall
To make oppression bitter, or ere this
I should have fatted all the region kites
With this slave's offal. Bloody, bawdy villain!
560
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
O, vengeance!
Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
That I, the son of a dear father murder’d,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
565
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,
A scullion! Fie upon't! Foh!
About, my brain! Hum, I have heard
That guilty creatures sitting at a play
570
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaim’d their malefactions’
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players
575
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle. I'll observe his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick. If he but blench,
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil; and the devil hath power
580
T’ assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds
More relative than this: the play 's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.
585
Purpose: What is the purpose of the speech?
Audience: Who is the
intended audience?
Rhetoric: What rhetorical strategies
does the speaker use?
Persona: What public image is the speaker giving?
Argument: What is the
main idea?