Hamlet

Pre-reading Questions 1.What would you do if you came back from college to discover that your father had died and your mother had remarried? The man she married has taken over your father’s affairs and successes and you think he is responsible for your father’s death. 2.If you wanted to make people believe you’re insane, how would you do it?

Pre-reading Questions 3.How would you feel and what would you do if you found out that a close friend has been spying on you? 4.What does being alive mean to you? How do you assign value to life? What makes life challenging? What makes it worth living? Describe a few examples that help to show your thinking about how people should value life.

Hamlet - Topics for Thought Revenge: Hamlet searches continuously for the answer to the question of whether or not he should avenge his father’s death. His concern with right and wrong in religious, moral, and political terms causes him much inner turmoil. Appearance vs. Reality: The play contains many situations in which the surface appearance of things does not always match reality. Hamlet struggles to determine who his true friends are; the players in the acting troupe assume new identities; Claudius appears to be a true and just king and Gertrude his virtuous queen. Sanity vs. Insanity: In many ways this conflict is intertwined with the theme of appearance vs. reality. Hamlet’s sanity or insanity has baffled critics for years. Even the characters in the play discuss inconsistencies in Hamlet’s behavior, sometimes assuming he is really insane, at other times amazed by his clarity of thought. Decay and Corruption: Among the most powerful images of the play are those which reveal disintegrating situations, especially in personal terms for Prince Hamlet. Also, Shakespeare considered evil to be a disease that spreads. Notice how even the natural world is affected by the sins in the play.