Hamlet Pre-Reading Questions What would it feel like to return home after being away for the summer to discover that your father is dead and your mother had already remarried? What if the man your mother remarried was a lowlife and took over all of your father’s affairs and successes? How would you feel and what, if anything, would you do about it? What if someone gave you reason to believe that your new stepfather murdered your father?

Hamlet Pre-Reading Questions How would you go about getting your stepfather to confess to the murder of your father? If you wanted to make people believe you’re insane, how would you do it? How would you feel and what would you do if you found out that a close friend has been spying on you?

Hamlet Pre-Reading Questions 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 Thematic Ideas • 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.

Hamlet Act I Questions What does Hamlet’s first soliloquy (730) reveal about his state of mind? What is the source of his discontent? What do we learn from the Ghost in Act I? How does Hamlet respond to the Ghost’s instructions? What does he mean by saying, “O my prophetic soul!” (742)? How does the Ghost’s diction and imagery support the theme of Decay and Corruption? Why do you think Hamlet tells his companions he likely to put on an “antic disposition” (746)? Is his behavior a deliberate strategy or a natural reaction to his anger and grief? Explain.

Hamlet Act II Questions Compare the way Hamlet responds to Polonius in act II (755-766) with how he responds to his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (757-758). What do you learn about Hamlet from these responses? On page 758 (lines 270-282) Hamlet delivers a lengthy explanation to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, ending with a rhetorical question. What is the substance of his speech? How does the imagery that Hamlet uses transition his speech from an assessment of himself to that of humanity as a whole?

Hamlet Act III Questions In act III, Hamlet delivers his famous “To be, or not to be” speech, arguably the most recognized passage in English literature (768). What is he contemplating? What inner conflict is he pondering? What conclusions does he reach? Claudius’ aside in act III (783) is the first definitive evidence of his guilt. Structurally, why do you think this revelation takes place halfway through the play as opposed to earlier? No quote needed for this one. In act III Hamlet has a perfect opportunity to kill his uncle and avenge his murdered father (783). Instead, he hesitates. Why? Do you think we are meant to respect the king’s piety or despise his cowardice?

Hamlet Act V Questions How does Laertes respond to his father’s death? to Ophelia’s? How do his responses compare to Hamlet’s reaction to the death of Hamlet, Sr.? Hamlet seems preoccupied with death for much of the play; what new insight does the graveyard scene reveal regarding his attitude toward mortality? Toward life, fame, and accomplishment? How does this attitude connect to his central conflict in the play? Why does Hamlet give his dying support to Fortinbras?

Hamlet Essay Prompt Write a literary analysis in which you explain how a specific literary device is used to convey one of the four themes we explored in our study of Hamlet. Be sure to focus on a few aspects of your theme instead of trying to analyze all of it. Four direct quotes from Hamlet. Three pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 point font. Due Thursday, October 10.