Hamlet Key scene

Learning Intentions To revise the key scene of Act Three, Scene Four. To become familiar with the types of questions that might be asked in the exam. To become confident in adapting your knowledge about the scene to a variety of questions.

Success Criteria You will be very confident that you know what happens in the key scene and will be able to summarise this in a few lines. You will be able to explain the position of the scene in the play’s structure. You will be able to describe how the tension is created in this scene. You will be able to describe how the character of Hamlet is developed in this scene. You will be able to describe how the relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude is developed. You will be be able to explain how the themes of knowing what to do and corruption are developed in this scene. You will be able to describe how the audience might react to this scene. You will have identified suitable essay questions and planned them. You will feel very cheery when you have done this.

Choose from a play an important scene which you found particularly entertaining or particularly shocking. Explain briefly why the scene is important to the play as a whole and discuss in detail how the dramatist makes the scene so entertaining or shocking. (2007) Choose from a play a scene in which an important truth is revealed. Briefly explain what the important truth is and assess the significance of its revelation to your understanding of theme or character. (2008) Choose a play which you feel is made particularly effective by features of structure such as: dramatic opening, exposition, flashback, contrast, turning-point, climax, anticlimax, dénouement... Show how one or more than one structural feature employed by the dramatist adds to the impact of the play. (2009) Choose from a play a scene which significantly changes your view of a character. Explain how the scene prompts this reappraisal and discuss how important it is to your understanding of the character in the play as a whole. (2009) Choose from a play a scene in which tension builds to a climax. Explain how the dramatist creates and develops this tension, and discuss the extent to which the scene has thematic as well as dramatic significance. (2010) Choose from a play a scene in which manipulation, temptation or humiliation is an important feature. Explain what happens in the scene and go on to show how the outcome of the manipulation, temptation or humiliation adds to your appreciation of the play as a whole.( 2011) Choose a play in which a character shows signs of instability at one or more than one key point in the play. Explain the reason(s) for the character’s instability and discuss how this feature adds to your understanding of the central concern(s) of the play.(2012) Choose from a play a scene which you find amusing or moving or disturbing. Explain how the scene provokes this response and discuss how this aspect of the scene contributes to your understanding of the play as a whole. (2012)

Revision Questions What has happened immediately before Act 3, Scene 4? Explain what state of mind you think Hamlet might be in as he goes to see Gertrude? What state of mind do you think Gertrude might be in? Consider what she has just witnessed and the knowledge that Polonius is behind the arras. Look at how Gertrude and Hamlet speak to each other between lines Comment on the sentence structure of these lines. How do they reflect the feelings of the characters? Explain how the death of Polonius comes about. Explain how this act is significant for the PLOT of the rest of the play. Can you explain why Hamlet does this, at this point in the play? What is different about these circumstances? How does this develop our understanding of the theme of corruption in the play. How do you think an audience seeing this for the first time might react. What emotions might they experience.

Hamlet and Gertrude Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge; You go not till I set you up a glass Where you may see the inmost part of you. Explain the context of the following quotation. Explain what it tells us about Hamlet. “A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king, and marry with his brother.” Such an act… …takes off the rose From the fair forehead of an innocent love And sets a blister there, Explain what Hamlet is describing in this quotation. What does this tell us about Hamlet’ s feelings and how might it affect Gertrude? How does this quotation develop our understanding of the theme of corruption.

“ Look you now, what follows: Here is your husband; like a mildew’d ear, Blasting his wholesome brother.” Put this quotation into context. What is Hamlet talking about? Explain how this quotation develops our understanding of the theme of corruption. You could analyse the imagery here. “O Hamlet, speak no more: Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul; And there I see such black and grained spots As will not leave their tinct.” What do you think this tells us about Gertrude? Explain how the imagery tells us more about the theme of corruption. “Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, Stew’d in corruption, honeying and making love Over the nasty sty,– “ What does this quotation suggest to us about what is preoccupying Hamlet and causing him most distress? How does Gertrude respond to the Hamlet saying this? You should write down a quotation. Can you explain this reaction form Gertrude? How do you think she is feeling?

The Ghost appears. “Do not forget: this visitation Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.” The ghost has had to return to tell Hamlet to hurry up and get on with it. How does this confirm what we already know about Hamlet, his motives and his personality? Gertrude cannot see the Ghost and tells Hamlet that this is the “very conage of your brain”. Hamlet responds by saying: “Lay not that mattering unction to your soul, That not your trespass, but my madness speaks: It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, Whilst rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen.” What does Hamlet mean when he says this? Explain the imagery of corruption that is used here. Hamlet tries to persuade his mother not to return to Claudius’ bed. Much of what he says seems to focus on the sexual element of his mother’s realtionship with Claudius. What does this tell us about hHamlet and his motivation for revenge? Hamlet tell his mother he is “essentially not in madness but mad in craft.”. Gertrude swears she will not tell anyone what Hamlet has told her. How do you imagine how Gertrude might be feeling by the end of this scene.