Hamlet

Act One Scene One Analysis BERNARDO Who's there? FRANCISCO Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself. BERNARDO Long live the king! FRANCISCO Bernardo? BERNARDO He. FRANCISCO You come most carefully upon your hour. BERNARDO 'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco. FRANCISCO For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart. BERNARDO Have you had quiet guard? FRANCISCO Not a mouse stirring. BERNARDO Well, good night. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. FRANCISCO I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who's there? Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS HORATIO Friends to this ground. MARCELLUS And liegemen to the Dane. FRANCISCO Give you good night. Looking at these opening lines, what sort of tension is being set up? What is the mood? Later in the scene, we discover a variety of things: King Hamlet (Hamlet’s father) fought and defeated the King of Norway The dead king’s son, Fortinbras, has raised a force of men to take back the land King Hamlet captured The men are on the watch because they are looking out for Fortinbras’ men

Act One Scene Two Analysis KING CLAUDIUS (I ii l. 27) We have here writ To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,-- Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears Of this his nephew's purpose,--to suppress His further gait herein; in that the levies, The lists and full proportions, are all made Out of his subject: and we here dispatch You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand, For bearers of this greeting to old Norway; What do these lines reveal is happening in tandem with the main action? Through these lines, Shakespeare reveals ____________ in an effort to ___________________.

Act One Scene Two Analysis LAERTES (Act I ii l.55) My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. KING CLAUDIUS Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius? LORD POLONIUS He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave By laboursome petition, and at last Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent: I do beseech you, give him leave to go. Through these lines, what can the reader conclude about Laertes and Polonius’ relationship? How can you tell? On the surface, it appears that _____________________ because __________________. This is significant because ______________.

Act One Scene Two Analysis KING CLAUDIUS (Act I ii l. 64) But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,-- HAMLET [Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind. KING CLAUDIUS : How is it that the clouds still hang on you? HAMLET : Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun. QUEEN GERTRUDE : Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust: Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity. HAMLET : Ay, madam, it is common. QUEEN GERTRUDE : If it be, Why seems it so particular with thee? An aside is when a character speaks directly to the audience. What is revealed in Hamlet’s aside? What do Hamlet’s mother and uncle want from him? Do they seem genuine? What does their diction reveal? Scene two ends with Horatio telling Hamlet that he has seen Hamlet’s father’s ghost and that they will meet with him that night.

Hamlet’s First Soliloquy Act I ii (ll. 130-159) To explicate means to provide a detailed explanation of a piece of text With your team, explicate Hamlet’s soliloquy on page 1404

Act One Scene Three Analysis LAERTES (Act I iii l. 5) For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour, Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute; No more. What does this warning from Laerties to Ophelia, his sister, suggest about Hamlet’s love? OPHELIA: I shall the effect of this good lesson keep, As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven; Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own rede. What humorous response does Ophelia give and what does it reveal about her character?

Polonius’ Speech to Laertes In Act I, Scene iii, Polonius is behaving as his usual long-winded self. With your group, paraphrase 8 of the tidbits (pieces of advice) that Polonius imparts to his son, Laertes (Diyanni 1408).

POLONIUS'S ADVICE TO LAERTES Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar; The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in, Bear 't that th' opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man. Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

POLONIUS'S ADVICE TO LAERTES (Paraphrased) A father's advice to his son how to conduct himself in the world: 1. Don't tell all you think, or put into action thoughts out of harmony or proportion with the occasion. 2. Be friendly, but not common; 3. Don't dull your palm by effusively shaking hands with every chance newcomer. 4. Avoid quarrels if you can, but if they are forced on you, give a good account of yourself. 5. Hear every man's censure (opinion), but express your own ideas to few. 6. Dress well, but not ostentatiously. 7. Neither borrow nor lend. 8. And guarantee yourself against being false to others by setting up the high moral principle of being true to yourself.

Act One Scene Three Analysis LORD POLONIUS Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to. OPHELIA And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord, With almost all the holy vows of heaven. LORD POLONIUS Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers, Not of that dye which their investments show, But mere implorators of unholy suits, Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds, The better to beguile. This is for all: I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, Have you so slander any moment leisure, As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. Look to't, I charge you: come your ways. OPHELIA (Act I iii l.99) He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders Of his affection to me. LORD POLONIUS Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl, Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe his tenders, as you call them? OPHELIA I do not know, my lord, what I should think. Marry, I'll teach you: think yourself a baby; That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly; Or--not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, Running it thus--you'll tender me a fool. My lord, he hath importuned me with love In honourable fashion. Through these lines, explain what sort of relationship Polonius assumes that Hamlet has with Ophelia. What is his view of males and females?

Act One Scene Four Analysis HAMLET (Act I iv l.1) The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold. HORATIO It is a nipping and an eager air. HAMLET What hour now? HORATIO I think it lacks of twelve. What is the tone of the opening lines in this scene? As an audience, what feelings does this create in you? The tone these lines create is that of ________, and the significance of that is that ____________________________________.

Act One Scene Four Analysis HAMLET (Act I iv l. 63) It will not speak; then I will follow it. HORATIO Do not, my lord. HAMLET Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life in a pin's fee; And for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself? It waves me forth again: I'll follow it. HORATIO What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o'er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form, Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason And draw you into madness? think of it: The very place puts toys of desperation, Without more motive, into every brain That looks so many fathoms to the sea And hears it roar beneath. What do these lines reveal about these two characters? What inferences can we draw?

Act One Scene Five Analysis Ghost (Act I v l.10) I am thy father's spirit, Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part And each particular hair to stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porpentine: But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love– What do these lines reveal and when will the Ghost’s spirit be freed? What is the significance of knowing this fate?

Act One Scene Five Analysis GHOST (Act I v l. 34): Now, Hamlet, hear: 'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father's life Now wears his crown. What biblical allusion is Shakespeare giving here? What is the ghost comparing Claudius to and what should our reaction be?

Act One Scene Five Analysis GHOST (Act I v l. 81): If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not; Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury and damned incest. But, howsoever thou pursuest this act, Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive Against thy mother aught: leave her to heaven And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, To prick and sting her. What does the ghost command Hamlet to do? What does he ask him not to do? What do each of the directions suggest? Why does he make the men who witnessed what happened swear that they wont reveal what just happened? Why do you think Hamlet doesn’t just go downstairs and kill Claudius in his sleep?

Final thoughts on Act One Traditionally, Act One is used to explain who the characters are, where the story takes place, and what the main problems are. With this in mind, think of the intricate web Shakespeare has created in twenty pages. The brilliance of scene five is that “his account of his death exploits elements of Catholic purgatory, Protestant hell, the mythical river of forgetfulness and nursery horrors in a theatrical improvisation. It is full of opposites. He is not particularly old himself, but his provenance is the ancient sages, his vocabulary as epic as his deeds, but he also stands humiliated before his son as a human father who could not keep the love of his wife” (Pennington).

Final Final thoughts on Act One “The relationship between young and old Hamlet is one of the most deeply frightening ones in Shakespeare. Imagine a father returning but refusing love and relief, dispensing only pain. The Ghost harrows Hamlet with sorrow and bludgeons him to the ground with orders: authoritarian, sorrowful, passionate but severe, he will not be pitied, through he pities himself, and he catches Hamlet, as fathers will their sons, in an armlock of tenderness and violence. The pity of it is that he may not have been at all like this in life (so excellent a king…so loving to my mother”) though perhaps he could hardly be otherwise now. Condemned to a circle of hell, emulation, fear and love, Hamlet mimics his manner, trying to match and impress him. The father’s intimacy towards his son is limited to calling him ‘thou noble youth’ and unrealistically urging him “taint not thy mind”. He demands revenge but stops short of demanding blood, leaving Hamlet with an implication for which he must take full responsibility” (Pennington).