1. What are your thoughts?
1. How easy is it to be a good (moral) person in our contemporary world? What temptations do you face on a daily basis?
2. What has shaped your own moral code? Who are the greatest influences on your sense of morality?
3. Have you ever found yourself compromising yourself for:
a) a friend
b) a family member
c) a person in authority
For the following questions, students can work in small groups or answer as a class. All the questions have to do with themes and issues within the play of Hamlet. Answers will vary.

2. 4. Imagine the following scenario: Someone whom you love and respect asks you to act in a way which places you in conflict with your morals. What decision process will you follow? (consider the magnitude of the act and its consequences for both you and your loved one.) 5. The scenario stated above introduces the issues of loyalty and betrayal. At what point does loyalty to another person or cause become a betrayal itself? What importance do you place loyalty to yourself vs. loyalty to others?
Answers will vary.

3. 6. We have all procrastinated about something important that we had to do, sometimes disappointing other people and often disappointing ourselves. Why do we procrastinate?
7. Disillusion is a common experience of growing up. We find that people in an adult world whom we once idealized are less than ideal, and the situation that we considered innocent is actually corrupt. How do young people encountering the ‘real world’ for the first time handle these discoveries?
Answers will vary.

4. 8. What's the difference between taking revenge and getting justice?
9. Privacy is highly valued in our society. How would you feel if you found out that you were under surveillance at school, at your job, at home or among friends because of some change in your behaviour?
Answers will vary.

5. HAMLET Prince of Denmark

6. There have been over 50 screen adaptations of Hamlet since 1900, although Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 version is one of two that include the full text of the play. Hamlet is the most widely staged play of all time. It is timeless.

7. Hamlet Fortinbras Gertrude Polonius Horatio Ophelia Laertes Claudius
DENMARK
Gertrude
Hamlet’s mother. Marries Claudius, after husband's death
Claudius
brother to King Hamlet - Uncle to Hamlet
Hamlet
King Hamlet
Polonius
Claudius' Advisor
Horatio
Hamlets Best Friend
Ophelia
Daughter
Laertes
Son
There are 3 storylines in this play - Revenge, Love, and Politics. Three sons, Hamlet, Laertes, Fortinbras, seek to avenge their fathers death; Love and love lost between Hamlet and Ophelia as well as Hamlet questioning his mothers love for his late father and the love between Polonius and his children; the pending and past political war between Norway and Denmark.
NORWAY
King
Fortinbras
Fortinbras

8. Europe Norway Denmark England Poland France
Kronberg Castle
Denmark
England
Poland
This map gives the students a good idea of the distances and positioning of the countries. Hamlet has to travel from England after he gets word of his fathers death. Laertes travels to France. Fortinbras uses the excuse of asking permission to travel through Denmark to gain some (useless) land in Poland. Secretly, he wants to attack Denmark.
France

9. Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, Denmark
As well as a defense from enemies, the castle was also built to collect taxes from ships coming into harbour to Denmark. The picture on the right shows where Act 1 sc.i takes place, along the ramparts where the soldiers Francisco, Bernardo and Marcellus are keeping watch. It is also the place where the first sighting of the ghost appears.

10. Some Famous Quotes from Hamlet
1. "A little more than kin, and less than kind". Hamlet (Act I, Scene II)
2. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” Guard (Act 1 Sc.2)
3. "This above all: to thine own self be true" Polonius (Act I, Sc. III)
4. "Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't." Polonius (Act II, Scene II). 
5. "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" Hamlet (Act II, Sc. II)
6. "To be, or not to be: that is the question". Hamlet (Act III, Sc. I).
7. "The lady doth protest too much, methinks". Gertrude (Act III, Sc. II).   
The class can work in pairs or groups, briefly, to explain what they think is the significance of each quote.

11. “Who’s there?” (1.1.1)
Why does Hamlet delay avenging the murder of this father by Claudius?
How much guilt does is mother, Gertrude, bear in this crime?
How trustworthy is the ghost of Hamlet’s father?
Is Hamlets madness feigned or true, a strategy masquerading as a reality or a reality masquerading as a strategy?
Does Hamlet who once loved Ophelia, continue to love her, in spite of her apparent cruelty ?
Hamlet is an enigma. As you read the play, watch how Hamlet – who starts by contemplating death – comes to terms with life, keeps his integrity, and strikes back successfully at what’s wrong around him.
Some questions to consider while reading the play. The first lines of the play are significant as there are many occasions of spying and deception.

12. “To be or not to be; that is the question.” (3.1.58)
Spontaneous rhythms of a mind in motion.
His blend of sarcasm, riddling and sly wordplay initially strikes those around him as folly but gives way to an uneasy awareness of hidden meanings.
“there’s something in his soul /O’er which his melancholy sits on brood” Claudius. ( )
Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy.
The “something” is in part the murderous design of the revenger but is also the philosophical meditation on life and death that haunts Hamlet.

13. An ordinary person looking at the futility and wrongs in life, asking the toughest questions and coming up with honest semi-answers.
Enjoy unraveling the mystery!
The end message is, life is indeed worth living, even by imperfect people in an imperfect world.
The play is full of talk about death, dead bodies, murder, suicide, disease, graves etc. There is no traditional Christian comfort or promise of eventual justice or happiness but the message is ultimately one of HOPE.

14. Act 1 Questions from 10/12/17 Scene 1
How does Shakespeare craft this scene for dramatic impact?
What particular elements contribute to this impact?
Scene 2
Which characters give us insight into Hamlet as a character?
What do we learn from them about the prince?
What evidence from the text renders the characters’ information reliable or unreliable?
Discussion
How do Shakespeare’s choices about how to begin the play establish the mood and heighten conflict of the play?
How does Shakespeare use other characters to introduce and develop our perceptions of the main character, Hamlet?