1. Agenda-Happy Friday  Reading/Acting out both Acts aloud in class
Group work- Discussion Questions
Working on Projects if time allows
Homework: Study for vocabulary test unit 8 & Reading Act IV Scenes III-IV

2. Hamlet
Act 4 Summary

3. Act 2.1 Character List
Gertrude
Claudius

4. Scene 1 Details
Gertrude tells Claudius about her encounter with Hamlet; she says that Hamlet is crazy & has killed Polonius.
Claudius notes Hamlet could have killed him.
Claudius tells Gertrude that they must ship Hamlet to England & find a way to explain Hamlet’s actions to the court & people.
He calls Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, tells them about the murder, & sends them to find Hamlet.

5. Act IV Scene I 1. Who tells the King about Polonius?
2. What promise to Hamlet does Gertrude keep in her second statement?
3. What is Claudius’s first reaction to the news of Polonius’s death?
4. What excuse does Claudius offer for not controlling Hamlet with a stronger hand?
5. Explain Claudius’s comparison of this laxity and disease.
6. What does the Queen say Hamlet is doing while she and the King are talking?
7. On what errand does the King send Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

7. Act 4.2 Character List
Hamlet
Rosencrantz
Guildenstern

8. Scene 2 Details
Hamlet hides Polonius’ body
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern show up and ask Hamlet what he has done with the body.
They confront him, asking "[w]hat have you done my lord, with the dead body? (IV.ii.5).
Hamlet, scornfully contemptuous of the two courtiers, calls Rosencrantz a "sponge,” and is outraged that they dare demand an answer from him: "what replication should be made by the son of a king?" (IV.ii.12-13).

9. Hamlet refuses to give them a straight answer.
"The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body" (IV.ii.27-28).
Although this makes perfect sense -- Polonius is with the King, Hamlet's father, but Claudius remains alive -- the courtiers believe him to be incoherent. .

10. Act IV Scene II 1. In the first line what is “Safely stow’d”?
2. Why does Hamlet call Rosencrantz a sponge?
3. To what else besides a sponge does Hamlet compare Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern?