1. What the heck is going on?
Act One, Scene One
What the heck is going on?

2. What Is Going On?
Barnardo: Say, what, is Horatio there? Horatio: A piece of him. Horatio enters with Marcellus and is already a bit dramatic. Maybe he’s tired?

3. What Is Going On?
Horatio: What, has this thing appeared again tonight? Barnardo: I have seen nothing. Marcellus: Horatio says ‘tis but our fantasy / And will not let belief take hold of him / Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us. Something spooky is afoot, but Horatio doesn’t believe it and thinks his friends are making it up.

4. What Is Going On?
Horatio: What, has this thing appeared again tonight? Barnardo: I have seen nothing. Marcellus: Horatio says ‘tis but our fantasy / And will not let belief take hold of him / Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us. Something spooky is afoot, but Horatio doesn’t believe it and thinks his friends are making it up.

5. What Is Going On?
Barnardo: Last night of all, / When yond same star that’s westward from the pole / Had made his course t’illume that part of heaven / Where now it burns, Marceullus and myself, / The bell then beating one— [Enter Ghost.] Barnardo took so long telling his story that the Ghost got bored and decided to show up.
Hurry it up already.

6. What Is Going On?
Barnardo: Last night of all, / When yond same star that’s westward from the pole / Had made his course t’illume that part of heaven / Where now it burns, Marceullus and myself, / The bell then beating one— [Enter Ghost.] Barnardo took so long telling his story that the Ghost got bored and decided to show up.
Hurry it up already.

7. What Is Going On?
Marceullus: Peace, break thee off! Look where it comes again! Barnardo: In the same figure like the King that’s dead. Marcellus: Thou art a scholar. Speak to it, Horatio.

8. What Is Going On?
Marceullus: Peace, break thee off! Look where it comes again! [Shut up! The ghost is here again!] Barnardo: In the same figure like the King that’s dead. [He looks just like our dead King.] Marcellus: Thou art a scholar. Speak to it, Horatio. [You went to school Horatio, so you should talk to the Ghost.]

9. What Is Going On?
Horatio: What art thou that usurp’st this time of night…blah, blah, you look like the King when he was fighting in battles. Marcellus: It is offended. Barnardo: See, it stalks away. Great, Horatio offended the Ghost who stalks off and won’t talk to them.

10. Characters
Barnardo Marcellus Horatio Francisco (who isn’t around for the spooky fun) And a Ghost
Has anyone died? No. The Ghost doesn’t count. Clearly this is the ghost of King Hamlet. King Hamlet is different from Prince Hamlet.

11. Conflicts? Well, there IS a ghost.
What conflicts could possibly arise from a ghost?
The ghost of the dead King…
Horatio has an idea! So he talks a lot about his idea.

12. What Is Going On?
Horatio: In what particular thought to work I know not, / But in the gross and scope of mine opinion / This bodes some strange eruption to our state. Yeah….what? Translation: I don’t know what a ghost is doing here, but I would say this means something will disrupt us/our country.

13. What Is Going On?
Horatio: In what particular thought to work I know not, / But in the gross and scope of mine opinion / This bodes some strange eruption to our state. Yeah….what? Translation: I don’t know what a ghost is doing here, but I would say this means something will disrupt us/our country.

14. Marcellus: Blah, blah, SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON.
Horatio: That can I. I can tell you! I’m very smart.

15. Marcellus: Blah, blah, SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON.
Horatio: That can I. / At least the whisper goes so: Here’s what I know from, you know, gossip and such.

16. Marcellus: Blah, blah, SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON.
Horatio: That can I. / At least the whisper goes so: our last king / Whose image even but now appeared to us, / Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, / Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride, / Dared to the combat; Our last/dead king (who we just saw) was, as you know (but the audience doesn’t), dared to a fight by Fortinbras of Norway.

17. Marcellus: Blah, blah, SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON.
Horatio: That can I. / At least the whisper goes so: our last king / Whose image even but now appeared to us, / Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, / Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride, / Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet / (For so this side of our known world esteemed him) / Did slay this Fortinbras, Okay, King Hamlet is awesome and won and Fortinbras is now dead.

18. Marcellus: Blah, blah, SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON.
Horatio: ….Did slay this Fortinbras, who by a sealed compact, / Well ratified by law and heraldry, / Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands / Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror. King Hamlet won some land which was the law and whatnot.

19. Marcellus: Blah, blah, SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON.
Horatio: …Now, sir, young Fortinbras, / Of unimproved mettle hot and full, / Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there…. PRINCE Fortinbras, who is still alive and young and immature and a bit hotheaded, decided to gather some troops of scoundrels.

20. Marcellus: Blah, blah, SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON.
Horatio: ….But to recover of us, by strong hand / And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands / So by his father lost. And this, I take it, is the main motive of our preparations… Prince Fortinbras wants the land back that his father lost. This is probably what has upset the ghost.

21. Conflicts So we have a ghost. And we have some trouble with Norway.
Clearly Norway wants to attack Denmark and take back their land.
Some pretty big external conflicts already.

22. Setting? It’s the dead of night, basically. But then…
WAKE UP YOU FOOLS!
It’s the dead of night, basically.
But then…
What does the change from night to day seem to mean, according to Marcellus and Horatio (page 19).

23. Themes/Motifs
In works of fiction, a theme is the central idea or ideas explored in the story. Literary themes might be the subject matter or present itself as a message within the larger story.
The message. Get it?
A motif is a recurring symbol which takes on a figurative meaning.
A motif can be almost anything: an idea, an object, a concept, a character archetype, the weather, a color, or even a statement.

24. Themes/Motifs Supernatural Element Religion Ears/Hearing Disease/Decay
Revenge
Mortality
Appearance vs Reality
Sanity vs Madness
Family

25. Themes/Motifs Supernatural Element Religion Ears/Hearing Disease/Decay
Revenge
Mortality
Appearance vs Reality
Sanity vs Madness
Family

26. Themes/Motifs Supernatural Element Religion Ears/Hearing Disease/Decay
Revenge?
Mortality?
Appearance vs Reality
Sanity vs Madness
Family