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Hamlet
Includes questions specifically asking about this Shakespeare play. Questions about the movie version should be placed under "Movies." Questions about Shakespeare should be placed under his category under Authors and Poets.
2,117 Questions
What is the subject of Hamlet's to be or not to be speech?
Hamlet is understood by most performers, audiences and critics to be musing about suicide here. 'To be' equals 'to exist', ie 'to live', or 'to carry on living'. 'not to be' is then 'to die', or 'to end life'.
Initially in the soliloquy, Hamlet's considerations favour death. He presents death as an end to 'The heartache and the thousand natural shocks / That flesh is heir to', and the same as sleep.
However, he then (famously) introduces the idea of dreams to this metaphor. Following his religious concerns throughout the play, he contemplates the possibility of some unknown experience after death, a concern that makes perfect sense given that he has already been visited by the ghost of his father. He reaches the explanation that it is this 'dread of something after death' that makes people carry on living, putting up with all of the pain of life rather than deliberately risk whatever might happen after they die. (Or, at least, after they die by suicide. Hamlet has already noted in his first soliloquy that 'the Everlasting' has 'fixed his canon 'gainst self-slaughter - ie God has forbidden suicide. Suicide is regarded as sinful, as the rough burial given to Ophelia in Act V again stresses.)
Finally, Hamlet moves from reflecting that it is fear of hell that makes people put up with life to musing that it is this sort of thinking too deeply about things that stops people doing anything significant - that deep thought gets in the way of resolution. Consequently, the soliloquy becomes another opportunity for Hamlet to berate himself for having not yet avenged his father by killing Claudius.
Whilst this speech, like many in the play, addresses the issue of Hamlet's delay in taking revenge, it's not quite the case that Hamlet can't make decisions about anything. This conception of Hamlet is quite common (possibly following Olivier's influential film version in which Hamlet is described as 'a man who could not make up his mind'), but it is not an accurate description of Shakespeare's character. He decides immediately to go to see his father's ghost, for instance, and to speak to it, and even threatens to kill his friends when they try to prevent him from following it. He swiftly decides on the strategy of pretending to be mad whilst he considers his revenge, and later produces the idea of using the players to entrap Claudius within minutes of their arrival. There are plenty of examples of swift, intelligent - sometimes rash - decisive action from Hamlet.
As for the delay to his revenge, this is interpreted differently by various performers and critics. It has been argued that he cannot pursue his revenge because he is already in the grip of melancholy following his father's death and mother's remarriage; because of the depth of his religious concerns and/or a clash between Protestant and Catholic faiths; because the role of revenger is not in his nature; because he has a sort of metatheatrical sense of the path of revenge tragedy and does not want to end up in the classic 'everybody's dead' conclusion. It can also be argued that he actually delays much less than his self-criticism suggests, when the sequence of events in the play is considered carefully. For example, its worth noting that a huge section of the play (from the start of Act II to halfway through Act IV) appears to take place during a single day, during which Hamlet sets up the play within the play, uses it to gain proof of Clauidus' guilt, refrains from killing Claudius whilst hie's praying, confronts his mother and is exiled to England. The length of the section, and of Hamlet's remonstrations with himself, can sometimes give the impression that more time is passing.
He suggests that what keeps people from killing themselves is fear of what happens after death. He compares the body to a "coil" that is "shuffl'd off" at death
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One of the two ambassadors Claudius sends to Norway. (The other is Cornelius.)
What does Hamlet equate sleep with?
As Hamlet is contemplating suicide, he equates sleep with death. But then he imagines what death is like, and worries that if there are dreams or something after, it would be bad:
"To die, to sleep -
To sleep, perchance to dream - ay, there's the rub,
For in this sleep of death what dreams may come..."
Is ophelia a disobedient daughter?
Not from what we see of her in the play. She breaks off with Hamlet when she's told to, and performs her job as bait when requested. The nature of her madness suggests that there may be more to it, though.
What famous quote was said by queen Gertrude from hamlet?
Probably the first line of Hamlet's soliloquy:
To be, or not to be, - that is the question: - Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? - To die, to sleep, -
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, - 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; -
To sleep, perchance to dream: - ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death, -
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, - puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know naught of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.
Who is the funniest person alive?
Two cannibals were eating a clown,one says to the other "Does this taste funny to you?" Now that is an example of a great British joke. The most highly developed sense of humour in the world! bar none.
What does laretes ask of king Claudius?
Laertes asks Hamlet to forgive him for killing him. In exchange, he offers to forgive Hamlet for killing him (and perhaps also his father and sister.) This may be just so he can die in peace or it may have some bearing on where the two end up in the afterlife.
He does two important things. The first is to name Claudius as the killer, finally allowing Hamlet to kill him honorably. The second is to make peace with Hamlet and "exchange forgiveness," which in the complex spiritual framework of the play might mean that the two of them get to avoid the hellish fate that King Hamlet suffered and that most of the dead characters presumably get.
The watchmen and Horatio speculate that the appearance of the Ghost means that?
the ghost is a warning of impending DOOM for denmark and thinks it will come in the form of a military attack...k?
Does Claudius believes Hamlet is acting strangely because of the possible war with Norway?
He never says so, although it is certainly one possibility. Claudius is very cautious about diagnosing Hamlet's behaviour problem, unlike Polonius. Probably Claudius is worried that Hamlet may suspect the truth about the murder.
Why does Ophelia come to see her father after her encounter with Hamlet?
They are not. Gertrude does say that she hoped Ophelia and Hamlet would marry, but she didn't bother saying that while Ophelia was alive, so she was hardly eager. Polonius told Ophelia to give Hamlet the cold shoulder, since he thought Hamlet was only trying to get into her pants. He did not want Hamlet to fall for Ophelia at all (and he sure didn't think he would do so), but he comes to the conclusion later that Hamlet has in fact fallen in love with Ophelia. He's not exactly happy about that, but what he is happy about is that he can 1) be the first to tell the king, thus making him look smart, and 2) use Ophelia as bait to find out more about Hamlet.
Ophelia sings a number of songs in Hamlet.
"Tomorrow is St. Valentine's day
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose and donned his clothes
And dupped the chamber door:
Let in the maid that out a maid
Never departed more."
This is a song about loss of innocence, and sexual betrayal.
"And will a not come again?
And will a not come again?
Oh, no, he is dead, go to thy deathbed
He never will come again."
This is a song of mourning for her father.
"How should I your true love know
From another one
By his cockle hat and staff
And his sandal shoon."
This is a song both of love and of death. The image of a lover as a pilgrim is also found in Romeo and Juliet. The second verse is about the death of a loved one.
"They bore him barefaced on the bier
Hey non nonny nonny hey nonny
And in his grave rained many a tear . . ."
Another mourning song.
"For bonny sweet Robin is all of my joy."
Another love song.
What describes thematic struggles found in hamlet?
family obligations versus self-interest
autonomy versus submission to authority
What is the difference between a village and a Hamlet?
hamlet usually have a denser population to a village and villages usually have a few commercial buildings like a pub, shop or post office.
What does hamlet ask the players to do?
Hamlet asks the players to perform a specific play containing the murder of Gonzago. He also requests that they insert specific lines that he created himself.
Why does Hamlet stab and kill Polonius?
Before Hamlet enters his mother's chamber, Polonius is having a discussion with Hamlet's mother Gertrude. As Hamlet enters the room, Polonius conceals himself behind a tapestry hanging from the wall. When he hears Gertrude begin to feel threatened by Hamlet, he cries out for help, thinking that he would kill them both. Hamlet hears Polonius, and believes him to be a rat/spy (possibly even King Claudius, but it is unclear if he truly believes this). Hamlet stabs through the tapestry killing Polonius, who remarks "O, I am slain".
To spy on him. First of all he wants to spy on him when interacting with Ophelia, and when this fails to support his theory, he wants to spy on him while interacting with Gertrude.
Do Hamlet and Fortinbras meet in IV iv?
Not exactly. Fortinbras is transporting his army to Poland. Hamlet enters as they pass and questions one of the soldiers in the army as to what is going on. But he doesn't actually talk to Fortinbras himself. Fortinbras leaves the stage as Hamlet comes on.
What is the decoration for Gertrude's room in Hamlet?
I think I know the play pretty well, but I can't think of any "decoration" in Queen Gertrude's "closet" [her study and sewing room]. Maybe the question refers to these lines: "Look here, upon this picture, and on this, / The counterfeit presentment of two brothers." In these lines Hamlet refers to two pictures of two brothers: King Hamlet (Hamlet's father) and King Claudius (Hamlet's uncle). In performance, those pictures are sometimes represented as pictures on the wall of Queen Gertrude's closet, but they can also be represented as lockets, with Queen Gertrude's locket containing the picture of King Claudius, and Hamlet's locket containing the picture of his father, King Hamlet.
How does hamlet remember yorick?
He tells him that he knew him, and that he was a fellow of most infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. In other words, he was a funny guy. He also used to carry Hamlet piggyback when Hamlet was a child.
What were the props and costumes used in Hamlet?
None. You can play the portion of the Act 3 Scene 1 which consists of the famous speech without any props at all. If you are going to do the whole scene, (usually called the Nunnery Scene, because of Hamlet's repeated line "Get thee to a nunnery!") some kind of prop is needed at Ophelia's line, "Their perfume lost, take these again, for to the noble mind rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. There, my lord." Ophelia has to give Hamlet something at this point.
That is not to say that a prop might not be helpful. Sir Derek Jacobi, when playing Hamlet, looked at the picture of his father in his locket when saying the line "death, the undiscovered country from which no traveller returns" which makes one consider that line and indeed the whole speech in a different light. But such a prop is not necessary.
