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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
How long has the Grave-digger been digging graves in Hamlet?
The gravedigger (actually the Sexton Clown) thinks Hamlet was sent to England because he was mad.
Here is the relevant dialogue.
~=~
Hamlet: Aye, marry, why was he sent into England?
Sexton Clown: Why? Because he was mad! He shall recover his wits there, or if
he do not, 'tis no great matter there.
Hamlet: Why?
Sexton Clown: 'Twill not be seen in him there; there, the men are as mad
as he.
~=~
What is discovered from Gertrude's farewell to Ophelia?
At the funeral, Gertrude says "thou should have been my Hamlet's bride." Polonius and Laertes were sure that the King and Queen would not approve a marriage between Hamlet and their sister, but it appears that they were wrong.
What happens in act 1 of Hamlet?
The ghost of Hamlet's father appears to some guards.
The guards tell Hamlet who says he will go watch for the ghost.
Laertes, son of Polonius, embarks for France. Polonius tells his daughter Ophelia, who has been flirting with Hamlet (or maybe more, it's not clear), to give him the cold shoulder.
The ghost appears to Hamlet, gets him alone and tells him that he was murdered by Hamlet's uncle and the current king, Claudius. Hamlet swears to revenge him then swears the guards to secrecy.
What play did Hamlet want the actors to perform?
He calls it The Mousetrap although its real name is The Murder of Gonzago. Hamlet's name for it betrays his purpose in selecting it: "The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."
What positive use of power did Claudius make?
Claudius comforted the queen after the death of her husband.
What does Claudius learn about himself while at prayer?
Hamlet is trying to prove that Claudius killed his Father. That's why Hamlet sets up the play. Hamlet trys to reenact how he though his Father died and since Claudius felt guilty about killing Hamlets Father he wants to leave the play. That's how Hamlet proves that Claudius is guilty.
What does Laertes accuse Claudius of?
Laertes accuses Claudius of killing his father Polonius in Act IV, Scene V.
Only Hamlet hears it speak. Gertrude cannot see it, but Horatio and the guards can. Is it a real thing or is it a trick of the fog on the battlements, which Hamlet sees as the ghost and imagines speaking? Or maybe is it a bit of both?
What diction is used in hamlet?
As a good playwright should do, Shakespeare had different kinds of diction for different characters:
Hamlet is discursive at times but can also be sarcastic, and bitingly bitter (especially when he is talking to women).
Polonius is pointlessly wordy.
Gertrude is terse, a natural foil to Polonius.
Claudius can be flowery when speaking in his official capacity, and is plausible and reasonable as when he speaks to Laertes, but can also be blunt and straightforward.
Laertes is kind of thick; he uses for the most part short blunt sentences and swears a fair bit.
Osric uses flowery language full of the popular slang of the court. Hamlet makes fun of his ephemeral and silly manner of speaking.
The gravediggers have a kind of lower-class diction using contractions and swearing. The First Gravedigger affects the language of learned people with amusing results.
The diction used in the player's speech about Pyrrhus's slaying of Priam consciously uses the kind of rhetorical language used in Latin literature. The speech from The Murder of Gonzago tries to do the same thing, but just ends up being loquatious, resembling the style of old-fashioned English plays based on Latin models, such as Gorboduc.
Why is Hamlet the only one suspicious about his father's death?
Hamlet is disposed to believe ill of Claudius. He dislikes him and resents his marriage to his mother. That is why when the Ghost names Claudius as his murderer, Hamlet says "O my prophetic soul!"--he had already suspected as much.
Because we hear Claudius admit his guilt (just before the "To Be or Not to Be" speech and in Claudius's "O my offence is rank" soliloquy) we know that the ghost is telling the truth. Otherwise, it might be plausible to believe that Claudius is innocent, as everyone including Gertrude seems to believe.
How does Shakespeare create tension and interest in the first scene of Hamlet?
Immediately Hamlet is set on the gun platform of Elsinore castle, characterising the tension in Denmark. This night time scene holds more significance to the Elizabethan audience than to the contemporary as the introduction of the Ghost of Old Hamlet ensnares the audience with its supernatural prowess. Certainly the probing question that is the incipit of the play suggests that things are quite right in the State of Denmark and position the audience to feel skewed by what they are witnessing. importantly Hamlet is absent in the first scene, showing that the major characters are only as significant as the minor roles.
What is bigger a village or a Hamlet?
A tribe
smaller than that is a camp
The smallest being a single hut/cottage/cabin/house/tent
2nd Sentence- Alas, poor Yorick!
Hamlet- "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?"
What is the name of the antagonist in Hamlet?
Claudius, the king is Hamlet's major antagonist. He is a shrewd, lustful, conniving king who contrasts sharply with the other male characters in the play. Whereas most of the other important men in Hamlet are preoccupied with ideas of justice, revenge, and moral balance, Claudius is bent upon maintaining his own power. The old King Hamlet was apparently a stern warrior, but Claudius is a corrupt politician whose main weapon is his ability to manipulate others through his skillful use of language. Claudius's speech is compared to poison being poured in the ear-the method he used to murder Hamlet's father. Claudius's love for Gertrude may be sincere, but it also seems likely that he married her as a strategic move, to help him win the throne away from Hamlet after the death of the king. As the play progresses, Claudius's mounting fear of Hamlet's insanity leads him to ever greater self-preoccupation; when Gertrude tells him that Hamlet has killed Polonius, Claudius does not remark that Gertrude might have been in danger, but only that he would have been in danger had he been in the room. He tells Laertes the same thing as he attempts to soothe the young man's anger after his father's death. Claudius is ultimately too crafty for his own good. In Act V, scene ii, rather than allowing Laertes only two methods of killing Hamlet, the sharpened sword and the poison on the blade, Claudius insists on a third, the poisoned goblet. When Gertrude inadvertently drinks the poison and dies, Hamlet is at last able to bring himself to kill Claudius, and the king is felled by his own cowardly
Hamlet was not a romance play it was a tragdety maybe the was love between Ophelia and Hamlet but the is not the main point of the play so i wouldn't call it a romance
What trap does Polonius set for Hamlet?
Basically, he knows that Hamlet usually walks alone through the lobby of the castle, and, at such a time, they (Polonius and Claudius) could hide behind an arras (a curtain or wall hanging) while Ophelia confronts Hamlet, allowing them to see for themselves whether Hamlet's madness really emanates from his love for her.
Who does not dies the court in hamlet?
As with most Shakespearian tragedies, most of the characters end up dying - Hamlet is no exception.
Polonius - mistakenly stabbed by Hamlet when he discovers Polonius spying on a conversation between him and Gertrude.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - executed in England after delivering what they suppose to be orders from Claudius (Hamlet is in fact supposed to be executed by the English, but after discovering Claudius' plot Hamlet changes his own name on his death warrant to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's)
Ophelia - drowned when gathering flowers near a body of water. There is speculation (within and without the play) as to whether or not Ophelia commits suicide after being driven mad by Hamlet's rejection of her and Polonius' death. In the play it states 'Her clothes spread wide/ and mermaid-like awhile they bore her up/ Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds/ As one incapable of her own distress', but it is unknown whether she knew that she was going to drown and didn't care, or if she just did not understand the significance of her situation. Or Gertrude could be intentionally making it look like an accident to spare Laertes's feelings.
Gertrude - drinks poisoned wine intended for Hamlet (Claudius poisons the wine). It's not clear whether she knew it was poisoned or not.
Claudius - poisoned and also stabbed by Hamlet, after Hamlet is fatally wounded.
Laertes - poisoned by his own sword in a duel with Hamlet. Laertes has poisoned the sword to ensure Hamlet's death, but during the duel Laertes drops his sword and it gets switched with Hamlet's.
Hamlet - Hamlet is poisoned by the same sword as Laetes, before Laertes drops his sword.
So, the final score is:
Two possible accidents or possible suicides (Gertrude and Ophelia)
One person killed by Laertes (Hamlet)
Five people killed by Hamlet (Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Laertes, Claudius)
Nobody killed by Claudius, unless you count King Hamlet who died before the play starts.
How is the major external conflict of Hamlet solved?
"There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we may." He finally comes to the conclusion that he cannot control the way events go, as much as he tries to. It is not up to him to create the perfect opportunity for revenge on Claudius, but to take the opportunity when and if it does present itself.
There are many, many twenty-first century people who think that they can control all possibilities and all chances. They think that they are in charge of the universe. They need to see this play.
What is meant by the whether clause in Hamlet's To be or not to be speech?
The other day I read To be or not to be (Shakespeare) -From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2012 / 05 / 23) which I had happened to print out. It says in Interpretation that the third main point of disagreement about this speech is what the apparent theme of endurance vs. action (" to suffer..or..take arms ") has to do with being and nonbeing, and is further elaborated as follows, "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer...Or to take arms…" seems clearly to ask whether it is better to be stoically passive to life's troubles or heroically active against them. The trouble is how this relates to 'to be or not to be' ...
There is a considerable disagreement over the very question presented here in Interpretation ( how the theme of the whether clause relates to 'to be or not to be'), and I do not think that this quite reasonable question is attached as much importance as it should be.
The following is my interpretation of the first few lines of Hamlet's famous "to be or not to be" soliloquy, (To be, or not to be: that is the question:/ Whether 'tis nobler ~/And by opposing end them? [ To die: to sleep; / No more;]).
I would appreciate it very much if I could have any comments on it.
First of all, I assume that 'to be' means 'to live, to exist, to be alive, or to continue to exist' and 'not to be' 'to die, to cease to exist, or to commit suicide' and that in this soliloquy Hamlet uses 'to be' to allude to life and action and 'not to be' to death and inaction, though he is not talking directly about himself and thinking more generally about life or death; and I discuss the question on the premise that this assumption is correct.
The whether clause, which is most probably an amplification, seems generally thought to have much the same meaning as a common Japanese translation of this part: 'Which is nobler, to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?' But it is unreasonable and I do not agree, because 'To be, or not to be: that is the question.' and 'Whether 'tis nobler ~to suffer ~ , or to take ~?' are then two different questions that have different meanings, and the whether clause does not function as a consistent elaboration on the question of whether to continue to exist or not. I will give a supplementary explanation below.
In my judgment, the "or" in line 1 does not parallel the "or" in line 4, and to suffer ~ and to take ~ are two contrasting examples used to explain 'to be', and there is little doubt that Hamlet uses 'to be' to allude to life and action and 'not to be' to death and inaction (like killing himself with a bare dagger)(ll.20-21). 'Not to be' does not imply life and action as some think it does, much less heroic action (like taking arms ~and end them)(ll.4-5); it means death without doing anything.
Besides, as is clearly shown by a certain Japanese translation ( Which way of life is nobler, to suffer ~, or to take arms ~ ? ), to suffer ~ and to take arms ~ are both ways of life -courses of action open for Hamlet in his present difficult situation, though noticeably different from each other, stoically passive vs. heroically active. Thus the question of whether to continue to exist or not is again totally different from the question of which is nobler of the two ways of living - two courses of action; there is no logical connection between the two.
My (grammatical) interpretation of the whether clause is as follows. Although the pronoun 'it' in 'tis indicates to suffer ~ and to take arms ~ , the whole clause does not mean 'Which is nobler, to suffer ~ , or to take arms ~?' It means 'Is to be nobler (than not to be)?', that is to say, ' Is to suffer ~, or to take arms ~ ( no matter which ) really nobler ( than to die )?' Taken literally, 'to take arms ~' obviously implies life and action, and that heroic action, ("though perhaps with the loss of life") and does not equal 'not to be' as some think it does. So the equivalence is between 'to be' and 'to suffer ~, or to take arms ~' and between 'not to be' and 'To die' (l.5), which is the other alternative not expressed but understood in the whether clause. Thus I do not think, as some do, that Hamlet, without any sort of transition, suddenly starts to contemplate death. He merely begins to talk about the other alternative of nonbeing after talking about the alternative of being; and therefore the whether clause and 'To die: to sleep; / No more;' fit together well and logically and they form a united whole.
I think this is the only way to make the whether clause a more consistent elaboration on the question of whether to continue to exist or not, and that "Shakespearean grammar" would permit this explanation.
'Hamlet' can certainly be viewed that way. Technically, it's a tragedy, because of the deaths, and the shattered romance of Hamlet and Ophelia. However, the play contains significant comedic elements, much more than you'll read about in the average book, or see in the average performance.
Who killed polinius in Hamlet?
Hamlet killed Polonius when he asumed Claudius was hidding behind the curtain when it was actually Polonius.
What do you think hamlet means when he says conscience does make cowards?
The context demands that Hamlet is using conscience in the French sense of "consciousness" ,"awareness". It is the anticipation of death - or of its possible sequel in an afterlife that Christianity would have us believe highly unpleasant for those committing the sin of suicide - that makes us shy away from this "consummation devoutly to be wished".
