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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
Who is the confidant in Hamlet?
His name is Polonius, except in the First Quarto when his name's Corambis.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern also act as advisors in a way. They're basically summoned by Claudius to be advisors on Hamlet's mental state.
Why does hamlet stop before he commits violence upon Gertrude?
Initially Hamlet is uncertain about the honesty of the ghost. Then he loses an opportunity when he decides not to kill Claudius in the confessional because his soul will go to heaven. Then he becomes involved in plot that finds him bound or transported away from Claudius for a good portion of the play. He is also filled with self-doubt about his ability to kill him, and the nature of his existence, which causes delay.
What are important plot points in Hamlet?
Polonius dies.
Ophelia dies.
Claudius dies.
Hamlet dies.
Hamlet returns home for his father's funeral.
Hamlet stages a play to prove Claudius's guilt.
Ophelia drowns in a river.
Hamlet and Laertes duel.
Hamlet returns to Denmark to bury his father.
Hamlet kills Polonius.
Ophelia is found dead.
Laertes and Hamlet duel.
They both love Ophelia. They both seek vengeance, and find that the quest for vengeance pushes them toward the throne of Denmark. They end up getting what they want, but dying in the process. They may both be seen as quasi-heroic protagonists.
How does claudis die in Hamlet?
Hamlet kills Claudius by stabbing him with the poisoned sword Laertes carried and by forcing Claudius to drink the dregs of the poisoned drink which killed Gertrude.
The ghost tells hamlet not to blame his mother?
The ghost warns hamlet not to do anything to his mother, but to "leave her to heaven".
Hamlet was a mass murderer. First he stabbed Polonius while he was evesdropping behind a curtain. Then he forged an order for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to be put to death. Laertes was next murdered by Hamlet in the fencing match where Laertes had the posioned sword. Hamlet ended up with it and cut Laertes. Finally, Hamlet killed Claudius.
That's five people.
How many soliloquy's are in Hamlet and where are they?
Five.
O that this too too solid flesh would melt (Act 1 Scene2)
O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I (Act 2 Scene 2)
To be, or not to be (Act 3 Scene 1)
Now might I do it pat (Act 3 Scene 3)
How all occasions do inform against me (Act 4 Scene 4)
What does hamlet tell his mother that causes her to say he has cut her heart in two?
What he says immediately before she utters this line is "Forgive me this my virtue for in the fatness of these pursy times virtue itself of vice must pardon beg." but surely Hamlet's smug belief in his own virtue or his cynical view of the world cannot have cleft her heart in twain. However, Hamlet has just completed an extended rant, interrupted by the appearance of the ghost, in which he is urging his mother to break off marital relations with her husband the king. Has he persuaded her that being a good wife to Claudius is a bad thing by comparing Claudius's picture to that of Hamlet's father? Surely not. What does Hamlet tell Gertrude that she didn't know before? "Almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother." says Hamlet, and Gertrude immediately seizes upon the new information. "As kill a king?" she says. It takes a while for this to sink in and for the truth of the accusation to dawn on her, and all the while Hamlet is ranting away. She wants him to stop so she can think about this, and to evaluate her position: she has unwittingly married her husband's murderer. This is what has cleft her heart in twain
Why did King Claudius kill King Hamlet?
Claudius tells us the reasons for his crime in Act 3 Scene 3. "I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder: my crown, my own ambition, and my queen." So, his motives were to become king, to become more important and powerful than he was, and to marry Gertrude whom he loved.
Prior to Hamlet's entry into Gertrude's (Hamlet's mother) chamber, Polonius is having a discussion with the queen. As Hamlet enters his mother's room rather abruptly, Polonius chooses to hide behind a tapestry on the wall. When Hamlet begins to threaten his mother, Polonius believes Hamlet is trying to kill her, and so Polonius cries for help. Hamlet "thinking it was King Claudius" (it is unclear as to whether he actually believes its the King or not), stabs Polonius through the tapestry, killing him. As he dies he lets out his iconically obvious line "Oh, I am slain".
Claudius was suspicious that Hamlet knew of his crime after the players had put on their show. After Claudius hears that Hamlet had stabbed Polonius, Claudius was certain that Hamlet was trying to kill him. To protect himself, he sends Hamlet to England with a letter and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to deliver him. The letter contains instructions for the king of England to have Hamlet executed.
Why does Hamlet call Polonius Jephthah in line 427?
In the Old Testament (Judges 11 ), Jephthah vows to sacrifice to the Lord the first living thing that comes out of his house if the Lord will give him the victory of the Ammonites. Unfortunately, the first living thing to come out was his own daughter. Thus he was under oath to offer his daughter as a burnt offering.
In the same way, Hamlet is insinuating that Polonius is will to sacrifice his own daughter for personal gain.
William Shakespeare's greatest achievements were his plays Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Hamlet because they are still performed and read
The Hamlet play opens in what season?
Possibly winter? "The wind blows shrewdly, it is very cold." "It is a nipping and an eager air."
Possibly summer? The cock crows and the morn in russet mantle clad follows pretty soon after midnight. Short nights indicate summer. Also King Hamlet was murdered a month or so before "sleeping in his orchard" which you wouldn't do on a winter afternoon.
How does Hamlet think he is different from the actor?
You are probably alluding to Hamlet's soliloquy "Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I" in which Hamlet says
- Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all his visage wann'd,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit?
He then goes on to say,
- What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears . . .
Hamlet is thinking about the actor's ability to express himself, to act in a way which shows his emotions, even though they are fictitious emotions. Hamlet thinks he cannot do this, that he is a "dull and muddy-mettled rascal" who can "say nothing". This is, of course, ridiculous, because Hamlet does nothing but talk. He talks more than any other Shakespearean character. Ironically in this soliloquy in which he says he can say nothing, he goes on and on. In the next scene he will tell Horatio, "give me that man who is not passion's slave" and will admire him for the exact opposite qualities than those he finds in the player.
In Hamlet Why was Hamlet depressed enough to even think of self destruction?
Hamlet's mood changes considerably thoughout the play. Early in the play he expresses disgust with the way the world goes, especially his mother's remarriage. "Oh, God! God! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world." Later he will express this same disgust to Gertrude. "Nay, but to live in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, stewed in corruption, honeying and making love over the nasty sty--"
With himself he is sometimes annoyed, sometimes disappointed. "Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, that I the son of a dear father murdered, prompted to my revenge by Heaven and Hell must, like a wh*re, unpack my words, and fall a-cursing like a very drab." and later "I do not know why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do' sith I have cause and will and strength and means to do't."
Hamlet never expresses the kind of stomach-churning disgust about himself that he does about Claudius and his mother's remarriage. He never loses confidence in himself or feels that he has ignored his moral compass. He can be contrasted with Macbeth who really does view himself with disgust.
Polonius dies in the play. Hamlet kills him while he is in Gertrude's room. Polonius was spying on Hamlet. Hamlet thought that there was a mouse behind the curtain so he swung his sword and killed polonius while he was behind the curtain.
Who says in hamlet To thine ownself be true?
Polonius says this to his son Laertes.
Polonius is one of the most underhand and dishonest characters in the entire play. (In fact he is killed while trying to spy on Hamlet a few scenes later).
Draw your own conclusion.
Where does the King plan to send Hamlet?
Claudius tries to send Hamlet to England, accompanied by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
However, R & G don't know it's a mission to have Hamlet killed. We can be certain of that just because of the fact that they continue to England without Hamlet.
Hamlet the movie vs Hamlet the play?
The scene funeral of King Hamlet was never appear in the book and it did appear in the movie.
How does Hamlet approch ghost?
At first he is afraid until he realized it was his father who has come to tell him about his murder by his brother and wife. This sets Hamlet on the course to revenge his father.
Why did Hamlet delay killing Claudius in act 3 scene3?
But the question must refer to Act 3 scene 3, the "Prayer Scene." Hamlet gets Claudius alone, but Claudius is praying (without knowing Hamlet is there.) Hamlet decides not to kill Claudius, while Claudius is praying, because he's afraid it would only send Claudius straight to Heaven, and Hamlet doesn't think that would be revenge, instead it would be more like rewarding Claudius.
Why did Laertes die in Hamlet?
Hamlet stabbed him with the poisoned sword which Laertes had poisoned to kill Hamlet. He was, in Hamlet's phrase, "hoist with his own petard."
How are Hamlet and laertes very different?
Hamlet's and Laertes's differences are most evident in their personalities. To begin with, the single biggest difference between the characters of Hamlet and Laertes is the fact that Hamlet is a thinker - for that matter, an over-thinker. Until the very last act of the play, Hamlet is plagued by procrastination. Although he is extremely motivated by the story of his late father's ghost, Hamlet sits to think about mortality and the usefulness of killing the king. For instance, Hamlet's most famous speech appears in Act III, scene i, lines 62-94, and in it he ponders whether or not it is better to live an unhappy life or to face the unknown beyond of death. His thinking generally renders him inactive. Standing in stark contrast to Hamlet's thinking-not-action style, Laertes moves quickly and acts rashly in his anger, choosing to act first and apologize later. This is made apparent in act V, when he speaks "I am justly killed with mine own treachery." (Scene ii, line 323) immediately after he falls. Laertes quick action and lack of though also leads to another contradiction in his and Hamlet's personalities. Laertes is significantly more obedient then Hamlet. While Laertes listens carefully to both his father's and Claudius's words, Hamlet often defies and even goes so far as to manipulate Claudius. Hamlet's character is much deeper than Laertes. He is more intelligent, which results in Hamlet's quick wit and sarcasm. Undoubtedly, Hamlet's and Laertes's personalities are considerably different.
