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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 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.
What change of mood occurs with scene 1 act 2 hamlet?
The scene begins with Polonius hiring someone to find out if his son has been up to no good while he's been abroad. The scene is meant to be funny, poking fun at an overly concerned father. Polonius is a little manic and absent minded and he lends a lighthearted tone to the first half of the scene. When Ophelia enters onstage, however, the mood changes. She is clearly disturbed as she tells her father about how Hamlet came into her room looking disheveled and started acting crazy. He says that he will put on an "antic disposition" in the scene before, and here we get to see the first example of that. This begins the intrigue and manipulation that carries on throughout the play, resulting in the death of almost every major character.
What does Hamlet imply he may decide to do?
"Versus" means against. Your question (which is not a question or sentence of any kind) suggests that possibly Hamlet was fighting against his inability to decide. If he could decide to fight against it, it looks like he was able to decide after all.
Horatio is the only main character in Hamlet to survive the final scene.
However Fortinbras also survives the play, and some might consider his a main character. Though he doesn't appear until the end of the play, he is referenced numerous times, and ultimately becomes the new king of Denmark.
How does Claudius learn hamlet is back in Denmark?
Hamlet sends letters through the pirates that captured, and inadvertently saved him. He sends letters to Horatio, Claudius, and Gertrude. Claudius's one is meant to taunt him. The pirates use someone named Claudio as an intermediary--presumably he's a courtier, but we never see him.
Why is a strict watch being maintained outside the castle of elsinore?
In the play Hamlet, there is a strict guard being maintained at the Castle of Elsinore because the King had just died. Whenever a monarch dies there tends to be unrest, so guard would be increased as a precaution.
Polonius (stabbed from behind a tapestry), Hamlet (poisoned by Laertes' sword), Laertes (also poisoned by his own sword), Gertrude (drinks Claudius' poison)and Claudius (stabbed, and forced to drink his poison) all die onstage. Ophelia (drowned), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (hung?) all die offstage.
What does the Kings closing soliloquy reveal hamlet?
Nothing much more than Claudius has already told us, that "of Hamlet our dear brother's death the memory (is) green" and he has taken "our sometime sister, now our queen . . . to wife." Of course we learn a great deal about how Hamlet feels about his father, his mother and his uncle, and things generally: "How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world".
When and where does Hamlet take place?
Hamlet takes place in the 17th century in the 800's and the area is inside the castle in Elsinore, Denmark.
What is Hamlets reaction when polonius tells Ophelia not to see him anymore?
Hamlet isn't present when Polonius tells her this. So how and when does he come to know it? Is it during the scene Ophelia describes to Polonius in 2,1? Ophelia doesn't tell her father that she had time to communicate anything to Hamlet when he "comes before" her. It is clear that Ophelia is holding something back from the story she tells her father, but it does not seem that this is it. Maybe it is in scene 3,1 when Ophelia returns the things (whatever they may be) that she has "longed long to redliver". Apparently it has been some time between 1,3 when Polonius tells Ophelia to lay off Hamlet and 3,1 since it has been "many a day" since they have spoken and she has "longed long" to deliver the mysterious love-tokens (although she may be implying that she had lost interest in him long before the events in 1,3).
In any case, Hamlet does not seem to react at all to the fact that Ophelia has been avoiding him of late. He is possibly unaware of it. The romantic relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet is uppermost in Ophelia's mind, but Hamlet has other things to think about. He only seems to focus on her when he realizes that she has allowed herself to be a lure in Claudius's trap for him.
How are Hamlet and Horatio alike and unlike?
hamlet acts more on impulse, horatio balances this out by thinking tghings through more logically, although they are both great thinkers
Hamlet says of Horatio "thou hast been as one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing, a man that Fortune's buffets and rewards hast ta'en with equal thanks; and blest are those whose blood and judgment are so well commeddled that they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger to sound what stop she please." But this is not a fair assessment: Horatio has hardly had "the motive and the cue for passion" that Hamlet has. Although he is fairly calm throughout the play, nothing is directed at him to disturb the calm.
Hamlet and Horatio only disagree once: over whether Hamlet was right to arrange for the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Horatio thinks (and most of us would be inclined to agree) that it is a harsh sentence to visit on two chumps who did not know that their commission would result in Hamlet's death (it was sealed remember) and who think they are only doing their patriotic duty to the King.
Horatio can see this because he is able to stand back from the action and observe it and judge it. Hamlet is, through no choice of his, in the thick of the action. He would love to be able to stand back and observe and judge it. He tries, but he cannot. He hates being "a pipe for Fortune's finger to sound what stop she please", or even a pipe that Guildenstern can play. But he cannot help it: when the circumstance is there he must act: he must stab the man behind the arras NOW without thinking; he must board the pirate ship NOW without thinking; he must jump into the grave NOW without thinking. Eventually he sees that "there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow" and that it is futile for him to try to take control of his life, observe it, plan it, and execute what he has planned.
Hamlet recognizes that Horatio's status as an observer means that he must stay on to tell Hamlet's story. He is not part of the action as much as he might care for Hamlet. He is an onlooker.
But in essence the two men are not unlike which is why there is such an intuitive bond between them. What would Horatio have done, had his father been murdered, his mother married the murderer, his father's ghost come back calling for revenge and his girlfriend's father been a meddling spy who used everyone closest to him as a spy? Would he have done much different from what Hamlet did? Probably not.
What character in Hamlet is a foil character?
Laertes is a foil to Hamlet. Unlike Hamlet he does not reflect upon the task at hand, which is avenging his father's murder. He does not think about whether it is morally correct to conspire with the king, Claudius, to kill Hamlet for revenge. Fortenbras could also be considered a foil to Hamlet because he is just the opposite of Hamlet when it comes to decisions and following them through. B.Gene apex ;)
Why are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Denmark?
It says in my Hamlet book that "Claudius and Gertrude set Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two boyhood friends of Hamlet, to spy on him to discover the cause of his apparent madness. After the returned ambassadors announce their success in stopping Fortinbras's planned invasion of Denmark, Polonius report his 'discovery' that Hamlet is mad for love. Claudius is unpersuaded but agrees to join Polonius in spying on Hamlet”.
What 3 questions does Marcellus raise in Hamlet?
In "Hamlet," Marcellus' first question is why the guard has suddenly starting keeping such a strict watch in Denmark. Next, he wants know why Denmark is suddenly making and importing a lot of weapons. He also wants to know why shipbuilders are working around the clock now.
How did Hamlet Shakesphere die?
The play about Hamlet was totally made up by William Shakespeare - there was no 'real' Hamlet.
What three things does the ghost ask Hamlet to do?
1. Kill the king ("If thou didst ever thy dear father love, revenge his foul and most unnatural murder")
2. Lay off Mom. ("nor let thy soul contrive against thy mother aught")
3. "Remember me."
Where does hamlet have a confrontation with gertrude?
Polonius is one of those people who, once he gets an idea, there's no shifting it. He has formed the idea that Hamlet is mad for Ophelia's love, and suggests that this can be proven by spying on the two of them from a concealed place. Claudius is not persuaded at all by this: "Love? His affections do not that way tend." But Polonius has a new idea (which is basically the same as the old one) that his ideas may be proven by spying on Hamlet's conversation with Gertrude from a concealed place. Claudius just wants to get rid of him by sending him to England.
Polonius therefore views the conversation with Gertrude as his last chance to prove his theory. "If she find him not, to England send him, or confine him where your wisdom best may think."
What did Hamlet tell Horatio he stole from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?
After the performance of the Mousetrap (or The Murder of Gonzago), Claudius retires and attempts to pray for forgiveness for his crime. But how, he asks himself, can he be forgiven since he is "still possessed of those effects for which [he] did the murder: [his] Crown, [his] own ambition, and [his] Queen." These are the things which he got as a result of the murder of his brother.
What happens in the play-within-a-play in hamlet?
It is called "The Murder of Gonzago" or "The Mousetrap" and depicts the murder of a king, whose widow then marries the murderer. Sound familiar?
How does king Claudius react the play?
He leaves part way through. The similarity of the crime depicted in the play and his own drives him crazy and he can't watch it any more. How do we know this? Because in the next scene Claudius is berating himself for the murder. "Oh, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven. It has the eldest primal curse on it--a brother's murder."
3 What does Hamlet decide after his chance encounter with a captain in Fortinbras army?
What he says he decides is, "O from this time forth my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth." It's an open question whether that is a decision or a knee-jerk reaction, which he'll soon forget about.
What advice does laertes give to his sister before going to France in Hamlet?
He tells her not to get too involved with Hamlet or her reputation might suffer if he is unable to marry her. She responds that he shouldn't give hypocritical advice which he himself wouldn't take.
