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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
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.
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.
