Study Questions
ACT ONE
Act One Scene 1
1. What are all the guards upset and worried about at the beginning of the play?
2. What is Horatio’s reaction to the source of the guards’ concern?
3. In lines 73-82, what events are going on in the country that puzzle Marcellus?
4. How does Horatio explain the events to which Marcellus refers?
Act One Scene 2
1. Which three issues are addressed in the King’s opening speech, and what does he say about each one?
2. He lets Laertes return to Paris, but what reason does the king give for refusing to allow Hamlet to return to Wittenberg?
3. Hamlet delivers a soliloquy on page 12 (lines 129-159). What is a soliloquy? What is the theme of Hamlet’s soliloquy?
4. How does Hamlet respond to Marcellus and Horatio’s news?
5. Explain the last lines of the scene, “Foul deeds will rise,/Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.”
Act One Scene 3
1. Summarize Laertes’ main objection to Ophelia’s love for Hamlet (lines 14-28).
2. Summarize Polonius’s main objection to Ophelia’s love for Hamlet (lines 115-131).
3. Note Ophelia’s obedient responses to both her brother and her father.
Act One Scenes 4-5
1. On page 23, Horatio tries to persuade Hamlet not to follow the Ghost, but Hamlet puts him off with two excuses (lines 64-68). What are they?
2. Why does the Ghost not tell Hamlet what his life is like in Purgatory (lines 13-24).
3. Describe Hamlet Sr’s death (lines 59-79).
4. What does the Ghost tell Hamlet to do to his uncle? To his mother?
5. What does Hamlet make Marcellus and Horatio swear to?
6. Ending couplet is once again important. Explain lines 196-197: “The time is out of joint. O cursed spite,/That ever I was born to set it right.”
Hamlet
Questions Act 2
Scene One
1. Polonius demonstrates his suspicious nature by sending Reynaldo to spy on Laertes and tell lies about him in Paris to try to find out whether he is a serious student or whether he is living a life of reckless abandon out of sight of his father.
“Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth;
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias
By indirections find directions out.” (63-66)
2. At the end of the scene, Ophelia comes running into the room all distressed. Why is she distressed?
3. How does Polonius respond to her news, and what does this tell us about his character?
Scene Two
1. Who are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and what do the King and Queen want them to do?
2. What does Polonius brag about as he seeks audience with the King? (48-49)
3. What does Gertrude think Hamlet's problem is? (56-57)
4. What news does Voltemand bring from Norway?
5. Polonius demonstrates what a fool he is. In the end, what does he think is the source of Hamlet's madness? (140-151)
6. What plot does Polonius hatch with the King to find out what Hamlet's problem is?
7. Hamlet is very cruel to Polonius, but Polonius doesn't understand most of his insults. List the names Hamlet calls Polonius and what Hamlet means by them. (Keep a running list; there's another one on page 50.)
8. Hamlet figures out R & G's agenda in short order, demonstrating his superior intelligence and highlighting the fact that he is mistrustful of everyone in the Danish court (Elsinore). What is the essential answer Hamlet gives R & G, hidden in all his verbiage?
9. There are two important things about the long scene with the Players.
a) How does Hamlet react to the First Player's speech about Hecuba's grief over Priam's death? (545-560)
b) What do the Players agree to do for Hamlet? (530-537)
10. Hamlet's soliloquy ending Act 2 is very important.
a) What is Hamlet's attitude and what are the reasons for it?
b) What does he plan to do and why? (584-601
Act 3 Questions
1. What do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern report to Claudius regarding their conversation with Hamlet?
2. What do the pair fail to reveal to Claudius?
3. What favor does Hamlet ask of Horatio?
4. What is the plot of the Dumb Show the Players present?
5. What is the significance of the play’s title, “The Mousetrap”?
6. What does Hamlet mean, as he prepares to visit his mother, when he says, “O heart, lose not thy nature”?
7. What rationale do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern give for accepting Claudius’ commission to take Hamlet
to England forthwith?
8. What is ironic about Hamlet’s failure to kill Claudius while the King is kneeling in prayer?
9. What is Hamlet’s reaction when he realizes he has killed Polonius rather than Claudius, whom he had
presumed to be the one hiding behind the curtain?
10. What is the apparent purpose of the Ghost’s appearance in the Queen’s bedroom while Hamlet speaks
with his mother?
Act 4 Questions
Scenes 1 & 2:
1. How does the queen protect Hamlet?
2. What does Claudius ask Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to do?
Scene 3:
4. Why does Claudius say he must hide the haste with which Hamlet is being sent away?
5. In lines 34-38, what does Hamlet tell Claudius he has done with Polonius?
6. What does Claudius arrange to happen to Hamlet when he arrives in England?
Scene 4:
7. Who does Hamlet meet in this scene?
8. What purpose unites Fortinbras's troops?
9. What effect does this meeting have on Hamlet?
Scenes 5 & 6:
10. What has happened to Ophelia?
11. Why does the Queen agree to go see her?
12. What are the problems Claudius lists in lines 77-94?
13. Why does Laertes break into Claudius's chamber?
14. What does Claudius tell Laertes to do?
15. What happens to Hamlet during his passage to England?
Scene 7:
16. In lines 5-9, what does Laertes ask Claudius?
17. What is the King's response?
18. What scheme is planned by Claudius and Laertes?
19. What is their back-up plan?
20. What news does the Queen bring? Recount the scene she describes.
21. Do you believe Ophelia's death was an accident or suicide? Explain.
Hamlet Act 5 Questions
Scene 1:1. What implications are the clowns' making in their opening conversation?
2. Why does the manner of Ophelia's burial cause so much comment?
3. What reason is given for her having a Christian burial?
4. What is foreshadowed in the scene in the graveyard?
5. What is ironic about Hamlet joking with the grave-diggers?
6. What general comment about time is made in the grave-digging scene?
7. In line 222, how does the priest account for Ophelia's Christian burial?
8. What does Laertes do that angers Hamlet?
9. What is Hamlet's response to these actions of Laertes?
Scene 2:
10. What did Hamlet do to the commission letters that Claudius had sent with him?
11. In line 62, Horatio exclaims, "Why, what a king is this!" What change (finally) has taken place in Hamlet?
12. What does Hamlet mean when he says, "…by the image of my cause, I see/ the portraiture of his…"?
13. In lines 202-204, how does Hamlet feel about the fencing match?
14. What is the nature of Hamlet's speech to Laertes before they fence?
15. Who accidentally drinks the poisoned wine?
16. How is Hamlet mortally wounded?
17. What long-anticipated act does Hamlet finally complete?
18. What does Horatio attempt to do?
19. Why does Hamlet entreat Horatio to stay alive?
20. What is Hamlet's final act as King of Denmark?
21. Certain actions throughout the final scene of the play can be linked by cause and effect. For every cause that's listed below, give the effect (results) of the listed causes (actions).
•Hamlet rewrites Claudius's orders
•Hamlet agrees to take part in the fencing match
•Claudius poisons a cup of wine
•Laertes poisons his sword point
