Act 1 Scene 2

Question 1

Plot summary act 1 scene 2

Answer 1

Claudius king - succession
Hamlet in line after him
Claudius gives speech lamenting brothers dead but also announcing married widow- wants everyone to be happy bowt it

Claudius turns to Laertes not Hamlet. Laertes returned from studying for king’s funeral and following wedding- begs to return- which is granted

Claudius tells Laertes how grateful the crown is to him for his loyalty

Claudius and Gertrude tell Hamlet to be more cheerful and stop mourning clothes for father and celebrate marriage

Claudius tells him continuing to mourn is insulting and childish

Gertrude asks him to be happier

They also ask him to remain in Denmark rather than return to Wittenberg

When leave stage - Hamlet alone- FIEST soluloquy

Horatio and Marcellus find him and tell him they saw father’s ghost - he agrees to watch them the next night to see for himself

Question 2

Key themes in Act 1 scene 2

Answer 2

Love

Honour and duty

Women and sexuality

Question 3

Love in Act 1 scene 2

Answer 3

Are Claudius and Gertrude in love?

At some points if they play it seems as though they are

Question 4

Honour and duty in Act 1 scene 2

Answer 4

Claudius tells Hamlet that to mourn father is honourable - but only to a point

Then he has a duty to the living around him, to Denmark, even to God, to cease mourning

Question 5

Women and sexuality in Act 1 scene 2

Answer 5

Hamlet is often angrier with Gertrude’s re-marrying than over the fact his father’s death

His soliloquy if often more concerned with her apparent sexual misconduct and the betrayal he feels at the short time she spent mourning

Question 6

Form structure and language in Act 1 scene 2

Claudius speech to court

Answer 6

Claudius speech to court

• first speech, important
• marriage to sister in law
• speaks in blank verse
• uses a series of parallelises and closely linked imagines to highlight his suggestion that he is the best option for Denmark that his succession and marriage are natural occurrence

Question 7

Name all form structure and language in Act 1 scene 2

Answer 7

Claudius’ speech to court

Moving from outside to inside

Impressions of Claudius and Hamlet

Turning first to Laertes

Rhyming couplet

Question 8

Form structure and language in Act 1 scene 2

Moving from outside to inside

Answer 8

Moves the focus from supernatural and natural laws of good and evil to politics, and man made laws of the same

Outside, the conflict is whether the ghost is good or evil; inside the conflict is over Claudius motivations

Question 9

Form structure and language in Act 1 scene 2

Impressions of Claudius and Hamlet

Answer 9

Always remembered that this is designed to be seen and not studied

Claudius despite turning first to Laertes is king, conciliatory, measured and apparently caring

But hamlet is moody difficult and deliberately goads his uncle

Question 10

Form structure and language in Act 1 scene 2

Turning first to Laertes

Answer 10

tells us that Claudius is possible more concerned with politics than family

Question 11

Form structure and language in Act 1 scene 2

Rhyming couplet

Answer 11

‘Foul deeds will rise
Them to men’s eyes’

Rhyming couplet often increase the sense of finality and summarise the emotional impact of a scene

Final message of the scene is that evil will always be found out

Implies to audience - ghost is here typical of revenge tragedy

Question 12

Context in Act 1 scene 2

Answer 12

The succession question

Roles and expectations of women - Hamlets angrier with Gertrude for marrying, than that his father is dead

Question 13

Key quotes in Act 1 scene 2

Answer 13

‘Seems madam! nay it is; I know not ‘seems’

‘Tis unmanly grief
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven
A heart unfortified, a mind impatient’

I shall in all my best obey you madam

Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats/ Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables

A countenance more in sorrow than in anger

Question 14

Explain

‘Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not ‘seems.’

Answer 14

hamlet

Hamlet anger at suggestion that he is feigning mourning but he really is mourning

He argues through a series of negatives that he feels just as he presents himself

Others ‘might play’ but he genuinely feels unhappy

Question 15

Explain

‘Tis unmanly grief
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven

Answer 15

Claudius

Criticism of Hamlet
Indication of masculinity should be - Hamlet too weak

Question of Hamlets madness is important too - as often considered in Elizabethan times to be an indicator of a weak mind, of low intellect
- so here Hamlet is susceptible to it

By referring to the ‘heart’ and the ‘mind’ Claudius links them both, suggesting Hamlet is too emotional

And not rational enough

Question 16

Explain

‘I shall in my best obey you, madam’

Answer 16

Hamlet

When asked to stay in Denmark rather than go back to uni l, Hamlet says he will obey mother —> rather than his uncle and king

An insult to Claudius, whom he despises, but also significant that here at least Hamlet shows some respect to Gertrude

Question 17

Explain

‘Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats/ Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables’

Answer 17

Hamlet

Useful for discussing the haste of marriage

The idea that the 2 ceremonies followed so swiftly that the left overs for one could be used for other

Criticisms levelled at Gertrude

Sexual desires being driving force for marriage

Question 18

Explain

A countenance more in sorrow than in anger

Answer 18

.

Question 19

Close analysis of Claudius first address to court

Answer 19

Royal plural ‘we’ and ‘our’ - Claudius now king - emphasises his authority

All in blank verse - oozes authority, musical feeling
Creates impression of Claudius as thoughtful and regal

Semantic field of mourning ‘grief’ ‘woe’ ‘sorrow’ - unhappy at death of brother

How much is for show?

Contradictions
‘Mirth in funeral and dirge in marriage’ - balanced nature of Claudius decision - stability in kingdom

Succession of Elizabeth in question as no children and unmarried, is Shakespeare defending his queen? - implication Claudius - villain behaved in unseemly manner but Elizabeth’s decision right one?

Caesura ‘taken to wife:’ - decide how long - challenge court or quickly rush next line

References to Gertrude don’t speak of love or harmony - she’s his partner in ruling kingdom but we’re not certain what their relationship is like

End stopped “For all, our thanks” - decisive finishing note - personal business concluded before he moves to more public and political discussion of Fortinbras’ approach

Question 20

Hamlet’s first soliloquy part 1

‘O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve Ireland into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting has no fix’d
His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!

Answer 20

-Has been publicly humiliated by Claudius
‘O God! God!’ repetition emphasises despair and exclamation expresses anger.

“Self slaughter” means Hamlet cannot do it.
Religious question of suicide is constantly brought up.

The ‘solid’ flesh may have originally been sullied or dirty, spiked. Both spelling suggest hamlet sees death for him as a cleansing being accepted into heaven.

Question 21

Hamlets first soliloquy part 2

How weary, stale flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on’t! ‘it’s an unseeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!

Answer 21

‘Weary, stale, flat, unprofitable’ listing exacerbates the impression of Hamlet’s misery

There’s nothing he would feel the loss of in this world? Wb Ophelia? How could he contemplate suicide if he has Ophelia?

But we know mental illness does not work this way today

‘Unweeded garden….’ destroyed by lack of care and using the metaphor of an Eden neglected and unloved so only weeds many flourish there- only unwanted damaging things.

‘Things rank and gross in nature’ brings back to original despair

Question 22

Hamlet’s first soliloquy part 3

Let me not think on’t - Frailty, thy name is woman!—
A little month or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow’d my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears: - why she, even she—
O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn’d longer— Marie’s with my uncle,
My father’s brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules; within a month:
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not not it cannot come to good:
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue

Answer 22

Towards middle of soliloquy- less controlled and deliberate but v fragmented and enjambment suggests angry flow of thoughts

Frailty thy name if woman is crucial is feminist discussions about play being turning point in which Gertrude is blamed for hamlets anger not his father’s death

Language emphasises speed of her decision eyes were still ‘flushing’

Niobe- Greek myth- weeped following death of children

Caesura and exclamtive ‘why she; even she - O God!’ - Hamlets near speechlessness

‘Incestuos’ - biblical interpretation - adultry if brothers wife

Hamlet says will stay silent