Act 1, Scene 4

Question 1

Hamlet: “The air bites shrewdly………….

Answer 1

……………….it is very cold.” - Here Shakespeare is setting the scene for Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus about to see Old Hamlet’s ghost. The use of pathetic fallacy and ‘cold’ atmosphere could perhaps foreshadow later events in the play where things are not as they seem, are cold, dangerous and sinister.

Question 2

Horatio: “It is a nipping and………..

Answer 2

…………an eager air.” - Here Shakespeare is setting the scene for Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus about to see Old Hamlet’s ghost. The use of pathetic fallacy and ‘nipping’ atmosphere could perhaps foreshadow later events in the play where things are not as they seem, are cold, dangerous and sinister.

Question 3

Hamlet: “That for some vicious mole of nature in them, As in their birth - wherein they are not……….

Answer 3

…………..guilty, Since nature cannot choose his origin.” - Hamlet talking about the sin of man and stating that he doesn’t think evil has the ability to choose it’s victims; it is just that some people are born evil and some people are not.

Question 4

Hamlet: “That for some vicious………….

Answer 4

…………..mole of nature in them.”

Question 5

Hamlet: “Since nature cannot………….

Answer 5

…………choose his origin.” - Personification of nature; makes evil seem like a real person - Claudius?

Question 6

Hamlet: “Take corruption from…………..

Answer 6

………….that particular fault.” - Some people are just born corrupt and it is a fault they are born with. Some people are born with sin and cannot escape it.

Question 7

Horatio: “Look, my lord………..

Answer 7

…………it comes!” - Shakespeare using an exclamatory remark to emphasise Horatio’s fear whilst he warns Hamlet that Old Hamlet’s ghost is getting nearer towards them.

Question 8

Stage Directions: “Enter………..

Answer 8

………….Ghost.”

Question 9

Hamlet: “Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Be thou a spirit of………..

Answer 9

…………health or goblin damn’d.” - Reoccurring motif / constant reference as to whether the ghost is good or evil.

Question 10

Hamlet: “Bring with thee airs from…………

Answer 10

………..heaven or blasts from hell.” - Hamlet pondering over whether the ghost is sent from Heaven or Hell.

Question 11

Hamlet: “By thy intents wicked or…………

Answer 11

…………charitable?” - Hamlet pondering as to whether the ghost’s intentions are evil and damned or good and charitable.

Question 12

Hamlet: “Tell why thy canonized bones, hearsed (coffin) in…………….

Answer 12

death, Have burst their cerements.” - Hamlet wonders why his Father has burst from the grave and has been sick.

Question 13

Hamlet: “Why the sepulchre (tomb) Wherein we saw thee………..

Answer 13

………..quietly inurn’d.” - Hamlet wonders why his Father has burst from the grave and has been sick.

Question 14

Hamlet: “Hath oped his ponderuous and……….

Answer 14

………….marble jaws, To cast thee up again.” - Hamlet states that it’s as if someone has opened Old Hamlet’s jaws and let him out of his coffin; as if an external force has bought him back to life.

Question 15

Hamlet: “What may this mean, That thou, dead corse, again in complete……………

Answer 15

………….steel Revisit’st thus the glimpses of the moon.” - Hamlet questions why his Father has suddenly turned up in his armour to upset him?

Question 16

Stage Directions: “The Ghost……….

Answer 16

………….beckons Hamlet.”

Question 17

Horatio: “It beckons you to go away with it………..

Answer 17

…………..As if some impartment did desire To you alone.” - Horatio telling Hamlet that he thinks the Ghost wants to speak to him privately, without himself and Marcellus.

Question 18

Marcellus: “But do not go………..

Answer 18

………..with it.” - Marcellus tells Hamlet not to go with / follow the Ghost as he fears it may possess him.

Question 19

Hamlet: “I will………..

Answer 19

………..follow it.” - Hamlet wants to follow the Ghost of Old Hamlet to see what he’s got to say to him.

Question 20

Horatio: “Do not………….

Answer 20

………..my lord.” - Horatio doesn’t want Hamlet to go and speak with the Ghost of Old Hamlet alone in case it possesses him.

Question 21

Hamlet: “Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life……….

Answer 21

……….in a pin’s fee.” - Hamlet questions Horatio and Marcellus as to why they are so worried about him speaking with the Ghost? Hamlet states that he himself is not worried because he doesn’t see his life as having anymore worth than a pin, so why should he fear for his life? He doesn’t value his life on a human level and is not scared of ‘death’ at this stage in the play, as it wouldn’t be him doing it to himself.

Question 22

Hamlet: “It waves me forth again……..

Answer 22

……….I’ll follow it.” - Here Hamlet is showing traits of being a man of action / someone who is determined to do something, in this case see the Ghost. At this point in the play, he is not a procrastinator - he is a man of action deciding to follow, what he believes to be, his father’s Ghost.

Question 23

Horatio: “What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the………

Answer 23

……….cliff That beetles o’er his base into the sea.” - Horatio wonders if the Ghost will tempt Hamlet into doing bad and perhaps lead him over the cliff edge into the sea.

Question 24

Horatio: “And draw you into………..

Answer 24

……….madness?” - Horatio is worried that the Ghost might draw Hamlet into madness / curse him with powers not known to man. He is concerned as to whether the Ghost will bring madness upon Hamlet.

Question 25

Marcellus: “You shall not………….

Answer 25

………..go, my lord.” - Marcellus gives his second warning to Hamlet that he does not want him to follow the Ghost as he fears what consequences it may bring for Hamlet.

Question 26

Horatio: “Be ruled………….

Answer 26

………..you shall not go.” - Horatio attempts to hold Hamlet back from visiting the Ghost alone.

Question 27

Hamlet: “Hold off your………

Answer 27

………..hands.” - Hamlet wants Horatio and Marcellus to stop holding him back from speaking with the Ghost alone.

Question 28

Hamlet: “My fate……..

Answer 28

……….cries out.” - Hamlet believes it is his fate to go and speak to the Ghost of Old Hamlet and find out what he wants to talk to him about. The personification of his ‘fate’ ‘crying out to him’ suggests that he can almost hear Old Hamlet / his fate directing him towards the Ghost to find out what it wants to tell him and to do the right thing.

Question 29

Hamlet: “Unhand me, gentlemen. By Heaven………..

Answer 29

…………..I’ll make a Ghost of him that let’s me.” - Hamlet tells Horatio and Marcellus to let go of him and that he’ll make them a Ghost as well if they don’t let him go. AKA, he’ll kill them.

Question 30

Hamlet: “I say, away!…………..

Answer 30

………..Go on; I’ll follow thee.” - Here Hamlet begins to talk to the Ghost of Old Hamlet and tells him he is willing to follow him.

Question 31

Horatio: “He waxes desperate………..

Answer 31

………..with imagination.” - Once Hamlet has gone away with the Ghost, Horatio tells Marcellus that he believes Hamlet has let his imagination run away with him, and has consequently become reckless.

Question 32

Marcellus: “Let’s follow…….

Answer 32

………..’tis not thus to obey him.” - Marcellus wants him and Horatio to follow Hamlet and the Ghost to make sure they are okay.

Question 33

Marcellus: “Something is rotten in………….

Answer 33

………..the state of Denmark.” - Foreshadows things not being as they should be, corruptness, inequality, grossness, and things being dishonest / unprincipled / untrustworthy.

Question 34

Horatio: “Heaven will………..

Answer 34

………..direct it.” - Implies a hope that Heaven (the source of all good) will help direct Denmark out of it’s rotten corruptness / it’s all in the hands of God.