Act 2 Scene 2

Question 1

Plot summary

Answer 1

R+G invited to find out about Hamlet
Gertrude tells Claudius- madness by father’s death and their marriage

Young Fortinbras wanted army against Eng, old king said no - invade Poland instead- needs permission to go through Denmark - claudius :)

Polonius tells Claudius Hamlet is mad due to ❤️ and they should spy

Hamlet calls him fishmonger - statements confuse Polonius - is he acc mad?

R+G come - Hamlet confuses them - Hamlet says they were sent for and they should tell him why

Players and actors arrived - hamlet knows quite well - tells them to do The Murder of Gonzago

Question 2

Betrayal in Act 2 scene 2

Answer 2

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern lie to Hamlet from the beginning despite their apparent close friendship

They are summoned essentially to spy on him

Question 3

Madness in Act 2 scene 2

Answer 3

Hamlets madness if discussed and what it means to be mad

Polonius says ‘to define true madness/ What is’t buy to be nothing else but mad?’

Hamlet admits to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he isn’t mad but in such mad language they don’t know if they can believe him

Polonius is continually making reference to Hamlet being mad with love for Ophelia

Question 4

Love in Act 2 scene 2

Answer 4

Hamlets letter to Ophelia is one of the most used Shakespearean wedding quotes

For its romantic and heartfelt imagery

Question 5

Deception in Act 2 scene 2

Answer 5

Hamlet sets in motion the play within a play and hopes it will provoke Claudius in to revealing him self

Question 6

Form structure and language
Act 2 scene 2

Claudius speech to rosencrantz and guildenstern

Answer 6

The royal inclusive pronoun ‘we’ again used to signify Claudius’ authority and control

His language is poetic and is elevated as he suggests his concern for hamlets state of mind

Question 7

Form structure and language
Act 2 scene 2

Commerce in Gertrude’s welcome

Answer 7

She asks R+G to ‘expend’ their time ‘for the supply and profit of our hope’,

Suggesting a commercial relationship between the two of them

She then promises ‘your visitation shall receive such thanks/ as fits a kings remembrance’ - a fairly clear indication that they will be paid for their trouble

Repetition of ‘Thanks Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz’
Comic correction - can’t be told apart?
Or are Claudius and Gertrude as one - in outward regal appearance

Question 8

Form structure and language
Act 2 scene 2

Ophelia and celestial imagery

Answer 8

Hamlets love letter uses imagery of the sun and stars to indicate the bright, joyful and permanent nature of his love

While Polonius admits he told Ophelia that Hamlet was ‘out of thy star’, unable to marry her

Question 9

Form structure and language
Act 2 scene 2

Hamlets discussion with Polonius

Answer 9

Spoken in prose rather then blank verse

Prose often used for mundane subjects or to significantly character speaking in lower class- grave differs eg - but here, Hamlet’s prose indicate his madness, as he has not the wit or intellect to speak in blank verse

Is his deliberate?

Question 10

Form structure and language
Act 2 scene 2

Polonius asides

Answer 10

Shows us what he is thinking but makes mockery out of him too because he seems to be missing point of the conversation

He says he was nearly this mad for love and that Hamlet is still concerned about Ophelia

Question 11

Form structure and language
Act 2 scene 2

Sexual innuendo

Answer 11

Hamlets conversation with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is littered with sexual innuendo about fate’s middle, waist and prove parts with the ironic conclusion that fate is fickle

Question 12

Form structure and language
Act 2 scene 2

Hamlets intense questioning

Answer 12

Questioning of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern seems to suggest madness because of its pace and speed - not allowing them to respond but seeming quite maniac

Question 13

Form structure and language
Act 2 scene 2

The ending

Answer 13

Rhyming couplet

‘The plays the thing/
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king’

Summation couplet; coming at the end of s soliloquy bemoaning Hamlets lack of action

It launched the next act with a decisive moment and a foreshadow of what Hamlet hopes to achieve

Question 14

Context in Act 2 scene 2

Answer 14

Travelling actors

Question 15

Key quotes

Act 2, scene 2

Answer 15

Claudius
‘More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him/So much from the understanding of himself, I cannot dream of’

Polonius
‘Blunt lunacy’

Gertrude
‘His father’s death and our o’er hasty marriage’

Polonius
‘day is day, night night and time is time’

Hamlet letter
‘Beautified Ophelia’
‘Thou’

Polonius
‘Into a weakness’

Polonius
‘Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t

Hamlet
‘it is a prison’

Hamlet
‘He that plays the king shall be welcome’

Hamlet
‘I am but mad north north west’

Question 16

Explain

‘More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him/ So much from the understanding of himself,/ I cannot dream of

Answer 16

Hamlets state of mind is frequently discussed here

Madness is considered as being lack of understanding of oneself, a disordered state compared to what he was before

Does Claudius pause after the caesura? He knows a potential reason for Hamlets Change- is he suspicious or worried hamlet knows something

Question 17

Explain

‘His father’s death and our o’erhasty marriage’

Answer 17

Here, Gertrude admits the quickness of their marriage - and that it has disturbed her son

That she uses o’er hasty perhaps suggesting she regrets the speed of it or at least the effect it has on Hamlet

Question 18

Explain

‘day is day, night night, and time is time’

Answer 18

Repetition of words emphasises how full of nothing Polonius is

He’s saying it’s no good making long speeches about what time majesty or madness is - but he’s doing exactly that

The tangled confusion this speech reflects Polonius as a courtier- gradually ageing advisor full of overblown advice he gives because he sees himself as wise

Question 19

Explain

‘Beautified Ophelia’
‘Thou’

Answer 19

Hamlets Letter to Ophelia

Love
Intimate and personal
Heartfelt

Question 20

Explain

‘Into a weakness’

Answer 20

Polonius suggests to be so in love is a weakness

Question 21

Explain

‘Though his be madness, yet there is method in’t’

Answer 21

A suspicion hamlet isn’t truly mad

There is semblance of it I him still

And the audience might see even more than Polonius does

Alliterative quality has made it a memorable phrase about seeking logic in the illogical

Question 22

Explain

‘It is a prison’

Answer 22

Denmark as prison highlights his internal agonies

Question 23

Explain

‘He that plays the King shall be welcome’

Answer 23

A play on words

‘Plays’ doesn’t just mean act but also to cause trouble for or interfere with

Question 24

Explain

‘I am but mad north north west’

Answer 24

Hamlets confession to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he is not mad - although he speaks truth, he does in a calculated way to make them disbelieve it with the virtual nonsense of ‘north north west’

Question 25

Close analysis

Hamlet
‘Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the beggars’ shadows’

Answer 25

King and beggars are but shadows of one another, versions of each other: implying that the difference between them is perception, nothing more

Question 26

Close analysis
Hamlet

‘What a piece of work is man!’
‘How noble in reason’
‘How like an angel’
‘Dust’
‘Man delights not me’

Answer 26

Prose not blank verse - madness or normality and every man nature of his speech

Hyperbolic language likening men to angels - like man king

Intense intellectual and philosophical understanding evident here - in his understanding of the impressive nature of mankind

Comparatives put mankind in parallel with Angels

Ultimately- Hamlet cannot find anything in man other than dust - which brings to mind ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’

Despite all ability to think and their intellect, perhaps it’s all a front and they really are just animals underneath it all

Question 27

Hamlets soliloquy

Close analysis

Answer 27

‘O, what rogue and peasant slave am I!’
‘For Hecuba!’
‘drown the stage with tears’

• insults himself to lowest man
• player can be so emotional for fiction he can’t
• hyperbolic and dramatic metaphors

‘What would he do?’
Already doubts himself

‘Am I a coward?’

‘pigeon-liver’d’ - pathetic, weak and useless
‘like a whore’ - lowest of man, critical

‘Revenge by heaven and hell’
He doesn’t care where ghost came from

‘Though it have no tongue’
He’ll tell if Claudius killed king through his conscience if he ‘belch’ and look pale / guilty

‘the play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king’
Foreshadows Claudius future he shout

Question 28

Euphemism

Answer 28

‘Of hamlets transformation’ - being mad was a taboo subject - putting on act of care for hamlets reputation

Question 29

Dramatic irony

Answer 29

Claudius asks R&G why hamlet is mad but we already know

Question 30

Bribery

Answer 30

‘That you touch sage your rest and here in our court’

They can stay in castle

Agree to do it

Question 31

Hamlets letter to Ophelia

Answer 31

He’s blinded by love - obsession - true love ‘hot love on the wing’

Question 32

How does Polonius interpret hamlets actions/sentiments

Answer 32

True love ‘weakness’

But

“Lord Hamlet is a prince’

Question 33

Hamlets satire being replaced with melancholy

Answer 33

‘You cannot sir take from me anything that I will move willingly part withal- except life, except my life’ —> suicide

Question 34

Hamlets sexual talk w rosencrantz and guildenstern

Answer 34

‘The middle of her favours’

Question 35

What sends you to his prison hither

Answer 35

.

Question 36

Hamlets change in tone with R+G

Answer 36

Questions - interrogation - wants to tell him truth - old friends

Question 37

How do R+G respond to hamlets out pouring

Answer 37

Smiling (hamlet said R was)