ACT 3,4 CLOSET SCENE

Question 1

quotes on stichomythia

Answer 1

G: come, come you answer with an idle tongue

H: go, go you answer with a wicked tongue

Question 2

quotes on gertrude’s guilt and remorse

Answer 2

speak no more/these words like daggers in my ears

Question 3

quotes on hamlet’s role as a saviour

Answer 3

confess yourself to heaven
wring your heart to me
when you desirous to be blest/ I’ll be blessing you beg

Question 4

quotes on hamlet criticising gertrude

Answer 4

sweat rank of an unseamed bed
not go to my uncle’s bed
by no means… let the bloat king tempt you again to bed

Question 5

quote on what gertrude says about the ghost

Answer 5

tis the very coinage of your brain

Question 6

quotes criticising claudius

Answer 6

hyperion curls/ like a mildew’d ear
mountain/moor
an eye like mars to threaten and command

Question 7

critics for closet scene

Answer 7

the ghost is the linchpin of hamlet (wilson)

gertrude is moral defective (muir)

in Hamlet the covert drama of reformation vies for priority with the overt drama of revenge (adelman)

Question 8

analyse the stichomythia

Answer 8

stichomythia is a dramatic technique which shows mocking, in Hamlet’s case it shows his defiance and assertion of authority over gertrude

Question 9

analyse the religious references in this scene

Answer 9

Hamlet views his role as a saviour like and trying to save his mother from sin, the repetition of virtue highlights how he believes she can still be reformed

Question 10

analyse speak no more/these words like daggers in my ears

Answer 10

gertrude begins to feel remorse and guilt for her actions and no longer justifies her marriage- contrasts with lady doth protest too much

Question 11

analyse tis the very coinage of your brain

Answer 11

gertrude makes a comment on how the ghost is just a hallucination to Hamlet, highlighting his loss of reality. Moreover it is ironic

Question 12

analyse sweat rank of an unseamed bed/ not go to my uncle’s bed/ by no means…let the bloat king tempt you again to bed

Answer 12

reveals how Hamlet believes the only way to save Gertrude from corruption is from the removal of sex. He also points out how the incest is the main reason for her corruption

Question 13

analyse eyes like mars that threaten and command

Answer 13

image of mars the god of war present OH as a valiant and powerful warrior in comparison to claudius