Context

Question 1

Antecedent Action

Answer 1

The events leading up to Hamlet are shaped by past conflicts. Thirty years before the play, the old King Hamlet of Denmark killed King Fortinbras of Norway in a disputed battle over land, taking Fortinbras’ territory. Fortinbras’ son, young Fortinbras, seeks to avenge his father’s death and reclaim the land. Meanwhile, Hamlet’s father dies under suspicious circumstances, allegedly from a snake bite, and his brother Claudius seizes the throne, marrying Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, shortly after. Hamlet disapproves of the hasty marriage and remains suspicious of Claudius, setting the stage for the events that follow.

Question 2

Women

Answer 2

Role was to serve and obey men, have naturally softer dispositions than men. Early marriages and childbirth

Question 3

Religion

Answer 3

Death of Queen Elizabeth i had people fearing a religious war between Catholicism and Protestantism, allusion to the great chain of being

Question 4

Elizabethan era - sociocultural landscape

Answer 4

Increase in art, music and literature, despite perpetual cycle of povetry

Question 5

Political, historical, and economics conditions

Answer 5

Protestant reformation 1517- restructure of practices and beliefs of the Roman Catholic church