Hamlet

Question 1

What words do characters use to describe the Ghost in Act 1, scene 1?

Answer 1

This thing
Our fantasy
This dreaded sight
This apparition
A figure like the King that’s dead
It
Image
This portentous figure
Illusion
This present object
This spirit

Question 2

Hamlet says that “Denmark’s a prison” (2.2.260). In what way is Denmark like a prison?
Support your answer with evidence from the play.

Answer 2

Hamlet is being surveilled all of the time and has no privacy: Claudius has various spies
(Polonius, as well as Guildenstern and Rosencrantz) watching him constantly.

Question 3

What is the discovering of the truth in Act 2:

Answer 3

Polonius using Reynaldo to spy on Laertes (2.1.1-84)
Claudius using Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to figure out why Hamlet
is acting strange (2.2.1-41)
Hamlet deciding to stage a play to test the truth of the Ghost’s story
(2.2.617-34)

Question 4

Why does Hamlet consider whether to be or not to be

Answer 4

Hamlet questions whether it is better “to be”—to exist, to
live—or “not to be”—to die. He observes that living means
suffering, whereas dying would end suffering, just as sleeping
provides a break from the hardships of waking life. He
suggests, then, that it would be better “not to be.”
But then he reconsiders. No one knows for sure what happens
after death. This uncertainty is frightening, and we generally
choose to face the problems we know (“the ills we have”)
rather than the void of the unknown.
Hamlet thus concludes that it is “conscience”—consciousness,
thought, the act of thinking—that makes us choose “to be.”

Question 5

Summary of act 4

Answer 5

Claudius, fearing for his life, decides to send Hamlet to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (3.3.1-
11), secretly planning to have Hamlet executed on his arrival there (4.3.67)
Fortinbras and his army pass through Denmark on their way to fight for some land in Poland (4.4)
Laertes, learning that Hamlet has killed Polonius, returns from France, enraged and demanding that
Claudius answer for his father’s death (4.5)
A letter arrives for Claudius from Hamlet, telling Claudius that he is returning to Denmark (4.7.40-55)
Claudius encourages Laertes to seek revenge on Hamlet, and suggests a plan (4.7.60-185)
Ophelia, who has gone mad with grief (4.5), drowns (4.7)