Hamlet

Question 1

Complete the quote from act three scene one: “to be or not to be:’…

Answer 1

“That is the question “

Question 2

Complete the quotation:“The lady doth… “

Answer 2

“Protest too much, methinks“

Question 3

Complete the quotation: “ this above all:…”

Answer 3

To thine own self be true

Question 4

Complete the quotation : “though this be madness…”

Answer 4

Yet there is method in it

Question 5

Complete the quotation: “frailty, thy…”

Answer 5

Name is woman!

Question 6

Complete the quotation from act one scene two which comments on natural order: “sometimes sister…”

Answer 6

Now our queen

Question 7

Complete the quotation in which Claudius’ corruption is revealed: “there is something rotten…

Answer 7

In the state of Denmark

Question 8

Complete the quotation in which hamlet’s indecisive hamartia is personified: “to be…”

Answer 8

Or not to be

Question 9

In act one scene two how does Hamlet physically convey his isolation from the court?

Answer 9

Firstly he is dressed in black and secondly Hamlet interposes Claudius and Gertrude with Staccato one liners, contrast.

Question 10

How does Ophelia perpetuate feminist critic’s views of the powerlessness of women in a patriarchal society?

Answer 10

The noun Ophelia means serving woman
She has no opinions of her own : “ I do not know my Lord what I should think”
AC Bradley suggests that her submissiveness acts as a plot point which allows the play to take its shape

Question 11

What is an example of a film version portraying Ophelia’s lack of freedom?

Answer 11

In Kostinev’s film Ophelia wears a wired framed dress ; she is caged like a puppet, she can barely move

Question 12

How is the ghost omnipresent?

Answer 12

He is always there: he acts as the connection between the supernatural world and the mortal world

Question 13

How is the idea of transgenerational trauma shown through the ghost?

Answer 13

As Hamlet’s Father, the ghost, has been murdered it is Hamlet’s task to revenge him

Question 14

How many clear shifts are there in hamlet’s soliloquy: act two scene two?

Answer 14

3:
Starts with his wonder and awe at the actors ability to produce passion for nothing
Shifts to self reproach at his inaction
Finishes with a definitive plan to catch Claudius

Question 15

Complete the quotation which connotes the theme of appearance and reality: “ that one may smile….”

Answer 15

“And smile and be a villain”

Question 16

What does Hic et ubique mean ?

Answer 16

Here and everywhere

Proves the ghost is omnipresent

Question 17

What is the significance of Yorick?

Answer 17

Hamlet ventriloquises the skull, important as Yorick acted as a surrogate father for Hamlet , gives him different advice to the dead King.
Instead of revenge Hamlet should realise that death is inevitable and let it be .

Question 18

What are Hamlet’s last words ?

Answer 18

“The rest is silence “

Question 19

Describe the political and social shift in Denmark during Claudius’ reign

Answer 19

Old Hamlet and Old Fortinbras settled disputes through combat but Claudius employs ambassadors to negotiate over territories and schemes

Question 20

How can Hamlet be described as a product of a shift in what was considered ‘princely’?

Answer 20

By the end of the 16th century instead of Princes being combative and fearless warriors they were scholars, thinkers.

Hamlet epitomises this; he was educated at Wittenburg university and has long, poetic soliloquys

Question 21

How does Francis Bacon , Shakespeare’s contemporary, describe revenge in an essay written in 1625?

Answer 21

‘A kind of wild justice’

Question 22

Explain Freud’s theory of the Madonna- Whore dichotomy

Answer 22

Men see women as either virtuous or sinful depending on whether they have had sex or not. This leads to men feeling dissatisfied in relationships as as soon as they become intimate they no longer view their partner as pure, and lose interest in her

Question 23

Give a quote that shows Hamlet portraying the Madonna- Whore theory.

Answer 23

“Marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them”

Question 24

How is Hamlet’s masculinity questioned at the start of the play?

Answer 24

Gertrude tells Hamlet to “cast thy nighted colour off” and to stop grieving, being emotional.
Claudius tries to shame Hamlet out of his grief through “ ‘tis unmanly grief” , directly addressing Hamlet’s femininity.

Question 25

How does Hamlet deal with his femininity ?

Answer 25

He tries to drive out his femininity to build up his masculinity : he calls women names like , ‘whore’, ‘drab’, ‘strumpet’ etc.

The animosity hamlet has for his passivity/ femininity causes him to project this animosity onto the women in his life -Riggs.

Question 26

Explain what the Oedipus complex is

Answer 26

The theory that all boys want to sleep with their mothers, and thus resent the parent of the same sex

Question 27

How would the Oedipus complex explain Hamlet’s hatred towards Claudius?

Answer 27

Claudius is fulfilling Hamlet’s id and childhood desires by sleeping with his mother

Question 28

How does Riggs describe Hamlet’s struggle?

Answer 28

It is “Hamlet’s battle with a patriarchal gender identity”

Question 29

How does Rebecca Smith describe Ophelia ?

Answer 29

“Ophelia is simply bait”

Question 30

How does Hamlet use puns?

Answer 30

To reveal his true thoughts while at the same time hiding them.

Psychologists now associate heavy use of puns with schizophrenia.

Question 31

How does Victor Kiernen describe Gertrude?

Answer 31

“ Gertrude seems to colourless a woman to be connected with anything as positive as murder”

Question 32

What does DH Lawrence describe the tragedy as in a poem?

Answer 32

A struggle of becoming

Question 33

How does John McRae describe Hamlet by the end of the play?

Answer 33

The perfect king

Question 34

How many soliloquy’s are in Hamlet?

Answer 34

7

Question 35

How do Hamlet’s soliloquy’s help him?

Answer 35

He can share with the audience, not really speaking to himself.

Question 36

How does Hamlet include us in his soliloquy’s?

Answer 36

He says “ soft you now, the fair Ophelia “

Telling us and himself to be quiet as Ophelia enters.

Question 37

What does Fortinbras’. Name mean?

Answer 37

Strong arm- connotes the warrior king , contrast to Hamlet and Claudius , shift