Hamlet

Question 1

How does Shakespeare create tension and unease in Act 1

Answer 1

Portrayed through the mysterious and fearful nature the guards had when describing the ghost

‘What, has this THING appeared again tonight?’

Ambiguous reference to the ghost creates unease

Question 2

What religion were Shakespeare’s parents

Answer 2

Catholic

Question 3

When was the renaissance and how does it link in with Hamlet

Answer 3

Time after the Dark Ages - better social + economic life

Claudius = dark ages

Hamlet = Renasiance

Question 4

Give a list of different words to describe the ghost in Act 1

Answer 4

Thing 
Fantasy 
Dreaded sight 
It 
Apparation 
Illusion

Question 5

What is the significance of pigeons

Answer 5

“I am pigeon”

Thought to be mild and gentle, linking to Hamlet, as they had no bile in their livers, which was believed to be the source to anger

Question 6

Why does Hamlet become frustrated around the actors (2)

Answer 6

Admires their ability to change their moral purpose in contrast to himself. This leads to anger as Hamlet is a slave to his mind and is bound to the complex issues of reality ‘all for nothing’.

Feels inferior - one who feels so deeply over dram must feel so deeply over life

Question 7

When is Hamlet most at ease

Answer 7

When playing a part - illustrates his desires to escape adult responsibilities

Question 8

When faced with a problem, Hamlet escapes into a……………….of dramatic action where the only decision to be made is the initial decision to……..the role

Answer 8

Dreamworld

Enter

Question 9

Acting entails no………and thus, no……………….

Answer 9

Volition

Moral responsability

Question 10

Give an example of Hamlet’s isolation from Denmark

Answer 10

The first scene - has to be coaxed into communicating by both King + Queen

Question 11

Give another example, other than acting, which highlights Hamlet’s disgust of responsibility

Answer 11

gets drunk on the message of the ghost - drink diminishes a man’s responsibility for his actions and creates a world where moral responsibilities no longer exist

Question 12

The ‘antic disposition’ protects Hamlet’s mind from……in accordance with the ghosts injunctions

Answer 12

Taint

Question 13

What does his lack of remorse and callous behaviour towards dead Polonius show

Answer 13

His detachment and exaggerated theatrical ranting at his mother - still in the world of his imagination

Question 14

How do you write a secure intro

Answer 14

Describe what happens in scene - secure understanding

Then establish the main ideas, themes explored

Question 15

What is anaphora

Answer 15

Repetition of the same word or words from the beginning of sentences, lines or phrases

Question 16

What do commas represent in Hamlet’s soliloquies

Answer 16

Small changes in thought

The more broken up a thought is, the less confidence they have

Question 17

Which words encapsulate a sense of frustration

Answer 17

“O’

“Fie”

Question 18

Give an example quote showing Hamlet as impatient and analyse it

Answer 18

“O what a rash and bloody deed this is”

The refusal to murder Clausius whilst he prays leads his anger to murder Polonius. Hamlet’s first act of murder is unplanned “rash” - suggests that it is the decisions made by hamlet that have the worst implications

Question 19

Give an example quote showing hamlet’s disgust at Gertrude re-marrying Claudius

Answer 19

“Married with mine Uncle”

The alliteration could emphasise Hamlet’s disgust at his mother’s marriage as it is returned to through the scene, calling her bed ‘incestuous’ - indicating that he is unable to think of anything else and is struggling to process his emotions

Question 20

How does divine right link in with Hamlet

Answer 20

In Elizabethan society, the power of the monarch was seemed to have derived directly from God.

When Claudius killed King Hamlet, it is a sin against God as well as a criminal and immoral act.

Question 21

What 3 paragraphs would you give on whether the character suffer the fate they deserve

Answer 21

Power struggle between Claudius and Hamlet

• Hamlet doesn’t want power like Claudius
• Strives to find the good in everyone, not punishable by death
• Sins of Claudius remove anyone who comes near him
• Gertrude’s redemption, siding with Hamlet

The fate of others outside of the family

• R+G, corrupted by power greed
• Laertes’ grief exploited through indoctrination

Question 22

Give an example of the consequences Hamlet being a reactionary instead

Answer 22

Laertes - fueled by anger, instantly set out his revenge.
However, still paid the price for it - highlighting the sheer consequences to go about revenge, with neither ending well

Question 23

Give a quote from Laertes forgiving Hamlet

Answer 23

“I do receive your offered love like love and will not wrong it”.

Question 24

Give a quote to illustrate Hamlet not actively seeking royal authority or power

Answer 24

“But break my heart for I must hold my tongue”. - Victim of his own mind

Question 25

What does the semantic fields of items in Ophila’s reply to Hamlet show “rich”, “perfume”, “rich gifts”, ‘wax”, “sweet”

Act 3 scene 1

Answer 25

Hamlet values Ophelia as a possession rather than as an actual human, illustrating the degraded gender roles in the play.

Rich - links to Polonius addressing Ophelia with the sematic field of finance, women = commodity.

Question 26

Give another 2 points illustrating the degraded gender roles

Answer 26

Ophelia’s submissiveness ‘I was the more deceived’
She’s a puppet, made to dance for the men around her

“Get thee to a nunnery” “You jig and amble and you lisp, you nickname God’s creatures”

Repetition of “you” highlights Hamlet’s shift in anger directed specifically at Ophelia, to women in general

Question 27

How were beauty and chastity valued in Elizabethan society

Answer 27

Most important qualities for women to have, though often perceived to be incompatible to have, with hamlet describing it as a “paradox”

Question 28

Why is Gertrude’s line “Mad as the sea and wind” significant

Answer 28

Signifies her siding with Hamlet - obeying his earlier instructions

Nouns ‘sea’ and ‘wind’ amplify his madness as both nouns radiate power and unpredictability

Both nouns are classical elements - Gertrude’s attempted justification of Hamlet’s action is the natural thing to do when having to contend with his father’s death by ‘thine uncle”

Question 29

Give another 2 examples of Gertrude siding with hamlet

Answer 29

Claudius - “your son”
The specific use of ‘your’ instead of ‘our’ or ‘hamlet’ demonstrates the growing distance and separation between him and the family because of his ‘treacherous act’.

Gertrude - “His very madness like some ore/Among a mineral of metal base/Shows itself pure - weeps for what is done”.

The semantic field of valuable metals shows the priceless value of Hamlet to her. twisting of facts “weeps for what is done” undermining the severity of his actions

Question 30

How does Claudius try to justify sending Hamlet abroad

Answer 30

“O heavy deed! It had been so with us had we been there” - danger to society as would kill anyone

“His liberty is full of threats to us all”

Describes Hamlet’s madness as a “foul disease”- contagious

Question 31

What might Feminist literary critics pick up on in Hamlet

Answer 31

Look at a patriarchal society - how women have traditionally been treated in literature

Ophelia - obedience to Polonius to end her relationship with Hamlet + Hamlet’s harsh treatment of her, as a result of the patriarchal society rather than her weaknesses as a character

Gertrude - defend her right for her sexual desire for Claudius or argue that Hamlet overemphasises about the sexual side of her relationship

Question 32

WHat would Marxist literacy criticism involve

Answer 32

Interested in the portrayal of power and politics, including Claudius’ misuse of his position and the way that R+G are portrayed as subservient characters that suffer a fate they don’t deserve

Question 33

What is Freudian literacy criticism

Answer 33

Based on the psychoanalytical theories of Sigmund Freud.

Freud saw the plot of Hamlet as an example of the “Oedipus Complex”.

Question 34

Give 3 ways in which the theme of morality is explored

Answer 34

Suicide

Afterlife

temporary nature of human existence

Question 35

How is suicide examined

Answer 35

In past eras, suicide was sometimes portrayed as an acceptable or desirable way to escape for trouble or dishonour - suicide of Brutus in Shakespeare’s Julius Caeser

Hamlet wishes that suicide was not against Christian teaching “Oh that this too too solid flesh would melt”

in his soliloquy in Act 3, scene 1, suicide is returned to - with the uncertainty of the afterlife making suicide undesirable

Ophelia’s suicide

Horatio contemplates suicide at the end of the play until persuaded against by Hamlet

Question 36

In Elizabethan times, what were skulls often displed as

an what do the multiple deaths at the end of the play show

Answer 36

‘Memento mori’ - a reminder of death

The limits of earthly power and ambition

Question 37

Give some key madness quotes

Answer 37

“As I perchance hereafter shall think meet/To put an antic disposition on”.

“Through this was madness, yet there is a method in it”.

“I essentially not in madness but mad in craft”.

Question 38

When is the period Neoclassical

Answer 38

1660-1798, writers, critics and other thinkers were heavily influenced by the classical style of the Romans and Greeks

Question 39

How does Neoclassical criticism apply to Hamlet

Answer 39

Aristotle produced a very detailed analysis on the element of ‘rules’, with early commentators such as John Evelyn applying it to hamlet

Evelyn found Hamlet too coarse and was offended by the gravedigger scene and the ungentlemanly struggle between hamlet and Laertes

James Collier (critic and clergyman) disliked the play’s sexual and religious themes

Question 40

What was the romantic period

Answer 40

Late 18th C to mid 19th C

Rejected the ordered, rational world of neoclassicism and instead stressed the emotions and spontaneous individual responses

Question 41

Give a romantic critic and their views on Hamlet

Answer 41

The poet Coleridge

Interested in the play as a study of character and emotion, rather than a drama to be performed on stage and be judged by Aristoltelen values

Complex ambiguity of Hamlet’s character was appealing, admiring the way he raised questions about life and death referring to Shakespeare’s “deep and accurate science in mental philosophy”.

Question 42

What do early twentieth-century critics tend to focus on

Answer 42

The motivation and character of Prince Hamlet (Sigmund Freud).

Question 43

What does the literary critic A C Bradley argue

Answer 43

Author of an influential book ‘Shakespearean Tradergy’ (1904)

Focused on analysing characters as if they were real people, see Hamlet’s hesitancy as a logical result of his circumstances rather than an emotional or phycological condition

Question 44

How did theatre manager and actor David Garrick (1700’s) spin his plays

Answer 44

Introduced lavish design sets and stage effects (device to lift up Hamlet’s wig in fear when he sees the ghost)

Cut out nearly all of Act 5 (Graveyard scene and duel)

Full of exaggerated pauses when acting

Question 45

How did actor Edmund Kean (1787-1883) interpret Hamlet in his plays

Answer 45

Replaced the stilted style of his predecessors with more naturalistic emotional energy and passion

Question 46

How did American actor John Barrymore (1882-1942) interpret Hamlet in his plays

Answer 46

Used a simple design for every scene

EMphasised the emotional relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude with Hamlet in tears in the closet scene

Question 47

In the 1989 production of Hamlet, Mark Rylance portrayed Hamlet’s madness with wild…………….and insane……………..

Answer 47

Derangement

Excitement

Question 48

What did the telegraph review of Laurence Oliver’s production involve

Answer 48

Praised Oliver for his portrayal of Hamlet as a fierce, ruthless prince rather than a ‘chivalrous English gentleman’

Question 49

Which Hamlet production included every scene in the play

Answer 49

Kenneth Branagh (1996)