Hamlet: Death + Mortality

Question 1

‘All that _____ must ____, passing through _________ to _________’

Answer 1

‘All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity’

Gertrude (A1 S2)
- ‘Must’ = modal verb, inevitability of death
- ‘Passing’ = life on earth small component to the wider life
- ‘Eternity’ = afterlife

Question 2

‘To ___, to ______; to _______, perchance to _______’

Answer 2

‘To die, to sleep; to sleep, perchance to dream’

Hamlet (A3 S1)
- Hamlet debating death, however fears that he will dream when dead, forcing him to face his earthly troubles
- Death is a temporary escapism, fear of the afterlife

Question 3

‘______ the poor _____ from her _____________ lay to her _______ death’

Answer 3

‘Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay to her muddy death’

Gertrude about Ophelia (A4 S7)
- ‘Pull’d’ = personifying her clothes, absorbed by nature
- Juxtaposition of ‘melodious lay’ and ‘muddy death’

Question 4

‘There is _________ providence in the _____ of a ________’

Answer 4

‘There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow’

Hamlet (A5 S2)
- ‘Special providence’ = divinely ordained/special
- Each death has been planned/decided by God, and God is the ultimate authority
- Rejects the notion that the will of the Gods or fate can be avoided
- Everthing unfolds according to an immutable plan = acceptance of death

Question 5

‘The ___________ is all’

Answer 5

‘The readiness is all’

Hamlet (A5 S2)
- Hamlet is no longer a coward of death, accepting death + its inevitability
- The time of death is insignificant, it only matter that you are prepares (die with honour, repentance)

Question 6

‘Such a ______ as this ___________ the _____’

Answer 6

‘Such a sight as this becomes the field’

Fortinbras (A5 S2)
- The multitude of deaths/bodies does not befit the court, more suitable for a battlefield
- Creates morbid imagery of the number of deaths within Elsinore
- Naturallistic connotations of death (all who die are buried, returning to nature and becoming ‘field’)

Question 7

‘The ______________, for that frame _________ a thousand ________’

Answer 7

‘The gallows-maker, for that frame outlives a thousand tenants’

Other (A5 S1)

Question 8

‘Making _______ at the ________ event’

Answer 8

‘Making mouths at the invisible event’

Hamlet (A4 S5)
- Fortinbras undermining/mocking death
- Hamlet similarly wishes he could ‘make mouths’ at death

Question 9

‘That ___________ in the play is about connecting with __________, so there’s no ________ involved’

Answer 9

‘That moment in the play is about connecting with mortality, so there’s no acting involved’

• Real skull in A5 S1 (Royal Shakespeare Company production)
• Meta-theatrical (reality of death penetrating the stage)
• Reality check to audience, acting as a reminder of death + that all will eventually return to dust