1. HAMLET: PRINCE OF DENMARK
English IV, AP

2. Interesting stats
As of the year 2000, there had been 75 film versions made of Hamlet—the second most commonly adapted play in all of Shakespeare’s work.
Hamlet himself is the most dominant character in all of Shakespeare. His 1,506 lines of speech in the play account for 39% of the play’s lines.
Hamlet has been accused of being a sexist play in that of the play’s 3,834 lines, only 330 (8.6%) of those lines are spoken by women whereas the remaining 3,504 (91.4%) lines are spoken by men.
Taken from The Shakespeare Miscellany

3. Purpose Our goals for Hamlet are three-fold:
Further practice with the analysis of difficult poetry (speeches from the play).
The collection of 36 unique answers to the most general AP prompt in history:
What meaning is communicated in Hamlet and how does Shakespeare employ a range of literary techniques to communicate it?
The experience of one of the most important and imaginative texts in the English language.

4. Language
Banter/plays on words/puns—dialogue with a double meaning
Sonnets, iambic pentameter, enjambment
Often the banter has a bawdy (sexual) tone
Characters can deliberately misunderstand each other
Invective—vivid expression of anger
Scenes which take place offstage—description of offstage action
Aside, soliloquy, monologue
Prose is generally spoken by servants or other low-born characters.
Poetry is generally spoken by nobles or people of status.
Dialogue usually written in blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter (5 beats per line, pattern is unstressed/stressed syllables).
Sometimes—rhymed verse or couplets (2 lines that rhyme together).

5. Full text online The full text of Hamlet is available online :

6. English Literature’s Most Famous Play
--After learning of his father’s death, Hamlet returns to the Danish court from the university.
--He finds Claudius, his dead father’s brother, ruling Denmark and newly (and quickly) wedded to his mother
--The hasty marriage has left Hamlet disillusioned and completely suspicious of Claudius.
--When his father’s ghost appears, Hamlet is confronted with having to avenge his father’s death
--Generally considered to be one of the most problematic texts in all of literature.

7. Revenge Tragedy
Hamlet would have provided a familiar plot for English audiences
The revenge tragedy was a well-established genre going back to Greek and Roman plays, particularly through the playwright Seneca
The basic plot is this:
A murder has to be avenged by the relative of the victim
Typically the victim’s ghost appears to demand revenge
Madness of some sort descends onto the play, ultimately resulting in the deaths of the murderer, avenger, and a number of other characters.
Characterized by crime, madness, poison, anguish, overheard conversations, and conspiracies
Incest is also a common occurrence—notice how much of a “fuss” Hamlet makes over his mother’s marriage to his uncle.

8. The Masterpiece
Hamlet embodies the basic characteristics of the revenge tragedy, but also transcends the conventions of the genre.
Hamlet
Contemplates not only revenge, but also suicide
Agonizes over the meaning of life and the corruption surrounding him
Faces not only a diseased social order but also conflicts within himself due to his indecision
Forceful, attractive, highly intelligent, equipped with shocking wit
Through images and metaphors he creates a view of the world that is both satiric and profoundly painful
He is perplexed by his own alienation from life (as are the people around him)
Retains his dignity as a tragic hero despite the painful issues with which he is faced
Fortinbras labels him the most “noble” of them all.

9. Shakespeare’s tragic protagonists
Like Greek tragic heroes, Shakespeare’s protagonists are exceptionally human; their stature makes their misfortune/fall all the more dramatic
Characters are remarkable, possessing unique qualities
The characters pay a high price for their actions
Hamlet’s agonized conviction that “time is out of joint” leads to irreversible results (think about him in relation to Oedipus or Medea)

10. The Legend Hamlet was a story familiar to the Elizabethan audience
Based on the Norse legend by Saxo Grammaticus written around A.D.
In this version, the King places his trust in two brothers, Orvendil and Fengi. Fengi kills his brother due to his longing for power and his lust for his brother’s wife.
Orvendil’s son, Amleth, avenges his father’s death and becomes king
Amleth pretends to be mad in order to escape being murdered by his uncle as her pursues his revenge

11. Chaos and Order: The Great Chain of Being
One of the most important continuities of the classical age was the Great Chain of Being.
It’s major premise was that everything had a place in a divinely structured pattern.
An object’s place depended on the proportion of “spirit” and “matter” it contained—the less spirit and the matter, the lower it stood on the chain.
Possesses political and moral implications. It was a crime and a sin to go against the prescribed order of the universe.

12. The Chain of Being Entity Characteristic
God
Angels
Human beings
Animals
Plants
Minerals
Spirit: “unchanging/permanent”
(Being)
Straddling the border of spiritual beings/physical creation (realm of being)
Living thing—no spirit
(realm of becoming)
Lifeless

13. Diagram of the Great Chain of Being
For Medieval and Renaissance thinkers, humans occupied a unique position on the Chain of Being, straddling the world of spiritual beings and the world of physical creation.
Humans were thought to possess divine powers such as reason, love, and imagination. Like angels, humans were spiritual beings, but unlike angels, human souls were "knotted" to a physical body. As such, they were subject to passions and physical sensations—pain, hunger, thirst, sexual desire—just like other animals lower on the Chain of the Being.
They also possessed the powers of reproduction unlike the minerals and rocks lowest on the Chain of Being. Humans had a particularly difficult position, balancing the divine and the animalistic parts of their nature.
Source: Wikipedia

14. A more simplistic representation. . .

15. The Theme of Disorder Prevalent in a number of Renaissance texts
May reflect a sense of discomfort with traditional hierarchies
According to the GCoB, all existing things have their precise place and function in the universe; to break away from that order was to betray one’s nature
To act against human nature by not allowing reason to rule emotions was to descend to the level of beasts.
To attempt to go above one’s proper place, as Eve did in accepting Satan’s temptation, was to court disaster.

16. Political Implications
The fear of disorder held grave political implications
The prescription against trying to rise above one’s place was useful to political rulers, reinforcing their authority.
It implies that civil rebellion causes the chain to be broken and dire consequences will occur
It was a sin against God, at least wherever leaders claim to rule by “Divine Right”

17. Helpful documents/suggestions
Quotes/Thematic discussions
Complete Study guides for each act (given in class)
Notes from class
Introductory information in the Bedford
Schmoop or such summaries to confirm clarity
My advice: The more tools you possess to attack the play, the better off you’ll be. If your reading of the play is limited only to the text you are more likely to struggle with the content of this unit and may not reap the full benefits of class discussion.
I strongly suggest purchasing your own copy of the text. I use the Folger Shakespeare Library edition. ISBN:

18. Problems Reading Shakespeare
Usage: some words have a different meaning over time. Keep a dictionary handy!
still= always, soft=wait , cousin= relative
Inverted sentence arrangement: to meet rhythmic requirements or emphasize word, the typical English dependence on subject- verb order is violated as well as separating words that typically go together. Rearrange the sentence for meaning:
“This to me… impart they did.” = They did impart this to me.
Watch for long interruptions. Follow the sentence around the interruption.
The interruptions typically give necessary background
Delayed sentence elements
Missing words “To bed”= It’s time to go to bed.
Wordplay
Pun- double meaning. A weightier meaning. So watch for silly phrases or the unintelligible.
Stage directions: it helps to know what they are doing while speaking since it is a play.

19. Irony: All around us lay the "shifts":
sound of someone's actual voice or someone's raised eyebrow, can usually "hear" the irony,
depending on visual prompts and not simply their own intelligences, especially sarcastically
the more subtle and complex of the Irony Family of devices is the clever analyses
irony appears at every turn: every tone shift, especially the most critical ones, pivot on the incongruity or the discrepancy BETWEEN TWO THINGS.
All around us lay the "shifts":
walking and dancing
youth and age
sacred and secular
nature and culture
Plato and Aristotle
past and present
labor and play
time and eternity
Purgatory and Paradise
book smarts and street smarts

20. ANTITHESIS, since, by definition irony (all the classic kinds), paradox, oxymoron, pun, hyperbole, and litotes/meiosis
all rest on a reader's ability to recognize the twist between two opposite, contrary, opposing, antithetical things.
In Hamlet:
kindness and cruelty
loyalty and treachery
magnanimity and spitefulness
humility and arrogance
caution and foolhardiness
honesty and intrigue
spirituality and carnality
Denmark and Norway
Wittenberg and Paris
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
weddings and funerals

21. antithetical thinking is simply the most common cerebral activity
On the simplest level it is deciding on a prom dress, one among many lovely gowns, one fitting the right size, the right price, the right color....
On the most complex level, it is deciding whether or not to vote, whether or not to have a child, whether or not to buy a house, whether or not to support the United Nations or Tsunami Relief or democracy or city taxes.
Every decision pivots or turns or balances on a moment when we move from indecision to decision, as simple as that.

22. Antithesis: (contradiction of two ideas)
Think of it as a vertical scale:
HYPERBOLE [overstatement] saying more
PARADOX [apparent self- contradiction]
oxymoron pun
LITOTES/meiosis [understatement] saying less
IRONY Awareness of irony is an intellectual, not emotional process
VERBAL IRONY
DRAMATIC IRONY
SITUATIONAL IRONY
Antithesis: (contradiction of two ideas)
Paradox (complete sentence of self-contradiction)
Oxymoron (two words - relies on juxtaposition: they negate each other)
Pun (one word)
Simplistic
Comparison to show the differences::

23. Act I: The Problem--the principle of ghosts
the first scene appears to be an exposition, then a ghost appears
a fourteen line academic discourse on the fatal flaw is interrupted by the ghost’s appearance
The ghost is undeniable and ambiguous : father or devil?
Where does it go during the day? Act I.iv….
The problems: GHOST. “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life / Now wears his crown.”
HAM. “O my prophetic soul! My uncle! 
Hamlet is alone
What if he does as the ghost asks?
What if he doesn’t comply?
The result: ...
His comments regarding Gertrude, “incestuous, adulterate beast”

24. Act II: King
Hamlet in his first soliloquy reveals a desperate character who is apathetic and despairing about life. He is satiric and melancholic to himself and others.
Does he have reason to be?
Is the king worried about Hamlet? Why not let him return to school?
Possible motives…
Gertrudes position? II. ii Their reaction.
The result: enter Polonius and the conspiracies begin
Who is Polonius? He interrupts state business to answer the issue with Laertes. Is Laertes worth doing so? Consider scene with Ophelia.

25. Act II: The interfering Polonius
“Fishmonger”- what did he do according to Hamlet?
What did he do in his own view(and Laertes’)?
Hamlet is alienated, and resentful to Polonius for what?
II.ii.433
Rosencrantz/Guildenstern contribute to alienation, pawns

26. Polonius’ advice to Laertes
In Act I, Scene iii, Polonius is behaving as his usual long-winded self.
With your group, paraphrase 8 of the tidbits (pieces of advice) that Polonius imparts to his son, Laertes (Diyanni 1409).
Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in,
Bear 't that th' opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

27. Translated Advice
A father's advice to his son how to conduct himself in the world:
1. Don't tell all you think, or put into action thoughts out of harmony or proportion with the occasion.
2. Be friendly, but not common;
3. Don't dull your palm by effusively shaking hands with every chance newcomer (don’t make new friends too easily).
4. Avoid quarrels if you can, but if they are forced on you, give a good account of yourself (fight well).
5. Hear every man's censure (opinion), but express your own ideas to few.
6. Dress well, but not ostentatiously.
7. Neither borrow nor lend.
8. And guarantee yourself against being false to others by setting up the high moral principle of being true to yourself.

28. Act I scene iii advice
LAERTES (Act I iii l. 5) For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour, Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute; No more.
What does this warning from Laertes to Ophelia,
his sister, suggest about Hamlet’s love?
OPHELIA: I shall the effect of this good lesson keep, As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven; Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own rede.
What humorous response does Ophelia give?

29. Hamlet’s first soliloquy
Our explications will be in 2 columns: The left column will be a sentence-by-sentence paraphrase; the right column will be your in-depth analysis
You may work with your teams on this: Explicate Hamlet’s soliloquy on page 15 (Act I ii (ll )) Note: If you are in AVID, work on this during AVID tutorials, or form a group to meet during HW Central!

30. The Tools of Verbal Fencing... some of them ..
To thrust:
To parry:
to push with sudden force
to shove
to drive to pierce
to stab
to force one's way through
to lunge
to ward off
to deflect
to evade
to avoid
to turn aside

31. Act One Scene Three Analysis
OPHELIA (Act I iii l.99)
He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
Of his affection to me.
LORD POLONIUS
Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl,
Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?
OPHELIA
I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
Marry, I'll teach you: think yourself a baby;
That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay,
Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more
dearly;
Or--not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Running it thus--you'll tender me a fool.
My lord, he hath importuned me with love
In honourable fashion.
LORD POLONIUS Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to. OPHELIA And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord, With almost all the holy vows of heaven. LORD POLONIUS
Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers, Not of that dye which their investments show, But mere implorators of unholy suits, Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds, The better to beguile. This is for all: I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, Have you so slander any moment leisure, As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. Look to't, I charge you: come your ways.
Through these lines, explain what sort of relationship Polonius assumes that Hamlet has with Ophelia. What is his view of males and females?

32. Act II: The Play 3 subplots: Romance: Hamlet and Ophelia
Looming war with Norway
Main revenge plot
Point of Pyrrhus
Point Murder of Gonzago
II.ii.576 Soliloquy

33. Act II
Ophelia’s report to her father about Hamlet. Hamlet’s later fascination with the actor’s ability to so passionately display Hecuba’s emotional trauma … yet he cannot. He cannot display emotion,
Ophelia is a good girl, but obeying her father has tragic consequences. When Polonius asks, “What, have you given him any hard words of late,” Ophelia responds, “No, my good lord, but as you did command / I did repel his letters, and denied his access to me.” Remember, Hamlet already has been betrayed by his mother’s actions.
Is Hamlet crazy? Polonius’ aside, “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t” may reinforce the idea that Hamlet has truly put on an “antic disposition.” We are constantly left wondering whether he is actually mad at times or whether he is in control of his faculties.
The actors play a scene where Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, takes revenge for his father’s death by killing King Priam.
stirs up feelings of pity for his father and hatred for Claudius
Hamlet may be dubious about the morality of revenge and needs the hellish scene replayed to confirm his doubts.
Hamlet may realize that killing would reduce him to Claudius’ level.
Hamlet’s “rogue and peasant slave” soliloquy sees Hamlet enraged that he can’t “act” when the actor playing Hecuba is so convincing in his portrayal of a grieving wife. He rages that he has not killed the “[bloody], bawdy villain!” He then recovers his wits to conceive of the plan to expose Claudius’ guilt.

34. Act III questions after the quiz
What do Claudius and Polonius do in scene one, that Hamlet and Horatio do in scene two, that Hamlet does in scene three, and Polonius does in scene four?
In what respects is the play scene in III.ii a turning point in the play? How is this turn compounded by Hamlet’s actions in the closet scene (III.iv)?
What does the fact that Hamlet’s soliloquy in the prayer scene (III.iii) was cut from performances of the play for nearly 200 years tell us about Shakespeare’s likely intentions in writing this speech for the prince? THIS IS THE CORRECT SCENE. BOTH THIS SOLILOQUY AND THE PRECEDING ONE SHOW THE HAMLET BECOMING WORSE AND WORSE. HE DOES NOT GET TO DECIDE THE FUTURE OF CLAUDIUS’ SOUL – THAT IS GOD’S REALM.
Does Claudius’ soliloquy revise or compound your opinion of his character?
Hamlet is thought to have a lot of soliloquies, though in actual fact, he has fewer than Macbeth and around the same number as Othello, who are thought to be men of action rather than meditation. How does the placing and subject of Hamlet’s soliloquies in this act encourage the idea of a meditative prince? 

35. Act III
King and Polonius make Ophelia a pawn. She is still trying to be obedient, but they are not looking out for her best interests.
Facades: I.i The King confesses
“T Be” III.i.64 What is nobler?,
His judgment line 91
Why does he deny loving Ophelia?III.i. 113
Why is he both loving and hateful to Ophelia? Does he know they are being watched? Does he know she knows?
The King’s plan. III.i. 202

36. The Play Hamlet enlists Horatio- the sole support/trust III.ii/85
“Seems” again
Ophelia’s treatment III.ii.115 lap, ii.271 keen
Misogyny: Gertrude, Ophelia. Is he justified?
‘Tis brief “as a woman’s love”.
Did the play work?In what respects is the play scene in III.ii a turning point in the play? How is this turn compounded by Hamlet’s actions in the closet scene (III.iv)?
How does it support Boethius? Fortune’s mutability is the cause of man’s tragedy. Who is responsible?
Rosencrantz/Guildenstern: are the pipe ii.380 , with this premise, what is Hamlet’s transition?

37. The King’s prayer What is the problem? III.iii.40-76
The irony of Hamlet’s observation/chance: III.iii.102

38. Polonius/ Gertrude and Hamlet
Polonius is the bumbling, intruding fool, but he was correct,
A child confesses truth to his/her mother.
The joke: line 26
“Mousetrap” connection
What does he discover about Gertrude?
He shows her his perspective 74-91
Did he speak daggers? Line , but he won’t stop after protestations
How do we see ambiguity from the Ghost
Hamlet tells her to”confess herself to Heaven” and give her what three instructions?

39. Gertrude is aligned with Hamlet, which means she is betraying Claudius
Confess your sins line 170
Stop having sex with him “seems”
Don’t tell 209
Freud's Oedipal Connotations:
What was Oedipus accused of?
Where are Hamlet and Gertrude arguing? About what? (The body)
How is this Oedipal?
Why does Hamlet go?

40. Act III Partner questions
In Act II.iv.188, Hamlet states “I essentially am not in madness.” Name four lines spoken by Hamlet in this act that may make you doubt this.
Is Hamlet at his worst in scene three or scene four of this act?
How do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern seem to have become more immoral since their first appearance in II.ii?
For what reasons do you think that the Ghost in III.iv is an hallucination, and for what reasons do you think it is real?
After III.iii, the next time we see Ophelia she is mad. How are the seeds for this planted in this act?

41. Act III scene 2 (Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern)
Paraphrase the following:
Make you a wholesome answer. My wit’s diseased. But, sir,
 such answer as I can make, you shall command, or rather, as
you say, my mother. Therefore no more, but to the matter.
My mother, you say-
How does Rosencrantz attempt to get Hamlet to reveal what is bothering him? What is Hamlet’s response? What does this say about both of them?
Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me.
You would play upon me, you would seem to know my
stops, you would pluck out of the heart of my mystery, you
would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my
compass; and there is much music, excellent voice, in this
little organ; yet cannot you make it speak. ‘Sblood, do you
think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what
instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot
play upon me.
What is the importance of the above speech?

42. Act III
Why does Hamlet have an aside during his conversation with Polonius? What does it reveal about his current state of mind? Paraphrase:
What imagery is used in the speech above? What does this speech reveal about Hamlet’s character?

43. Act IV scene 2, scene 3
What is Hamlet’s response to the King asking where Polonius is? Knowing Hamlet is being deliberate, what is the strategy?
Yet must not we put the strong law on him. 
He’s loved of the distracted multitude, 
Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
This sudden sending him away must seem
Deliberate pause. Diseases desperate grown
By desperate appliance are relieved,
Or not at all.
What is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s reaction to this speech?
Ay, sir, that soaks up the King’s countenance, his rewards, his
authorities. But such officers do the King best service in the
end. He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw –
first mouthed, to be last swallowed. When he needs what
you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you
shall be dry again.
What is Hamlet’s reaction to their reaction? “A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.” Does Hamlet have clarity?

44. Act 4.3: Politic Worms
Hamlet: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service—two dishes, but to one table. That’s the end.
Take a minute. Translate the meaning.
What does this demonstrate about life and Hamlet’s view of it?

45. Act 4.4 “What is a man” , final soliloquy
Man is endowed with reason a nd must defend honor
Impetus to action
The transition point:
“While to my shame, I see/The imminent death of twenty thousand en”
What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? II.ii
Physical decay
Humanism- we’re dust
Man is dust’s essence
How all occasions do inform against me,
And spurn my dull revenge. What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, 
Looking before and after, gave us not 
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused. Now whether it be
Beastial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the event –
A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward – I do not know 
Why yet I live to say this thing’s to do,
Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means, 
To do’t.
Hamlet uses Humanism as inspiration to do what? How is he the Protestant Hero? (Notes!)

46. But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
Rightly to be great Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honour’s at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep, while to my shame I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men, 
That for a fantasy and trick of fame
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth.
How is Hamlet envious of Fortinbras as his foil?

47. Act IV scene 7: Ophelia
Scene 5: Why has Ophelia gone mad? autobiographical nursery rhymes, she believed the hype. Line 60-72
1. How did Ophelia die? Do you believe it was an accident or suicide? Is there evidence? Line
2. What is Laertes’s reaction to the news of Ophelia’s death? What does this say about him?
3. What does the Queen’s speech about Ophelia’s drowning suggest about her madness and the reasons for her death?
 Ophelia’s Flowers
Rosemary for remembrance – Gives to Laertes
Pansies for thought – Gives to Laertes. Think about the French and Spanish words for thought.
Fennel (It wilts quickly after being picked) and columbine for foolishness, adultery – Gives to Claudius
Rue for adultery and eternal suffering (Thought to cause abortions in its day) – Gives to Gertrude: “There’s rue for you, and there’s some for me.” She knew they were both used.
Daisies for innocence
Violets for faithfulness and fidelity

48. Act IV scene 7: Plans to Fight/Duel, Mock/Fun
1. What is the plan that Claudius now hatches with Laertes? Line What does this say about Claudius that he didn’t act officially? What does the plan say about Laertes?
2. Claudius establishes parameters on action: would vs. should. Hamlet comes to this topic as well. What is the difference in their positions?
That we would do,
We should do when we would; for this ‘would’ changes
And hath abatements and delays as many
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents,
And then this ‘should’ is like a spendthrift sigh
That hurts by easing.
3. What does Laertes’s add to Claudius’s plan to assure Hamlet’s death? What does this say about Laertes?
4. What is the King’s back up plan to assure Hamlet’s death? What does this say about Claudius? Or rationality vs. emotions? (Claudius begins and ends Act IV lying to Gertrude.)

49. Act V :The graveyard scene: Hamlet’s transformation
Comic relief of gravediggers: Ophelia died in self-defense. Language is similar to Hamlet’s madness.
Yorick's skull- physical symbol of death in all its entirety and an omen of what’s to come. When Hamlet takes the skull and stares directly at the sight, he is symbolically staring into death itself. He realizes the inevitability of death and inescapable disintegration of one’s body. Hamlet is fascinated by the equalizing, impartial, and absolute effect of death on all men:
“Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay./ Might stop a hole to keep the wind away” (V.i ). Despite the power of great men, their demise is unexceptional since all bodies will rot into the earth. Yorick’s skull pushes Hamlet not to fear death, but see it as a natural inevitability, absence of suicide. Hamlet evolves as mature and rational; he exemplifies a state of mind that is calm and with purpose. (“Let be”).

50. Act V Pre-Fight Ophelia’s burial rights: doubtful
Gertrude’s admission line 255
Shift in Hamlet seen in his entrance: line 270 “”It is I, Hamlet the Dane.”
Why are Hamlet and Laertes fighting?
What developments in Hamlet’s character are presented through the story of what happened on the boat? His response to R/G’s deaths” “They are not near my conscience” (65)
Claudius’ gifts of flattery to Hamlet, siding with Hamlet for the win “with th’ odds on the weaker side.” (Then he gives the pearl to Hamlet- a distraction as it could be the poison.)
How do Hamlet’s motives in killing Claudius seem to have shifted according to his speech beginning, “Does it not, think thee . . .” (V.ii.72)

51. Act V: The Fight
What does Laertes say is his motive in still resenting Hamlet? How has he already lost this? How does this contribute to the presentation of revenge in the play?
Gertrude drinks line 316, Claudius’ reaction
Laertes’ shift 324, 337
Gertrude knows 340
Laertes confession means he dies with a clear conscience
Hamlet confesses he was mad when he murdered Polonius.
Hamlet ensures the King is poisoned twice- double action now
How might the dying lines of Gertrude, Claudius, and Laertes be viewed as typical of the way their characters have been presented throughout the play?

52. Death: “Good night, sweet prince”
How might the dying lines of Gertrude, Claudius, and Laertes be viewed as typical of the way their characters have been presented throughout the play?
Claudius cunning does not spare him death.
Laertes learning does not put off his fate.
Gertrude’s charms do not ward it off.
Ophelia’s youth isn’t enough to stop death.
Every character learns to cope with the inevitable and the uncertainties that come with death
God is control of everyone’s fate. What will happen, happens. God is the ruler of man’s life: Hamlet is free when he stops trying to control.