Act I, Scene 1 & 2
1. What is the Ghost wearing when he come on stage? When before, according to Horatio, had he been seen wearing it?
The ghost looked like the dead king of Denmark wearing the clothes he used to wear for battle. Specifically the armor the king had worn when he fought the king of Norway and had the same frown the king had when he attacked the Poles.
2. Marcellus asks someone to “tell me…/Why this same strict and most observant watch/ So nightly toils the subject of the land…” What is the answer?
The answer is that the youngest son of the old king Fortinbras wants to take back the territory his father lost to king Hamlet.
3. What
story from the past does Horatio relate?
To the Roman Empire, just before emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated. He mentioned how corpses rose out of their graves and ran through the streets of Rome speaking gibberish and all the other bad signs that happened.
4. What
makes the ghost disappear?
Threatened it with violence specifically striking it with a sword.
5. Note all
of the different matters of court business that Claudius attends to at the
opening of 1.2. How does he try to comfort Hamlet? Does it work?
First, he addresses his marriage to queen Gertrude. Secondly, he addresses Fortinbras. He sends out Cornelius and Voltemand the job of delivering a letter to the new king of Norway. Laertes asks for permission to return to France. He grants it to him. When addressing Hamlet, he "my nephew and my son." He tells Hamlet that his father's death was inevitable and it's irrational to stay upset. Hamlet decides to stay to "obey" his mother.
6. In
Hamlet’s first soliloquy (“O that this too too solid flesh would melt…”), what
does he tell the audience is so upsetting to him?
That his mother remarried so quickly.
7. “Foul
deeds will rise,/ Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes” (~1.2.256-‐7) What
does Hamlet mean by this?
That the truth will eventually come out, no matter how much people try to hide it.
Thanks, Michelle!
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