Act 5

1. I think the point of the gravediggers riddles or song is to break up some of the tension in the play by creating comic relief. Perhaps it's put in to release the built up tension of the audience before the final big scene comes into play (killing of Claudius). His song fits in the play because it is talking of the natural death that everyone is going to at sometime face.

2. They seem to suggest a change in his outlook because throughout the story Hamlet has been so conflicted to whether it would be better to live or die. In the graveyard he finds peace. He comes to realize that death is a natural way of life for all human beings. Hamlet seems to like Yorick, almost as if he was like Horatio to him. They are well-respected friends. Hamlets attitude toward Ophelia is a very love-hate relationship. At times he acts as if she is not important to him and then the next minute he is in love with her. Hamlet thinks very highly of his father and will do anything for him.

3. I think Hamlet is thirty because the grave-digger says he has dug graves since young Hamlet was born. Later, he says that he has been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years. Thus, making Hamlet 30.

4. It is adds suspense and rising action to the killing of king Claudius. It also shows how Hamlet isn't just thinking anymore, he has now become so furious that he is acting on his emotions.

5. Hamlet is showed to use his intelligence and finally put his ideas into action. He becomes so built up with evil and angry emotions that he bursts and starts putting plans into action without thinking twice (killing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern). He used to keep his feelings locked in his head, but they have now been released.

6. It seems to shift because at first he just wanted to avenge his father's death, but now he sees it as a duty to kill Claudius. He has killed his father, made his mother a whore, took his kingship from him, and planned a trap to kill him.

7. One is that Claudius is still involved with Hamlet, by prodding him into dueling with Laertes. Another is that he is playing mad again. He is being very careful with his words.

8. Hamlet defies augury because he comes to realize that his fate lies beyond his control. It is this that he puts his faith in when he agrees to the swordfight.

9. He says his motive in still resenting Hamlet is to uphold his honor. He has already lost this because he plans on cheating to win. He has already said that he plans on putting poison on his blade to kill Hamlet easily. This conributes to the presentation of revenge in a different way. While everyone else in the story is seeking revenge for the murder of a family member (Hamlet-Old Hamlet, Fortinbras-Old Fortinbras) Laertes is seeking his revenge supposedly to uphold his honor.

10. Gertrude calls out as she is dieing to Hamlet, showing that she is a weak character who is reliant on men. Claudius calls out "oh defend me friends for I have been hurt" this reflects his character by showing his desperation which we have seen throughout the whole play. Laertes dieng words also reflect him. He only cares about himself. Before the fight Hamlet apologizes to Laertes but he proceeds to still fight him. Then when he is poisoned he starts begging for apology from Hamlet! He is a hypocrite.

11. I think Fortinbras wins because he is the one who is going to take over Denmark now that it is weak and rid of all the noble men. Not only is his avenge for his father death complete, but he also takes over the country that he had originally hoped to.

Act 3 Scenes 3 & 4

1. It is a turning point because it is when Claudius realizes that Hamlet knows he murdered his father.

2. Exposition - This is when we are first introduced to the characters and the whole situation. Two guards are on watch and they tell Marcellus and Horatio of the ghost that has been appearing. Horatio then goes to Hamlet to tell him of the ghost that looks like his father. We find out how Hamlet feels about Claudius and the marriage. Claudius gives a speech of how he feels about King Hamlet's death. Polonius and Laertes warn Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet. The ghost appears again and Hamlet follows it to find out what it has to say.

Inciting Event - When Hamlet speaks to the ghost and finds out that Claudius murdered his father. The ghost tells Hamlet that he must seek revenge for his father.

Rising Action - 1. Hamlet acts crazy. He shows up in Ophelia's room half-naked showing that perhaps he is mad because he is so in love with her. 2. Hamlet shows Claudius a play in attempt to get him to confess to the murder. 3. Hamlet sees that Claudius is upset by the play and is prepared to kill him, but he is unable to because he can see that Claudius is praying.

1. He plans to send them to England to be killed.

2. Polonius plans on spying on Hamlet and his mother to hear what they have to say.

3. a. This is the first time Claudius actually admits to killing his brother.
b. Perhaps Claudius feels a little guilty about killing his brother.
c. If it wasn't for him forcing himself to pray, then he would have been killed by Hamlet right then and there.

4. It is odd because the King just said that he can't pray.

5. He doesn't take this opportunity for revenge because he feels like he would be doing the king a favor if he killed him now by sending him to heaven. He wants to murder the king when he is in an act of crime or sinning to send him to hell.

6. Polonius tells the queen to be blunt and say that he has caused eveyone and especially the king a lot of trouble.

7. This quote is said when Hamlet finds out that Polonius is spying on him. He calls him a rat (because he's spying as he always seems to be doing) and then says he's a dead rat now and kills him.

8. What is odd is that it seems as if Hamlet is possibly blaming his mother for killing her husband..perhaps he is just so shocked and frusterated at everything that is happening that he points blame to her.

9. Gertrude might say that because she doesn't know why Hamlet is so angry at her. She is clueless. Everyone is just using her. She doesn't know yet that Claudius killed her husband.

10. He says his father is like a curly haired Greek god and that his eye could command the god of war. He compares him to Claudius who is like a mildewed ear of corn.

11. He makes the point that his father was an honorable, heroic man while Claudius is a worthless piece of scum who is greedy and does things for his own self gain.

12. What is disturbing is that he is speaking in a little more detail than needed of his mother making love to his uncle.

13. The ghost. He reminds Hamlet of what his duty is and to not push his mother any further for she is just a woman and her body is weak with horrid imagination.

14. "Do not spread the compost on weeds to make them ranker." Right here he is saying that they should not make Denmark anymore corrupt than it is. This is ironic because he is the one who wants to kill the present king, thus making it easy to become overtaken by another country. This will cause the destruction of humanity.

15. The ghost in Act 1 appears a lot and is described in detail. It can also can be seen by all of the guards and Hamlet. In Act 3 the ghost appears very briefly and can only be seen by Hamlet. This makes Hamlet seem even more insane because it appears that he is talking to himself. Both the ghosts have the same intentions of murdering Claudius.

Act 3 Scenes 1 & 2

1. They report that Hamlet is acting crazy and he won't answer any questions when they ask him. So, they don't really know what is wrong with him.
2. Claudius basically confirms the truth of the Ghost's accusation, that he killed Hamlet's father.
3. Ophelia is going to talk to Hamlet while the King and Polonius are going to be hiding out listening to see if Hamlet is mad because of his love for Ophelia or for different reasons.
4. The nature of the soliloquy is dark and questioning. Hamlet holds the burden of knowing who killed his father. It is eating him alive.
5. Hamlet's main argument against suicide is debating whether it's more honorable and courageous to live or die. He is contemplating whether death would be the easy way out.
6. Hamlet treats Ophelia cruelly because she has returned all of his love letters that he sent to her, thus making him think she doesn't love him anymore. What has changed him is that he knows he has been setup and that Polonius is watching him.
7. He is saying that Claudius is going to die. He says that everybody -except for one- person who is married will live. He basically says that he is going to murder Claudius.
8. The king wants to send him to England.
9. Hamlet says that Horatio is exactly the kind of friend that he needs. He is trustworthy and Hamlet knows he will do the right thing.
10. Hamlet asks Horatio to observe his uncle's face when the play comes to the scene where it tells of his father's death to see if it is of guilt or innocence.
11. A king and queen confess their love for each other. When the king is alone somebody pours poison down his ear. This man who is said to be his "nephew" marries the queen and becomes king.
12. Hamlet refers to the play as a mousetrap because he is cornering his Uncle into admitting that he murdered his father.
13. Claudius is getting suspicious. He questions Hamlet for if he knows what the play is really about.
14. Hamlet compares himself to an instrument because he knows he is being played upon.
15. He is still going to be cruel to her, but not harm her for then he would feel like a hypocrite.

Translate Hamlet

To die or not to die, that is the question.
Is it nobler to suffer with things that come your
way or to fight against these troubles and put an end to
them once and for all? Dying is sleeping. That's all it is.
To sleep you put an end to all the heartaches and natural
troubles life brings you. Dying is something to be wished
for! To die, to sleep. To sleep, maybe to dream. Ahh..
but here's the thing. To sleep because of death, who knows
what dreams may come when we have put all of our troubles
from humanity behind us. This is unknown to us. This is
why we suffer the life of humanity for so long. For if we were
to die who would put up with all of life's problems. Abuse from
the upper class, the proud man's arrogance, the pangs of
unreturned love, the inadequacy of the law, the disrespect of
people in office, and the corruptness that poor people have to
deal with because of the wealthy. Why do we go through this
when we could easily just end life with a small knife? Why do
we choose to bear this hard, corrupted life...perhaps it's because
of fear of what comes after death. Death, the unknown world where
no one returns from puzzles the human mind. It makes us deal with
the hardships of humanity instead of flying off to a
mysterious new world. It's this fear of dying that makes
us cowards, we are constantly thinking and it is this
fear that overcomes our wonder making us weak.
These motives that should be carried out are
skewed, and stop being actions for once and all.
Now is time to be quiet, the beautiful Ophelia is coming.
Nymph, hopefully when I pray, my sins will be forgiven.

This soliloquy shows us Hamlet's thoughts on whether it is better to die or to live. He makes is seem like after one dies, you will be in peace. You will escape all of the corruptiveness that humanity brings you. Hamlet speaking of all of this adversity makes me think he has not only witnessed it, but also been through this suffering himself. He makes death or the afterlife sound like a mysterious, unknown place that can only be better than the life one is living in now.

Hamlet Act 2

1. Polonius tells Reynaldo to spy of his son while he is away. He wants to know what his son is up to in Paris. He plans to trap his son by having Reynaldo tell little lies to then find out the truth by peoples reactions and answers to his questions.

2. It shows you that Polonius is a self-centered person. He wants to find out what his son is up too so it doesn't come back to hurt him.

3. Ophelia gets disturbed when Hamlet comes running to her half naked acting insane and mad.

4. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been sent to Denmark to find out what is wrong with poor Hamlet.

5. Hamlet asks the players to recite a piece from what happened in the Trojan war, when Aeneas told Dido about Priams murder. It mimics what is happening in Hamlet because Hamlet is seeking revenge for his father's death just as Pyrrhus is seeking revenge for Achilles death. Also, both the women or queens are going to be drastically affected by the revenge these men wish to seek.

6. Ophelia talking to Polonius. The line is talking about how Ophelia kept her distance from Hamlet just as her father told her to do.

7. The queen is talking to Polonius. She is telling him to stick to the point and to stop babbling on. This shows that the queen seems to not care for Polonius very much and is quite impatient and Polonius loves to tell stories and wants to gain acceptance from the upper class, by impressing the queen.

8. Hamlet is speaking to himself of how he must avenge his father.

9. Polonius speaking to Reynaldo about his plan to spy on his son. He tells Reynaldo of how he wants him to tell lies about his son to find out the truth about what he is doing in Paris.

10. Hamlet speaks these lines. First, he is using himself as a pun sun "son" then he says that he will breed maggots "get women pregnant" talking about Ophelia. Polonius isn't able to use anything out of this because Hamlet is still supposedly acting crazy.

11. Direct - denmark as a prison

Implied - lies are a poison

Extended - garden of eden

12. When Hamlet came to Ophelia half-naked and grabbed her by the arm then leaves.

13. This is when Hamlet is talking about denmark being a prison. Rosencrantz and Guildenberg don't think that it is. It's a prison to hamlet because he knows these secrets that he isn't able to tell anybody, thus making him feel trapped like a prison.

14. A fishmonger is slang for a pimp.

15. Jephthah was a man who sacrificed his daughter for political reasons.

Hamlet's Soliloquy

Hamlet' soliloquy focuses a lot on how he is upset with his mother for remarrying so quickly. He starts off by saying how life is worthless to him now. He compares life to an unweeded garden that is gross and overgrown. He can't believe that things have come to this. He then goes on to say how it has been only two months since his father's death and his mother has already remarried to his uncle. Hamlet can not believe this because of how well his father treated his mother. Hamlet says that his father would have gotten between the wind and her to save it from hitting her face to roughly. He doesn't understand why women are so weak. He then goes on to say that animals would have mourned longer than his mother did for a dying mate. Hamlet says that his uncle is as similar to his father as he is to Hercules. His last words are that nothing good can come from the choice his mother has made.

Hamlet #2

1. Laertes's advice to Ophelia is to not put too much trust in Prince Hamlet. He has more responsibilites now and cannot make choices just for himself, he has to make them for the nation.
2. This quote fits into the idea of the decaying garden because its saying that too often people will ruin virgins (young spring flowers) by deflowering them, thus buds being opened. Laertes is warning Ophelia to watch out or else she may soon be a dead flower.
3. Ophelia pretty much tells her brother that he is being a hypocrit. She says that he himself is failing to practice what he preaches. When he is away he fools around with lots of women.
4. One, don't say what you are thinking, keep your thoughts to yourself. Two, once you find trustworthy friends hold on to them. Three, don't be quick to pick a fight but if you do make sure you can hold your own. Four, make sure you spend your money on quality clothes, but don't overdo it and dress flashy. Five, be true to yourself.
5. "Think yourself a baby that you have ta'en these tenders for true pay which are not sterling." Polonius is pretty much telling Ophelia that she is being a foolish baby for believing what Hamlet tells her is true.
6. "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." Polonius is telling Ophelia to watch Hamlet's love vows because they are like "flashy pimps who wear nice clothes" to lead a woman into doing the wrong thing.
7. His command is to not waste her time with Hamlet. She should spend less time with him and talk to him less. Polonius does not want her to embarass him.
8. Hamlet is venting about why they should not be looked at in a bad reputation. He is angry that the king and his courtiers are getting drunk within the castle, while him and many others are minding their own business and showing decent behavior.
9. Horatio doesn't want Hamlet to follow the ghost because he fears that the ghost will tempt Hamlet into a suicidal madness.
10. Hamlet commands the guards to not follow him. He says that fate is calling him. He also tells the guards that he will make a ghost of anyone who follows him.