Hamlet Act 1: Following the Plot!

Hamlet

Act 1   Keeping Track

Scene 1

1. What mood and atmosphere are created in the first scene, how does Shakespeare achieve this effect?
2. How do Horatio and the sentries react to the Ghost? What is their understanding of its nature and intentions?
3. What do you learn from Horatio’s speech (lines 79 to 109) concerning current events in Denmark?
4. What do the references to the ‘king’ after line 41 tell you about the current attitude towards Hamlet’s father?

Scene 2

1. What is Claudius trying to do in his first speech (lines 1 – 16)?
2. How does he try to do this and in your opinion is he successful?
3. In lines 17 – 39 Claudius explains what he is doing to deal with the military and political crisis which threatens Denmark. How do you think he handles this situation?
4. How does Claudius deal with Laertes and Polonius when he deals with Laertes’ request to return to France( lines 42 – 62). What political skill does he show in this exchange?
5. What arguments do Claudius and Gertrude use to try and persuade Hamlet that he is behaving in an unreasonable way?
6. Hamlet reacts violently towards Gertrude at her use of ‘seems’. Why does this word  (line 76) have such significance for him and what does the strength of his attack reveal about Hamlet to the audience?
7. Hamlet’s first soliloquy reveals a mood of suicidal despair. Why does he feel like this? Is this mood justified by what has happened and what he knows?

Scene 3

1. Laertes and Polonius both offer Ophelia ‘good advice’. What does this scene reveal about their attitudes to people and life?
2. What do Polonius and Laertes think of Hamlet?

Scene 4 and 5

1. In these scenes Hamlet learns the ‘truth’ about his father’s murder and his mother’s betrayal. What is Hamlet’s initial reaction to the Ghost?(Scene 4 lines 39 – 57)?
2. How does the Ghost persuade Hamlet to take action(Scene 5)? Look at the language used and decide why he is so successful.
3. How does Hamlet react to the Ghost’s revelations?
4. What exactly has the Ghost persuaded Hamlet to do?
5. What do you think Hamlet should do now.What do you want him to do? What are the alternatives?
6. Does the fact that the ‘truth’ has been revealed by a ghost make any difference?
7. What do you understand from lines 195 – 196:

 ‘O cursed spite,

That ever I was born to set it right’?

Is Hamlet having doubts already?