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ENG 2301

Click to see pictures from Kenneth Branagh's movie version of the play.

Study Questions for Hamlet

General

  1. Who wrote Hamlet?  When did the author live?   In what language was Hamlet written?
  2. What date is usually assigned to Hamlet?
  3. Where is the play set?
  4. Who are the major characters?  Be able to identify everyone named in the list of characters given at the beginning of the play.  Be able to give details about the following major characters:  Claudius, Hamlet, Polonius, Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Gertrude, Ophelia, and the Ghost of Hamlet's Father.
  5. What is the overall structure of the play?  Into what kinds of units is it divided?  (Another way to look at this is to consider from what kinds of units it is built.)
  6. What happens?  Be able to summarize the action. 
    • If you have trouble following the action, try beginning your reading with the helpful summary  of the plot on the Royal Shakespeare Company's web site for the play. You may also find the Falcon Education Link site helpful and amusing. (Click on the name of the play.)
    • When you have read a scene, check your understanding by completing the interactive TeachersFirst Quizzes for Hamlet.
    • When you finish an act, make sure you can answer the questions below. (You may prefer to look for the answers as you read. The questions are in the correct order.)
    • Detailed summaries can be also very helpful to readers of Shakespeare's plays, but they are no substitute for reading the actual play. The SparkNotes site is very helpful.

Act I

  1. Which characters first see the Ghost (in Scene I,i)?  What do they think the sighting means?
  2. What is Hamlet's state of mind when we first see him?  Why does he feel he is "too much i' the sun"?
  3. Why does Ophelia resolve to reject Hamlet?
  4. What does the Ghost tell Hamlet?  What order does he give him?  Why must Hamlet leave his mother alone?
  5. How does Hamlet react to his new suspicions?  Why can he not be sure they are true?  What does he make his friends swear?

Act II

  1. What effect do Polonius's instructions to Reynaldo have on our opinion of Polonius?
  2. What cause does Polonius see for Hamlet's apparent madness?   (See I, v, 170--Hamlet has decided to pretend to be insane, though it is far from clear that all his madness is pretence.)
  3. What tasks do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern take on for the King and Queen?
  4. How does Hamlet treat Polonius?  How does he treat Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?  How does he treat the Players?
  5. What special arrangement about their performance does Hamlet make with the Players?
  6. What is Hamlet's idea in doing this?  (See his final soliloquy in Act II and also III, ii, 27-39.)

Act III

  1. What do we learn from Claudius's speech in III, i, 49-54?
  2. What is the subject of Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" soliloquy?
  3. How does Hamlet treat Ophelia when he meets her in Act III, scene i?  How does Ophelia react?
  4. Does Claudius believe Hamlet is in love?  Does he believe he is mad?
  5. What happens in the pantomime and the play which the Players present?  Is there any hint in the "play within the play" that Gertrude is guilty of either murder or adultery?  How does Claudius react?
  6. What does Gertrude do after the play?
  7. What plans do the King and Polonius make?
  8. What does Claudius do and say when Polonius leaves him?  Why doesn't Hamlet kill Claudius at this point?
  9. How does Hamlet happen to kill Polonius?
  10. How does Hamlet accuse Gertrude?  How does she react?   Why does she think Hamlet is mad?  What promise does she make?

Act IV

  1. Why does Claudius claim he wants to send Hamlet to England?   What is his real reason?
  2. How does Ophelia react to her father's death?  Whom does the King ask to watch over her?
  3. What does Laertes do when he hears of his father's death?
  4. How does Claudius quiet Laertes?  What do they plan to do?
  5. What happens to Ophelia?  How do we hear about it?

Act V

  1. What is the first topic the two clowns discuss?  What do they decide?
  2. What does Hamlet talk about while he and Horatio watch the clowns dig the grave?
  3. Who was Yorick?
  4. What does Laertes do as Ophelia's funeral ends?  What does Hamlet do then?  (Remember that Hamlet has just returned from sea.)
  5. How has Hamlet escaped Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?  What will happen to them?  Why?
  6. What do Hamlet and Laertes do in the final scene?  What does Hamlet say to Laertes before they begin?
  7. How is the Queen poisoned?
  8. How are Hamlet and Laertes both killed?
  9. What does Laertes do before he dies?
  10. How does Claudius die?
  11. What does Hamlet persuade Horatio to do?
  12. Who will restore order in Denmark?  How has his arrival been prepared for?  (You may need to review some of the earlier scenes, particularly I, ii, II, ii, and IV, iv.)

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