VCCS Litonline Introduction to Literature
English 112 (English Composition II)

The Hamlet Site

Study and Essay Questions

Objective for this Page: To analyze the character Hamlet.

 1. Does Hamlet live and die by making free choices, or are his choices all controlled by forces larger than himself?

Support one or more of the following with evidence from the play and/or the movie.

1.1 Notice the isolation of Hamlet at the beginning of the movie when he has returned from college for his father's funeral. How does the staging play up this isolation? How does this isolation serve Hamlet's "madness" ploy?

1.2 Did Hamlet have any choice about following the ghost's plea to avenge him? Explain.

1.3 Why did the queen marry Claudius?

1.4 Was Hamlet upset that Gertrude married Claudius, his uncle, or was he upset just because she remarried so soon?

1.5 Does Hamlet act in accordance with Polonius's advice to Laertes? (Hamlet didn't necessarily hear the advice, but he may share this courtly value system anyway, having been raised to defend himself against plots and conniving so he could rule after his father.)

1.6 Does Hamlet believe the ghost? Why does he feel compelled to confirm the ghost's message by using "the Mousetrap"?

1.7 Why didn't Hamlet kill Claudius while he was praying? Was Hamlet’s decision not to kill Claudius based on his not wanting Claudius to escape the kind of punishment his father was enduring or because Hamlet did not yet have in himself the act of killing someone?  

1.8 Was the killing of Polonius a choice or a reaction to Hamlet's own state of mind and (mistaken) assumptions? Explain.

1.9 In the bedroom scene (III, iv, 1-217), why was only Hamlet able to see the ghost and not Gertrude?

1.10 What did Hamlet mean when he said, "The readiness is all" (V,2,202-206--right before the entrance to the duel)? What's he ready for?

1.11 Why does Horatio want to die? Does his motive suggest anything about Hamlet's state of mind, such as in the crypt when he is considering whether "To be or not to be"?

1.12 Did Hamlet obtain justice or revenge at the end of the play?

1.13 Does ambition play a part in what Hamlet does throughout the play?

1.14 Was there a point when Hamlet actually did go crazy? (If not, explain why his odder actions and statements are really purposeful. If yes, explain how you can tell and what pushed him over the edge.)

1.15 Weigh each of Hamlet's soliloquys to consider whether he seems willful, purposeful, or driven by madness or fate. Here a list by act, scene, and lines:

1.16 Does Hamlet think too much? Contrast his questioning whether he should do something or not vs. the importance he places on reasoning in his 3rd soliloquy (listed above).

The URL for this page is: http://vccslitonline.cc.va.us/TheHamletSite/stdygd1.htm

*Hints for Hamlet's first soliloquy: I, ii, 129-159

To analyze a soliloquy, you should quote often but briefly (quote phrases). To analyze this first soliloquy, emphasize the most emotional phrases and the comparisons (like the garden metaphor that sets up the incest accusation later in the passage) to indicate how upset Hamlet feels. In addition, you should note at the beginning of the soliloquy that he wishes he were dead. This is some time before the more famous "To be or not to be" and he's suicidal already.

1. Doesn't each parent have an ulterior motive for wanting to cut short Hamlet's grief?

2. What seems to be the emphasis in this first soliloquy--his father's death or his mother's remarriage? How is this emphasis evident: Does he spend more lines griping about Gertrude? Does he use stronger imagery for the marriage than for the death? Does this speech built to an emotional climax at which he is ranting about the marriage?

So Hamlet feels abandoned by both parents, rather than being comforted by the surviving parent. Does this soliloquy also reveal that Hamlet is ready to blame somebody for at least one of his problems? Does it foreshadow the ghost's message in any way?

(Scroll up to question list.)

Hints for Hamlet's second soliloquy: I, iii, 254-258

Caution: These notes reflect a pet theory about Hamlet--This second soliloquy hints at one of the hidden themes of this play--Hamlet's quest for justice. Since he mentions laws against suicide and incest before the first half of the soliloquy, he to know the law and to be concerned with it, even though he never says that he is concerned for justice and for the public satisfaction of wrong. So this scene foreshadows the final scene of the play.

Does this soliloquy show that Hamlet is ready to believe what the ghost has to say? Does Hamlet "suspect some foul play" already, according to this soliloquy?

(Scroll up to question list.)

Notes on HAMLET, III, ii, 365-376: Preview of one soliloquy

Having just seen Claudius's evil confirmed in the "dumb show," Hamlet is well aware of the differences between evil, which comes from Claudius, and good, which comes from his now vindicated father's ghost. The play was originally conceived as a way to test the validity of the ghost's statements.

In urging himself to refrain from violence against his mother, Hamlet puts himself on a higher moral plain than Claudius (and Nero, too, of course). Is there an implication, then, that Claudius is on that lower moral plain with Nero because they both killed family members?

Since Hamlet doesn't speak of his mother until line 369, maybe he isn't thinking of her in his earlier lines--but instead of Claudius. But, although he could gladly eviscerate his king, he doesn't want this bloodlust to spill over onto his mother, whom (for some reason) he feels compelled to see before stalking Claudius.

Why does Hamlet only want to chastise Gertrude instead of to punish her physically? As it turns out in their later encounter, he needs and gets an ally against Claudius when Gertrude agrees not to give Hamlet away--and not to sleep with that no-good stepfather anymore. So in this speech, even though he doesn't say it out loud, his purpose may be to turn Gertrude into a weapon against Claudius. But he's so angry at Claudius that he's afraid he might do something drastic to his mother--which, in fact, turns out to be closer to the truth than the line about not using any daggers.

Notice that I'm basing my understanding of Hamlet's soliloquy on the context of the play (scenes before and after the soliloquy) in addition to the meanings implicit in the words. Do Rosencranz, Guildenstern, and Polonius do anything to blunt Hamlet's anger against Claudius--or do they get him more keyed up by being spies for the usurping king and therefore sharing in his recently confirmed guilt?

(Scroll up to question list and page-turning links.)