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Discuss "Hamlet" on the Forums!
Bibliomania
provides a copy of the entire play online for free.
Hamlet is a
tragedy. What is a tragedy? Click here
to find more information.
Learn about the
Renaissance by clicking here.
Principal Hamlet Soliloquies
and Key Scenes--A Handy Checklist
by Dr. Debora B. Schwartz of
Cal Poly
- Soliloquy
1: I.ii.129-59 "O that this too too sullied
flesh. . ."
- Soliloquy
2: I.v.92-112 "O all you host of heaven!.
. ."
- Soliloquy
4: III.i.56-88 "To be, or not to be. .
."
- Soliloquy
5: III.ii.396-407 "'Tis now the very witching
time..."
- Soliloquy
6: III.iii.73-96 "Now might I do it pat. .
."
- Soliloquy
7: IV.iv.32-66 "How all occasions do inform
against me. . ."
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- Council
scene: I.ii.1-128
- Fishmonger
scene: II.ii.171-224
- Schoolfellow
scene: II.ii.225-388
- Nunnery
scene: III.i.88-164
- The
Mousetrap play scene: III.ii.94-276
- Prayer
scene: III.iii.36-98
- Closet
scene/Portrait scene: III.iv.1-53; III.iv.54-218
- Ophelia's
madness scenes: IV.v.21-73; IV.v.154-198
- Graveyard
scene: V.i.1-294
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Hamlet: Discussion Questions
1)
To what extent does Hamlet correspond to classical
or medieval
notions of tragedy? What (if anything) is Hamlet's fatal
flaw? Why does he hesitate to act after promising his father's
ghost that he will avenge his murder? Compare/contrast the
protagonist's decisiveness and will to act in Macbeth.
2)
Note the various familial relationships in Hamlet. Compare and
contrast the family unit of Polonius / Laertes / Ophelia with Hamlet's
relationships to the Ghost of Hamlet Sr., to Gertrude and to Claudius.
Like Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras are sons confronted with a father's
death. To what extent do they function as foils
to Hamlet? What do they have in common? How do they differ?
3)
Why does Hamlet wait so long to kill Claudius? What are the
reasons for his hesitation? How valid are they? How many
times does he have the opportunity to attack Claudius? What are
his reasons for not doing so?
4)
Hamlet is a play in which nothing can be taken at face value:
appearances are frequently deceptive, and many characters engage in
play-acting, spying and pretense. What deliberate attempts are
made at deception? Are the intended audiences deceived?
While some deceptions are perpetrated in order to conceal secrets,
others aim to uncover hidden truths. Which are which? To
what extent are they successful? Note references to appearances,
disguises, pretense, seeming, masks, acting, etc.
5)
Pay attention to the treatment of the women characters Gertrude and
Ophelia. Is there any basis for the Freudian interpretation of an
Oedipal attraction between Hamlet and his mother? Hamlet does seem
obsessed with his mother's sexuality. How old is Hamlet? How
old do you think Gertrude is? Is Hamlet's disgust at Gertrude's
sexuality justified? To what extent is Gertrude guilty? Was
she "in on" her husband's murder? Has Claudius confided
in her since the murder? How does Hamlet's perception of his
mother affect his behavior or attitude toward Ophelia? Why does he
tell Ophelia to go to a nunnery? Does Hamlet really love Ophelia?
If so, why is he cruel to her?
6)
Hamlet claims that his madness is feigned, an "antic
disposition" which he puts on for his own purposes (I.v.172).
Why would Hamlet want to feign madness? How can an appearance of
insanity help him achieve his ends? (Compare the role of
Touchstone, the "fool" in AYLI.) Is he really sane
throughout the play, or does he ever cross the line into madness?
What about Ophelia's mad scene? Is it real or feigned? Is
there "method in her madness" as well, or is she entirely
irrational? Why has she gone mad? (What two reasons do her
songs suggest?)
7)
Hamlet famously declares that "something is rotten in the state of
Denmark." What other natural imagery is used to describe the
corruption of the Danish court? What "unnatural" events
or behaviors preceded the events recounted in the play? What
"unnatural" events or behaviors occur during the play?
Compare/contrast with AYLI,
HV
and MAC.
8)
Moral ambiguity? Hamlet and Macbeth recount similar stories (the
usurping of a throne) from differing perspectives -- those of
perpetrator and avenger. Just as Macbeth was not ALL bad, Hamlet
is not ALL good. What are some of his faults or short-comings?
Do these constitute a "fatal flaw" (to use the concept and
terminology of Aristotle
or Bradley)?
Why might Shakespeare have chosen to remain in the "grey area"
rather than a more "black and white" depiction of Good and
Evil? Compare with Shakespeare's depiction of the protagonists in Henry
V and in Macbeth.
Hamlet:
The Newest Play
Written
by Dr.
Robert Walton, UCLA
Hamlet
is the newest play on earth. It always has been.
Kenneth Branagh's film is the latest important version-and, since it combines
all the early editions of the play, also the most complete version. Most modern
Hamlets are obsessed with mothers. Branagh gives us the other half: a Hamlet who
knows that being his terrifying father's son means following him into death.
And this is a movie that worships its ghosts. Several shots recall the previous
great "Hamlet" film, whose star and director, Sir Laurence
Olivier, had recently died; and Branagh even casts the sublime Derek Jacobi, who
was the previous great video Hamlet (for the BBC), as Hamlet's step-father
Claudius. A whole meat-locker of famous hams from Charlton Heston to Robin
Williams appear in bit roles, and there are visual echoes of past movies in
genres ranging from horror (the Ghost as Frankenstein) to the musical (we get to
the Intermission via "The Sound of Music") to swashbuckling
swordfights (with Hamlet as Errol Flynn).
No wonder Branagh strews so many mirrors around the set, and offers so many
oddly mixed signals about its historical period. When the legendary Sarah
Bernhardt played Hamlet, she was convinced that Hamlet was a woman; German
romantics thought he was a German romantic. In fact, every generation in every
nation becomes convinced that "Hamlet" is really about their
own special problems.
And bright but alienated teen-agers always know that they are Hamlet, whispering
cynical wisecracks while the pompous authority-figure holds forth from the big
chair. They know that their friends (like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern), and
even lovers (like Ophelia), may become false as they try to please parents and
employers; that the heroic parents they had as children have somehow been
replaced by dishonest and disturbingly erotic people; and, on the largest scale,
that they are growing up in a world where the ghosts of their fathers in armor
may tell them to fight and die on behalf of inherited grudges. Hamlet, Laertes
and Fortinbras-despite their mutual admiration-put their lives on the line
avenging their fathers against each other.
But all the skulls in the graveyard end up looking the same. As races and
societies, we live out the same kind of script. We're born into a cursed spite:
ghosts of our fathers in armor tell us to die fighting out quarrels we inherit
as Americans or Russians, Israelis or Palestinians, Latinos or Anglos, Shi'ites
or Sunis, Serbs or Kosovars. We're born to the burdens of our chaotic world, our
bitter weather and our mortal bodies, because (according to the Bible, which was
the one book everybody in Shakespeare's world knew) our first parents, Adam and
Eve, yielded to temptation in the garden, just as Hamlet and his compatriots die
playing out the consequences of Claudius' primal crime in the orchard.
That's my "Hamlet"-but everybody has one, and it teaches us
about ourselves as much as about Shakespeare. Beyond its aura of high cultural
authority, it also holds a secret message for lonely hearts and doubting minds,
a message from a kindred spirit transmitted from a stage somewhere in the world
every day. Let's let our students hear it. Teachers don't need to spoon
Shakespeare out like bitter medicine: it's all here, looking like real life, and
working as great old, brand new art.
Robert N. Watson, Professor of
English at UCLA, has written several books on English Renaissance drama, and
serves as head scholar for several programs to improve the teaching of
Shakespeare in high schools. He, too, believes he is Hamlet.
Discuss "Hamlet" on the Forums!
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