Hamlet, Part 4: Comparing and Contrasting Interpretations — Quiz Answers

Read the excerpt from Act III of Hamlet . To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil , Must give us pause. What does Hamlet mean by "shuffled off this mortal coil"?

Read the excerpt from Act III of Hamlet . The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of dispriz’d love , the law’s delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? What does Hamlet mean when he refers to the "pangs of dispriz’d love"?

Read the excerpt from Act III of Hamlet . . . . who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover’d country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Which words does Hamlet use to describe the afterlife?

Read the excerpt from Act III of Hamlet . Polonius: . . . [To OPHELIA.] Read on this book; That show of such an exercise may colour Your loneliness. Which adaptation of this excerpt best indicates a change in time period?

Read the excerpt from Act III of Hamlet . Hamlet: To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and, by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. Which of these adaptations of the excerpt is most likely to portray Hamlet as worried and thoughtful?

Read the excerpt from Act III of Hamlet . To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? What does this part of the soliloquy reveal about Hamlet?

Read the excerpt from Act III of Hamlet . To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil , Must give us pause. What does Hamlet mean by "shuffled off this mortal coil"?

Read the excerpt from Act III of Hamlet . Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action Which word does Hamlet use to describe those who choose to live?

Read the excerpt from Act III of Hamlet . Hamlet: To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and, by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause In his adaptation of this excerpt, Laurence Olivier uses high cliffs as a background and he holds onto a knife. What effect do these choices have?

Read the excerpt from Act III of Hamlet . To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. Based on this section of the soliloquy, which best describes Hamlet’s view of death?