Read the excerpt from Hamlet.Hamlet: Follow him, friends: we’ll hear a play to-morrow. [Exit POLONIUS, with all the Players but the First.] Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you play the Murder of Gonzago?First Player: Ay, my lord.Hamlet: We’ll ha ’t to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which I would set down and insert in ’t, could you not?First Player: Ay, my lord.
Read the excerpt from Act II of Hamlet.Ophelia: Alas! my lord, I have been so affrighted.Polonius: With what, in the name of God?Ophelia: My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbrac'd; No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd, Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle; Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other; And with a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosed out of hell To speak of horrors, he comes before me.
Read the excerpt from an analysis of Hamlet’s "To be or not to be” speech in Act III of Hamlet.Shakespeare begins the speech with the line "To be, or not to be: that is the question” and then proceeds to ask multiple questions throughout the speech.
Read the excerpt from Act IV of Hamlet.Claudius: I ha ’t: When in your motion you are hot and dry,— As make your bouts more violent to that end,— And that he calls for drink, I’ll have prepar’d him A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping,If he by chance escape your venom’d stuck, Our purpose may hold there.
Read an excerpt from an analysis of Act III of Hamlet.Rosencrantz and Guildenstern follow orders without question throughout the play. In this scene, Claudius tells them his life is in danger from Hamlet, and they must take Hamlet away. They agree immediately.
Read the excerpt from Act V of Hamlet.Gertrude: Sweets to the sweet: farewell! [Scattering flowers.] I hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife;I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid, And not have strew'd thy grave.
Read the excerpt from Hamlet.Laertes: Be wary then; best safety lies in fear: Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.Ophelia: I shall th’ effect of this good lesson keep,As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, Whiles, like a puff’d and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,And recks not his own rede.
Read the excerpt from Act II of Hamlet. Hamlet: I’ll observe his looks; I’ll tent him to the quick: if he but blench I know my course. The spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy— As he is very potent with such spirits— Abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds More relative than this: the play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.
building suspensecharacter developmentplot eventsrising action
To view the excerpt through a historical lens, which questions should the reader ask? Select 2 options.
A student analyzing the appearance of the ghost in Act I of Hamlet includes this sentence in the analysis.Death conquers everyone.
Read the excerpt from Act IV of Hamlet. Claudius: He made confession of you,And gave you such a masterly report For art and exercise in your defence, And for your rapier most especially, That he cried out, ’twould be a sight indeed If one could match you; the scrimers of their nation,He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, If you oppos’d them. Sir, this report of his Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy That he could nothing do but wish and beg Your sudden coming o’er, to play with him.
Read the excerpt from Hamlet.Claudius: Why to a public count I might not go, Is the great love the general gender bear him; Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows,Too slightly timber’d for so loud a wind, Would have reverted to my bow again, And not where I had aim’d them.
To analyze the development of a theme, the reader should study
Read the excerpt from Act III of Hamlet.Rosencrantz:Never alone Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.Claudius:Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage; For we will fetters put upon this fear, Which now goes too free-footed.Rosencrantz and Guildenstern:We will haste us.
Formalist criticism focuses upon a text’s
A student makes an observation about Hamlet.The focus on succession to the throne in Hamlet would have been interesting to an Elizabethan audience because their own queen had no heir.
best
Read the excerpt from the play within a play in Act III of Hamlet.Player Queen:O! confound the rest; Such love must needs be treason in my breast: In second husband let me be accurst; None wed the second but who kill’d the first.Hamlet:[Aside.] Wormwood, wormwood.Player Queen:The instances that second marriage move, Are base respects of thrift, but none of love; A second time I kill my husband dead, When second husband kisses me in bed.
What excerpt from Act III of Hamlet supports the conclusion that Hamlet is critical of women?
Did you find these answers helpful?