Hamlet Act 1 Scene 2

1. What is odd about Hamlet’s appearance in the opening of scene two?

KING HAMLET: His brother-in-law Claudius who has married his wife/sister-in-law is talking about him.
PRINCE HAMLET: He is wearing all black, and his mother says, “thou know’st ’tis common. All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity.” Hamlet replies as if agreeing with her, but kind of smartass-like. “If it be, why seems it so particular with thee?” his mother asks. Hamlet it upset by the question – his mother seems to not care that his father has died, she was already remarried. Hamlet is different than most people, like his mother and Claudius, who believe that death should be taken lightly because it happens all the time.
 
He calls Horatio his friend, not his servant.

2. Explain (give at least two reasons) why Claudius needs to justify his marriage in the opening of scene two.

Claudius justified his marriage by saying that he is trying to mourn his brother, but is also trying to think of his own wellbeing. Secondly, he says that marrying Gertrude is what the countries people had said to do.
Perhaps he feels the need to justify it because he is trying to make it seem that he is moving on from his brother-in-laws death, and everyone else should too. Or maybe that he doesn’t know what to think of it himself “with an auspicious and a dropping eye,” - both happy and sad.

3. Laertes asks the King for leave to do what, specifically?

Laertes wants to go back to France. He says that he came willingly to Denmark to watch Claudius’s coronation, but now wishes to go.

4. Explain Hamlet’s insult when he says, “A little more than kin and less than kind.”

Claudius is twice related to him, as uncle and stepfather, but not really his kin or kind at all. *BURN!*

5. Explain Hamlet’s use of pun in the line, “Not so my lord, I am too much in the sun.”

Hamlet doesn’t like the fact that his mother remarried, especially to his uncle. He responds the king’s question of “How is it that the clouds still hang on you?” by saying that he has already called him son too many times. Hamlet replies with “I am too much i' the sun,” meaning that ‘your sun is out in the sun’ … suggesting that he is not his son, and is not okay.

6. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy it is obvious that what troubles him most is?

He has lost the most important person he has – he wishes that God didn’t have a law against suicide or else he would consider it. He’s most upset about his mother remarrying. She remarried before, “ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes.” He called his mother weak. He believes that what she did was wrong, but because of the circumstances, he, “but break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue,” he can’t mention his feelings out loud.

7. What does Hamlet mean by the following lines

“Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ‘seems’.
‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forc’d breath,
No, nore the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected havior of the visage,
Together will all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly. These indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play;
But I have that within which passes show,
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

He says that all the things that apparent, that can be physically shown to prove grief that any person could fake, is not nearly as bad as his emotional grief that he has inside. His black clothes just hint at his pain.

8. What does Hamlet say about the baked meats and the funeral and the wedding.

Hamlet asked where Horatio came from, and he said that he had come to see King Hamlet’s funeral. Hamlet, feeling like he was being mocked, says that he believes that he was actually there to see his mother’s wedding. Horatio replied that the wedding did follow soon after the funeral, and so Hamlet retorted that it was because it would save money – the leftovers from the funeral dinner would made a convenient wedding feast. 

9. What news does Horatio, Marcellus and Barnardo bring to Hamlet.

That they had seen Hamlet’s father as a ghost in full armor.

Hamlet Act 1 Scene 1

1) How is interest created in the opening scene?

The guards are talking to a ghost in the form of their king who died. INTERESTING ENOUGH. The ghost sets up a foreshadow for the play that something unpleasant may happen later.

2) What information are we given to help us understand the situation?

We are given the back-story of King Hamlet’s prior battles. The ghost in the form of Hamlet is wearing armor from a battle against Fortinbras, the king of Norway. Fortinbras dared Hamlet to fight and Hamlet killed him and received all the land he had. Fortinbras’s son however, also named Fortinbras, is now out for revenge and wants to reclaim the land his father lost. (Hamlet is dead – perfect time to rekindle an old fire of hatred while a kingdom is being rebuilt).

3) What happens at the end of the scene to create suspense and keep up the reader’s interest?
   
Because none of the guards were able to get the ghost to speak, they believed they owed it to Hamlet out of duty and love to tell him what they had seen. They think that the ghost will talk to Hamlet – especially if it’s his father’s ghost. 

4) What is the mood of the scene?

The men of the scene are nervous – they don’t know when the ghost will appear, and when it does they don’t know what to say to it to get it to talk. They even attempt to threaten it with violence. They’re also afraid of why the ghost is in the form of their dead king.

5) Why are the sentries apprehensive (there are two reasons)?

The guards are afraid because the ghost has presented itself and in the form of King Hamlet’s ghost. Horatio believes that this is a sign of that something bad is about to happen in the country. Marcellus questions why the guards have had such a strict schedule to work, why so many bronze cannons are being made, so many weapons are being brought over by sea, and why shipbuilders are working even on Sundays. Horatio believes that another war is going to break out because of their newest King’s past with Fortinbras, the king of Norway. Bernardo thinks that explains why Hamlets ghost appeared now – because people are about to seek revenge on the previous wars he had caused.

6) What reasons are suggested by Horatio for the appearance of the late King’s ghost?

Horatio is the first to make the assumption that the ghost is a sign that something bad is going to happen to their country. He later, when talking to the ghost, says, “Oh, speak! Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life, extorted treasure in the womb of earth for which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, speak of it. Stay and speak!” This hints at the possibility that Hamlet has some hidden treasure somewhere that is causing the ghost to be troubled.