Hamlet Act I, Scenes 1 and 2 Questions

Why do Bernardo, Francisco, Marcellus invite Horatio to keep watch with them?

Bernardo, Francisco, and Marcellus have told Horatio about the apparition and he says they are imagining it. Horatio won't believe anything about this horrible thing that they have seen twice. They want him on their shift so that if the ghost appears he can see what they see and speak to it since he had seen the king when he was alive .

Why do the soldiers keep a nightly watch at the castle?

The late king was a great rival of Fortinbras, king of Norway. Fortinbras dared him to battle. In the fight, King Hamlet killed King Fortinbras. Because of a valid legal document King Fortinbras' heirs then had to surrender all his territories to Denmark. (If King Hamlet had lost he would have had to do the same thing) Now King Fortinbras's son, Fortinbras has gathered a bunch of thugs from the lawless outskirts of the country and for some food they are eager to take on the tough task of getting the lost lands back. They are posted to keep watch against anyone trying to attack.

What do the men think is the reason for the appearance of the ghost?

The men say the late king is the cause of these wars. They think his coming now is an omen of terrible things to come and it is a warning of what is going to happen. They compare it to corpses rising out of graves before Julius Caesar was assassinated, shooting stars, blood mixed with morning dew, strange signs on the face of the sun, and eclipses of the moon--all omens that have happened in the past.

How do the men try to communicate with the ghost?

Horatio goes out to meet it. He asks the ghost to speak if he has a voice and can make sounds. Horatio asks if there is a good deed he can do that will bring the ghost peace and honor Horatio. He asks if the ghost has secret knowledge of Denmark's fate which could be avoided if they knew about it ahead of time or if it has some buried treasure that is making him restless and he wants them to know about. Marcellus tries to keep it from leaving by maybe striking it with his spear, but it leaves before he can. It leaves when the rooster crows.

What is their future plan to communicate with it?

They are going to leave the watch and tell young Hamlet about the ghost. Horatio is sure that this ghost, although not talking to them, will talk to Hamlet, his son.

Why does Claudius send emissaries to Norway?

Claudius has written to Fortinbras's uncle, the present head of Norway, to tell him about his nephew's, Fortinbras's, plans to get back the territory his father lost to Denmark. Claudius wants the uncle, who has the power to do so, to stop his nephew by stopping the troops that Fortinbras has assembled. He says the troops are Norwegian and thus under the uncle's control. He wants him to know that young Fortinbras has underestimated his strength and that the death of King Hamlet has not thrown the country into turmoil.

Why had Laertes returned to Denmark from France?

Laertes returned to Denmark for Claudius' coronation. He felt it was his duty to be in Denmark for this event.

What request does Laertes make of the king?

Laertes wants to return to France because that is where his wants to be, where his life is.

An ASIDE is when a sentence or two is spoken in an undertone by one character to the audience or sometimes to another character. It is understood that the remaining characters on stage do not hear the aside. The aside helps the audience know a character better by allowing that character to privately express feelings, opinions, and reactions. When the king address Hamlet as cousin and son, Hamlet, in an aside to the audience responds, "A little more than kin, and less than kind," What does this reveal about Hamlet's feelings toward the king?

(Too many family ties there for me) Hamlet does not like that this uncle is now his stepfather. He feels it is too complicated and messy. He disapproves of his mother's marriage to his uncle. He doesn't consider his and his uncle's relationship to be warm and loving as family relationships should be.

In what other ways does Hamlet let his feelings toward the king be know?

Hamlet wears black clothes and is gloomy and not friendly to Claudius. He keeps his eyes to the ground and won't look at Claudius. He sighs heavily and weeps as well--all signs of his grief. He says his appearance and actions only show a small part of the grief he feels.

What is the king's criticism of Hamlet?

Claudius feels that Hamlet is overdoing his grief for his father and is just being stubborn. He says this emotional distress is a sign of an ignorant and weak mind and is not what God wants. He also calls Hamlet unmanly. Claudius accuses Hamlet of committing a crime against heaven, against the dead, and against nature. He says he is being irrational since all fathers must die. He wants him to stop mourning and think of him as his new father. He also doesn't like his plan to go back to Wittenberg. Claudius wants Hamlet to stay and be the number one person in his court.

A SOLILOQUEY is a speech given by a character while he is alone on stage or while the other characters on stage are temporarily ignored. A soliloquy reveals the character's thoughts to the audience but not to others on stage. Do not confuse a soliloquy with an aside. An aside, like the punch line of a joke, is a character's immediate reaction to a preceding event or line. A soliloquy is longer, more highly personal revelation of a character's thoughts, feelings, or plans. Hamlet's first soliloquy begins "O that this too too solid flesh would melt,...." What does Hamlet's soliloquy reaveal as the reasons for his state of melancholy?

Hamlet feels his life is tired, stale, and pointless. He compares himself to a garden that is full of weeds because no one is taking care of it. He is upset that his father has been dead less than two months and his uncle has married his mother. He says his father was an excellent king and husband, so much more superior and loving towards his mother than his uncle. He remembers how loving his mother was towards his father, but now she is with another man. He says his mother went from crying at the funeral like crazy to marrying his uncle in less time than it takes to break in new shoes. He says an animal would have mourned its mate longer. Hamlet feels she married before the tears were dry on her cheeks and now she is in an incestuous relationship. He is upset, but he can't tell anyone how he feels, he must keep it all inside.

Some scholars believe that Shakespeare's early manuscrips were copied incorrectly and replace the world SOLID ("O that this too too solid flesh...") with SULLIED. Your copy of the play may reflex this. How does this change the import of what Hamlet says here?

Solid would go with something melting. Sullied would imply that he was dirty or contaminated. That he had done something wrong or something wrong had been done to me to soil him in some way.

Judging from the context, realizing we do not have all of the historical data here, which do you believe is the correct word? (solid or sullied) and Why?

I think the correct word is sullied. Shakespeare was a wordsmith and would have used a word that had more meaning. Sullied implies that evil and filth have soiled Hamlet. Hamlet's family is acting in what he feels is an evil way and this evil is "soiling" him. Hamlet feels so dirty that he doesn't want to live.

How does Hamlet apparently feel about the wedding of his mother to his uncle? Give some examples from the reading to support your answer.

1. Hamlet feels the wedding happened too fast: His mother's tears weren't dry before she wed, she went from the funeral to the wedding before her funeral shoes were even broken in, she couldn't get enough of King Hamlet when he was alive, yet she married within a month of his death, an animal would have mourned longer than she did

2. This marriage is wrong. It is against God: Only nasty weeds grow in his life--nasty seems to refer to his uncle and mother, his uncle is like a beast compared to his father who was like a god, his uncle is as much like his father as he is like Hercules, his uncle and hisj mother are sharing a bed of incest

At the end of scene ii Hamlet gives a brief soliloquy after learning that the men had seen his father's ghost. Read the following lines:

My father's spirit in arms! all is not well.

I doubt some foul play. Would the night were to come!

Till then sit still my soul. Foul deeds will rise,

Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

FORESHADOWING is used in these lines. Foreshadowing is a literary device by which the author hints of events to come later in the play. These events are often tragic. What is being hinted in the lines above?

Hamlet is thinking there must have been some foul play concerning his father's death and that is why his father's ghost is armed. He says bad deeds will be revealed, no matter how people try to hide them. This lets us know that people's bad deeds will be shown later in the play.