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Hamlet ---- Act 1, Scene 2 King Hamlet has recently died. Claudius, his brother, has become king of Denmark and has married Gertrude. Claudius now possesses his dead brother’s throne and his widow. He explains his marriage to his sister-in-law so soon after her first husband’s death (lines 1-16) and then turns to political affairs (lines 17-39).

Claudius: honest or devious?Some critics argue that Claudius’s eloquence is appropriate to the occasion. His long, carefully constructed sentences suggest he is self-assured and honest. But other critics argue that the speech reveals his insecurity. Its fluency makes it sound rehearsed and false. His constant references to himself using the royal ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’ suggest he is anxious about whether his kingship is legal.

1. Find a small group to speak lines 1-39 to show Claudius as, alternately: confident and in control, uneasy and insecure, devious and crafty, honest and sincere. Write down notes telling what you feel Claudius’s language reveals about his character. 2. Collect what you see as the key lines in Claudius’s speech and annotate each quotation with comments about Claudius’s character. Gauge his character through his actions, his words and his manner of speaking.

A soliloquy.Hamlet’s soliloquy exposes his deep depression. In turn, he expresses weariness, despair, grief, anger, nausea, loathing and disgust, and resignation. He has no thoughts about political matters, about becoming king, or about being forbidden to return to Wittenberg. His troubled mind is obsessed solely with family matters: his father, his uncle, and his mother. 1. Alone or in pairs, take a section of the speech and explore it in detail, teasing out its meaning. Write your main points in your journal. Also, work out how you would deliver the section aloud. 2. Each group now speaks their section (using individual or choral voice). 3. Reflect on what you learnt by dealing with the speech in this way. Note down words and phrases that you think are pivotal to Hamlet’s thought and moral development as a character.

Write About it.

1. Marcellus and Barnardo compare notes. Marcellus and Barnardo have seen the Ghost three times. They have told their news to Hamlet. Imagine they have returned to their quarters. They talk about their sightings of the Ghost and about Hamlet’s response. Write the script of their conversation, using your knowledge of scenes 1 and 2. 2. Hamlet writes about his day’s experience. Hamlet’s final four lines express surprise, apprehension, suspicion, impatience, and the certainty that evil actions cannot remain concealed. As you will discover in scene 5, Hamlet keeps a notebook in which he writes down what he learns. Write down Hamlet’s notebook entry for this day. It should describe his behavior at the court, his feelings about Claudius and Gertrude and his own moodiness, what he makes of Horatio’s story, and his speculations about why his father’s ghost appears to be haunting Elsinore.

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Etiam sit amet donec quis nunc

A father’s advice. How does Polonius deliver his advice to his son? So far, his style

has been variously comic, authoritarian, lovingly sincere and pompous. A. Try speaking lines 58-81 in these styles, then talk together about what the lines and various modes of delivery suggest about Polonius’s character. young love. It won’t last, he tells Ophelia, and he makes comparisons with short-lived things. B. How do Laertes and Ophelia react? In some productions, Polonius’s children listen dutifully and respectfully. In others they make faces behind Polonius’s back, mocking his advice. In yet others they silently mouth his words, showing that they have heard it all many times before. In your journal, advise Laertes and Ophelia how to react to each sentence of their father’s counsel.

Is Laertes a jerk? In the script, Laertes uses images of treasure, war, masks and disease

to warn Ophelia against losing her virginity to Hamlet. How does Laertes speak all his advice to his sister? Pompously? Lovingly? Imploringly? And how does Ophelia react as her brother lectures her on the briefness of young love, Hamlet’s high status and the dangers that face young women? 1. Write a paragraph explaining Laertes’s attitude toward his sister? For example, is he genuinely affectionate or is he sexist and condescending? 2. In lines 45-51, Ophelia agrees to follow Laertes’s advice, but then reminds him to practice what he preaches. Experiment with speaking the lines and decide which style best fits your view of Ophelia’s character and the relationship between her and her brother. Explain your choices in your journal.

Focus on Polonius.A. Compare Polonius’s advice to

Laertes with his advice to

Ophelia. What are the main points he makes in each case?

B. Build a portrait of Polonius from these two speeches. Use it as a foundation to explore his character in more depth as the play progresses. Highlight and collect key quotations from the speeches and from elsewhere in this act, to provide evidence of his character and of his language.

C. Compose an entry in Ophelia’s diary, written after this advice from her father: How does she feel about the treatment from her brother and her father? And how does she feel about Hamlet’s ‘tenders / Of ... affection?

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Hamlet - - - Act 1, Scene 3Themes: Father/Daughter and Mother/SonWe have already seen the beginnings of a relationship between son and father (Hamlet and his father’s Ghost); and a very different father/son relationship in Polonius and Laertes. Here, we see the beginnings of a father/daughter relationship - and we have already seen Hamlet’s response to his mother (one that will develop further in the play). Compare and contrast any two of these inter-generational relationships. Follow them through the play thus far.

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ACT 1 Scene 4

Language in the play. A good spirit? Or an evil goblin?Hamlet is unsure as to what type of apparition he sees. Is it a good spirit from heaven or an evil goblin from hell, tempting him to eternal damnation? He expresses his uncertainty in vivid antithesis:

‘spirit of health’ versus ‘goblin damned ‘airs from heaven’ versus ‘blasts from hell’ ‘wicked’ versus ‘charitable’. The problem of knowing whether the Ghost is good or bad will preoccupy Hamlet for most of the play. Reread lines 39-57. Experiment with different pacing and tones: amazed, questioning, fearful and pleading. Consider the nature of the Ghost. Do you believe that it is a creature from heaven or hell ? Or, is it something else entirely? Why would Hamlet be unsure as to its origins? What does this say about Hamlet’s character?

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An agent of the devil...The Ghost hints at the terrors of its suffering. It cannot go to heaven because it died before it could confess its sins. So it must suffer dreadfully in purgatory. According to Medieval (Catholic) Christian belief,

purgatory is the place where unconfessed sinners experience indescribable remorse as their sins are burnt and purges away before they can see God in heaven. The majority of Shakespeare’s audiences were Protestants, and

they would have two reasons for suspecting that the ghost was an evil agent of the devil. First, because Protestantism had abolished the notion of purgatory. Second, because the Protestant Church judged revenge as a sin, for which the revenger’s soul was damned. But the Ghost’s words make thrilling theater. 1. Summarize the Ghost’s words in lines 9-22. Comment on any vivid phrasing or imagery. 2. Hieronymus Bosch’s(1450-1516), image of Hell is shown here. Bosch painted haunting scenes of the torments of the dead. They will help you imagine what Shakespeare’s audience might have pictured the Ghost enduring. Write a paragraph connecting this image to the suffering of both the Ghost and Hamlet himself.

Family matters again.

Like Hamlet, the Ghost seems little concerned with the affairs of state. His mind is full of family matters. He expresses revulsion at the thought Gertrude’s sexual relationship with Claudius (‘that incestuous, that adulterate beast’). He is sickened at the thought of his betrayal by his ‘seemingly virtuous queen’, and speaks bitterly of ‘lust’ and ‘garbage’. Actors often speculate on the past lives of their characters, join in the speculation by writing a paragraph on these questions: 1. Had Gertrude been unfaithful while her husband was alive? 2. Had Hamlet earlier suspected that Claudius had killed his father? Explain with reference to text.

Vivid Images.

The script is full of strikingly imaginative images. Reread lines 29-31, 39-40, 42 and 53-7.

A. Choose one image from this section of text. Talk together about each element in the image - for example in lines 29-31 how can you relate ‘wings as swift / As meditation’ and ‘thoughts of love’ to ‘revenge’?

B. Decide on a way of presenting your understanding of the image to the rest of the class.

C. Consider what effect the images have on the theme and characterization of the play.

Oath of Friendship.

1. In most productions only Hamlet hears the Ghost. But what would be the dramatic effect if Marcellus and Horatio also heard the Ghost’s demand ‘Swear’ (line 149)? Write a set of notes listing the dramatic gains and losses if all three characters hear the Ghost.

2. The hilt of Hamlet’s sword is shaped like a cross and he would ask his friends to swear their promise of silence upon it. Decide whether you think Marcellus and Horatio are willing or unwilling to swear the oath. In what other ways might Hamlet use his sword to encourage the men to swear?