Suppose you are away at school and receive news

of your father’s sudden death.

How would you feel?

What would you think?

What would you do?

Suppose that when you return home,

you learn that your mother has already

remarried.

How would you feel?

What would you think?

What would you do?

Suppose that after having always believed your

parents had a happy marriage, you observe your

mother falling all over her new husband.

How would you feel?

What would you think?

What would you do?

Suppose that your mother’s new husband is

your father’s brother.

How would you feel?

What would you think?

What would you do?

Act One I, i + ii

The Dane – King of Denmark

King Hamlet – dead – Hamlet’s father

King Fortinbras – dead king of Norway – killed by King Hamlet

Young Fortinbras - Prince of Norway – seeking the lands lost by his

father

Claudius – Hamlet’s uncle – King of Denmark

Gertrude – Hamlet’s mother – Queen of Denmark

“our” “we” – royal “we”

Old Norway – Fortinbras’ uncle – King of Norway – old and sick

Hamlet - Prince of Denmark

Claudius - King of Denmark, Hamlet's Uncle, Dead King

Hamlet's brother

Gertrude - Queen of Denmark, Hamlet's mother

Horatio - Hamlet's friend

Polonius - chief counselor to the King

Laertes - son of Polonius

Ophelia - daughter of Polonius, Hamlet's love interest

Fortinbras - Prince of Norway

Setting - Elsinore Castle, Denmark

“My fate cries

out!”

“Oh, cursed spite

That ever I was born

to set it right!”

“antic disposition”

“Be thou a spirit of

health, or a goblin

damned,

Act I Quotes (slide 1)

"Such was the very armor he had on when the ambitious Norway he combated“ (I.i. )

“Good Hamlet, cast thy knighted color off,

And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark” (I.ii.72).

“Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew.” (I.ii.129)

“Frailty, thy name is woman!” (I.ii.152)

Act I Quotes (slide 2)

“My fate cries out!” (I.v.91)

"O my prophetic soul!" (I.v.47)

”Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (I.iv.87)

“I perchance hereafter shall think meet

To put an antic disposition on” (I.v.196).

“O cursed spite! That ever I was born to set it right!” (I.v.215)

Projection:

Characters project their own weakness or guilt onto

the cause for Hamlet's madness

Claudius: Hamlet has a secret

Gertrude: Her "Oer'hasty" marriage to Claudius

Polonius: His love for Ophelia

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: ambition

Hamlet Act II

Polonius sends Reynaldo to France with notes and money for Laertes. He tells Reynaldo to spy on Laertes while he is there.

Hamlet bursts into Ophelia’s closet (room) and frightens her with his wild appearance and behavior.

Claudius and Gertrude welcome Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, childhood friends of Hamlet and ask them to report back to them whatever they can find out about their “too much changed son.”

Hamlet Act II (con’t)

Claudius is happy to hear that Old

Norway gave his nephew money and

soldiers to fight in Poland instead of

attacking Denmark. Old Norway asks

if Fortinbras and his armies can pass

through Denmark on the way.

Hamlet expresses his doubts about

the ghost and comes up with a plan to

see if Claudius really killed his father.

Act II Quotes

“My uncle-father and aunt-mother are

deceived” (II.ii.385)

“I am mad north-northwest. When the

wind is southerly I know a hawk from a

handsaw” (II.ii.388).

“Am I a coward?” (II.ii.578)

"The play's the thing wherein I'll catch

the conscience of the King" (II.ii.612)

Act III summary

Hamlet “To be or not to be” speech.

We only go on living because we are

afraid of what comes after death.

Claudius and Polonius spy on

Hamlet’s conversation with Ophelia.

Hamlet knows that Ophelia was part of

the plot to spy on him and gets very

angry. “Get thee to a nunnery.”

Act III Summary

The play within the play. Hamlet

confirms the ghost’s story.

Hamlet acts crazy and mean to

Ophelia, calls out Rosencrantz and

Guildenstern and pledges to kill

Claudius as soon as he sees his

mother.

Hamlet pledges to “Speak daggers to

her but use none” concerning his

mother.

Act III summary

Hamlet kills Polonius behind he arras

hoping it was the King.

The ghost appears “his tardy son to

chide” and tells Hamlet to help his

mother.

Hamlet tells his mother to stay away

from Claudius.

Quotes Act III (slide 1)

"To sleep, perchance to dream. Aye, there's the rub"(III.i.73)

“Conscience does make cowards of us all” (III.i.91)

“O woe is me

To have seen what I have seen,

See what I see!” (III.ii.170)

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks” (III.ii.94)

Quotes Act III (slide 2)

“do you think I am easier to be played

on than a pipe?” (III.ii.).

“I will speak daggers to her, but use

none”(III.ii.429).

“My words fly up, my thoughts remain

below;Words without thoughts never

to heaven go” (III.iii.100)

“These words like daggers enter mine

ears” (III.iv.400)

Three Fatherless Sons seek revenge:

Hamlet - thought over action

Fortinbras - revenge through honorable battle

Laertes - impulsively seeks revenge by any means

Quotes Act IV

“O heavy deed! It had been so with us, had we been there; his liberty is full of

threats to us all” (IV, i).

“O, from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!” (IV, iv)

“So full of artless jealousy is guilt,

It spills itself in fearing to be spilt” (IV, v).

Quotes Act IV (slide 2)

“And where th’ offense is, let the great

ax fall (IV.v.243).

“Too much of water hast thou poor

Ophelia. And therefore I forbid my

tears”

(IV.vii.211.)

Quotes Act V

“There is a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them as we will,--“(V,ii)

“…we defy augury: there’s a special providence in

the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if

it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet

it will come: readiness is all” (V, ii).

“I am more an antique Roman than a Dane” (V, ii).

“Goodnight sweet prince:

And flights of angels sing thee

to thy rest” (V, ii).

This is, I, Hamlet the Dane!