Sunday, February 22, 2015

Act I
Scene 1 1. What is the Ghost wearing when he come on stage? When before, according to Horatio, had he been seen wearing it?
  •  The ghost looked like the dead king and he was wearing cloths like he was ready for battle.
  • "Yes, as much as you look like yourself. The king was wearing exactly this armor when he fought the king of Norway. And the ghost frowned just like the king did once when he attacked the Poles, traveling on the ice in sleds. It’s weird." this quote answers the second question.

2. Marcellus asks someone to “tell me…/Why this same strict and most observant watch/ So nightly toils the subject of the land…” What is the
answer?
  • it is rumored that the son of the late king of Norway wishes to avenge his father after the late king of Denmark killed his father after winning in a battle for land. The son has gathered some "thugs" to take back the things that the king of Denmark "took."

3. What story from the past does Horatio relate?
  • The assassination of Julius Caesar 

4. What makes the ghost disappear?
  • Rooster crow
 Scene 2
5. Note all of the different matters of court business that Claudius attends to at the opening of 1.2. How does he try to comfort Hamlet? Does it work?
  • He tells him that its sweet for him to mourn and he understands that but basically he needs to man up and show because if he doesn't he will never be taken serious and that now just think of him as his father to help ease the pain.

6. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy (“O that this too too solid flesh would melt…”), what does he tell the audience is so upsetting to him?
  • That everyone, especially, his mother moved on so quick and acted like the late kings life was just another event. That they aren't allowing themselves to mourn before moving on. His mothers "betrayal" towards his late father hurts him the absolute most and he sees only bad coming from it.

7. “Foul deeds will rise,/ Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes” (~1.2.256-­7) What does Hamlet mean by this?
  • He means that its a sign that something bad is going to happen that people have been trying to cover up.