Themes
One of the dominant ways of dying in the play; present when Hamlet says "Or that the Everlasting had not fixed his cannon against self-slaughter."
What is suicide?
“I am more an antique Roman than a Dane. Here’s yet some liquor left.”
Horatio to Hamlet
Hamlet calls R/G this kitchen item; he means they soak up the King's favors.
What is a sponge?
Who Yorick was, in life.
What is the King's jester?
The most Oedipal of the three film versions.
What is Gibson?
The theme that is most present in the quote: "Choose we Laertes! Laertes shall be King!"
What is dangers of usurpation?
"Lord, we know what we are but know not what we may be."
Ophelia to Claudius
The "deus ex machina" that Shakespeare includes in Act IV in order to fulfill Hamlet's return to Denmark.
What is a pirate attack. Yarrr!
The ethical conflict between Laertes and the Priest.
What are Ophelia's funeral rites?
The reflective object that seems to have and important role in both Branagh and Tennant.
What is a mirror?
This figure (often associated with wheels and circles) is alluded to frequently when Hamlet discusses why certain things happen to various characters.
Who is Lady Fortune?
"Twere good she were spoken with, for she may strew dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds."
Horatio to Gertrude
This object lends authority to the letter that Hamlet forges and puts back in R&G's bag.
What is a signet ring modeled on the Danish seal?
The object that Claudius puts in the stoup of wine (it has two names in the play, give both).
What is a pearl/union?
Probably Gertrude's most famous quote from the play.
What is "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
The theme most present when Laertes and Hamlet are preparing to fence; the theme is transgressed with Laertes cuts Hamlet.
What is honor?
“Not one now to mock your own grinning? Quite chapfallen? Now get you to my lady’s chamber, and tell her; let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come. Make her laugh at that.”
Hamlet to Yorick
Where Hamlet has temporarily placed Polonius's dead body.
What is the castle's lobby/by the staircase?
The kind of treatment Fortinbras orders for Hamlet's death? Be specific.
What is a soldier's honor, or that the soldiers shoot?
The play that Shakespeare references (and also wrote), to comment on tyranny and to foreshadow the first onstage death.
What is Julius Caesar?
The theme present in the inclusion of minor characters like The Gravedigger and Osric in the very last scenes of the play.
What is class conflict?
"Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service - two dishes but to one table."
Hamlet to Claudius
The flowers Ophelia hands out in her madness. Name them all.
What are: rosemary, pansies, fennel, columbines, rue, daisy, violets?
Name the deaths (onstage AND off) in the order that we, the readers, hear about them in V.ii.
Who are: Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Shakespeare coined this phrase (borrowed by the singer/songwriter Neil Young) to express someone who is pure and good.
What is "heart of gold"?