Literary Devices
“Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned.”
Antithesis
In Act 2, scene i, Polonius asks Reynaldo to "lay slight sullies" on Laertes in France (i.e. drinking, gambling, fighting, etc.). What is the purpose of this?
To discover how Laertes is behaving over seas.
Asks Hamlet's friends to spy on him.
"My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced; No hat upon his head; his stockings fouled, Ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle; Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other; And with a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosèd out of hell To speak of horrors—he comes before me."
Ophelia
Describe 1 way in which the motif of "madness" surfaces in Act 2.
--Hamlet's interactions with Polonius
--Hamlet's internal conflict in his soliloquy
"The serpent that did sting thy father’s life now ears his crown.”
While sewing in her bedroom, Ophelia is approached by Hamlet standing in her doorway displaying an "antic disposition" (i.e. acting crazy). What is Hamlet doing to convince Ophelia that he is unwell?
Half dressed, dazed, confused, shaking, and unresponsive.
Putting on an "antic disposition"
"What it should be, More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him So much from th' understanding of himself, I cannot dream of. I entreat you both That, being of so young days brought up with him And since so neighbored to his youth and 'havior, That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court Some little time so by your companies To draw him on to pleasures and to gather, So much as from occasion you may glean, Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus That, opened, lies within our remedy."
King Claudius
Describe traditional Elizabethan gender roles.
--Women were not educated and were expected to obey their husbands/fathers. They were inferior to men.
--Men had complete agency and freedom.
“I could a tale unfold whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, thy knotted and combined locks to part and each particular hair to stand on end like quills upon the fearful porpentine.”
Imagery
What did King Claudius and Queen Gertrude ask Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to do?
Spy on Hamlet, comfort/cheer him up, and identify the main cause of his melancholy.
Childhood friends of Hamlet
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
"For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ. I’ll have these players Play something like the murder of my father Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks. I’ll tent him to the quick. If he do blench, I know my course."
Hamlet
Describe 1 way in which the motif of "appearance vs. reality" appears in Act 2.
--Polonius appears to trust his son's judgment, but doesn't actually
--Hamlet appears to be crazy but is faking it
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"
Describe the news that Cornelius and Voltemand bring after visiting Norway.
1. Norway no longer wants to attack Denmark. Instead, they want to attack Poland but ask permission to pass through their country.
Believes to have found the cause of Hamlet's madness
Polonius
"Breathe his faults so quaintly That they may seem the taints of liberty, The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind, A savageness in unreclaimèd blood, Of general assault."
Polonius
Describe how Catholic/Protestant beliefs relate to Elizabethan audience's impression of the ghost.
Catholic: Good Spirit redeeming past sins with good deeds
Protestant: Evil Demon who wants to do harm to others
"A little month, or ere those shoes were old With which she followed my poor father’s body, LIKE NIOBE ALL TEARS"
Allusion
How does Hamlet intend to use the players' performance of "The Murder of Gonzago" as an opportunity to take revenge?
Hamlet intends to insert a scene in the play that mirrors his father's death to appeal to King Claudius' conscious.
The first person to experience Hamlet's crazy behavior.
"It begins with Pyrrhus—The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, Black as his purpose, did the night resemble When he lay couchèd in the ominous horse, Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot Now is he total gules, horridly tricked With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, Baked and impasted with the parching streets, That lend a tyrannous and damnèd light To their lord’s murder."
First Player
Describe 1 way in which the motif of "revenge" surfaces in Act 2.
--Hamlet plans to move forward with his revenge plan by having the players reenact his father's murder