Study Questions ACT 3

For FRIDAY finish the questions below and SHMOOP lessons "4" and "5" (these lessons cover Act 3)

Hamlet Act 3 Questions for Study
Act 3

Scene 1:

1. What do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern report to Polonius?
2. How does Claudius react when Polonius says, "…with devotion's visage, And pious action we do sugar o'er/ The devil himself"?
3. What plan do Polonius, Claudius and Ophelia now put into action?
4. What is the nature of Hamlet's soliloquy, lines 57-91?
5. What is Hamlet's main argument against suicide?
6. Why does Hamlet treat Ophelia as cruelly as he does? What has changed him?
7. What thinly veiled threat to Claudius does Hamlet voice, after he becomes of his hidden presence? (lines 148-150)
8. At the end of this scene, what does the King decide to do with Hamlet?

Scene 2:

9. What qualities in Horatio cause Hamlet to enlist his assistance?
10. What does Hamlet ask Horatio to do?
11. Summarize what happens in the play-within-a-play.
12. Why, in line 233, does Hamlet refer to the play-within-a-play as "The Mouse-trap"?
13. What is the King's reaction to the play?
14. In lines 354-363, to what object does Hamlet compare himself? Why?
15. As Hamlet goes to his mother at the end of this scene, what does he admonish himself

Scenes three and four

1) What does Claudius plan to do with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Hamlet?

2) What is Polonius going to do while Hamlet speaks with his mother?

3) List three important things about Claudius’ soliloquy.

a)

b)

c

4) Why is it odd that Hamlet sees the king praying?

5) Why doesn’t Hamlet take this opportunity for revenge?

Scene IV

1) Describe Polonius’ advice to Gertrude.

2) What is the significance of the following quote: “How now, a rat? Dead! For a ducat, dead!

3) What is odd about the following quote: A bloody dead; almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother.

4) Why might Gertrude say, “What have I done, that thou dar’st wag thy tongue in noise so rude against me.”

5) What descriptions does Hamlet use to compare his father and his uncle?

King Hamlet

Claudius

6) What point does Hamlet make by comparing the men?

7) What is disturbing about the following: Nay, but to live in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed; stewed in corruption; honeying, and making love over the nasty sty.”

8) What stops Hamlet’s ranting and raving at Gertrude? What does this figure tell Hamlet?

9) By the end of the act, Hamlet has made many statements about humanity, in general. Explain a few of his points. Do his opinions reflect his madness.

10) Explain the differences between the ghost in Act I with the ghost in Act III. Why might these differences reflect Hamlet’s insanity?

Hamlet

Today - you need to sign into Shmoop and do lessons 1-3 (this covers Acts 1 and 2).  I will be able to grade them on my end.

Also - you need to watch HAMLET Act 1 and Act 2.  You can find a link to it on Edmodo and Crash Course HAMLET part 1.

No FEAR SHAKESPEARE - go HERE

ACT 2 questions

ACT II

1) What is does Polonius tell Reynaldo in the opening of Act II? How does he plan to trap his son?


2) What does this say about Polonius?


3) What particularly in Act II scene 1 has disturbed Ophelia?



4) Why have Rosencrantez and Guildenstern been sent to Denmark?


5) What does Hamlet ask the players to recite? How does the allusion mimic Hamlet’s position?



Identify the following speaker of the following lines and discuss to whom the lines are being delivered, and what do the lines mean?

6) “No, my lord, but as you did command/ I did repel his letter, and denied his access to me”



7) “More matter less art”



8) “That I, the son of a dear father murdered,/ Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell/ Must like a whore unpack my heart with words,



9) “Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth/ And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,/ with windlasses and with assays of bias,/ By directions find directions out.”


10) “For if the sun breeds maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion-Have you a daughter?”


11) List three metaphors (1 direct, 1 implied, 1 extended) from the play.


12) What proof does Polonius have that he believe indicates Hamlet’s love for Ophelia?


13) Explain the quote, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” How does this relate to Hamlet.


14) What is a fishmonger?


15) Who was Jephthah?

Hamlet Act 1 Scenes 2-5

HAMLET ACT 1 Scene 2
1. What is odd about Hamlet’s appearance in the opening of scene two?





2. Explain (give at least two reasons) why Claudius needs to justify his marriage in the opening of scene two.








3. Laertes asks the King for leave to do what, specifically?

4. Explain Hamlet’s insult when he says, “A little more than kin and less than kind.”







5. Explain Hamlet’s use of pun in the line, “Not so my lord, I am too much in the sun.”






6. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy it is obvious that what troubles him most is?











7. What does Hamlet mean by the following lines

“Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ‘seems’.
‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forc’d breath,
No, nore the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected havior of the visage,
Together will all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly. These indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play;
But I have that within which passes show,
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.



8. What does Hamlet say about the baked meats and the funeral and the wedding.





9. What news does Horatio, Marcellus and Barnardo bring to Hamlet.


Act 1 scenes 3-4

1) What is Laertes advice to Ophelia?





2) How does “The canker galls the infants of the spring/ too oft before their buttons be disclos’d” fit into the ideology of the decaying garden?





3) What analogy does Ophelia give to her brother as an answer to his advice? What does she mean?






4) List five of the “few precepts” that Polonius gives to Laertes.







5) In lines 105-109, what is the metaphor that Polonius uses to describe Hamlet’s words of love?







6) List and explain one metaphor found in the lines 115-135.





7) What is Polonius’ command to Ophelia?





8) In scene 4, what is Hamlet talking about in lines 13-38?








9) Why doesn’t Horatio want Hamlet to follow the ghost?







10) What is Hamlet’s command to the three guards?

Hamlet

Unit Learning goal: Students will demonstrate an understanding of Hamlet by choosing a prompt from below, developing a thesis statement out of it, and answering the thesis statement by analyzing and using direct evidence from the text. 

QUESTIONS TO DEVELOP THESIS STATEMENTS ABOUT AND ANSWER

1)    Polonius is sometimes played as a senile old fool, sometimes as a shrewd and worldly old man.  Which interpretation do you agree with and why?

2)    Pick one character who could, at some point, have changed the whole chain of events.  Discuss.

3)    Analyze the three appearances of the ghost seen in the play.  Where did he appear; to whom did he appear?  How does the third appearance differ from the first two?  What is the significance of this?

4)    Discuss the reasons for Hamlet’s apparent delay in seeking revenge for his father.  What is your opinion regarding his procrastination?

5)    Compare and contrast Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras as avengers.

6)    What is Hamlet’s attitude towards life and people?  How does it affect his actions?

7)    Apply the following quote to Hamlet: “A man who wishes to make a profession of goodness in everything must necessarily come to grief among so many who are not good.  Therefore, it is necessary for a prince, who wishes to maintain himself, to learn how to not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it, according to the necessity of the case.”  -- THE PRINCE, Machiavelli

8)    Examine the reoccurring pun on sun and son.  How does this symbol work in the overall meaning of the play.

9)    Was Ophelia pregnant with Hamlet’s child?

10)  Did Hamlet slip into madness?

11)  It is Hamlet who causes the downfall of Denmark.

12) What is the meaning of the pirates?

13) Is Hamlet Jesus Christ?  How is Horatio either John the Baptist or an apostle.

14) Why or how is Denmark the Garden of Eden?

15) Gertrude knows about the murder?

16) The meaning of prostitution in Hamlet?

17) Can Hamlet be compared to our current society?  If so, how?

18) Perhaps others—as we read or when we finish

OBJECTIVES:  At the end of this unit students will be able to

Knowledge:

1) List the five elements of tragedy

2) List the five elements of a tragic hero

3) Define theme, plot, setting, foreshadow, oxymoron, soliloquy, personification, dramatic foil, metaphor (direct, implied, extended), symbol, simile, pun

4) Give the four elements of a sonnet and a brief description of traditional sonnet themes

5) Define various vocabulary words from the play

       

Comprehension:

6) Identify a metaphor (direct, implied, extended), simile, pun or symbol within the play

7) Identify the rhyme scheme of a English sonnet and break a sonnet into quatrains and couplets

8) Give a brief description of all the characters and their roles in the play

9) Given a line of dialogue identify the speaker

10) Outline the plot and break in up into exposition, inciting event, rising action, climax, falling action and catastrophe (or resolution)

11) Summarize each scene into a headline

12) Answer various discussion questions and come to class prepared to discuss/jutify/argue answers in a group setting 

Application

13) Demonstrate an understanding of a scene in a drawing

14) Demonstrate a relation of characters to contemporary times through a simulation 

15) Demonstrate an understanding of characters and acting techniques by writing out a script (including the lines, subtext, emotion or tone, and blocking) and acting out the scene from memory

16) Demonstrate an understanding of the play by writing journal entries and in-class writing assignments including a Dear Abbey Letter, interviews with citizens of Denmark, personal responses, and in-class presentations on characters.   

17) Demonstrate an understanding of parts of the play by translation Shakespeare’s lines into contemporary English

18) Write a poem or a rap about Hamlet

19) Research a character: the different critical views and present findings to class

Analysis

20) Write a analysis paper on some element or question of Hamlet and present the paper to class as an 

oration

21) Students will view different versions of the same scene and describe the interpretation of the characters

And ideas that have taken by the actors/director.  

22) Students will take a question and prepare an extemporaneous commentary speech based Hamlet.

Synthesis

23) Write a sonnet

24) Write Shakespearean Insults 

WHY READ HAMLET???????

Hamlet ACT 1 Scene 1


1) How is interest created in the opening scene?
2) What information are we given to help us understand the situation?
3) What happens at the end of the scene to create suspense and keep up the reader’s interest?
4) What is the mood of the scene?
5) Why are the sentries apprehensive (there are two reasons)?
6) What reasons are suggested by Horatio for the appearance of the late King’s ghost?
7) Who are the characters present in the scene?
8) List one thing Horatio says about the former King?
9) Who is young Fortinbras?
10) What does Horatio say happened in Rome after Julius Caesar was murdered?
11) How does Horatio differ from Marcellus and Barnardo in scene 1?
12) What is Horatio’s purpose in scene 1 (why is he present)?
13) What past history (Denmark’s history) is revealed in scene 1?

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