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Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 2820


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  • Topic #1


    II. Act I

    III. Act II

    IV. Act III

    V. Act IV

    VI. Act V

  • Topic #2


    II. Hamlet and Laertes
    A. Both men seek to avenge a father’s death.
    B. Both love Ophelia and mourn her death.

    III. Hamlet and Horatio

    IV. Hamlet and Fortinbras

    V. Laertes and Horatio
    B. Hamlet notes that Horatio is above flattery, and thus unable to be manipulated.
    C. Both young men are basically good and decent, and genuinely care for Hamlet and for the kingdom.

    VI. Claudius and King Hamlet
    A. Hamlet draws many invidious comparisons between these brothers, noting that Claudius is not one fraction the man he murdered.
    B. Claudius attempts to manipulate everyone through deceit, which is apparently how he wooed Gertrude, who seems unaware of the fratricide until Hamlet reveals it to her.
    C. Claudius enlists the help of the British, under threat of retaliation if they do not kill Hamlet upon his arrival in England.
    D. Claudius ends up being directly or indirectly responsible for all of the deaths in the play: the King, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Gertrude, Laertes, Hamlet—and his own.

    VII. Gertrude and Ophelia
    A. Both women are obedient to their men, Ophelia naively so.
    B. Both are knowing participants in plots to deceive Hamlet and learn the cause of his “transformation.”
    C. Neither is fully aware of the evil directing her actions.
    D. Both try to humor Hamlet in his madness, seeking to gentle him out of his torment.
    E. Hamlet’s rough treatment of them both results in Ophelia’s eventual madness and Gertrude’s repentance.
    F. Gertrude’s characterization revolves around her sexuality; Ophelia’s revolves around her chastity.

    VIII. Polonius and Claudius
    A. Both men are arrogant and manipulative.
    B. Polonius is consistently shown to be a foolish old man who misjudges his abilities and popularity.
    C. Claudius is keenly aware of how he appears to others, and is at great pains to shore up public opinion to protect his regency.
    D. Hamlet says, when he mistakenly stabs Polonius, “I took thee for thy better” [Claudius].

    IX. Polonius and Hamlet
    A. Polonius errs by acting too soon and too frequently in matters which are really not his concern.
    B. Hamlet errs by delaying action in matters which are of central importance in his life and well-being.
    C. Whereas Hamlet is perceived by nearly everyone as being insane, Polonius is widely regarded as a fool.
    D. Hamlet’s insanity is feigned; Polonius’ foolishness is genuine.

  • Topic #3
    Just as foils can help show similarities and differences between characters, parallel events can help clarify likenesses and contrasts between issues and characters’ responses to them. Discuss Shakespeare’s use of parallel plots and scenes throughout the play, showing their effects on characterization and thematic development.

    I. Thesis Statement: Shakespeare uses parallel plots and scenes in Hamlet to clarify and heighten similarities and differences between issues and the characters’ responses to them.

    II. Sons avenging murdered fathers
    A. Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras are all sons seeking revenge for murdered fathers.
    B. The Player recites a scene at Hamlet’s request depicting Pyrrhus’ murder of Priam for the murder of Achilles, Pyrrhus’ father.

    III. Characters spying on one another
    A. Polonius arranges for Reynaldo to spy on Laertes.
    B. Claudius and Gertrude solicit the help of Horatio, then Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, then Ophelia, to spy on Hamlet.
    C. Claudius and Polonius eavesdrop on Hamlet and Ophelia.
    D. Polonius eavesdrops on Hamlet and Gertrude.

    IV. Characters advising one another.
    A. Polonius advises both Laertes and Ophelia.
    B. Both Laertes and Hamlet advise Ophelia.
    C. Claudius advises Laertes.
    D. Hamlet advises Gertrude.

    V. The dumb show and Play re-enact the murder of the King by Claudius.

    VI. Ghost speaks only to Hamlet.
    A. Act I: visible to the sentinels, but calls Hamlet aside to speak to him alone.
    B. Act III: invisible to Gertrude, still reserving speech only for Hamlet.

    VII. Hamlet asks characters not to reveal information.
    A. Hamlet makes the soldiers (Act I) swear not to tell what they have seen.
    B. Hamlet confides in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he is not really insane.
    C. Hamlet makes Gertrude promise not to reveal his pretended insanity.

  • Topic #4

    Hamlet is often regarded as a play about an indecisive man, unable to take action. Explore the textual evidence for the various theories which attempt to explain Hamlet’s inaction or delay in seeking revenge for his father’s murder: lack of opportunity; too much thought and analysis; melancholy; Oedipus complex; doubt about the honesty of the Ghost; and doubts about his own ambitious motives.

    I. Thesis Statement: For many readers, Hamlet’s seeming inability to avenge his father’s death is the central issue of the play. His indecision is often cited as the “tragic flaw” which ultimately causes his death. Critics generally support one of six theories to explain Hamlet’s inaction: lack of opportunity; too much thought and analysis; his melancholy; an Oedipus complex; his doubt about the honesty of the Ghost; and his doubts about his own ambitious motives.

    II. Lack of opportunity
    A. Hamlet is alone with virtually every other character except Laertes.
    B. When Hamlet is alone with Claudius, the King is at prayer, and Hamlet desists rather than send him to Heaven.

    III. Too much thought
    A. Act II, Scene 2: Hamlet tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that “there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
    B. Act III, Scene 1: Hamlet says, “conscience does make cowards of us all, / And thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pitch and moment, with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action.”
    C. Act IV, Scene 4: Hamlet debates whether his inaction is caused by “Bestial oblivion” or by “some craven scruple / Of thinking too precisely on th’ event . . . ”

    IV. Melancholy
    A. Claudius urges Hamlet to snap out of his mourning, which he terms “obstinate condolement,” and “unmanly.”
    B. Hamlet soliloquizes, “But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue.”
    C. Hamlet’s apparent mood swings, which appear to onlookers as madness, would have been in keeping with symptoms of the ailment known as melancholia.

    V. Oedipus complex
    A. Hamlet makes frequent references to how little time has passed between King Hamlet’s death and Gertrude’s remarriage.
    B. Hamlet refers to Claudius as “dear mother,” since “man and wife is one flesh.”
    C. Claudius now functions as Hamlet’s father; in Oedipal terms, to kill Claudius would clear the path to Gertrude’s bed.
    D. Following Polonius’ murder, Hamlet seems obsessed with the physical aspects of Gertrude’s remarriage, and extracts her promise to abstain from Claudius’ bed.

    VI. Doubt about the honesty of the Ghost
    A. Act I: Hamlet asserts that “this vision here, / It is an honest Ghost.”
    B. Act II: He is uncertain—“The spirit that I have seen / May be a devil [who] abuses me to damn me.”
    C. Act III: He tells Horatio that Claudius’ reaction to the Mousetrap will reveal if “It is a damned Ghost that we have seen.”
    D. Act III: When Claudius bolts, Hamlet confidently tells Horatio, “I’ll take the Ghost’s word for a thousand pound.”

    VII. Doubts about his own ambitious motives
    A. Act III: Hamlet tells Ophelia that although he is moderately virtuous, “yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious. . . . ”
    B. Act III: Hamlet tells Rosencrantz that his “distemper” is because “I lack advancement,” meaning that while Claudius occupies the throne, Hamlet cannot.
    C. Hamlet tells Horatio that Claudius had “Popped in between th’ election and my hopes, . . . ” indicating that the Prince had anticipated being chosen by the people to succeed his father.

  • Topic #5
    Authors often use physical weakness, disease, or deformity to symbolize or suggest mental, emotional, or spiritual illness or decay. Beneath the surface action of Hamlet runs an undercurrent of imagery of disease as opposed to healthfulness. Trace the motif of health and physical well-being as opposed to disease, illness, and weakness throughout the play. Show how Shakespeare links the physical symptoms with spiritual and political conditions.

    I. Thesis Statement: Shakespeare uses imagery of disease, illness, and weakness to suggest physical, spiritual, or political illness or decay in Hamlet.

    II. The idea of Hamlet’s madness being caused by external events pervades the whole play.

    III. Act I: When Hamlet follows the Ghost apart, Marcellus remarks that “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

    IV. Act III
    A. In his “To be, or not to be” speech, Hamlet notes that sleep/death would end the “heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to!” (III, 1).
    B. Claudius tells Polonius that Hamlet’s conversation with Ophelia did not seem to show either love or madness: “There’s something in his soul O’er which his melancholy sits on brood, And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose Will be some danger; . . . ”
    C. When, after the Dumb Show and aborted Play, Guilden¬stern tells Hamlet that Claudius is in “Marvelous [distemper],” Hamlet says it would make more sense to send for a doctor than for him, “for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into more choler.”
    D. He tells Rosencrantz that he cannot “Make you a wholesome answer; my wit’s diseased”.
    E. When Claudius explains his plan to ship Hamlet to England, Rosencrantz agrees: “The cess of majesty dies not alone, . . . Never alone did the King sigh, but with a general groan”.
    F. When Hamlet is unable or unwilling to kill the praying Claudius, opting for a time when Claudius’ soul will be “damned and black As hell,” he says, “This physic but prolongs thy sickly days”.
    G. As he chides Gertrude, Hamlet tells her that her unacknowledged, unconfessed “trespass . . . will but skin and film the ulcerous place / Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen”.
    H. Claudius, informed by Gertrude that Hamlet has murdered Polonius, says he erred in allowing Hamlet to remain at large, and “like the owner of a foul disease, to keep it from divulging, let it feed / Even on the pith of life”—thus reversing the image of insidious infection to apply to Hamlet’s crime rather than to Gertrude’s offense.

    V. Act IV
    A. In regard to the letter which Claudius sends to England, ordering Hamlet’s murder, the King soliloquizes, “Do it, England, / For like the hectic in my blood he rages, / And thou must cure me”.
    B. When Gertrude unwillingly agrees to meet with “importunate, indeed distract” Ophelia, the Queen remarks on her own “sick soul (as sin’s true nature is). . . . ”

    VI. Act V
    A. As the sword fight is set to begin, Claudius explains how he will drink to Hamlet’s health, which is the ultimate irony—having arranged for Hamlet’s murder either by the sword or the cup.

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