Hamlet Act 2 Reading Questions

1. What is Polonius employing Reynaldo to do? What instructions does he give to him?

Polonius is employing Reynaldo to go to Paris after his son, Laertes, and check up on his activities to see if they are entirely wholesome as well as when he meets up with Laertes, to give him money and letters from home. He tells Reynaldo to assess the Danes of the area (the company that Laertes is likely to keep) and use suggestive questioning to discover what Laertes is up to.

2. What report of Hamlet’s behavior does Ophelia give to Polonius in 2.1? What
specifically does she tell him about how he was acting? What other words are used to describe Hamlet’s behavior (especially his actions) throughout these acts? When Hamlet appears in 2.2, how would you characterize his speech?

Hamlet came back to his chamber with his clothes extremely disheveled and looking at Ophelia questioningly, even keeping eye contact as he leaves the room. There is a lot of referral to death/dying: Ophelia says that he looked "As if he had been loosèd out of hell/To speak of horrors" and that his sigh "did seem to shatter all his bulk/And end his being". When Hamlet appears in 2.2, 

3. What news does King Claudius receive from Norway in 2.2? What is the status of the impending invasion from act 1?

Fortinbras Jr.'s uncle, the king of Norway (figure that...) is very upset that he is targeting Denmark as has had Fortinbras Jr. arrested under the assurance that Denmark will not be threatened with Nordic invasion again. Now, Fortinbras Jr. is heading to invade Poland through Denmark.

4. What speech does Hamlet ask the Player to perform in 2.2? What event in history/literature is being recounted in this speech? Who is Pyrrhus?

A dramatic telling of the section from the epic The Aenead when Aeneas tells Dido about Priam's murder during the Trojan War (ancient Greece; The Iliad by Homer also covers part of this war). Pyrrhus is the son of the Greek hero Achilles (known for his heel), and he tried to avenge his father's death by killing the king of Troy after hiding inside the infamous horse.



5. In his second soliloquy (“O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I”), what is Hamlet’s response to the player’s speech? What aspect of the Player’s speech does he specifically comment on?

Hamlet's response to the player's speech is something of a call-to-arms for him to avenge his father's death similarly to how Pyrrhus avenged Achilles'. He in particular comments on the emotion that the Player puts into delivering the speech: "Tears in his eyes,/distraction in his aspect,/A broken voice".

The Rest of the Hamlet Act 1 Questions

8. What advice do both Laertes and Polonius give to Ophelia?


Laertes and Polonius both tell Ophelia to stop seeing Hamlet, especially for sexual reasons, because it sullies the family name and her own reputation, as he would not be able to provide for her at that moment.

9. What is particularly “foul, strange, and unnatural” about King Hamlet I’s death? (see 1.5)


Claudius killed the elder Hamlet through poison and stabbing, but everyone was convinced that he was bitten by a snake in the castle gardens.

10. What does Hamlet write down after seeing the ghost? Where does he write it?

Hamlet promised to remember his father/his father’s death, and does so by writing the vow down in his notebook.

11. To what oath does Hamlet make Horatio and Marcellus swear?

They are sworn by Hamlet’s sword to not tell anyone what they have seen (the ghost & Hamlet conversing with it).

Hamlet: Act 1, Scenes 1 & 2 Questions

1. What is the Ghost wearing when he comes onstage? When before, according to Horatio, had he been seenwearing it?
   
   The Ghost, when he comes onstage, is wearing the battle garments of the late king of Denmark, Hamlet's father (also named Hamlet). The late king had been seen in the same clothes and expression when he was battling the Polish.
   
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?
   The "whisper goes so" (rumor) as to why security has been increased is that the late king of Norway's (Fortinbras) son, also named Fortinbras, is gathering forces from the Norwegian countryside to reclaim the lands and titles his father lost to the older/currently-dead Hamlet.
   
3. What story from the past does Horatio relate?
   
   He talks about the supernatural occurrences that supposedly took place just before Julius Caesar was assassinated in court in ancient Rome that might happen again in Denmark.
   
4. What makes the ghost disappear?
   
   The rooster crowing (signaling dawn) & the guards threatening to stab it with their spears.
   
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?
   
   Claudius tries to comfort Hamlet by telling him that while his mourning was understandable (and admirable), it should end as soon as possible because Denmark did not die when the king did, and there is still business to attend to. He also asks Hamlet to stay in Denmark, rather than going back to Wittenberg, and remain Claudius's right-hand man. His method works on the surface, but once Hamlet is alone, he gets mopey fast.
    
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?
   
   He is upset that his mother so willingly accepted Claudius (who Hamlet sees as inferior to his father) as the new King of Denmark and her husband.
    
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?
   
   Hamlet means by that if someone committed treason and killed the king for one reason or another, that the truth will come out one way or another.