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".