Hamlet Essay

388 Words2 Pages
Hamlet Essay Questions 1. The big question of all of English literature: why does Hamlet drag his feet so long to avenge his father's murder? Sure, plenty of scholar-types have tried to answer that, but maybe they've missed something. 2. Hamlet is full of madness, both real and feigned (maybe). What's the diff between the mad and the sane characters in the play, especially in what they say and how they say it? What are the similarities and differences between Hamlet's madness and Ophelia's? 3. Hamlet's conflicts take place in the context of a single family's domestic problems, and also in the context of political decisions that affect an entire country. How do the familial and political levels of Hamlet interact? Where do they reinforce each other, and where, if ever, do they contradict each other? 4. Almost from his opening lines, Hamlet is obsessed with suicide. He never does it, but he often contemplates it. How do Hamlet's reasons for avoiding suicide —and his attitude towards his own death —change throughout the play? 5. One of the more famous lines in Hamlet is, "To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man" (1.3.1). Which of the characters in Hamlet are true to themselves? Does that prevent them from being false to one another? Does the meaning of this quote change for you when you consider that it's spoken by Polonius, one of the play's most frequently mocked characters? 6. As he's dying, Hamlet begs Horatio to tell his story. Do you think the story Horatio will tell is the same one the readers or the audience have just experienced? Is Horatio capable of telling Hamlet's true story? 7. At the close of the play, Fortinbras says, "Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage, / For he was likely, had he been put on, / To have proved most royal" (5.2.4). Fortinbras, who never met

More about Hamlet Essay

Open Document