Hamlet Notes
AO1 Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated
concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression
AO2 Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts
AO3 Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which
literary texts are written and received
AO4 Explore connections across literary texts
AO5 Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations
Question 2a) Extract Analysis. 75% AO2, 25% AO1.
Question 2b) Synoptic theme-based question. 50% AO1, 50% AO5
Act 1, Scene 1
- Marcellus and Bernardo have seen a ghost on the castle battlements for the past two nights.
- Horatio comes to investigate and Marcellus informs the other guards that Horatio has said
‘’tis but our fantasy, and will not let belief take hold of him’.
- Suddenly, the apparition appears looking exactly like Old Hamlet, the dead King of Denmark.
- The ghost of the king is dressed in his battle armour.
- Horatio explains to the other guards how the ambitious Fortinbras tried to conquer Denmark
but was killed by Old Hamlet, ‘who by a sealed compact, well ratified by law and heraldry,
did forfeit, with his life, all these lands, which he stood seized on to the conqueror.’
o Hamlet was written around 1600 in the final years of Queen Elizabeth 1, who had been the
monarch for over 40 years. The prospect of her death and the question of who would
succeed her was a subject of grave anxiety as she had no children and the only person with a
legitimate royal claim, James of Scotland, was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and
therefore represented a political faction to which Elizabeth was opposed.
o Many of Shakespeare’s plays as a result, incl. Hamlet, concern transfers of power from one
monarch to the next. These plays focus particularly on the uncertainties, betrayals and
upheavals that accompany such shifts in power, and the general sense of anxiety and fear
that surround them.
o The supernatural appearance of the ghost on a chilling, misty night outside Elsinore Castle
indicates immediately that something is wrong in Denmark. The ghost serves to enlarge the
, shadow King Hamlet casts across Denmark, indicating that something about his death has
upset the balance of nature.
o The appearance of the ghost also gives physical form to the anxiety that surrounds the
transfer of power after the king’s death, seeming to imply that the future of Denmark is a
dark and frightening one.
o Horatio in particular sees the ghost as an ill omen boding violence and turmoil in Denmark’s
future, comparing it to the supernatural omens that supposedly presaged the assassination
of Julius Caesar in ancient Rome.
o Since Horatio proves to be right, and the appearance of the ghost does presage the later
tragedies of the play, the ghost functions as a kind of internal foreshadowing, implying
tragedy not only to the audience but to the characters as well.
o The scene also introduces the character of Horatio, who, with the exception of the ghost, is
the only major character in the scene. Without sacrificing the forward flow of action or
breaking the atmosphere of dread, Shakespeare establishes that Horatio is a good-
humoured man who is also educated, intelligent, and skeptical of supernatural events.
o Before he sees the ghost, he doesn’t believe it will appear (‘tush, tush, ‘twill not appear’).
Even after seeing it, he is reluctant to give full credence to stories of magic and mysticism.
o Horatio is not a blind rationalist either and when he sees a ghost, he doesn’t deny its
existence- on the contrary, he is overwhelmed with terror. His ability to accept the truth at
once even when his predictions have been proved wrong indicates the fundamental
trustworthiness of his character.
o His reaction to the ghost functions to overcome the audience’s sense of disbelief, since for a
man as skeptical, intelligent and trustworthy as Horatio to believe in and fear the ghost is far
more impressive and convincing than if its only witnesses had been a pair of superstitious
watchmen.
o In this subtle way, Shakespeare uses Horatio to represent the audience’s perspective
throughout this scene. By overcoming Horatio’s skeptical resistance, the ghost gains the
audience’s suspension of disbelief as well.
Act 1, Scene 2
- King Claudius addresses the court and talks about the sad death of his brother, Old Hamlet.
- He then toasts his marriage to his brother’s wife, Gertrude, saying ‘With mirth in funeral and
with dirge in marriage, in equal scale weighing delight and dole’ he has ‘taken to wife’ his
‘sometime sister’.
- He then continues to address political problems by talking about Prince Fortinbras of
Norway.
- Claudius gives Laertes permission to return to his studies in France having celebrated the
coronation of the new king and queen.
- Gertrude and Claudius then speaks to Hamlet and urge him to stop grieving over his father.
- Claudius says ‘to persevere, in obstinate condolement is a course, of impious stubbornness:
‘tis unmanly grief’.
,- Hamlet is appalled by his mother’s marriage to his uncle and privately say ‘O, most wicked
speed, to post, with such dexterity to incestuous sheets!’.
- His good friend Horatio interrupts him to report that he has seen the ghost of his father.
o Having established a dark, ghostly atmosphere in the first scene, Shakespeare devotes the
second to the seemingly jovial court of the recently crowned King Claudius.
o If the area outside the castle is murky with the aura of dread and anxiety, the rooms inside
the castle are devoted to an energetic attempt to banish that aura, as the king, the queen,
and the courtiers desperately pretend that nothing is out of the ordinary.
o It is difficult to imagine a more convoluted family dynamic or a more out-of-balance political
situation, but Claudius nevertheless preaches an ethic of balance to his courtiers, pledging to
sustain and combine the sorrow he feels for the king’s death and the joy he feels for his
wedding in equal parts.
o Despite Claudius’s efforts, the merriment of the court seems superficial. This is largely due to
the fact that the idea of balance Claudius pledges to follow is unnatural; how is it possible to
balance sorrow for a brother’s death with happiness for having married a dead brother’s
wife?
o Claudius’s speech is full of contradictory words, ideas and phrases, beginning with ‘though
yet of Hamlet our late brother’s death, the memory be green’ which combines the idea of
death and decay with the idea of greenery, growth and renewal.
o He also speaks of ‘our sometime sister, now our queen’, ‘defeated joy’, ‘an auspicious and a
dropping eye’, ‘mirth in funeral’ and ‘dirge in marriage’.
o These ideas sit uneasily with one another, and Shakespeare uses this speech to give his
audience an uncomfortable first impression of Claudius.
o The negative impression is furthered when Claudius affects a fatherly role toward the
bereaved Hamlet, advising him to stop grieving for his dead father and adapt to a new life in
Denmark.
o Hamlet obviously does not want Claudius’s advice and his motives in giving it are suspicious,
since Hamlet would have inherited the throne rightfully.
o The result of this blatant dishonesty is that this scene portrays as dire a situation in Denmark
as the first scene does.
o Where the first scene illustrated the fear and supernatural danger lurking in Denmakr, the
second hints at the corruption and weakness of the king and his court.
o It also furthers the idea that Denmark is somehow unsound as a nation, as Claudius declares
that Fortinbras makes his battle plans ‘holding a weak supposal of our worth, Or thinking by
our late dear brother’s death, Our state to be disjoint and out of frame’.
o Prince Hamlet, devastated by his father’s death and betrayed by his mother’s marriage, is
introduced as the only character who is unwilling to play along with Claudius’s gaudy
attempt to mimic a healthy royal court.
, o On the one hand, this may suggest that he is the only honest person in the court however it
could also suggest that he is a malcontent, someone who refuses to go along with the rest of
the court for the sake of the greater good of stability.
o Hamlet already feels, as Marcellus later says, that ‘something is rotten in the state of
Denmark’.
o We also see that his mother’s hasty remarriage has shattered his opinion of womanhood:
‘Frailty, thy name is woman’ he cries out famously in this scene, a motif that will develop
through his unraveling romantic relationship with Ophelia and his deteriorating relationship
with his mother.
o His soliloquy about suicide (‘O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve
itself into a dew!’) ushers in what will be a central idea to the play.
o The world is painful to live in, but, within the Christian framework of the play, if one commits
suicide to end that pain, one damns oneself to eternal suffering in hell.
o The question of the moral validity of suicide in an unbearably painful world will haunt the
rest of the play; it reaches the height of its urgency in the most famous line in all of English
literature- ‘To be, or not to be: that is the question’.
o In this scene, Hamlet mainly focuses on the appalling conditions of life, railing against
Claudius’s court as ‘an unweeded garden, That grows to see; things rank and gross in nature,
Possess it merely’.
o Throughout the play, we watch the gradual crumbling of the beliefs in which Hamlet’s world
is founded upon.
o Already, in his first soliloquy, religion has failed him, and his warped family situation can
offer him no solace.
Act 1, Scene 3
- Before Laertes returns to France, he encourages his sister Ophelia not to take Hamlet’s
wooing seriously.
- Polonius then gives Laertes some fatherly advice for while he studies abroad and also tells
Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet.
Act 1, Scene 4
- Hamlet meets Horatio at night to try and see the ghost for himself.
- The apparition appears and Hamlet says ‘Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Be thou a
spirit of health or goblin damned’.
- The ghost beckons Hamlet to follow him.
o [Analysis of scene 3 and 4] The active, headstrong and affectionate Laertes contrasts
powerfully with the contemplative Hamlet, becoming one of Hamlet’s most important foils
in the play (characer who by contrast emphasises the distinct characteristics of another
character).
AO1 Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated
concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression
AO2 Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts
AO3 Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which
literary texts are written and received
AO4 Explore connections across literary texts
AO5 Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations
Question 2a) Extract Analysis. 75% AO2, 25% AO1.
Question 2b) Synoptic theme-based question. 50% AO1, 50% AO5
Act 1, Scene 1
- Marcellus and Bernardo have seen a ghost on the castle battlements for the past two nights.
- Horatio comes to investigate and Marcellus informs the other guards that Horatio has said
‘’tis but our fantasy, and will not let belief take hold of him’.
- Suddenly, the apparition appears looking exactly like Old Hamlet, the dead King of Denmark.
- The ghost of the king is dressed in his battle armour.
- Horatio explains to the other guards how the ambitious Fortinbras tried to conquer Denmark
but was killed by Old Hamlet, ‘who by a sealed compact, well ratified by law and heraldry,
did forfeit, with his life, all these lands, which he stood seized on to the conqueror.’
o Hamlet was written around 1600 in the final years of Queen Elizabeth 1, who had been the
monarch for over 40 years. The prospect of her death and the question of who would
succeed her was a subject of grave anxiety as she had no children and the only person with a
legitimate royal claim, James of Scotland, was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and
therefore represented a political faction to which Elizabeth was opposed.
o Many of Shakespeare’s plays as a result, incl. Hamlet, concern transfers of power from one
monarch to the next. These plays focus particularly on the uncertainties, betrayals and
upheavals that accompany such shifts in power, and the general sense of anxiety and fear
that surround them.
o The supernatural appearance of the ghost on a chilling, misty night outside Elsinore Castle
indicates immediately that something is wrong in Denmark. The ghost serves to enlarge the
, shadow King Hamlet casts across Denmark, indicating that something about his death has
upset the balance of nature.
o The appearance of the ghost also gives physical form to the anxiety that surrounds the
transfer of power after the king’s death, seeming to imply that the future of Denmark is a
dark and frightening one.
o Horatio in particular sees the ghost as an ill omen boding violence and turmoil in Denmark’s
future, comparing it to the supernatural omens that supposedly presaged the assassination
of Julius Caesar in ancient Rome.
o Since Horatio proves to be right, and the appearance of the ghost does presage the later
tragedies of the play, the ghost functions as a kind of internal foreshadowing, implying
tragedy not only to the audience but to the characters as well.
o The scene also introduces the character of Horatio, who, with the exception of the ghost, is
the only major character in the scene. Without sacrificing the forward flow of action or
breaking the atmosphere of dread, Shakespeare establishes that Horatio is a good-
humoured man who is also educated, intelligent, and skeptical of supernatural events.
o Before he sees the ghost, he doesn’t believe it will appear (‘tush, tush, ‘twill not appear’).
Even after seeing it, he is reluctant to give full credence to stories of magic and mysticism.
o Horatio is not a blind rationalist either and when he sees a ghost, he doesn’t deny its
existence- on the contrary, he is overwhelmed with terror. His ability to accept the truth at
once even when his predictions have been proved wrong indicates the fundamental
trustworthiness of his character.
o His reaction to the ghost functions to overcome the audience’s sense of disbelief, since for a
man as skeptical, intelligent and trustworthy as Horatio to believe in and fear the ghost is far
more impressive and convincing than if its only witnesses had been a pair of superstitious
watchmen.
o In this subtle way, Shakespeare uses Horatio to represent the audience’s perspective
throughout this scene. By overcoming Horatio’s skeptical resistance, the ghost gains the
audience’s suspension of disbelief as well.
Act 1, Scene 2
- King Claudius addresses the court and talks about the sad death of his brother, Old Hamlet.
- He then toasts his marriage to his brother’s wife, Gertrude, saying ‘With mirth in funeral and
with dirge in marriage, in equal scale weighing delight and dole’ he has ‘taken to wife’ his
‘sometime sister’.
- He then continues to address political problems by talking about Prince Fortinbras of
Norway.
- Claudius gives Laertes permission to return to his studies in France having celebrated the
coronation of the new king and queen.
- Gertrude and Claudius then speaks to Hamlet and urge him to stop grieving over his father.
- Claudius says ‘to persevere, in obstinate condolement is a course, of impious stubbornness:
‘tis unmanly grief’.
,- Hamlet is appalled by his mother’s marriage to his uncle and privately say ‘O, most wicked
speed, to post, with such dexterity to incestuous sheets!’.
- His good friend Horatio interrupts him to report that he has seen the ghost of his father.
o Having established a dark, ghostly atmosphere in the first scene, Shakespeare devotes the
second to the seemingly jovial court of the recently crowned King Claudius.
o If the area outside the castle is murky with the aura of dread and anxiety, the rooms inside
the castle are devoted to an energetic attempt to banish that aura, as the king, the queen,
and the courtiers desperately pretend that nothing is out of the ordinary.
o It is difficult to imagine a more convoluted family dynamic or a more out-of-balance political
situation, but Claudius nevertheless preaches an ethic of balance to his courtiers, pledging to
sustain and combine the sorrow he feels for the king’s death and the joy he feels for his
wedding in equal parts.
o Despite Claudius’s efforts, the merriment of the court seems superficial. This is largely due to
the fact that the idea of balance Claudius pledges to follow is unnatural; how is it possible to
balance sorrow for a brother’s death with happiness for having married a dead brother’s
wife?
o Claudius’s speech is full of contradictory words, ideas and phrases, beginning with ‘though
yet of Hamlet our late brother’s death, the memory be green’ which combines the idea of
death and decay with the idea of greenery, growth and renewal.
o He also speaks of ‘our sometime sister, now our queen’, ‘defeated joy’, ‘an auspicious and a
dropping eye’, ‘mirth in funeral’ and ‘dirge in marriage’.
o These ideas sit uneasily with one another, and Shakespeare uses this speech to give his
audience an uncomfortable first impression of Claudius.
o The negative impression is furthered when Claudius affects a fatherly role toward the
bereaved Hamlet, advising him to stop grieving for his dead father and adapt to a new life in
Denmark.
o Hamlet obviously does not want Claudius’s advice and his motives in giving it are suspicious,
since Hamlet would have inherited the throne rightfully.
o The result of this blatant dishonesty is that this scene portrays as dire a situation in Denmark
as the first scene does.
o Where the first scene illustrated the fear and supernatural danger lurking in Denmakr, the
second hints at the corruption and weakness of the king and his court.
o It also furthers the idea that Denmark is somehow unsound as a nation, as Claudius declares
that Fortinbras makes his battle plans ‘holding a weak supposal of our worth, Or thinking by
our late dear brother’s death, Our state to be disjoint and out of frame’.
o Prince Hamlet, devastated by his father’s death and betrayed by his mother’s marriage, is
introduced as the only character who is unwilling to play along with Claudius’s gaudy
attempt to mimic a healthy royal court.
, o On the one hand, this may suggest that he is the only honest person in the court however it
could also suggest that he is a malcontent, someone who refuses to go along with the rest of
the court for the sake of the greater good of stability.
o Hamlet already feels, as Marcellus later says, that ‘something is rotten in the state of
Denmark’.
o We also see that his mother’s hasty remarriage has shattered his opinion of womanhood:
‘Frailty, thy name is woman’ he cries out famously in this scene, a motif that will develop
through his unraveling romantic relationship with Ophelia and his deteriorating relationship
with his mother.
o His soliloquy about suicide (‘O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve
itself into a dew!’) ushers in what will be a central idea to the play.
o The world is painful to live in, but, within the Christian framework of the play, if one commits
suicide to end that pain, one damns oneself to eternal suffering in hell.
o The question of the moral validity of suicide in an unbearably painful world will haunt the
rest of the play; it reaches the height of its urgency in the most famous line in all of English
literature- ‘To be, or not to be: that is the question’.
o In this scene, Hamlet mainly focuses on the appalling conditions of life, railing against
Claudius’s court as ‘an unweeded garden, That grows to see; things rank and gross in nature,
Possess it merely’.
o Throughout the play, we watch the gradual crumbling of the beliefs in which Hamlet’s world
is founded upon.
o Already, in his first soliloquy, religion has failed him, and his warped family situation can
offer him no solace.
Act 1, Scene 3
- Before Laertes returns to France, he encourages his sister Ophelia not to take Hamlet’s
wooing seriously.
- Polonius then gives Laertes some fatherly advice for while he studies abroad and also tells
Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet.
Act 1, Scene 4
- Hamlet meets Horatio at night to try and see the ghost for himself.
- The apparition appears and Hamlet says ‘Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Be thou a
spirit of health or goblin damned’.
- The ghost beckons Hamlet to follow him.
o [Analysis of scene 3 and 4] The active, headstrong and affectionate Laertes contrasts
powerfully with the contemplative Hamlet, becoming one of Hamlet’s most important foils
in the play (characer who by contrast emphasises the distinct characteristics of another
character).
