Hamlet

Assignment to have been completed: Students should have read 5.2 of Hamlet while following the study guide questions.

Activities:

• A. Use the following questions (and answers) to facilitate a discussion of 5.2 of Hamlet.

  Act V, Scene ii

  • 1. What is the tone of Hamlet’s recounting of his recent adventure to Horatio?

    Hamlet’s words reveal an active energy not seen before in the play. His words are decisive and satisfied. However, a certain tinge of despair also emerges [8 - 11]. His words evoke a sense of kinship with death, of the shortness of life, of the triviality and futility of action, and of the extent to which our lives, controlled by a divinity that shapes our ends, are not our own. In addition, he expresses a kind of grim enthusiasm for the grisly events he recounts. The resolute calmness with which he speaks of killing a man marks the closing of this portion of the scene [73 - 74].

  • 2. Why do many readers find the exchange between Hamlet and Osric very difficult to read?

    This is an OPEN QUESTION. Surely the students will note the artificiality and long-windedness of Osric’s speech -- as well as the words Hamlet chooses to match the foppish courtier.

  • 3. Do you see anything humorously ironic in lines 168 - 169?

    Horatio, the observer in this scene, refers to explanatory notes in the margin of a text -- reminding most readers of their own reference to the notes in order to understand what Osric is saying.

  • 4. How do you feel about the quickness of the conclusion? Why might Shakespeare have handled it in this manner?

    This is an OPEN QUESTION. Since all the character development has been laid out, the playwright has nothing more to do than to bring the play to resolution. To draw that out would serve no purpose.

  • 5. What is the meaning of lines 431 - 433? What conclusion may you draw from the fact that Shakespeare gives Fortinbras the final words of the play?

    Fortinbras alludes to his father’s once having taken (or attempted to take) Danish territory. Of course, in his dying words, Hamlet has given his support to Fortinbras’s ascension to the throne.

    This is an OPEN QUESTION. Fortinbras’s survival (and final words) points to the value of direct action in a prince. Yet, Fortinbras exalts Hamlet as he might have been had he himself succeeded to the throne without the intervention of Claudius.

Assignment for next class meeting: Prepare to conclude discussion of Hamlet.