Hamlet

1
Hamlet

• Act I

2
First Impressions and Changes

• Hamlet
• Depressed
• Good son
• Harbors anger towards Claudius
• Courageous (Hamlets response to the Ghost)
• Disappointed in his mother

3
Hamlets Courage(in response to the Ghost)

• If it assume my noble fathers person, Ill
  speak to it, though hell itself should
  gape And bid me hold my
  peace (I.ii.265-267)

4
Hamlets Courage(in response to the Ghost)

• Angels and ministers of grace, defend us! Be
  thou a spirit of health or goblin damned, Bring
  with thee airs from heaven or blasts from
  hell, Be thy intents wicked or
  charitable, Thou comst in such a questionable
  shape That I will speak to thee. Ill call thee
  Hamlet, King, Father, Royal Dane.
  O, answer me! (I.iv.44-50)

5
Hamlets Courage(in response to the Ghost)

• Haste me to knowt, that I, with wings as
  swift As meditation or the thoughts of
  love, May sweep to my revenge. (I.v.35-37)

6
Hamlets Courage(in response to the Ghost)

• My fate cries out And makes each petty
  arture in this body As hardy as the Nemean lions
  nerve. Still am I called. Unhand me,
  gentlemen. By heaven, Ill make a ghost of him
  that lets me! I say, away!Go on. Ill
  follow thee. (I.iv.90-95)

7
Hamlets Courage(in response to the Ghost)

• O all you host of heaven! O earth! What
  else? And shall I couple hell? O fie! Hold,
  hold, my heart, And you, my sinews, grow not
  instant old, But bear me stiffly up. Remember
  thee? Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds
  a seat In this distracted globe. Remember
  thee? Yea, from the table of my memory Ill
  wipe away all trivial, fond records, All saws
  of books, all forms, all pressures past, That
  youth and observation copied there, And thy
  commandment all alone shall live

8
Hamlets Courage(in response to the Ghost)

• Within the book and volume of my brain, Unmixed
  with baser matter. Yes, by heaven! O most
  pernicious woman! O villain, villain,
  smiling, damnèd villain! My tablesmeet it is I
  set it down That one may smile and smile and
  be a villain. At least I am sure I may be so in
  Denmark. So, uncle, there you are. Now to my
  word. It is adieu, adieu, remember me. I
  have swornt. (I.v.99-119)

9
Disappointed In His Mother

• That it should come to this But two months
  deadnay, not so much, not two. So excellent a
  king, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr so
  loving to my mother That he might not beteem the
  winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly.
  Heaven and earth, Must I remember? Why, she
  would hang on him As if increase of appetite had
  grown By what it fed on. And yet, within a
  month (Let me not think ont frailty, thy name
  is woman!), A little month, or ere those shoes
  were old With which she followed my poor
  fathers body,

10
Disappointed In His Mother

• Like Niobe, all tearswhy she, even she (O God,
  a beast that wants discourse of reason Would
  have mourned longer!), married with my
  uncle, My fathers brother, but no more
  like my father Than I to Hercules. Within a
  month, Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous
  tears Had left the flushing in her gallèd
  eyes, She married. O, most wicked speed, to
  post With such dexterity to incestuous
  sheets! It is not, nor it cannot come to
  good. But break, my heart, for I must hold my
  tongue. (I.ii.140-164)

11
Disappointed In His Mother

• Parents Relationship
• Father would stop the winds from being too rough
  on this mothers face
• She clung to the king as if she fed on him

12
Disappointed In His Mother

• Hamlets Psychology
• seems to suggest that he could understand
  Gertrude using Claudius as a substitute for his
  father
• the reality of the situation is that Hamlets
  father and Claudius have nothing in common.

13
Disappointed In His Mother

• frailty, thy name is woman!
• Generalization
• all women are weak
• misogyny?

14
Disappointed In His Mother

• frailty, thy name is woman!
• Diction suggests a very negative tone towards
  Gertrude
• Frailty
• Beast
• Unrighteous
• Galled
• Wicked
• Incestuous sheets

15
First Impressions and Changes

• Ghost
• We believe his claims
• Discover he was a good king
• Discover he was a good man
• Not perfect (Purgatory)

16
First Impressions and Changes

• Horatio
• Honest
• Loyal
• Good friend to Hamlet
• Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.
  (I.ii.186)
• Seems to understand the inappropriate quickness
  of the marriage between Gertrude and Claudius

17
First Impressions and Changes

• Ophelia
• Seems to love Hamlet
• Close to her brother

18
Ophelia

• Independent
• I shall the effect of this good lesson keep
• As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
• Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
• Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
• Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
• Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
• And recks not his own rede.
• (I.iii.49-55)

19
Ophelias Dramatic Changes

• Controlled by Polonius
• Loses her independence
• I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
  (I.iii.113)
• I shall obey, my lord. (I.iii.145)
• Seems completely controlled by Polonius
• All independence is absent

20
First Impressions and Changes

• Laertes
• Loving brother
• Loyal to the king

21
First Impressions and Changes

• Polonius
• Excellent father
• Important to Denmark
• Loyal to king
• Beautiful parting words to Laertes

22
Dramatic Change (diction and tone towards Ophelia)

• Affection, puh! You speak like a green
  girl Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. Do
  you believe his tenders, as you call
  them? (I.iii.110-112)

23
Dramatic Change (diction and tone towards Ophelia)

• green girl
• Derogatory
• suggests naïve
• tenders
• Sarcastic

24
Dramatic Change (diction and tone towards Ophelia)

• Marry, I will teach you. Think yourself a
  baby That you have taen these tenders for true
  pay Which are not sterling. Tender
  yourself more dearly, Or (not to crack the
  wind of the poor phrase, Running it thus) youll
  tender me a fool. (I.iii.114-118)

25
Dramatic Change (diction and tone towards Ophelia)

• Suggests tenders are counterfeit
• Tone is significant
• Displays no compassion towards Ophelia
• Does not take her feelings into consideration at
  all.

26
Dramatic Change (diction and tone towards Ophelia)

• tender me a fool
• Three different meanings
• make yourself out to look like a fool
• make me look like a fool
• give me a grandchild
• Very offensive statement towards Ophelia

27
Dramatic Change (diction and tone towards Ophelia)

• Ay, springes to catch woodcocks (I.iii.124)
• Springes
• Traps
• Woodcocks
• Birds thought to be stupid and easily captured
• Obviously, offensive comments related to Ophelia

28
Dramatic Change (diction and tone towards Ophelia)

• From this time Be something scanter of your
  maiden presence. (I.iii.129-130)
• Implies that she is forwardmaybe even amorous

29
Dramatic Change (diction and tone towards Ophelia)

• This is for all I would not, in plain
  terms, from this time forth Have you so
  slander any moment leisure As to give
  words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. Look to
  t, I charge you. Come your ways. (I.i
  ii.140-144)

30
Dramatic Change (diction and tone towards Ophelia)

• Contrasting tone of Polonius and Laertes
• Polonius
• Command
• Does not seem Ophelia is the center of his
  concern
• Laertes
• Brotherly advice
• Undoubtedly, Ophelia is his main concern

31
First Impressions and Changes

• Fortinbras
• Proud
• Arrogant?
• All information provided about Fortinbras comes
  from second-hand sources

32
First Impressions and Changes

• Claudius
• Well spoken/kingly
• Insensitive towards Hamlet

33
First Impressions and Changes

• Tis sweet and commendable in your nature,
  Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to
  your father. But you must know your father lost a
  father, That father lost, lost his, and the
  survivor bound In filial obligation for
  some term To do obsequious sorrow. But to
  persevere In obstinate condolement is a
  course Of impious stubbornness. Tis unmanly
  grief.

34
First Impressions and Changes

• It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, A
  heart unfortified, a mind impatient, An
  understanding simple and unschooled. For what we
  know must be and is as common As any the
  most vulgar thing to sense, Why should we in our
  peevish opposition Take it to heart? Fie, tis a
  fault to heaven,

35
First Impressions and Changes

• A fault against the dead, a fault to nature, To
  reason most absurd, whose common theme Is
  death of fathers, and who still hath cried, From
  the first corse till he that died today, This
  must be so. We pray you, throw to
  earth This unprevailing woe and think of
  us As of a father (I.ii.90-112)

36
First Impressions and Changes

• Tone
• Degrading
• at times, it seems as if Claudius is talking to a
  three year old
• questions Hamlets manhood
• requests that Hamlet sees him as a replacement of
  his father

37
First Impressions and Changes

• Claudius Continued
• Personal desires over the concerns of the country
  (drinks)
• We question his loyalty (quick marriage to
  Gertrude)
• Dramatic Change
• The Ghosts claim of murder by Claudius

38
First Impressions and Changes

• Gertrude
• Loving mother
• Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off, And
  let thine eye look like a friend on
  Denmark. Do not forever with thy vailèd
  lids Seek for thy noble father in the
  dust. Thou knowst tis common all that lives
  must die, Passing through nature to
  eternity. (I.ii.70-75)

39
First Impressions and Changes

• Let not thy mother lose her prayers,
  Hamlet. I pray thee, stay with us. Go not
  to Wittenberg. (I.ii.122-123)
• Tone of both quotes
• Sincere
• Seems to have Hamlets best intentions in mind

40
First Impressions and ChangesGertrude

• Frail? (quick marriage)
• Insecure?
• Accomplice to the murder?
• But, howsomever thou pursues this act, Taint
  not thy my mind, nor let thy soul
  contrive Against thy mother aught. Leave her to
  heaven And to those thorns that in her
  bosom lodge To prick and sting her (I.v.9
  1-95)

41
Parallel Characters

• Royal Family of Denmark and the Royal Family of
  Norway
• Both kings are dead
• Both have sons who did not inherit the throne
• Both uncles are kings of the country
• Both uncles are unaware of the actions by their
  nephews

42
Recurring/Significant Images

• Disjoint
• Our state to be disjoint and out of frame
  (I.ii.20)
• The time is out of joint. (I.v.210)
• Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
  (I.v.100)

43
Recurring/Significant Images

• Possible Significance?
• Foreshadowing
• Why is Denmark out of joint?
• What is rotten?
• What caused things to go rotten?

44
Recurring/Significant Images

• Acting
• Whos there? (I.i.1)
• I think I hear them.Stand ho! Who is there?
  (I.i.15)

45
Recurring/Significant Images

• Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not
  seems. Tis not alone my inky cloak, good
  mother, Nor customary suits of solemn
  black, Nor windy suspiration of forced
  breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the
  eye, Nor the dejected havior of the
  visage, Together with all forms, moods, shapes
  of grief, That can denote me truly. These indeed
  seem, For they are actions that a man might
  play But I have that within which passes
  show, These but the trapping and the suits of
  woe. (I.ii.79-89)

46
Recurring/Significant Images

• Possible Significance?
• Who plays a role?
• Why do people play roles?
• How well do the characters know each other?

47
Introduction to Potential Themes

• Acting/Playing a Role
• Death and the Reaction to Death
• Fundamental Nature of Humanity