HAMLET Test
200 points
Act.scene.line(s)
1. Hamlet’s relationships with the other characters in the play are complicated. Choose three relationships; analyze how Hamlet is impacted by each (three quotations – one for each relationship). 60 points
Friends- Hamlet's relationships with his friends throughout the story is something that i think shows our dependency on having a friend and the things that can come over if allowing yourself to hide from the truth. They say the honest ones are the ones you need to watch for because those are the people that you can never see turning on you. For example. King Claudius wants Hamlet sent to England and has Hamlets "friends" spy on him to see if he needs to be sent there for his actions and mental state, but no one ever tells him that this is what was happening and they betray his trust completely. He then feels that he needs to make them aware of his knowledge of their betrayal towards him and he comes straight out and says, "'Sblood, do you think i am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you {can} fret me, you cannt play upon me." (3:2:399-402) which lets everyone see that he isn't one to take a frinedship and abuse it.. he appriciates a solid friendship and won't waste his time on one that is based on lies. Supporting that, he has one friend who's there for him through thick and thin... Horatio. He 's the friend who always has his back and is going to be there no matter what to help Hamlet work things out and always has that faith in him and the hope that he can get by under any condition or state of mind he may be in. At the end of the play, Horatio is still by Hamlet's side and tells him that he will obeye his dying wishes and explain to the people that everything that happened was justifyable and that Hamlet was not crazy. Horatio put in a good word for Hamlet and The Kingship is passed down to Fortinbras(Hamlet's hero). His friend, even after Hamlet's death, was doing good for him and never turned his back on him for a second. That just shows how deticated they were to each other. The twist in a frienship is huge in this play and i think Shakesphere wantedggy everyone to know what it is to trust someone and let you know that in order to trust someone, u need to expect the unexpected.
Enemies- Hamlet kept his friends close, but his enemies a lot closer...Hamlet's relationship with King Cladius and Laertes are not as smooth as anyone would like them to be. In the beginning of the play, we learn that Hamlet's father had died and his uncle had then married his mother. This was a huge issue for Hamlet to handle and caused some major stages of grief that became very expressive in not only his words, but also his actions... After the death of Polonius, Ophelia went crazy from the loss of both her love, and her father. This hurt Laertes very much and he felt that he needed to avenge his father's death. He had every intention of doing this and when he and the king got together to scheme up a plan, he says to king claudias, " but my revenge will come" (4:7:31) and i could tell at that moment he had no intention of backing down and no matter what, he was going to avenge his father and the loss of the sister he always knew. King Claudias however, felt that he neededto have several people spy on Hamlet and Hamlet himself came to see that his enemies were growing. "'Sblood, do u think i am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me."(3:2:399-402) He said this to friends of his who had turned on him and forever become someone he could never trust again to be a friend or keep anything sacred in peace. The had betrayed his trust and that was something that a man like him could never forget.
love- Hamlet had such a strong love for his mother and father and when he had to come to grasp with the loss of his father and live with his uncle beingthe man to take his place; he was devastated. Ophelia was always there, but her father didn't think that she should be with him due to their different rank in society. This hurt both Ophelia and Hamlet and he told Polonius that he wanted to be with her and that she couldn't be taken from him "You cannot, {sir,} take from me anything that i will more willingly part withal--except my life, except my life, except my life."(2:2:233-235), but instead she obeyed her father and broke Hamlet's heart. Instead of showing her how he really felt, he tried to tell her that she ment nothing to him and he could do better than her "You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inocculate our old stock but weshall relish of it. I loved you not"(3:1:127-129), but later, after her death, he confesses infront of her brother, how much he loved her. "I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum."(5:1:284) and after this, I think Laertes knew the love that Hamlet had for his sister, but still felt that he had to avenge his father's death and nothing was going to get in the way of that. Hamlet died still loving Ophelia, his mother, and never once regretting the confrontation between he and many other men for the love of his father.
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2. Revenge, redemption, loyalty, indecision, love, appearance vs. reality, and betrayal are significant themes in the play. Choose three of these and explain how each theme affects the characters and the outcome of the play (three quotations – one for each theme). 60 points
Revenge- In my opinion, the biggest theme in this story is revenge on another."what means this my lord?...Mary, this {is miching} mallecho. It means mischief."( 3:2:157-159) .When Hamlet finds out that his uncle killed his father, he plans on getting rid of him and first wants to see him scared for his life and then wants to kill him while in the middle of doing a sinful deed, so he can avenge his father's death and put his uncle where he feels he belongs. Hamlet decides to take the challenge of making a play that is based on the murder of his father and wants to let the king know that he knows what happened and catch him in the act by interprutting his feelings. And when he interupts him in prayer, he withdraws from killing him because he doesn't want him to go to Heaven for praying when he should rightfully go to Hell for the murder he performed on his on brother."Am i then revenged to take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and season for his passage? No." (3:3:89-92) In the end, Hamlet does get revenge on his uncle for killing his father, but many more were indangered in this proccess. Laertes, Gertrude(Hamlet's mother), and even Hamlet himself. The King did say though, as ironic as it is... " Revenge should have no bounds"(4:7:146) So the queston is... Who does revenge really benefit, if not anyone?
loyalty- Hamlet was very loyal to his mother and father, but after his father's death, he had only his mother to trust. He felt that she had turned on him and King Hamlet when she married so soon after his death, but he never wanted to hurt his mother, so he was always very loyal to her. When she and the king see his pain for the loss of his father, King Claudias believes there to be some reason for Hamlet's anger and he doesn't think it to be anything but out of the ordinary, but she knows Hamlet is always going to remain loyal to her and so she says to him, "I doubt it is no other but the main--His father's death and our {o'erhasty} marriage." (2:2:59-60) She doesn't think that Hamlet has any hard feelings for his uncle and wishes for Claudias to move from it and try to go on living happily. Hamletthroughout the story does show his anger,but his mother knows that he is very loyal and wishes nothing bad to happen to her, but he mourns for the loss of his father.
Betrayal- Revenge and betrayal go hand in hand. Or at least that's how i see it... When someone betrays you, revenge is on it's way. For example. let's start from the beginning... When King Hamlet's brother kills him, marries his wife, and takes his crown; his ghost comes to Hamlet to make him aware of the terrible crime his brother committed upon him, and wants Hamlet to get revenge for him. Then Hamlet already feeeling pain for the loss of his father, the knowledge of his uncle killing his father, and his mother marrying the man that did it; he decided to take on this challenge of avenging him and wanted to get revenge for what had happened to his father. Then King Claudias wanted to ge rid of Hamlet so he wouldn't have to worry about him getting in the way due to his hurt over the death of his father. So Claudias decides to get rid of Hamlet and send him to Europe, but 1st he had to find someone to help him, so he takes Hamlet's friends (who betrayed him) and they help him send Hamlet to Europe, but he soon finds out what they're doing and tells them"'Sblood, do u think i am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you {can} fret me, you cannot play upon me." (3:2:399-402) and then gets back at them for all the things they had done to hurt him and he ended up getting them killed (revenge). All the way to the end this happens, but the most important betrayal factors in the play i think are the ones with Ophelia, and the king betraying Gertrude. Hamlet nad Ophelia's love was very true, but when Ophelia was asked to stay away from hi9m for her father; she did exactly that. Hamlet has asked her, after her telling him that she could no longer see him, where her father was and she relpied with a lie, "where is your father? at home my lord... Let the doors be shut upon him that he may play the fool nowhere but in'sown house. Farewell."(3:1:141-144) and they left each other with those words. They never did hear good of their love towards each other before Ophelia's death. She had betrayed him. His mother however, was not betrayed by him, but by her husband King Claudias. He was attempting to get rid of Hamlet and send him to England when he found that that wouldn' t get rid of him for long. So at the end, he planned on killing Hamlet in the battle between he and Laertes. He said, "Revenge should have no bounds."(4:7:146) and he had betrayed the trust his wife had for him as protector of her and her son. He did completly the opposite of what was in her mind, and he was going to try to kill hamlet, but in the end, he ended up killing not only Hamlet, but his wife also.
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3. Has Hamlet changed?
soliloquies
1.2.133-164
2.2.575-636
3.1.63-99
4.4.33-69
or you may use other textual evidence that you have prepared to answer this question (three quotations – beginning, “middle,” and end). 60 points
You don't realize until after you've read the entire play what Hamlet's motive is and whether or not he will go through with it. He's a very complicated guy. In the beginning, he makes it very clear that he is upset and more than that, in awe that his mother could marry a man so fast when her beloved husband had just died. "-why she, {even she} (O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer!), married with my uncle, my father's 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 galled 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."(1:2:153-164) He yet still, was very "too himself" about the issue and wasn't going to let anyone see how much this was bothering him., but soon after, Hamlet soon finds that his father was murdered by the same man and his grieving state comes to a complete turn.
In the middle of the play, Hamlet says to Ophelia..."O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within two hours"(3:2:132-135).he clearly is overexagerating, but his state of grief has risen to anger with everyone including his beloved mother whom he felt bitter towards for many a time and soon after that, he comes to tell his mother to her face tht he is disgusted with how soon she could turn away her love for King Hamlet and share her whole self with him, the way she did for his father. He says, "Nay, but to live in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, stewed in corruption, honeyed and making love over the nasty sty!" (3:4:104-106) His anger had escalated and he was not able to yet avenge his father. That caused even more stress and made his grieving more difficult for him since he could not come to graces with this death and feel that he and his father had their "moment" where Hamlet knew that his father was gone and everything was going to be fine.
And lastly, at the end, He became determined to avenge his father and felt that he, in no way, was going to give in and try again later. He feels more determined and everyone knows his true feeling about the issue, but he decides to vent t ohis best friend and make sure that if he's going to do this... that it is the right thing to do. Horatio backs him up and tells him that if he goes with what he feels is right, that everything will turn out and he can finally avenge his father. He decides that taking revenge on others that have hurt him and ruined his family is the right path, so he sets out to kill his uncle. Laertes being angry with the murder of his father and loss of his sister's sanity, wanted to duel with Hamlet to solve an issue between just the two ofthem, butthe entire time the sword was poisoned to kill Hamlet from the beginning and before the fight, Hamlet began to think a little more clearly from the depths of his heart and he told LAertes, "Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong; but pardon 't as you are a gentleman. This presence knows," (5:2:240-242) and he comes out t osay that he appologizes for what has happened, but his madness had taken him over and he did things he wished he had not done. I feel that he openededhis mind more and moved from complete denial to something unfortunatley less than acceptance, but in the end, he lost his father, his love, his mother, his life, and many friends to go with a living. He fought hard and ended up getting what everyone deserved, but he learned him lesson last minute and left the kingship to his hero.
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Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Folger Shakespeare Library Edition.
Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine, Eds. NY: Washington Square Press, 1992.
