AUTHOR INFO.
QUSETIONS
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
INTERVIEW
OTHER WORK
QUOTES
SCENE SUMMARYS
THEME
VOCABULARY
PERSONAL IMPRESSIONS
ACT TWO AND THREE
ACT FOUR
ACT FIVE
Barnardo and Francisco have already seen a ghost, who resembles the king who has been killed. When they tell Horatio about it, he sort of laughs. He says he won't believe them until he sees it with his own eyes. And when he does see it, he agrees with his friends; it does look a lot like the old king. -E.B.
Horatio says, "Stay! Speak! Speak! I charge thee, speak!" it would be funny to see a guard yelling at a ghost to speak to him. -R.H.
It's interesting when Marcellus tells Horatio, "thou art a scholar. Speak to it, Horatio." It's interesting because Horatio didn't even take the whole ghost situation seriously at first. And they want him, of all of them, to talk to this ghost. -J.D.
1.2
Hamlet says, "I shall in all my best obey you, madam." Meaning he'll listen to the queen, but you can forget obeying the new king. -E.B.
The importance of this scene is to introduce the relation between Cladius, the queen, and Hamlet. And to explain how the king took his position. -J.D.
King Cladius seems like a jerk. He is screwing Hamlet by becoming the king. He is using the military for his own good. He is a very sneaky person that needs to be taught a lesson. -R.H.
1.3
I feel sorry for Hamlet. His stepfather/uncle is a real jerk and the girl he loves (Ophelia) is forbidden to see him at all. -R.H.
This scene was interesting. Laertes is a person who's very honest. Hamlet tells Laertes good-bye. Ophelia is sad that her brother is leaving. Polonius tells Laertes not to talk crap to him and to beware of starting a quarrel. -J.D.
Laertes warns Ophelia about her "love" for Hamlet. Then he leaves. But Polonius comes and does more than just warn her. He tells her to never see Hamlet again. -E.B.
1.4
Hamlet says, "It will not speak. Then I will follow it." He's saying that this ghost that resembles his father, if it will not talk to him then he will follow it and see where it goes. He hopes to get to the bottom of this ghost thing. -E.B.
Hamlet waits for the ghost. Hamlet addresses the ghost as his father. The ghost wants Hamlet to follow it to another place, but his friends don't want him to go. Hey fear that the ghost may try to kill Hamlet. -R.H.
1.5
I think that Hamlet is kind of scared of the ghost, be he wants to find out more about it and what happened to his father. He seems curious about a lot of things, and doesn't want his friends to say anything about it. -R.H.
The point of this scene was to introduce the fact that the king was not killed in action (in the war) but was murdered by his (king's) brother who is now the king. -J.D.
Hamlet feels sorry for the spirit of his father. The ghost explains to him why he is still around. The ghost talks about how things happened but Hamlet wants more information. The ghost seems to be there to help explain to Hamlet what really happened when the king died. -E.B.