Hamlet – Final Questions

1. What happens in the “play within the play”? What sort of plays and acting does it tell went on at this time? (Also look at the other information we are given about plays and actors when they arrive at Elsinore). Does it do what Hamlet wanted it to?

2. Why doesn’t Hamlet kill Claudius after the play? How is his decision ironic?

3. Look at Hamlet’s talk with his mother. What does he talk about with her? How does this discussion reflect his own feelings as well as Elizabethan attitudes? Why does the ghost come back? How does he react to Polonius’ death?

4. Compare Ophelia’s madness with Hamlets. How do we know who is truly mad? Explain your reasons with close reference to the play.

5. How did Hamlet escape death in England?

6. Why are Laertes and Fortinbras in the play? How do they contrast to Hamlet in their actions?

7. What do the burials of Polonius and Ophelia tell us about Elizabethan society? What burial is Hamlet promised?

8. Look back at the play, and the soliloquies in particular. What does Hamlet think about death and the reasons why he can’t act on his promise to revenge his father’s death?

9. Look at all the deaths (and how they died) at the end of the play. How does it fit with the idea of “The cycle of life”?

10. What information do the ambassadors bring at the end of the play? How is the news received? How does this fit with Stoppard’s play?

11. What does Horatio say about the events of the play? Is he correct in his summing up of what happened?

12. Look at what Fortinbras says about Hamlet. Do you agree with his summation of his character? Could he have made a good king?

13. Chose an important scene from the play and plan how it could have been shown on the Elizabethan thrust stage (use your blank stage). Think about where people would stand, where they would come from, some simple props that could be brought on stage, if there could have been a place for music from a small band (lute, drum, recorder etc).