Act 1 Scene 2 Study Questions

1. What is odd about Hamlet’s appearance in the opening of scene two?

He is dressed entirely in black as if he is depressed, which he is because he is mourning his fathers death and his mother married his uncle very quickly after, which he did not approve of.  

2. Explain (give at least two reasons) why Claudius needs to justify his marriage in the opening of scene two.


Because he married his brothers wife, which in those time is considered incest, and he did it right after his brother death. He needed to justify it because it is wrong, and he feels the need to explain why he did it. 

3. Laertes asks the King for leave to do what, specifically?

He wants to go to France to continue with school, because he came back simply for the coronation of the king. Also it is hinted later that he wants to go to France to be with some women.

4. Explain Hamlet’s insult when he says, “A little more than kin and less than kind.”


Hamlet is not at all happy with the marriage between his uncle and his mother, and he is not able to accept it easily, so after his uncle gives him the long speech about accepting the marriage, and tells him to stop mourning so much for his father, Hamlet take a stab at Cladius. He means that they are a little more than family but he is using "kind" as a pun because he is saying that Cladius is disgracing mankind and he is not at all kind.  


5. Explain Hamlet’s use of pun in the line, “Not so my lord, I am too much in the sun.”


He is using the word "sun" but he is also referring to the word son, he does not want to be considered Claudius's son because he was already King Hamlets son, and he does not want to be the son of a man who is his uncle. 


6. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy it is obvious that what troubles him most is?


He is upset about his mothers quick marriage to his uncle after his fathers death, he feels that she doesn't feel as sad as he does about it, as if she didn't even care that her husband was dead. 

7. What does Hamlet mean by the following lines

“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 forc’d breath,
No, nore the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected havior of the visage,
Together will 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 trappings and the suits of woe.


His mother asks him what is wrong with him, and he very over dramatically explains that he is depressed and that is why he is wearing the dark clothes.
8. What does Hamlet say about the baked meats and the funeral and the wedding.

He says that they serve the same food at the wedding that they served at the funeral, which just shows how quick the wedding was after Old Hamlet dies. Hamlet is simply just trying to prove a point.


9. What news does Horatio, Marcellus and Barnardo bring to Hamlet.


They tell him about the ghost they saw in the scene before, and tell him that it is father. Then they explained that the ghost would not answer any of their questions or speak to them at all, so they asked him to come see if the ghost would talk to him since he is of course his son.