Act 1 Scene 3/4 Questions

1) What is Laertes advice to Ophelia?

He tells her to stop seeing hamlet, because he is a prince and he is going to have to marry a woman who has higher ranking in the country, and so their relationship will not last because she is not in the same class and she will just get broken up with sooner or later. 
2) How does “The canker galls the infants of the spring/ too oft before their buttons be disclos’d” fit into the ideology of the decaying garden?

Ophelia is a flower in a garden, and if the worm gets a hold of her it will destroy the flower and cause a decay of the garden. It is pretty much explaining her fate if she stays with Hamlet. 
3) What analogy does Ophelia give to her brother as an answer to his advice? What does she mean?

She is pretty much telling him to do exactly what he is telling her to do, because she knows about his women in France, and it is not right for him to tell her that she needs to not be with Hamlet, because he is doing similar things. She is not going to listen to him, and tells him to look out for his own garden that he is recking. 
4) List five of the “few precepts” that Polonius gives to Laertes.

-Be friendly to others but don't appear cheap 
-Listen to everyone but only tell those who are privileged 
-Think but don't speak 
-Don't make any rash decisions 
-Once you have tested your friendships then they are good friends 
5) In lines 105-109, what is the metaphor that Polonius uses to describe Hamlet’s words of love?

He says that hamlets tenders are not sterling, which means that his love is not actually real. 

7) What is Polonius’ command to Ophelia?

He commands that she stops seeing Hamlet, and she says she will. 
8) In scene 4, what is Hamlet talking about in lines 13-38?

He is saying that he doesn't like the way that the king is presenting himself, always drinking and setting of cannons. He thinks that he is making Denmark look like a drunken, lousy country, which is a sign of weakness. 
9) Why doesn’t Horatio want Hamlet to follow the ghost?

Because they are worried that the ghost is evil, and that it will convince them to do bad things. And their is still uncertainty on whether or not the ghost is actually Hamlets father. 

10) What is Hamlet’s command to the three guards?


He says that he must go talk to the ghost alone, and they have to be okay with it. And the again, very over dramatically, tells them that his life is not worth living so he is willing to go risk talking to the ghost even if it is an evil spirit.