Due Thursday, March 29th - Hamlet - ACT IV

Directions:  Please read Hamlet, Act IV and comment in this blog space using at least 2-3 direct quotations from the text.  Please view and utilize the three performances of Ophelia's lament.  You may, also, use the questions below as a guide.

Questions for Exploration:

1. In scene one of Act IV, what is the King's major concern? In what line does he express it? Is the metaphor of the "foul disease" an expression of hypocrisy or truth?

2. In scene two, Hamlet compares Rosencrantz to a sponge. How does he justify this metaphor?

3. In considering what to do about Hamlet's murdering Polonius, the King sees himself as restricted. How?

4. How do Hamlet's comments on the whereabouts of Polonius' body reveal an attitude that he has expressed earlier in the play?

5. Explain Hamlet's comment to the King in response to the question, "Where is Polonius?"

6. When Hamlet is on the way to the ship that is going to bear him to England, he meets a captain in Fortinbras' army. Where is the army going? How important is the battle?

7. In Hamlet's soliloquy which begins, "How all occasions do inform against me..." how does Hamlet evaluate his own actions and those of Fortinbras?

8. Describe Ophelia's state of mind in scene five. Apart from having been driven to distraction or madness by the murder of her father, is there any significance to the content of her ramblings?

9. In Act IV, both Laertes and Fortinbras can be seen as foils to Hamlet. How?

10. How is it that Hamlet is the only man captured by the pirates when they attack the ship that is carrying him to England?

11. Why does the King decide that he must persuade Laertes to murder Hamlet?


12. What is ironic about the King's advice to Laertes.

Ophelia Performances: