Posted on

Act 4

Text of Book

Act 4, page 1

Act 4, page 2

Act 4, page 3

Act 4, page 4

Act 4, page 5

Act 4, page 6

Act 4, page 7

Questions

1) What is this act mainly about?

2) Who tells Claudius about the death of Polonius?

3) Which animal does Hamlet compare Rosencrantz to?

4) Why does Claudius refrain from openly punishing Hamlet for murder?

5) What reason does Claudius give for exiling Hamlet to England?

6) Who does Fortinbras send a messenger to?

7) What does Hamlet name as an example, "gross as earth," that spurs him to action?

8) Whose claim to kingship does the cheering crowd support?

9) Among the flowers Ophelia names, which represents remembrance?

10) According to Hamlet's letter to Horatio, what did his ship encounter after only two days at sea?

11) How does Hamlet describe himself in his letter to Claudius?

12) How does Ophelia die?

13) What does Claudius mean in the quote below?

"It had been so with us, had we been there."

14) What does Hamlet mean in the quote below?

"A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear."

15) What does Hamlet mean in the quote below?

"How all occasions do inform against me
And spur my dull revenge!"

16) What does Gertrude mean in the quote below?

"So full of artless jealousy is guilt
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt."

17) What does Claudius mean in the quote below?

"But that I know love is begun by time,
And that I see, in passages of proof,
Time qualifies the spark and fire of it."

18) Look where Claudius says of Hamlet's exile that "This sudden sending him away must seem / Deliberate pause." What does "deliberate" mean in this context?

19) Look where Hamlet observes that the Fortinbras's soldiers "fight for a plot / Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause."

What does "plot" mean in this context?

20) Look where Claudius worries about his scheme: "If this should fall, / And that our drift look through our bad performance. / 'Twere better not assay'd."

What does "drift" mean in this context?

21) Were there any events that weren't clear to you?