Act iii Scene i/ii

Act 3

Scene 1:

1. What do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern report to Polonius?
Rosencrantz tells the king Hamlet confessed to feeling distracted, but that he wouldn't get in to it with them.

2. How does Claudius react when Polonius says, "…with devotion's visage, And pious action we do sugar o'er/ The devil himself"?
He confirms the truth about the ghost's accusation. "The harolt's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art..." -His deed is covered with his painted word.

3. What plan do Polonius, Claudius and Ophelia now put into action?
They use Ophelia to spy on Hamlet. This is when she tries to give him his love letters back.

4. What is the nature of Hamlet's soliloquy, lines 57-91?
He talks about taking action, suicide, and the afterlife. He is upset about his mother marrying his uncle, and he is upset about Ophelia not loving him as he knows she does.

5. What is Hamlet's main argument against suicide?
"But in that sleep of death what dreams may come...But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus consciuence does make cowards of us all..."
His argument is that we don't know what comes after death. There is really only one way to find out, but you couldn't tell anyone about it. It's a secret.

6. Why does Hamlet treat Ophelia as cruelly as he does? What has changed him?
He knew Polonious was there when she tried to give his letters back and they talked. He didn't want her too close to her because of what he was planning on doing to the King, so he is mean to her. Now he's mad at her because she has betrayed him. She chose to listen to her family, rather than herself in the decision of love. Inversely comparable to Juliet.

7. What thinly veiled threat to Claudius does Hamlet voice, after he becomes of his hidden presence? (lines 148-150)
He hints that somebody is gon' die! It's suggested that Hamlet is to do it because he is the one that is mad.
 
8. At the end of this scene, what does the King decide to do with Hamlet?
He wants to banish him to England.

Scene 2:

9. What qualities in Horatio cause Hamlet to enlist his assistance?
Horatio gets what Hamlet is doing. Hamlet trusts Horatio, and pretty much nobody else.

10. What does Hamlet ask Horatio to do?
He asks him to watch King Claudius and pay attention to his reaction, so that he knows whether or not to kill him.

11. Summarize what happens in the play-within-a-play.
Before the play, the King is killed by poison in the ear...kinda like how this play started...Once the big play starts, it is parallel to the world around Hamlet. The King and Queen show their love for each other, and the King's nephew kills the King. The whole reason behind doing this play was to get King Claudius to admit to killing Old Hamlet.

12. Why, in line 233, does Hamlet refer to the play-within-a-play as "The Mouse-trap"?
Because a mouse-trap has many parts, and is a thought out plan. It mirrors his plan to kill King Claudius.

13. What is the King's reaction to the play?
He gets up and leaves. It makes him confess, at least to himself, or God because he is praying, to killing Old Hamlet.

14. In lines 354-363, to what object does Hamlet compare himself? Why?
He compares himself to a flute, or some stringed instrument with "frets" because he feels that he is being "played." And he will have none of that!

15. As Hamlet goes to his mother at the end of this scene, what does he admonish himself to do?
He pretty much has lost all faith in her at this point. It's not that he wants to kill her, it's just that he wants her not to be alive anymore.