Hamlet 1.2-4

1.
He feels awkward because his father just died, and his mother remarried too soon...to his uncle!

2.
One, he is marrying his brother's woman. Two, he needs to take power of his brother's throne.

3.
He says he has done his duty to the Dane, and his thoughts and wishes bend again toward France.

4.
A little more than kin; Hamlet feels he and Claudius are more like cousins now. And less than kind; Hamlet thinks that Claudius doesn't love his mother, and disagrees with the marriage all together.

5.
He is saying that he is getting too much attention, being the Prince of Denmark.

6.
He is mad at his mother. She married her brother in law! And she didn't even mourn her husband's death! Hamlet is troubled because he feels that nobody cared about his father, he even considers suicide.
"O that this too too sullied flesh would melt.
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His cannon 'gainst self-slaughter. O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!" 

7.
Hamlet is talking to his mother and he is upset with her. He is wearing all black, mourning his father's death, and he just doesn't want to see her right now. He is going into an "emo" phase: feeling dissasociative, and indifferent...and wearing black, or possibly worshiping the devil...So he kind of starts to act differently, this leading to his high interest in the world of Drama.

8.
He says the ones at the wedding are the still warm leftovers from the funeral. It is relevent because it recognizes the time it took her mother to get over her husband's death. He is just talking behind her back here.

9.
They tell him that they have seen his father's ghost. Hamlet wants to see for himself. See he totally worships the devil, he probably made a "demon portal" or a pentagram.

1) What is Laertes advice to Ophelia?
Laertes doesn't want Ophelia to love Hamlet. He thinks Hamlet is going mad and he doesn't want his sister around him. He doesn't think they will last as a couple.

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?
It is all about Ophelia's relationship with Hamlet. She is the Garden and he is a worm that will destroy it.

3) What analogy does Ophelia give to her brother as an answer to his advice? What does she mean?
She tells him not to be so hypocritical when he talks about love.

4) List five of the “few precepts” that Polonius gives to Laertes.
Don't speak your thoughts or be quick to action them
Don't be vulgure
Don't dress to fancy
Be nice to people but not too nice
Once you find friends you trust hold on to them
Listen to people but don't talk

5) In lines 105-109, what is the metaphor that Polonius uses to describe Hamlet’s words of love?
"taken these tenders for true pay which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly..." He is saying that she has treated herself to pay, or rewards, by tenders, or deeds, that are not sterling, or perfect. So what he means is that she needs to spend her time on better things because they will give her a better reward. Don't do Hamlet because Hamlet will not do you well. This could match the theme of prostitution.

6) List and explain one metaphor found in the lines 115-135.
"...I do know,
When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter,
Giving more light than heat, extinct in both
Even in their promise as it is a-making,
You must not take for fire..."




Hamlet is fire; Hamlet is the Sun. Polonius  basically says to Ophelia, "Don't trust Hamlet."

7) What is Polonius’ command to Ophelia?
She is forbidden to see him.

8) In scene 4, what is Hamlet talking about in lines 13-38?
He thinks that the king throws too big of parties and that makes his country look weak. The king is celebrating and he does so with cannons and loud music, and Hamlet is just depressed and can't help but bring the mood down.

9) Why doesn’t Horatio want Hamlet to follow the ghost?
He thinks it will make him go mad

10) What is Hamlet’s command to the three guards?
They must swear not to tell anybody what they have seen on the ghost dressed in armor