Study Questions for Act II

1) What does Polonius tell Reynaldo in the opening of Act II? How does he plan to trap his son?
2) What does this say about Polonius?
3) What particularly in Act II scene 1 has disturbed Ophelia?
4) Why have Rosencrantez and Guildenstern been sent to Denmark?
5) What does Hamlet ask the players to recite? How does the allusion mimic Hamlet’s position?

Identify the following speaker of the following lines and discuss to whom the lines are being delivered, and what the lines mean?

6) “No, my lord, but as you did command/ I did repel his letter, and denied his access to me”
7) “More matter less art”
8) “That I, the son of a dear father murdered,/ Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell/ Must like a whore unpack my heart with words,
9) “Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth/ And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,/ with windlasses and with assays of bias,/ By directions find directions out.”
10) “For if the sun breeds maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion-Have you a daughter?”
11) List three metaphors (1 direct, 1 implied, 1 extended) from the play.
12) What proof does Polonius have that he believe indicates Hamlet’s love for Ophelia?
13) Explain the quote, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” How does this relate to Hamlet.
14) What is a fishmonger?
15) Who was Jephthah?