Having watched both different performances of the same speech, ask yourself:

• How are the two interpretations of Hamlet’s speech different?
• Do the actors’ choices bring out different things about the character? How would you describe the character in the 2016 production and how would you describe him in the 2013 production?
• Do you notice the same sounds and breaks in both versions or have the actors treated them differently?

What can we learn about Hamlet from this soliloquy? Ask yourself:

• What kinds of emotions is Hamlet experiencing in this scene and how can you tell this from the text?
• Paapa describes Hamlet’s first soliloquy as less confident but, as he moves through the play, his later speeches become much more structured and possibly more confident. Do you agree? Can you find evidence of any differences in this speech compared to Hamlet’s later speeches? How do the sounds, line endings and punctuation compare?

• Try applying these same strategies to all of Hamlet’s soliloquies to look at any changes in his language and behaviour. A soliloquy shows you a character’s true thoughts and a lot can be learnt about Hamlet from looking at these moments of truth. How much of his plot against Claudius is in place from the start? What events or influences further encourage Hamlet to take revenge on his uncle?
• Take a look at the things he says immediately before and after his soliloquies. Shakespeare often creates these comparisons to show you something.
• Keep a record of the images Hamlet uses. Hamlet uses imagery of disease and decay a lot and you can find out more about this in the Analysing the imagery section. Think about why this might be. When in the play does Hamlet start to use the imagery of disease and decay.

• Disease imagery is used throughout the play. Hamlet believes Denmark was once a healthy state which has become sick and corrupted. This is set up in Act 1 when one of the guards says 'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark' (Marcellus, 1:4). The events immediately before the play starts have led Hamlet to believe that people have descended from a state of purity to corruption and decay. In Act 2, Hamlet links women’s bodies with dead dogs and describes the children that they have as maggots, saying 'For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog/ being a good kissing carrion - have you a daughter?' (Hamlet, 2:2)
• How many examples of disease imagery can you find in the play and what do they reveal about the characters who use them?

• From the start of the play, Hamlet is concerned with the difference between acting and being. When Gertrude asks him why his father's death seems particularly important to him, he replies, ‘'Seems', madam - nay it is, I know not 'seems'.' (Hamlet, 1:2). He also thinks about the difference between acting and action when he meets the players later in the play, comparing himself to the travelling actors. Hamlet very consciously chooses to behave, or act, in different ways throughout the play, even saying he will put on ‘an antic disposition’ (Hamlet, 1:5). These thoughts link with his own struggle about whether or not to 'act’ and whether or not to take revenge.
• How many examples of performance imagery or references to acting and performing can you find in the play? How many characters use these images and when in the play do they occur?

• Religious imagery is used by most characters in this play. We get the sense that Denmark is a Christian country. Hamlet and Claudius pray to God at different points, desperately wrestling with their own consciences.
• Take a closer look at the extract from Act 1 Scene 5 here to explore how religious imagery is used in Hamlet’s first encounter with the ghost of his father. Why do you think Shakespeare uses religious language so much in this early scene? How does the religious imagery and language affect Hamlet’s thinking throughout the rest of the play?

What can we learn about their relationship? Ask yourself:

• Why does Ophelia constantly refer to Hamlet as ‘My Lord’ in this scene and later scenes? Why would she do this when they used to have a close relationship and how might this change affect Hamlet’s attitude to her?
• Both characters use some of the same language. How many shared words or ideas can you find in the scene?
• The characters use quite transactional language such as ‘discourse’ and ‘commerce’. What other strategies do they use to create distance between them? Why might Hamlet want to distance himself from Ophelia? Why might she want to distance herself from him?

What can we learn about their relationship? Ask yourself:

• Try looking at shared language, questions and answers and status in Act 3 Scene 2, when Ophelia and Hamlet speak before the play. This is their only other conversation on stage. How is this moment different to Act 3 Scene 1?
• Explore Ophelia’s conversations with Laertes and Polonius in Act 2. These descriptions of her relationship with Hamlet give us an indication of the relationship they had in the past. What was their relationship like? Look at Polonius’ actions in response. How has he interfered in their relationship before and how does he interfere during the play? Would Ophelia’s relationship with Hamlet have been different without Polonius’ interference? Why does she listen to her father? How aware do you think Hamlet is of Polonius’ influence and how might this affect his opinion of Ophelia?

• It's hard to state whether Hamlet is really 'mad' or whether he is acting like he is mad. This can be interpreted differently in different productions of the play. For example, in Act 3 Scene 4 Hamlet kills Polonius but a company of actors would need to agree whether or not Hamlet does this out of madness or whether it is an accident of mistaken identity.
• Hamlet remarks that he’ll put on an 'antic disposition', meaning he will play mad to fool Claudius. However, are there occasions when his behaviour descends into real madness? Ophelia appears to genuinely become mad after she loses her father. She sings and speaks in disjointed sentences in Act 4 Scene 5 and eventually commits suicide.
• How many examples of madness can you find throughout the play? Who do you think is genuinely mad and who do you think is imitating madness?

• Death and the theme of mortality is introduced to us in the first few scenes of the play. We discover that the former King of Denmark has died and has returned as a ghost to avenge his murder. This theme can be seen in the rest of the play through Hamlet’s discussion of death and life and what it means to be alive as well in the different characters’ reactions to death. When Claudius asks Hamlet where he put Polonius’ body, for example, Hamlet replies 'At supper…Not where he eats, but where he is eaten /…We eat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots’ (Hamlet, 4:3) highlighting the fact that everyone dies and life is futile. When Hamlet returns to Denmark and sees the gravediggers removing old bones, he offers a similar reflection that everyone ends up being dead in the ground.
• How many different reactions can you find to death in the play? How do other characters respond to loss and death in comparison to Hamlet? What different viewpoints can you find?

• In Act 1 Hamlet is tasked with avenging his father’s death. After trapping Claudius and proving his guilt Hamlet then deliberates on how best to get revenge and this forms the action of the play. However, it is not just Hamlet who loses a father or loved one and seeks revenge; Laertes also returns and wants to avenge his father’s murder by killing Hamlet, and Prince Fortinbras who has the final lines of the play is seeking revenge for his own father’s death in war against Denmark. In fact, we learn from Horatio in Act 1 Scene 1 that it was Old Hamlet who killed Prince Fortinbras’ father in battle.
• Why do you think Shakespeare includes Prince Fortinbras in the story? How many parallels between him, Laertes and Hamlet can you find? What are the differences in their attitudes to revenge? Which character is more decisive? Laertes is even hailed as a possible future king when he returns at the end of the play; why do you think Shakespeare includes this detail?