http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-tYlYJ0PJM (start the scene at about 3:50 if you want to go straight to scene 5)
Questions to consider as you watch this and look over the scene in your scripts:
1.) How does the ghost say he was murdered?
2.) What does the ghost tell Hamlet about Gertrude, or any plans Hamlet may form to avenge himself against her?
3.) After the ghost leaves, Hamlet is frantically processing what the ghost has told him. In your opinion, does the text imply Hamlet is becoming mentally unstable?
4.) When Horatio and Marcellus enter, Hamlet greets them oddly. (David Tennant does a great job emphasizing the strangeness of Hamlet's words; an actor could choose to play those lines much more straight, but even so, the lines seem bizarre, and the iambic pentameter falls apart. Horatio points out, aptly, "These are but wild and whirling words!") Why do you think Hamlet has them repeatedly swear they will not tell anyone what they have seen that night? (NOTE: in the play, there is no specific stage instruction for Hamlet to cut his hand.) Why would Hamlet greet them so strangely, or make jokes about the ghost's rumbles, calling the ghost "an old mole" and "truepenny" (slang for "honest old fellow.") Why would Shakespeare malign the verse in this part?
5.) What does it mean when Hamlet tells his two friends that, from here on out, he "might think it meet to put an antic disposition on"?
Analysis:
1.) Hamlet tells his father's ghost "with wings as swift as meditation or thoughts of love [I will] sweep to my revenge" but at the end of the scene he says: "Oh cursed spite that ever I was born to set it right." Do you think Hamlet is eager to avenge his father's murder? Do you expect he'll be good at taking that revenge? What clues from the text inform your guesses?
2.) In your opinion, is Hamlet acting mad (insane) here, actually going mad here, or just emotionally distraught, as would be expected?
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