Act 1, Scene 1:

• Text of Act 1, Scene 1
• Compare to Fatal Attraction Shock Scene
• We are introduced to Hamlet's ominious situation; next we'll see Hamlet himself.

• The King's attempt to establish himself as: legitimate, capable, and humane.
• Hamlet's opposition
• dressed in mourning
• makes a bitter pun
• "cuts" King Claudius
• Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo brings news to Hamlet.
• Hamlet's short soliloquy.

Act 1, Scene 3 -- Ophelia is warned off Hamlet (and so he is further isolated).

• "Perhaps he loves you now"
• "And these few precepts in thy memory / See thou character"
• "Marry, I'll teach you: think yourself a baby"

• "Look, my lord, it comes!"
• "What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord"

Act 1, Scene 5 -- The Ghost demands revenge on King Claudius, but protection of the Queen. . . . Hamlet's contradictory reaction.

• "List, list, O, list! / If thou didst ever thy dear father love"
• "Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift / As meditation or the thoughts of love, / May sweep to my revenge."
• "Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast"
• "There's never a villain dwelling in all Denmark / But he's an arrant knave."

Act 2, Scene 1 -- Polonius' character; Ophelia's report; Polonius jumps to a conclusion. And we are left wondering what Hamlet's state of mind is.

• "Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo"

Act 2, Scene 2 -- Everybody wonders what's wrong with Hamlet, including Hamlet.

• "My liege, and madam, to expostulate"
• "I'll board him presently"
• "My excellent good friends!"
• "It is not very strange; for mine uncle is king of Denmark"
• "O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I"

Act 3, Scene 1 -- Hamlet betrayed by Ophelia

• Ophelia as bait for Hamlet, while her father & the King spy.
• "To be, or not to be: that is the question"
• "My lord, I have remembrances of yours"

Act 3, Scene 2 -- Hamlet strikes back; the play to catch the conscience of the king.

• "He poisons him i' the garden for's estate"
• "O, the recorders!"

Act 3, Scene 3 -- Hamlet does not kill the king.
Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;

Act 3, Scene 4 -- Hamlet kills Polonius by accident & falls into a frenzy because of his mother.

• I'll warrant you, fear me not:
  
• Withdraw, I hear him coming.
• O, speak to me no more;

Act 4, Scene 3 -- Hamlet plays an unsatisfactory game of cat & mouse with the king
16 Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?

Act 4, Scene 4 -- "bloody" or "nothing worth"?
How all occasions do inform against me

• Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio
• Hamlet with the skull of Yorick
• I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers

• Why, what a king is this!
• You will lose, my lord.

1. Argue that Hamlet is a hero.
2. Argue that Hamlet is a loser.
3. Argue that Hamlet is an anti-hero. (A main character who is not heroic but nevertheless earns our sympathy and respect.)
4. Argue that Hamlet is a depressing play.
5. Argue that Hamlet an inspiring play.
6. Argue that Hamlet is a didactic play that teaches an important lesson about life. (Of course you must say what the lesson is)