Hamlet
William Shakespeare

TESTS AND ANSWERS

ANSWERS

TEST 1

1. A
   
2. A
   
3. C
   
4. B
   
5. B
   
6. A
   
7. B
   
8. A
   
9. B
   
10. C

11. Hamlet is a complex and ambiguous character, and his madness comes in two forms: One is the emotional overreaction that results from the shock of his situation; the other is the pretended madness of double-meaning puns and seeming irrelevancies he employs in his dealings with Claudius and Polonius. These two are closely bound up together. For instance, the fact that he is under severe emotional stress in his first scene with Claudius and the court (Act I, Scene ii) is made dear by the violent soliloquy that follows immediately afterward. On the other hand, people have often explained the emotional violence of his scene with Ophelia by suggesting that he knows their meeting is being watched by the King and Polonius. Because of Hamlet's complex and unstable nature, every reader must decide for himself at what points in the play Hamlet truly is or is not mad.

12. Many answers have been offered to this question: Psychologists believe with Ernest Jones that Hamlet's unconscious "Oedipal" desire to kill his father and marry his mother prevents him through guilt from killing Claudius. Nineteenth-century critics who saw in Hamlet an overimaginative, idealistic poet-philosopher concluded that he had too weak a hold on reality to achieve his revenge; others have maintained that the act itself was against his religious or philosophic principles. In contrast, there has always been a school of thought that holds that Hamlet, in a complex position and faced with a clever and suspicious opponent, was in fact striving actively to accomplish the difficult task of killing a heavily guarded king, but lacked the opportunity. In this interpretation the key scene is that in which Hamlet kills Polonius, thinking it may be the king, here he does not hesitate. Those who disagree point out that Claudius' Prayer Scene is clearly meant by Shakespeare to be a turning point and a test of Hamlet's will. On the other hand, an Elizabethan audience would have understood the hero's reluctance to kill a man at prayer, though some later critics have found it "barbaric" for him to plan Claudius' damnation. Since this question is at the heart of Hamlet's "mystery," it is too ambiguous for any one answer to be correct.

13. Shakespeare's genius is nowhere shown better than in his decision to make a complex and fascinating character out of the hero's opponent- a man who could be (and is in other Shakespeare plays) no more than a superficial, stock villain with no traits other than his evil. Claudius, in his scenes with the court and with Laertes, repeatedly shows his tact and judiciousness, his skill at dealing with people, and his desire to keep Denmark at peace and on good terms with its neighbors. Though he hardly conveys deep feeling for Gertrude, he also never treats her with less than husbandly respect. It is only the knowledge of his guilt and the fear of his crime being found out that drives him to evil and vindictive measures. In the Prayer Scene he begins to repent and refrains only from fear of punishment. Because of his unpardonable crime, he must ultimately be punished, but there is no question that Shakespeare meant us to regard him as a man in whom good and evil are mixed, and who might have lived a noble life if not for his criminal act.

14. Though fundamentally honorable, Laertes has been misled by his "politic" father, Polonius, into believing that the most important part of honor is its outward form. For Hamlet, a philosopher who pursues the life of the mind, only the inner truth can bring a man to peace with himself. Consequently, while Hamlet struggles with his own soul but is for the most part good-humored and charming with others, Laertes often reveals a hot temper and a peremptory and cynical arrogance. Raised to distrust everything but outward show, Laertes cannot believe in anyone else's good motives. He will not believe Hamlet's love for Ophelia is serious (though both Hamlet and the queen confirm it later); he quarrels with the priest over the funeral; and he refuses to accept Hamlet's apology before the fatal duel. At the same time, because his anger is superficial, he is easily led by a hypocrite like Claudius into a conspiracy- something which Hamlet would never have done in his position.

15. Before the ghost appears, Horatio, as an educated skeptic, sees it as a "fantasy" or hallucination of the guards. Barnardo suggests that it is a good omen- the late king's spirit is protecting Denmark, which must arm again for war. Horatio, on the contrary, draws precedents from Roman history to show that it is an omen of evil. Both Marcellus and Horatio fear that it may be an evil spirit intending to damn or destroy Hamlet. Hamlet himself seems to toy with this idea at times; however, he accepts the ghost's story, at first cautiously and then unquestioningly after the Play Scene. At the same time, though, he disregards its instructions, provoking its appearance in his mother's room, which appears to calm him and help him accept his destiny. By the end of the play, there is no question that the ghost was speaking the truth. Whether its advice was good and heaven-sent, however, is unclear, considering the death and destruction to which its desire for revenge has led.

NEXT
BACK

Copyright 1984 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
Electronically Enhanced Text © Copyright 1993, World Library, Inc.
Further distribution without the written consent of PinkMonkey.com is prohibited.