ACT 1 SCENE SUMMARIES Flashcards
Act 1, Scene 1
> Very first introduction to the play and characters, first line, ‘Who’s There’ spoken by Barnardo.
Changing of the nightwatch, entering Horatio, ‘a piece of him’ arrives
First ‘enter’ of the ghost, Horatio thinks it is symbolic of a ‘strange eruption to our state’ and decides they need to tell Hamlet they have seen him.
Act 1, Scene 2
> Claudius speech to the people and court, ‘our whole kingdom contracted in one brow of woe…. wisest sorrow think on him Together with remembrance of ourselves’
Laertes is granted ‘gracious leave’ to return to France.
Hamlet is seen with ‘nighted colour’, depressed and in grieving of his father. (‘tis unmanly grief’
First of Hamlet’s soliloquies, ‘exeunt all but Hamlet’ - ‘frailty, thy name is woman’… ‘but break my heart, for I must hold my tongue’
Horatio and Hamlet encounter, tells of him seeing the Ghost,
Act 1, Scene 3
> Laertes and Ophelia interaction
Laertes warning to Ophelia about Hamlet, ‘on his choice depends the safety and health of this whole state’
‘Enter Polonius’ first introduction to Polonius, lecturing Laertes on his ventures’ and then once Laertes ‘exits’ moves on to lecture Ophelia, ‘I shall obey’, Polonius is pre-occupied with concern for himself, his ‘honour’ and reputation.
Act 1, Scene 4
> It is the nightwatch again, and Hamlet has joined Marcellus and Horatio on the nightwatch
Sighting of the ghost (‘Enter ghost’)
Ghost refuses to speak to anyone but Hamlet, ‘beckons’ him to come with it and ‘exeunt Ghost and Hamlet’
Marcellus ponders that there is ‘something rotten in the state of Denmark’
Act 1, Scene 5
> Starts with ‘Enter Ghost and Hamlet’ - more private and shows the relationship and bond they have together.
Ghost demands power, ‘Mark me’, and ‘pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing’
Confirms ‘I am thy father’s spirit’, and explains his death and that he is ‘fast in fires’ (ie. in purgatory).
His death was ‘most foul, strange and unnatural’
‘Enter Horatio and Marcellus’ after Ghost has spoken, they ‘swear’ to keep secret and maintain Hamlet’s faith
first discussion of Hamlet putting on an ‘antic disposition’
