Fathers & Sons

Question 1

The devotion and loyalty fathers inspire

Answer 1

‘So excellent a king, that was to his Hyperion to a satyr’ 1.2

Question 2

Laertes absolving Hamlet in act 5 scene 2

Answer 2

‘“Exchange forgiveness with me, Nobel HAMLET, mine and my father’s death come not upon thee, nor thine on me” “heaven make thee free of it. I follow thee”
UNITY between avenging sons - dramatic significance of absolution BUT not religious as LAERTES is not a priest

Question 3

Laertes’s admittance of guilt in act 5 scene 2

Answer 3

LAETRES: ‘I am justly killed with mine own treachery’
SYMPATHY from audience who knows it was claudiu’s treachery and manipulation - absolution to LAERTES…{this scene is filled with violence because Shakespeare knew his audience liked action and violence as hangings and bear-baiting was popular at the time}

Question 4

The damaging effects of fathers on their children

Answer 4

“your father lost a father, that father lost, lost his”
“But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two”
“My father’s brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules”
Hamlet mirrors his father’s obsession: “that incestuous, that adulterate beast…won to his shameful lust The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen”

Question 5

POLONIUS to Laertes then Ophelia 1.3

Answer 5

‘Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice…you do not understand yourself so clearly’