Hamlet 1.5 | Hamlet Meets The Ghost

Question 1

1.5 “List, list, O list / If thou didst ever thy dear father love”

Answer 1

Repetition used to show how ghost urges hamlet to listen to his revelation, positioning the obligation to listen as a measure of hamlets love + respect for his father

Question 2

1.5 ‘Mark me’ / “now, hamlet, hear’ / ‘remember me’

Answer 2

Repeated imperatives suggest the authoritative force of the ghost

Question 3

1.5 “A serpent stung me - so the whole ear of Denmark is …rankly abus’d”

Answer 3

Serpent is biblical symbol associated with deception and sin. Claudius presented as a blasphemous transgressive figure.

Metaphor ‘ear of Denmark’ suggests Claudius has poisoned not only the king but the whole state

Question 4

1.5 “Speak I am bound to hear”

Answer 4

Title character vowing to fulfil his filial obligation - ‘bound’ implies obligation and duty. Hamlet feels emotionally and morally compelled to listen. Also suggests that Hamlet will become trapped (or conflicted) by this same sense of duty

Question 5

1.5 “Haste me to know’t that I … may sweep to my revenge”

Answer 5

Hamlet states his intention to act in a quick and decisive manner (which will contrast his later indecision)

Question 6

1.5 “I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records / all saws of books, all forms, all pressures past”

Answer 6

Anaphoric repetition conveys how the title character is willing to destroy all memories and learning so he can commit himself to the act of rememberance

Question 7

1.5 “Thy commandment all alone shall live”

Answer 7

We see how hamlet, again, sees his father as a god like figure

Question 8

1.5 “Hamlet is rather an instrument than an agent”

Answer 8

Johnson