Hamlet Act V - key scenes Flashcards
In the beginning of Act V, two gravediggers are gossiping about Ophelia’s recent death and whether or not she is to have a…
“Christian burial when she wilfully seeks her own salvation”
What is Hamlet’s initial reaction to the gravediggers’ singing and joking?
He is troubles and says
“Has this fellow no feeling of his business”
As he watches the gravediggers prepare a grave, Hamlet reflects on human destiny and is shocked by the realisation that everybody’s self-importance in life is reduced to nothingness in death. That death makes everyone equal. What does he say?
“The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box, and must the inheritor have no more, ha?”
As Gertrude scatters flowers in Ophelia’s grave, what does she say?
“I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife”
After Laertes hysterically jumps into Ophelia’s grave, Hamlet reveals himself saying:
“This is I,
Hamlet the Dane.”
After Laertes hysterically jumps into Ophelia’s grave, Hamlet reveals himself and declares his love for Ophelia by saying:
“I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of love,
Make up my sum”
Now returned to Elsinore, Hamlet contemplates how God “shapes” our lives and describes man’s clumsy efforts to control his destiny
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will”
Hamlet tells Horatio that, while he was on route to England, he found and stole Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s documents and found a …
“royal knavery” → an order for his execution
What did Hamlet do upon finding the order for his execution?
He “Devised a new commission” → he rewrote the letter as a command to immediately kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
How did Hamlet seal the commission he rewrote?
He has his “father’s signet” with him which had a replica of the “Danish seal”. He sealed the letter, “The changeling never known”
What wager was placed of the fencing match?
“six French swords” and “six Barbary horses”
While Laertes has reservations about what Hamlet has done to his family, he accepts the apology, but still feels that he must…
“in my terms of honour” stand “aloof” so as not to disrespect his father
What does Laertes say when confessing the swords were poisoned?
“I am justly killed with mine own treachery”
“The king’s to blame”
After preventing Horatio from taking his own life, what does Hamlet ask him to do?
“report me and my cause aright”
