Act IV Study Questions

Scene 1
1. Gertrude tells him, right away.
2. His main concern is that Hamlet is coming after him next, so he wants to get rid of Hamlet. He decides to turn to his "wisest friends" to tell them what happened so he doesn't get blamed. He hopes this event will not come back to bite him in the butt.
3. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, as usual.

Scene 2
1. He tells them that the body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. He says this to emphasize that Claudius is not the rightful king and that the king isn't just a person.
2. Claudius.

Scene 3
1. He's saying it would be dangerous to confine him because the people of the kingdom like Hamlet. He's worried that if he punishes Hamlet, the people will judge Claudius rather than Hamlet even though Hamlet murdered somebody.
2. He talks more about where Polonius is in death, rather than where his physical body is. He says Polonius is at supper being eaten (by worms) and that he's in Heaven. He is trying to emphasize the idea that everyone is equal in death regardless of whether they were a king or a beggar in life.
3. Claudius wants the ruler of England to kill Hamlet. No, they don't know it.

Scene 4
1. He wants to let Claudius know that the Norwegian army is there, and that they want free passage as promised before.
2. He learns they're going to Poland to fight for a small piece of worthless land.
3. Fortinbras is a man of action, and he gets things done. Hamlet, on the other hand, is a coward and doesn't act on any of his thoughts. Fortinbras has this idea of honor, and he will fulfill it no matter what. Hamlet is afraid to act on any of his thoughts and just sits there thinking them all day even if he has a really good reason to act on them.

Scene 5
1. The queen thinks that Ophelia just wants something done. The queen doesn’t think that it is very important, but after Claudius says that something bad might happen, and Ophelia will start spreading dangerous roomers and start poisoning minds.
2. Ophelia is so upset that the king asks Horaito to watch her very carefully and make sure that she does nothing to hurt herself. I think he’s right, that with a situation like this when someone is acting not normal that don’t even really see the picture that is going on in their mind.
3. Lareities comes back to see who killed his father, and then to seek revenge on the person who committed the crime.
4. The king has to find someway to calm Lareties down, so that the king doesn’t get murdered, or loose his job. The king also has to find a way for the mob not to want Laraties as their king.
5. The king calms Laraties down by telling him to get a group of people together, bring them to him, and they’ll decide if he’s innocent or not. Then if he is innocent he will help Larties find who really killed his father, but if he is guilty, Larties will kill the king and get everything that belongs to him.
Scene 6.
1. The ship captured by pirates.
2. Hamlet made a deal with the pirates, which got him back to Denmark.
3. The sailors are going to take Horitao to Hamlet.
Scene 7
1. The queen loves Hamlet and the king loves the queen, so he doesn’t want to hurt either.
2. Because the people love him and his mom loves him.
3. Hamlet wrote him a letter.