Short response to HAMLET acts 1,2 and 3 - Essay Example

Short response to HAMLET acts 2 and 3 ANSWER The element of doubt is a recurring motif in the play “Hamlet”. It resonates in Hamlet’s indecisiveness and dilemma throughout the play. The recurrent usage of the word “doubt” in the play further intensifies the motif. The word has been used in different contexts with different shades of meaning.King: We doubt it nothing; heartily farewell. (I.ii.41)King Claudius speaks this line when he sends his courtiers Cornelius and Voltemand to Norway to deliver a letter to Forinbras’s uncle.

When Cornelius and Voltemand assert that they will accomplish the task successfully, the King expresses his faith in them by saying that he has no doubt that they will do so.Hamlet: My father’s spirit—in arms! All is not well, I doubt some foul play. (I.ii.254)When Horatio reports to Hamlet that he had seen his father’s ghost, he is alarmed at hearing that and suspects that something wrong had been inflicted on his father.

Ophelia: Do you doubt that? (i.iii.5)When Laertes leaves for France and bids farewell to his sister Ophelia, he asks her to keep writing to him. Ophelia replies by asking him if he doubts that she will write to her.Hamlet: The dram of [ev’l] Doth all the noble substance of a doubt To his own scandal.

(I.iv. 35-37)Hamlet, while discussing the foul practices of his country, says that even a small spot of evil is capable of casting qualms on a person’s noble qualities and ruin his status.Queen: I doubt it is no other but the main, His father’s death and our [o’erhasty] marriage. (II.ii.57)Queen Gertrude says that she doubts that her son Hamlet’s insanity is caused by anything but the most obvious reason which is his father’s death and her marriage to Claudius.

Polonius: [Reading Hamlet’s verses] “Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.

” (II.ii.116-19)Hamlet, in his love letter to Ophelia, expresses his sincere feelings for her through his poetry. He writes that she may doubt the commonest of universal facts and believe that the stars are made of fire or that the sun is not steady or that truth is a liar. But she should never suspect her genuine and true love for her.ANSWER 2Polonius, in his farewell speech to his son Laertes in Act I Scene 3, offers him fatherly advice on the “precepts” of life, most of which amounts to modern-day clichés.

For instance:I. He means that one should not disclose his thoughts or act recklessly based on random thoughts:Give thy thoughts no tongue,Nor any unproportioned thought his act. (I. iii. 60-61)II. He asserts that clothes make a man and hence one should spend all he can afford on his clothes while ensuring their quality:Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,But not expressed in fancy—rich, not gaudy,For the apparel oft proclaims the man (I. iii. 72-74)III. He advises that one should neither borrow nor lend money.

When one lends to a friend, he often loses both the friendship and the money.Neither a borrower nor a lender be,For loan oft loses both itself and friend (I. iii. 77-78)ReferencesShakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. John Bosak ed. 1999. Retrieved from: www.w3.org/People/maxf/XSLideMaker/hamlet.pdf‎