TIMELINE OF EVENTS

The First Movement: two nights and one day

Act 1, Scene 1 ● It is night and the guards, Francisco and Bernardo, see a
Ghost that looks like Old Hamlet
● They tell Horatio who does not believe them at first
● They set off to tell Hamlet about the Ghost

Act 1, Scene 2 ● Claudius addresses the court regarding his brothers death
and his marriage
● Both Claudius and Polonius grant permission for Laertes to
return to France
● Claudius and Gertrude ask Hamlet to cast off his “nightly
colour”
● Claudius denies Hamlet’s wish to return to Wittenberg
● Hamlet breaks into a soliloquy (which covers important
themes such as the nature of religion, suicide and implies his
Freudian compulsions) regarding his mother’s incestuous
marriage and wishes he could die
● Horatio enters and tells Hamlet about the Ghost and he
decides to go to the ramparts to see the Ghost himself

Act 1, Scene 3 ● aertes is setting off for France

● He asks Ophelia if she is has relations with Hamlet and tells
her not to have sex
● She replies and tells him he should follow his own advice
● Polonius enters and lectures Laertes, telling him “to thine
own self be true." (which sets the political tension for the rest
of the play)
● Polonius commands Ophelia no longer meets Hamlet

Act 1, Scene 4 ● Hamlet, Marcellus and Horatio stand in wait for the Ghost
● Hamlet is shocked by the appearance of the Ghost who may
be "spirit of health or goblin damned." (the ambiguity of the
nature of the Ghost draws questions regarding the solidity of
religion)
● The Ghost beckons Hamlet towards him, and his friends warn
him not to go
● Regardless, Hamlet goes to the Ghost

Act 1, Scene 5 ● The Ghost, who is in Purgatory, demands revenge for his
murder by Claudius’ hand, who poured poison into his ear,
lest he go to Hell (for thematic expansion, refer to the
chapter titled, “Does Hamlet pose questions against
religion?”)
● Hamlet tells Marcellus and Horatio he will put on an “antic-
disposition”

●
●