Class: MODULE 2.

1: WILLIAM Date: 3/08/23

Subject: LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH

Key Points Notes

ACT 1 SCENE 2
● Claudius, the new king of Denmark, is holding court with his
new wife Gertrude (Hamlet's mother), Hamlet, Claudius's
advisor Polonius, Polonius's children Laertes and Ophelia,
and other court members.
• Claudius delivers a speech mourning his brother King
Hamlet's death, but he emphasizes the need to focus on
the future.
• He explains that this is why he married Gertrude, his former
sister-in-law, and became king.
• He informs the court about
Fortinbras's intentions to overtake
Denmark, and he expresses his own determination to
maintain Denmark's
strength.
• Voltemand and Cornelius (who are both
Norwegian courtiers) enter to collect a letter from Claudius.
He has written to the new King of Norway-Fortinbras's uncle,
an elderly, sick man unaware of his nephew's plans-asking
him to stop Fortinbras.
• Claudius instructs Voltemand and
Cornelius to deliver the letter quickly, and they depart,
pledging their loyalty through their promptness.
• Claudius acknowledges that Laertes has a request, and he
assures him that he'll grant it due to Polonius's importance. o
Laertes asks permission to return to France. After confirming
Polonius's approval, Claudius grants Laertes permission.
Addressing Hamlet, Claudius questions his persistent grief.
• Hamlet sarcastically replies that he's
"too much in the sun." Gertrude urges
Hamlet to stop wearing black and to treat Claudius as a
friend and father.
• She reminds him that death is
"common," to which Hamlet sarcastically agrees.
• Claudius accuses Hamlet of mourning out of "impious
stubbornness," arguing that his displays of grief are unmanly
and undignified.
• Repeating what Gertrude said, he insists that death is
natural and that to mourn this much is to act against
nature.
• He encourages Hamlet to stay in Denmark instead of
returning to Wittenberg, where Hamlet wouldcontinue his
education.
Gertrude also pleads with him, and Hamlet agrees. Claudius
is delighted and invites Gertrude to celebrate
 with him. Everyone exits except Hamlet.
• In a monologue, Hamlet expresses discontent about his life
ever since his
father's death two months prior.
• He's outraged by his mother's quick remarriage, which he
considers incestuous.
• Although troubled by his family's
circumstances, he knows he must stay silent and not cause
problems.
• Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo enter and greet Hamlet.
Surprised to see his friend Horatio from Wittenberg, Hamlet
asks why he's in Elsinore.
o Horatio answers that he came for
King Hamlet's funeral. Hamlet laments his mother's hasty
remarriage and praises his late father.
• Horatio then reveals that he saw
Hamlet's father the previous night.
• Horatio tells Hamlet that Marcellus and
Barnardo have seen a ghost resembling his father three
nights in a row.
• Hamlet is astonished and wants more information about the
ghost.
• The men describe the king wearing full armor with a raised
visor and a pale appearance.
• Hamlet plans to join them on their watch and thanks them
for their
friendship as they leave.
• Alone, Hamlet wonders what the ghost will reveal and if it
will report
"foul deeds."

Summary

Having established a dark, ghostly atmosphere in the first scene, Shakespeare devotes the

second to the seemingly jovial court of the recently crowned King Claudius. If the area outside

the castle is murky with the aura of dread and anxiety, the rooms inside the castle are devoted

to an energetic attempt to banish that aura, as the king, the queen, and the courtiers

desperately pretend that nothing is out of the ordinary. It is difficult to imagine a more

convoluted family dynamic or a more out-of-balance political situation, but Claudius

nevertheless preaches an ethic of balance to his courtiers, pledging to sustain and combine

the sorrow he feels for the king’s death and the joy he feels for his wedding in equal [Link]

despite Claudius’s efforts, the merriment of the court seems superficial. This is largely due to

the fact that the idea of balance Claudius pledges to follow is unnatural. How is it possible to

balance sorrow for a brother’s death with happiness for having married a dead brother’s wife?

Claudius’s speech is full of contradictory words, ideas, and phrases, beginning with “Though
yet of Hamlet our late brother’s death / The memory be green,” which combines the idea of

death and decay with the idea of greenery, growth, and renewal ([Link].1–2). He also speaks of

“[o]ur sometime sister, now our queen,” “defeated joy,” “an auspicious and a dropping eye,”

“mirth in funeral,” and “dirge in marriage” ([Link].8–12).