Hamlet+1.4+and+1.5

__Set the Scene__ Hamlet, Marcellus, and Horatio wait in the darkness up on the wall. The night is damp and there is an edge to the air (as in temperature and emotion). When the ghost appears it is only on the side of the stage/screen. as he beckons, Hamlet follows as if in a trance, but when Horatio and Marcellus warn him to wait he turns back around to hear them. The ghost leads Hamlet, and their followers, down the stone path until they are in a deserted tower or down stairs in an empty cellar area; either way it is erie and dimly lit. The voices echo and the ghost stands in the center as he speaks and uses dramatic hand gestures to illustrate his story, the light focuses on him. Marcellus and Horatio are around a corner peaking into the center of the room. After the ghost leaves, Hamlet takes his place center stage and the voice of the ghost echoes as though it is still there, unseen in the middle of the room. __4. Quotations__ __6. Relationships__ __8. Ambiguity__
 * __Hamlet 1.4 and 1.5__**
 * "That these men,/carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,/...his virtues else, be they as pure as grace,/as infinite as man may undergo,/shall in the general censure take corruption/from that particular fault. The dram of evil/doth all the noble substance of a doubt/to his own scandal" (1.4.33-41). Hamlet is describing his Uncle and comparing the new king to his father. I like what he says about how your fault or impulse can bring yourself scandal and dirty your own reputation, despite however good a person you may be. Hamlet is aware of others' impressions.
 * "Why, what should be the fear?/I do not set my life at a pin's fee./And for my soul, what can it do to that,/being a thing immortal as itself?" (72-5). Hamlet insists on following the ghost, despite his friends' misgivings. Is he merely reasoning with them or does he just not value his own life and soul?
 * "My fate cries out/and makes each petty arture in this body/as hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve./Still I am called" (91-4). Hamlet thinks that this is his fate. His fate to make a difference or his fate to a tragic death? Either way he feels drawn to go with the ghost.
 * "My hour is almost come/when I to sulf'rous and tormenting flames/must render up myself...Doomed for a certain term to walk the night/and for the day confined to fast un fires/til the foul crimes done in my days of nature/are burnt and purged away. But that i am forbid/ to tell secrets of my prison house,/...But this eternal blazon must not be/to ears of flesh and blood" (1.5.5-7, 15-9, 27-8). Imagery that parallels that of Hell. Extremely ambiguous. Why is the ghost tethered there? How and why can he escape for a while at night? Is he there until the crimes against him are righted? Can he come out at night because of the hour of witchcraft and such?
 * "If thou didst ever thy dear father love---/ ...Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" (29-31). The Ghost asks Hamlet to avenge him. Ghost's final instructions below.
 * Hamlet, "There's never a villain dwelling in all Denmark/but he's an arrant knave." Horatio, "There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave to tell us this" (137-40). What is all of the underlying tension and deceit?
 * Hamlet's relationship with his friends wavers between formal and actual. He commands them but also sees them as friends.
 * Hamlet, "Unhand me, gentleman./ By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me!/I say, Away!" Marcellus, "'Tis not fit thus to obey him" (1.4.94-6, 98). Here, he is formal and demanding to get his way.
 * "With all my love I do commend me to you,/and what so poor a man as Hamlet is/may do t' express his love and friending to you,/god willing, shall not lack" (1.5.205-8). Hamlet goes back to friendlier terms with more equality, but is he doing it because he just forced them to swear by his sword to remain silent? Hamlet does not really know how to truly be equal friends but wants to.
 * The Ghost/King Hamlet's relationship with Queen Gertrude and King Claudius
 * "Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,/with witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts---/...that have the power/ so to seduce!---won to his shameful lust/the will of my most seeming-virtuous queen" (1.5.49-53). Here he blames the uncle for deceiving his queen, but he also calls her "seeming-virtuous," giving Gertrude responsibility as well.
 * "From me, whose love was of dignity/that it went hand in hand even with the vow/I made to her in marriage, and to decline/upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor/to those of mine." (55-9). King Hamlet says that he was nothing but honorable and compares himself with the queen and his brother.
 * "But, virtue, as it never will be moved, though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,/so, lust, though a radiant angel linked,/will sate itself in a celestial bed/and prey on garbage" (60-4). He returns again to holding Gertrude responsible for her frivolous behavior.
 * "Let not the royal bed of Denmark be/a couch for luxury and damed incest./But, howsomever thou pursues this act,/taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive/against thy mother aught. leave her to heaven/and to those thorns that in her bosom lodge/to prick and sting her...Remember me" (89-95, 98). His last advice slash orders to Hamlet. But here it seems like he does not blame Gertrude, or does he just not want Hamlet to get into that and let her justice be served when she dies?
 * Are we to assume that the ghost is in fact King Hamlet?
 * Ghost
 * Comes when Hamlet discusses the King and his drinking,
 * Why does Hamlet need to follow it away from where they are?
 * What compels Hamlet to go? just that it looks like his father or is there more to it, like a spell almost
 * What does he mean that he must go? Does it speak of Hell? Did someone trap him there like a type of witchcraft?
 * Does he blame and is he angry at Queen Gertrude or not?
 * What actually happened to King Hamlet?
 * Why is it so important for Horatio and Marcellus to swear by Hamlet's sword not to speak of this? Wouldn't they hold their tongues if he asked?