Josh+H+Hamlet+CA

Characters
Ghost, seeks revenge. Hamlet, listens to king, is frantic, starts his madness

Ideas
Revenge: Claudius betrays King. Incest: Gertrude and Claudius

Links
Causes madness, links to subsequent deaths, gives the idea to hamlet about killing Claudius.

Hamlet CA
In Act I Scene V of Hamlet the ghost talks to Hamlet about it's death. It firstly brings in the theme of Revenge by saying that it was murdered by Claudius, it's brother. The author uses imagry to say, "A serpent stung me", that serpent is Claudius. It also starts Hamlets "madness", he is frantic though takes in everything the king says. This scene also starts off the theme of incest, incest between Claudius and Gertrude. Make specific reference to the phrases that indicate this

The ghost explains how it is murdured, "'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father's life Now wears his crown."

This explains who and how he is murdured, Claudius in the orchard with poison in the ear. The ghost convinces Hamlet that he was murdured while sleeping in his orchard, by his own brother, Hamlet's Uncle. Hamlet then plans to kill Claudius and this causes the trail of death, Polonius, Ophelia, Gertrude, Laertes and Claudius.

There is lots of imagry in Hamlet and this section of text is no exception, "With witchcraft of his wit" and "A serpent stung me" are a couple of important ones. "With witchcraft of his wit", Claudius uses his wit like witchcraft to gain control of Gertrude and the throne. "A serpent stung me" is making Claudius look like a serpent, a negative image, and also comparing him to the lie of a snake that was told to everyone when he died.

Hamlet's Madness is started by wanting revenge on Claudius, he pretends to go mad to reveal if what the ghost says is true. He makes the play, he drives Opelia away and he makes people question if he knows what he is doing, so that people aren't suspicious of him. After the play he knows that Claudius caused his father's death and plans to murder him. He causes the trail of death mentioned before as this is also part of his madness, he is mad for revenge..

//Josh, don't fall into the trap of retelling the event. Your job is to break down the words, phrases, images and ideas and tell your audience what they mean. What they mean to the characters, the themes and in term of the rest of the text. How is the character portrayed in the text? What words or actions lead you to this conclusion? What ideas are looked at? Are these consistent with the rest of the text? Where else do they occur? What is the language telling us? Include examples of specific words or phrases that demonstrate this.//