Quiz Guide: Hamlet Language and Writing Chapter 2.1 (pages 62-83)

• Why, according to the text, does the play use the word "word" so much? AND how many times does it use it?
• The text tells us that "almost any emphatic use of the word ‘word’ in Hamlet, no matter what the context, retains unshakable associations with divine mystery – that is, with something that can be intimated but can never be fully explained or understood." What famous passage gives "word" this divine association?
• When, how, and why does Hamlet quote the "Adages of Erasmus"?
• How and why, according to the book, does Hamlet use "atanaclasis" in 1.2?
• What does Gertrude mean when she tells Polonius: "More matter with less art"?
• Give an example of "words carrying weight"--either "heavy" or "light."
• Why exactly were oaths made on "swords"?
• How is the correspondence between "words" and "deeds" different for Laertes and Hamlet? give an example.
• Why do critics debate whether or not Hamlet is "fat"? (Provide arguments on both sides).
• What is controversial about the soliloquies in Hamlet? How does that controversy affect our understanding of their truth?
• How does the book describe the difference between an aside and a soliloquy?
• Give an example of a group of asides that are "insidious and intimate" deceptions.
• Discuss an alchemical process described in the first soliloquy.
• Give one example of how an image of gardening in the first soliloquy will be used to talk about sex.
• Give some examples of "female fluids" in this soliloquy that are identified in the reading.
• Neither Gertrude nor Ophelia use soliloquies. Why according to the book might Shakespeare not "reveal Gertrude’s interiority?