Assignment task:
Hamlet Act Two Post-Reading Analysis Questions Question One: Complications in the Plot 1. Act Two develops the plot by introducing complications and conflicts in the play through various characters and their situations. Review the Act (scenes one and two), and explain what complications and conflicts are being introduced in this Act? Question Two: Deception and Spying 2. Comment on the introduction of this theme to the plot of the play. Identify all the acts of spying - who is spying on whom and analyze how this deception and spying directly ties into the morality and state of the natural order of Denmark being in disorder and diseased? How does the spying and deception give us further insight into the characters and their motivations? Question Three: Hamlet and his State of Mind 3. Review Hamlet's key speeches in this Act - the "What a piece of work is a man" (2. 2. 299- 304) speech and his "O what a rogue and peasant slave am I" (2. 2. 535- 592). What is being discussed in each of these speeches? What do these speeches say about his state of mind and his preoccupations? Examine his character in this Act and how has he changed and developed? What will be his focus moving forward and what does this say about Hamlet's character, philosophical beliefs, inner struggles, and moral values?