HAMLET ACT I SCENE II

Reading Notes: Act I Scene II

• setting is in a castle room
• King Claudius speaks of his his dead brother
• exeunt - used as a stage direction in a printed play to indicate that a group of characters leave the stage
• Prince Hamlet doesn't like King Claudius at all
• Claudius and Queen Gertrude tries to take Hamlet's attention of his father's death and says he should stay with the new family instead of going to school in Wittenberg
• but really, Claudius doesn't seem to show true care for young Hamlet
• everyone in the room leaves except Hamlet who says his soliloquy 
• Horatio confronts Hamlet and tells him that he, Marcellus, and Bernardo saw the King's ghost
• Horatio details that the ghost confronted them while on a night shift upon a platform
• Hamlet tells Horatio to keep watch but not tell anyone about the ghost