Hamlet Questions

Act 1 scenes 3-4

1. What is odd about Hamlet’s appearance in the opening of scene two?
He is dressed completely in black.
2. Explain (give at least two reasons) why Claudius needs to justify his marriage in the opening of scene two.
Because of the impending danger between their kingdom and Fortinbras's, and because the memory of their departed King is still "green" or fresh among them. 3. Laertes asks the King for leave to do what, specifically?
He says that he came to Denmark to support him during his coronation, but his "thoughts and wishes" are pulling him back towards France. 4. Explain Hamlet’s insult when he says, “A little more than kin and less than kind.”
He's saying that, since the new King is both his uncle and "father", he is a little too related to Hamlet for his comfort. The second part is basically him saying that he isn't a good man because he married his dead brother's wife. 
5. Explain Hamlet’s use of pun in the line, “Not so my lord, I am too much in the sun.”
He is using "sun" as a homonym for "son". He is stating that he is a son to too many people since he became his "father". 
6. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy it is obvious that what troubles him most is?
It troubles him that his mother married so soon after his father died. She didn't grieve properly before sleeping with the dead King's brother ("Would have mourn'd longer--married My father's brother--but no more like my father Than I to Hercules.") 7. What does Hamlet mean by the following lines

“Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ‘seems’.
‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forc’d breath,
No, nore the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected havior of the visage,
Together will all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly. These indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play;
But I have that within which passes show,
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.


The mother is accusing him of faking his grief, and he is saying that his grief is very, very real. He lists several things that are customary for people to do while in a grieving period, and says that even though he does these things too, real sadness cannot be seen nor faked, and that is what he is feeling.

8. What does Hamlet say about the baked meats and the funeral and the wedding.
He says that the meat baked for the funeral was served cold to the wedding guests, meaning that his mother married too quickly after his father's death. 9. What news does Horatio, Marcellus and Barnardo bring to Hamlet.
They have seen the ghost of his dead father, clad in battle armor. 
Act 1 scenes 3-4

1) What is Laertes advice to Ophelia?
He is saying that it is not Hamlet's choice who he marries because his marriage will most likely be for political reasons. So even though he may really love you now, there is no future for them and to remember that before taking it any further.2) How does “The canker galls the infants of the spring/ too oft before their buttons be disclos’d” fit into the ideology of the decaying garden?
The "canker" is a reference to the canker worm, and Laertes is saying that the worm is damaging the young spring flowers before they're buds have opened. In this garden metaphor, Hamlet is the worm destroying the flower's, Ophelia's, innocence. 3) What analogy does Ophelia give to her brother as an answer to his advice? What does she mean?\
She tells him to not be an "ungracious pastor" (this could mean either Shepard or priest) and take the easy way out while ignoring his own advice. 
4) List five of the “few precepts” that Polonius gives to Laertes.
Take everyone's opinion but reserve his judgement, dress rich but not gaudy as money talks through clothing, listen to everything but don't say as much, don't lend and don't borrow because loans come between friends and borrowing doesn't make him seem like husband material, and last be true to himself because then he can't be false to anyone else. 5) In lines 105-109, what is the metaphor that Polonius uses to describe Hamlet’s words of love?
"--not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, running it thus--you'll tender me a fool." He doesn't want to overuse the phrase "you'll tender me a fool" (as he has said it before in this passage) because if you overuse a metaphor, as you might overuse a horse, it will break its' wind with excessive work. 
6) List and explain one metaphor found in the lines 115-135.
"Ay, springes to catch woodcocks." He is saying that Hamlet's words are just traps (springs) he is using to get a hold of Ophelia's affections (catch woodcocks). Basically, that Hamlet is just lying because he wants to get with Ophelia. 7) What is Polonius’ command to Ophelia?
To never see Hamlet again. 8) In scene 4, what is Hamlet talking about in lines 13-38?
He is talking about how having one vice can erase everything good about a person. This comes up because they hear a cannon in the distance, and Hamlet is explaining that every time the King drinks, they fire a shot. This causes other nations to consider them a bunch of drunks.
9) Why doesn’t Horatio want Hamlet to follow the ghost?
Because it might lead him into madness (irony). 
10) What is Hamlet’s command to the three guards?
They must swear copious amounts of times never to tell anyone what they saw that night.