Hamlet 1.3-1.4

1. Laertes tells Ophelia to not get caught up in Hamlet's confessions of love because Hamlet is using Ophelia and if she gives in to him she will be ruined and bring shame on herself and her family.

2. This fits the concept of the decaying garden because it's comparing women to the garden and the canker to sex. Sex means being ruined. By calling the women "infants" it implies that they are innocent. After the canker comes to the flowers, or after the women lose their virginity, they are ruined forever.

3. She tells him that she knows what he does in France, so he should quit preaching. She means that he needs to quit being a hypocrite and take his own advice, because he's fooling around with women himself.

4. Keep your thoughts to yourself and don't share them because it will turn out badly. Keep your judgments to yourself but listen to what others think. Don't borrow money or lend money. Figure out who your real friends are and keep them. To thine own self be true.

5. "Think yourself a baby that you have ta'en these tender for true pay...you'll tender me a fool." Polonius is trying to say that Ophelia is being naive, as if she were a child, because she believes Hamlet's love is pure and true, when Polonius believes it is not.

6. "As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, disasters in the sun" What is trying to be said in this metaphor is that catastrophe will come soon. This is a foreshadow to the fall of Denmark, which represents the fall of mankind. Fire could represent a war, while blood implies that the war will be extremely bloody and gory.

7. He commands her to stop seeing Hamlet.

8. He is speaking mostly about the reputation of the castle and of Denmark. He says the people in the castle are known for partying and drinking and that it is lessening the value of their achievements because all people see is their bad reputation.

9. Horatio believes the ghost may not be peaceful and if Hamlet follows him the ghost will work his way into Hamlet's head and eventually convince him to commit suicide.

10. He tells them to stay where they are and not follow him to see the ghost.