Act 5 Quotes Flashcards
V,1
“They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance in that.”
Hamlet
Hamlet grows more understanding of death the nearer he gets to it. Each time he ponders on death or suicide he gets a little closer to making peace with the concept of death as well as what it entails.
In this quote, Hamlet comments on how the lawyers and landiwners as well as anyone else who seeks assurance in legal documents are, to put it plainly, stupid. He has realised death comes for all and after death nothing lasts, not their nobility, legacy, greatness,.. it all fades away. Such is the nature of death.
Hamlet had begun to grapple with this idea after comitting his first murder on Polonius. He stated, “how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar”, this is his epiphany. Death is totally reductive.
V,1
“Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.”
Hamlet
His realisation of the totality of death materialises in front of him as he picks up Yorick’s skull. This deeply roots in him the indiscriminatory nature of death. He realises even The Great Alexander has been reduced to the same fate as the skull he held, just a part of clay.
This realisation neutralises death as well as fate for him, he realises he is not more significant than anyone else, especially after having his wits matched by a vulgar, knavish gravedigger.
V,1
“I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers
Could not with all their quantity of love
Make up my sum.”
Hamlet
Heartbreaking dialogue, but also perhaps proof of their continued relationship. Hamlet probably cannot conceive the fact that he played a big role in the death of Opheila, by using her and seemingly abandoning her. He speaks defensively, a man with the blood of his love on his hands. This quote is him coping, this is more clearly defined when he states, “To outface me with leaping in her grave?
Be buried quick with her?”. Making grief a competition rather than even attempting to grieve along with Laertes is proof of his guilt. By out grieving Laertes he attempts to prove his love and innocence for Ophelia.
V,2
“Rashly—
And praised be rashness for it: let us know
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well
When our deep plots do pall”
Hamlet
Generally this would come off extremely ironic for Hamlet to be uttering these words, and it is. But, it does show us the effect of witnessing Fortinbras’ army which had wounded his ego so deeply as well as understood the paradoxical nature (futility/importance) of honor. In his soliloquy in Act IV, Scene 4; “My thoughts be bloody, or nothing worth”. The audience may have snickered here, his repititive failure to keep his promises are getting old. But this statement I would wager, was not redundant. It was this very scene, this closeness to death which allowed him to value his life and take charge on the ship.
V,2
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends”
Hamlet
Perhaps his uncharacteristic rashness, the deus ex machina (pirates), and everything ultimately working out for him is what ultimately makes him internalise the concepts of fate and destiny. A deus ex machina is certainly a divine intervention by the author, the author has set their destinies and actions in stone, or atleast paper. I believe by drawing attention to the deus ex machina, Shakespeare becomes even more meta and toys with yet another technical aspect/device of plays.
Shakespeare had sealed their fates, Hamlet’s fate before he even begun to write the play, we can assume and Hamlet knows that. He was not meant to die off screen by the king of england, that would be anticlimatic. He was meant to die in the ultimate scene of suffering.
V,2
“There’s a special
providence in the fall of a sparrow.”
Hamlet
He believes that God has laid out every single detail even the minute ones thoughtfully. He defies augury because of his new found internalisation of fate and destiny. What is to occur will. Perhaps this new found drive to jump into action or be reckless stems from his experience with the deus ex machina. Yet he stays true to his nature and goes with the flow as well. His character has reached a philosophical equilibrium, he is ready to die.
For the first time in the play, he finds a sense of acceptance and peace in the face of overwhelming circumstances.
V,2
“Was ’t Hamlet wronged Laertes? Never Hamlet.”
Hamlet
These are certainly the words of a new, mature Hamlet, who can empathise and understand Laertes’ emotional state. He genuinely feels bad and has experienced alot of guilt after his murder of Polonius.
He asks for forgiveness sincerely but this begs the question to the audience, is sincerity of an apology enough to forgive such a permanent and irreversible deed? Is it fair to judge only the sin and not the hand of the sinner? A famous line from from the infamous Anglo from Measure for Measure expresses this sentiment quite accurately, “Condemn the fault and not the actor of it?”.
Let us try to understand Shakespeare’s perspective on this topic: the quote above is from the antagonist of the play so even if he makes sense it is possible that it should be taken somewhat negatively. Here in the play, Hamlet uses his pretend madness as the scapegoat for his faults. This is the insincerity, instead of taking responsibility or the blame he chooses to deride the whole murder on a mocked up problem. Despite this, as a protagonist his statement is made to make him more likeable to the audience. Perhaps Shakespeare supports such a narrative. Sinning blemishes the soul, but perhaps the soul can be purged of its blemishes by repenting.
Also another thing, Hamlet’s insincere apology is similar to Claudius’s insincere attempt at repenting his sins. They both benefit from keeping up their farce thus, neither are willing to truly purify their blemished souls.
V,2
“The point envenomed too!—Then, venom, to thy work.”
Hamlet
Hamlet is able to truly act when he is freed of all the consequences. His death is imminent, nothing else matters and certainly not his legacy. All he can do is exact his revenge and his arc is complete. Perhaps even if he kept on living, he would be a dead man walking, with the point of philosophical equilibrium, the loss of his family, his girlfriend, and her respected brother, Hamlet would have very little will to live on. Perhaps he would succumb to his suicidal ideation regardless.
In short, his death ties up every loose end unfortunately. Hamlet is the epitome of a tragic character, a man doomed from the start. His ideas of fate were true; if not today, then tomorrow.
V,2
“O God, Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!”
Hamlet
I’ll bet that he does not actually care that much for his ‘wounded’ name since we have alot of evidence that he has internalised a more socially democratic view of people due to the universality of death and its consequences and the merit or lack thereof among the working classes versus the nobles respectively.
I think Hamlet tells Horatio to live on simply because he loves him and even if he dies he wants to live out his last moments being assured that his one true friend gets to live. And this perhaps hints that Horatio still has room to grow, perhaps rather than a stoicist he would grow to laugh when happy and cry when sad instead of regulating his emotions on excess balance. Hamlet’s epiphany was not of stoicism but that fate holds purposeful destinies for all, death is universal, and merit makes the man.
