Action / Inaction Flashcards
Hamlet gets serious in discussion wit his courtiers and why they have come to Elsinore
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
Hamlets plan to expose his father
“The play’s the thing,
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”
Hamlet is restrained by Horatio and Marcellus , determined to follow ghost
“Unhand me gentlemen. By heaven , i’ll make a ghost of him that let’s me!”
Claudius hints at Hamlets future action of murdering his family
“And where the offense is let the great axe fall”
Hamlets inner conflict with deciding whether to take his life or suffer
“To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?”
Polonius’ advice to Laertes , urging him not to put cruel thoughts to action
“Give thy thoughts no tongue”
Hamlet decides not to kill Claudius , would send him to heaven , late father did not get chance to ask forgiveness
“A villain kills my father, and, for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.
Oh, this is hire and salary, not revenge.”
Hamlet rambles on of the inaction of Claudius , who in contrast tot he old king lays around drunk without action at his career change
“The king doth wake tonight and takes his rouse,
Keeps wassail and the swaggering upspring reels,
And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
The triumph of his pledge.”
