Hamlet 1:5 Flashcards
‘My hour is almost…’
‘My hour is almost come,/ When I to sulph’rous and tormenting flames/ Must render up myself.’ - Ghost
- purgatory, needs to be purged of his sins before he can go to heaven
‘So art thou…’
‘So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.’ - Ghost
- regicide
- calls for revenge before Hamlet even knows what has happened
‘I am…’
‘I am thy father’s spirit’ - Ghost
‘Till the foul…’
‘Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature/ Are burnt and purg’d away.’ - Ghost
- purgatory, needs to be purged of his sins before he can go to heaven
‘But that I am…’
‘But that I am forbid/ To tell the secrets of my prison-house’ - Ghost
- can’t speak of the afterlife
‘If thou didst ever…’
‘If thou didst ever thy dear father love -‘ - G
‘O God!’ - H
‘Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.’ - H
- the reveal
‘May sweep to…’
‘May sweep to my revenge.’ - H
- keen, determined, will avenge his father
‘I find thee…’
‘I find thee apt’ - Ghost to Hamlet
‘sleeping in my…’
‘sleeping in my orchard,/ A serpent stung me […] The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/ Now wears his crown.’ - Ghost to H
- second part of the revelation
- the fall of man, Eden, biblical
- his uncle killed his father
‘Ay, that incestuous…’
‘Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast’ - Ghost
- talking about Claudius but, by extension, Gertrude too
echoes of Hamlet in the Ghost’s monologue
- ‘incestuous’ ‘seduce’ ‘shameful lust’ ‘lewdness’ ‘lust’
- but he glorifies Gertrude (‘shape of heaven’ ‘radiant angel’ ‘celestial bed’
‘won to his…’
‘won to his shameful lust/ The will of my most seeming virtuous queen.’ - Ghost (mon.)
- appearance vs reality
- echoes Hamlet ealier
- ‘seeming’ suggests Gertrude is not virtuous
‘Though lewdness…’
‘Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,/ So lust, though to a radiant angel link’d,/ Will sate itself in a celestial bed’ - Ghost (mon.)
- words used for Gertrude are very different to Claudius
- juxtaposition
- glorified
‘Upon my secure…’
‘Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,/ With juice of cursed hebona in a vial,/ And in the porches of my ears did pour/ The leperous distilment.’ - Ghost (mon.)
- ‘secure hour’ - carefree time
- ‘juice of cursed hebona’ - poison
- ‘porches of my ears’ - doorways
- ‘leperous distilment’ - causing skin disfigurement
‘Thus was I…’
‘Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand/ Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch’d’ - Ghost
