Hamlet- Key Quotes Flashcards
“O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!”(Act 1, Scene 2)
Hamlet expresses his deep despair over his father’s death and his mother’s quick remarriage
“Frailty, thy name is woman!”(Act 1, Scene 2)
Hamlet laments what he perceives as his mother’s weakness and betrayal, extending his criticism to all women
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
(Act 1, Scene 4)
This line, spoken by Marcellus, reflects Hamlet’s growing suspicion and sense of moral and political corruption in Denmark
“The play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”
(Act 2, Scene 2)
Hamlet decides to use a play to reveal King Claudius’s guilt
“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!”
(Act 2, Scene 2)
Hamlet reflects on the nature of humanity, expressing his disillusionment with life
“To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause:”
(Act 3, Scene 1)
Continuing from the “To be, or not to be” soliloquy, Hamlet considers the uncertainty of the afterlife
“To be, or not to be: that is the question:”
(Act 3, Scene 1)
Hamlet contemplates the nature of existence and the merits of enduring life’s suffering versus seeking an end to it
“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.”
(Act 5, Scene 1)
Hamlet reflects on mortality and the inevitability of death while holding Yorick’s skull
“There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.”
(Act 5, Scene 2)
Hamlet acknowledges the role of fate and destiny in life and death, resigning himself to whatever comes next
