Hamlet | Key Quotes Flashcards
For Hamlet, women represent frailty…
“Frailty thy name is woman”
Laertes paints a picture of women as weak and emotional…
“The woman will be out”
Women and deceit are one and the same…
“God hath given you one face and you make yourself another”
The only point in the play in which a female character acts independently of male command, she dies…
“Do not drink”
“I will my lord, I pray you pardon me”
Gertrude does little except echo Claudius’ wishes…
“I shall obey you”
It could be argued that Shakespeare presents Gertrude as part of the corruption…
“A beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer”
Hamlet criticises Polonius’ use of Ophelia as a piece of bait, and thus court corruption…
“Fishmonger” (euphemism for ‘pimp’)
How does Hamlet comedically refer to Rosencrantz & Guildenstern to degrade them for their betrayal, and thus criticise court corruption…
‘Sponges which soak up the king’s countenanace’
An example of Polonius’ possessive control of Ophelia to protect his own reputation/political image…
“Think yourself a baby”
Hamlet’s use of a demeaning pun suggesting that, through a feminist lens, he is no more a hero than Polonius/comedy is also used to reinforce Elizabethan mysogyny…
“Nothing” (Elizabethan term for female genitalia) & “It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge”
In his ‘antic disposition’, Hamlet tries to cleanse denmark of its corruption, also presenting a satirical symbol of mockery
“Lugs the guts into the neighbour room”
