Hamlet Quotes

Question 1

Barnardo. Opening line of play evokes an uneasy atmosphere.. foreshadowing play?

Answer 1

“Who’s there?”

-1.1.1 Likely to be performed as short, staccato, monosylabic exchanges which add to nervous, gripping mood. Who is ther, watching and controlling humanity?

Question 2

Hamlet. Speaks in riddles and wordplay.

Answer 2

“A little more than kin, and less than kind.”

-1.2.65 “more than kin” highlights incestuous nature of marriage. “Less than kind” he does not even consider them the same “kind” of species due to Claudius’s actions. Shakespeare fond of puns.

Question 3

theme of corruption and disease

Answer 3

“‘tis an unweeded garden … things rank and gross in nature possess it merely.”

1.2.135

Question 4

Polonious to Ophelia

Answer 4

“Tender yourself more dearly”

-1.3.107 He is literally saying she should sell herself at the highest price. Enforces the idea that women are directly linked to monetary worth.

Question 5

Minor character with major line

Answer 5

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”

-1.4.90 Marcellus. Line refers both to the idea that the ghost is ominous omen for Denmark and the the larger theme of the connection between the moral legitamacy of a ruler and the health of the state as a whole. Ghost is a visible symptom of rottenness of Denmark created by Claudius’s crime.

Question 6

Biblical reference

Answer 6

“The serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown.”

-1.5.38 Ghost. Serpent has Biblical connotations of deception. One of the only animals in the Bible that can speak, uses it’s voice to persuade Eve to eat apple against God’s will. Snake represents Claudius persuading Gertrude to marry him and tricking Denmark about nature of Old King’s death? “Wears his crown”- power struggle?

Question 7

Hamlet’s attitude toward revenge

Answer 7

“Time is out of joint. O cursed spite,/ that ever I was born to set it right”

-1.5.35 “Time is out of joint” state of affairs in Denmark has become thoroughly dislocated, like a dislocated shoulder, due to Claudius’s action as it has disrupted the natural order of things. The caesura initiates that Hamlet must put a stop to this, then follows the lines about vengance, which indicates Hamlet’s belief that revenge is the only anwer to set Denmark right. Concept of renaissance. 1806 Harmony of the Spheres - platoic and ideal. Bible Cain and Abel - primal murder

Question 8

Why is the muder peculiar?

Answer 8

“Murder most foul…strange and unnatural”

-1.5.30 Implying muder is a violation of the natural bond of kinship (King betrayed by his brother). In the 17th century people believed God appointed the monarch, hence King’s death is also seen to be a mockery of Denmark and the prodominent religion there

Question 9

Hamlet’s reason for prolonging his revenge

Answer 9

“I’ll speak to it though Hell itself should gape/ And bid me hold my peace” and “Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn’d… from heaven or blasts from hell… intents wicked or charitable”

-1.2 and -1.4 Hamlet is quite aware that the Ghost could possibly be an evil spirit that has merely taken on the shape of his father. According to the folk theology of his time, attempting to speak to an evil spirit could conceivably damn his own soul.
Questions the ghost’s identity, morality and intentions. Protestants in Shakespeare’s audience might have regarded this talk as proof that the Ghost was a devil since they did not believe in purgatory.

Question 10

Hamlet’s internal conflict

Answer 10

“I do not set my life at a pin’s fee” “to be or not ot be…”

-1.4 and 3.1 Hamlet doe not value his life, so he will not fear following the ghost.
Soliloquy portrays constant struggle with himself over the conflicts of a terrible life compared to the enigma of death.

Question 11

Why does Hamlet question his worth in Act 2?

Answer 11

“What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, that he should weep for her?”

-2.2.511 Hamlet. He is amazed by the actor’s ability to show grief/anger for someone he has never met, indeed someone who isn’t real. This prompts Hamlet to question “Am I a coward?” because he feels that he is not avenging as the player would if the player were in Hamlet’s position.

Question 12

Rhyme in Act 2

Answer 12

“The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king”

-2.2.557 Hamlet. The arrival of the players gives Hamlet a new lease of life. Indeed, this particular soliloquy end with a rhyming couplet which could reflect Hamlets regained momentum on his quest. He wants to test Claudius’s (and Gertrude’s?) guilt.

Question 13

Play

Answer 13

“O that this is too too solid flesh would would melt,/ Thaw and resolve itself into dew

-1.2.129 Antithesis of the subtitle of the play The Prince of Denmark

Question 14

Hamlet’s rollercoaster

Answer 14

“The King doth wake tonight and takes his rouse,”

-1.4.8

Question 15

Half lines in Act 1

Answer 15

“What, has this thing appear’d again tonight?” Haratio

-1.1.2 Half lines reveal a jumpiness and tense atmosphere; the solidiers refuse to name the Ghost, but call it a “thing”.

Question 16

In contrast to the setting of darkness and death…

Answer 16

“In the same figure like the king that’s dead” Barnado

-1.1.3 …the waiting of the watch for the appearance of the Ghost is reminiscent of the sheperds waiting for the star to appear and reacting with fear and wonder. Interrupts the story Barnardo is telling - death is an interruption to the tale one’s life.

Question 17

When Horatio the scholar is implored to speak to it by the soliders…

Answer 17

“What art thou that ursurp’st this time of night… I charge thee speak”

-1.1.3 …as their weapons are ineffectual, the play’s dichotomy between words and swords, and the question of their relative strengths is introduced. The ghost’s refusal to speak on this occasion delays the moment of relevation, delay being another recurring device and theme

Question 18

Connections in Act 1

Answer 18

“The strange euption”

-1.1 microcosmically connects diseased human body with the rotten state, and the “sweaty haste” of line 77 is suggestive of sex as well as war.

Question 19

line 124 and 138

Answer 19

“Have heaven and earth together demonstrated…

-1.1.6 Heaven and earth are linked immediatley prior to an erruption from hellish pergatory, the third and lowest level, the “womb of earth”

Question 20

Cock’s crow

Answer 20

“It was about to speak when the cock crew.” Barnardo

-1.1.7 Cock crowing is not the only interruption and defelction, being a herald of dybreak “spirits must return to the dark and earthly ‘confine’), but it’s associated with the betrayal of Christ and contrasts with the wholesome image of Christmas in the speech by Marcellus follows.

Question 21

King’s speech

Answer 21

“Th’imperial jointress to the warlike state…And now, Laertes… what is’t Laertes…what would thou beg Laertes?”

-1.2 Imitating his insincerity, is the overuse of the name of his interlocutor to flatter them that they have his full attention; unnecessary repetition of Laertre’s name in particular prepares the audience for his future manipulation of him. Editor of the Arden edition saysthe name stressed four times in nine lines, is also being spotlighted as Hamlet’s foil and foe.

Question 22

Hamlet and claudius’s relationship in Act 1

Answer 22

“So excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr…with such dexterity to incestuous sheets!”

-1.2 The replacement of his father in his mother’s affection - since Hamlet identifies himself so completely with his father - is a tantamount to a rejection of Hamlet himself. Mother finds the brother interchangeable that Hamlet is forced to see them as polar opposites and to describe his father in ectreme terms of approbation.

Question 23

What does Claudius’s speech contain? Act 1

Answer 23

Contains repetition, disgression and contortion of syntax, all denoting duplicity. Hamlet can see right through this act and duel between ‘might opposities’ begins. Use formal “you”, showing there is no love lost depite their close blood relation.

Question 24

The imagery of mouths, stomachs and eating…

Answer 24

“we’ll teach you to drink deep ere you depart”

-1.2.15 …is apparent in this scene, and associated with Claudius the glutton and lecher

Question 25

Claudiu’s refernce to the “the first course” (line 105) is unconsciously ironic…

Answer 25

…since he is referring ti the slaying of Abel by his brother Cain. The first murder in history of mankind, according to the Bible, is one of fratricide. Also ironic that Claudius should lecture Hamlet on showing “a will most incorrect to heaven” (line 95) and having “an understanding simple and unschooled” (line 97).

-1.2

Question 26

Polonius in Act 1

Answer 26

“Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion’d thought his act”

-1.3 Modern audience finds Polonius’s maxims of worldly prudence sententious and tedious, a contemporary audience would have respected him. Theme of truth, memory and appearance versus reality.

Question 27

About Polonius

Answer 27

Polonius is a word-player like Hamlet, and vies with him for the role of court jester. He often takes up a word and repeats it in another sense, as he does in this scene with “tender” and “fashion.

Question 28

This scene, itself a duplication of the first scene…

Answer 28

“The dram of evil/ Doth all the noble substance often doubt/ To his own scandal”

-1.4 …and using the same delaying tactics to increase suspense, gives an opportunity for Hamlet to express his views on custom, honor, evil, and defective humanity

Question 29

Horatio’s influence in Act 1

Answer 29

“And raw you into madness? Think of it.”

-1.4 Horatio put the idea of feigning madness into Hamlet’s mind, reminding him that this was a common response to unbearable grief.

Question 30

Concluding line in Act 1

Answer 30

“Heaven will direct it” Haratio

-1.4 Ironic juxtaposition of the old and new kings and their present situation, with the reference to the revelry going on in the background. Speech cut of in Q1 and F, perhaps not to give offense to James I’s Danish queen, but it prolongs suspens to include it in full and gives the Ghost’s appearance the dramatic effect of an interruption.

Question 31

Denmark’s old King in Act 1

Answer 31

“Goodly King… old mole”

-1.4 Father’s paradoxical positioning as both high and low makes him a representative of the human race in general- “a man… all in al”. Gothic atmosphere. Theme of memory. Any bond can be broken if the prize is valuable enough - victim of fratricide.

Question 32

About the murder of the King

Answer 32

“Prision… ear… weed… custom… seeing”

-1.5 Poisoning through the ear, also provides a metaphorical parallel, may be a reference to the murder in 1538 of the Duke of Urbino, allegedly by this method.

Question 33

Hamlet’s behavior in Act 2

Answer 33

“loosed out of hell… no hat upon his head, his stockings foul’d”

-2.1 A ghost of his former self, but also that of his father’s ghost, appearing unsummoned and oddly attired.

Question 34

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Act 2

Answer 34

Indistinguishable pair of spies is a physical manifestation of duality in the play and the best evidence of Claudius’s cynical, manipulative use of relationships.

Question 35

Jephthah is a biblical paternal figure, a judge of Israel who sacrificed his daughter after depriving her of a husband, allowing her three months to bewail her virginity first…

Answer 35

“fishmonger”

-2.2 …in addressing Polonius mockingly with this name Hamlet is showing an awareness that Ophelia is in fact the victim of her father’s manipulation. The reference prefigures Ophelia’s maidenly death and makes it the more ironic that Hamlet should suspect her of the sexual promiscuity transferred from his mother.