Hamlet - Quotes

Question 1

Hamlet expresses his extreme grief

Answer 1

But I have that within which passes show; these but the trappings and the suits of woe

Question 2

Hamlet comments on his relationship with Claudius A1S2

Answer 2

A little more than kin, and less than kind

Question 3

Hamlet’s first soliloquy - expresses desire to die

Answer 3

O! That this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew

Question 4

Hamlet comments on marriage of Claudius and Gertrude

Answer 4

O! Most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not, nor it cannot come to good

The funeral bak’d meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables

Question 5

Concerns for Denmark are evident after the ghost’s appearance

Answer 5

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

Question 6

Ghosts message to Hamlet

Answer 6

Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder

Question 7

Hamlet curses his fate to seek revenge

Answer 7

O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right!

Question 8

Ophelia’s harrowing description of hamlet’s physical appearance

Answer 8

Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbrac’d; no hat upon his head

And with a look so piteous in purport as if he had been loosed out of hell to speak of horrors

He seemed to find his way without his eyes

Question 9

Claudius & Gertrude description of hamlet’s madness

Answer 9

C: hamlet’s transformation

G: my too much changed son

Question 10

Polonius questions Hamlet’s madness

Answer 10

Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t

Question 11

Hamlet reveals his ‘occasional’ madness

Answer 11

I am mad but north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw

Question 12

Hamlet’s plan to kill the King

Answer 12

The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King

Question 13

Hamlet is revealed as an existential thinker

Answer 13

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?

Question 14

Hamlet’s hateful comment to Ophelia

Answer 14

Get thee to a nunnery

Breeder of sinners

Question 15

Ophelia mourns her relationship with Hamlet

Answer 15

O! Woe is me, to have seen what I have seen, see what I see

Question 16

The King expresses his fear over what hamlet’s madness could mean for him

Answer 16

Madness in great ones must not unwatch’d go

Question 17

Hamlet commits to taking action now he has proof

Answer 17

Now l could drink hot blood, and do such bitter business as the day would quake to look on

Let me be cruel, not unnatural; I will speak daggers to her, but use none (about Gertrude)

From this time forth, my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth

Question 18

Hamlet to Polonius after he murders him

Answer 18

Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool

Question 19

Hamlet acknowledges his sanity to Gertrude

Answer 19

That I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft

It is not madness that I have utter’d

Question 20

Claudius explains his plan to kill Hamlet

Answer 20

By letters conjuring to that effect, the present death of Hamlet. Do it, England; for like the hectic in my blood he rages, and thou must cure me

Question 21

In a soliloquy, Hamlet tries to motivate himself, he doesn’t understand his procrastination as he has ample motive

Answer 21

How stand I then, that have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d, excitements of my reason and my blood, and let all sleep

O! From this time forth, my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

Question 22

Death of Ophelia

Answer 22

As one incapable of her own distress

Her death was doubtful (-Priest at funeral)

Question 23

Hamlet’s statement before killing Claudius

Answer 23

He that hath kill’d my king and whor’d my mother

Question 24

Hamlet acknowledges his madness as the reason for his fatal actions

Answer 24

Who does it then? His madness

His madness is poor hamlet’s enemy

Question 25

The opening question

Answer 25

Who’s there?

• Bernardo

Question 26

Hamlet promises to act with haste when carrying out his revenge

Answer 26

With wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love

Question 27

Hamlet’s obsessive introspection thwarts his revenge plans

Answer 27

Thinking too precisely on th’ event

Am I a coward?
(Hamlet asks himself)

Question 28

Hamlet acknowledges the ghost is not a reliable source

Answer 28

The spirit that I have seen may be a devil

Question 29

After the play, Hamlet prepares to act

Answer 29

From this time forth, my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth

Question 30

Hamlet justifies not killing Claudius during the Prayer Scene

Answer 30

That his soul may be as damn and black as hell whereto it goes

Question 31

The logical reasons why Hamlet should kill Claudius

Answer 31

He that hath kill’d my king and whor’d my mother

Question 32

Hamlet seizes his chance at revenge in the final scene

Answer 32

Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, drink of this potion

Question 33

Hamlet admits his selective madness

Answer 33

I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft
(To Gertrude)

I am but mad north-north-west
(To R&G)

Question 34

Gertrude is seen as dependent on old hamlet

Answer 34

She would hang on him as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on

Question 35

Hamlets general criticism of women

Answer 35

God hath given you one face and you make yourselves another

Question 36

Hamlets advice to Ophelia (Nunnery Scene)

Answer 36

Get thee to a nunnery

Why wouls’t thou be a breeder of sinners?

Marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them

Question 37

Laertes at Ophelia’s graveside

Answer 37

From her fair and unpolluted flesh may violets spring

Rose of May