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English > Hamlet Quotes > Flashcards

Hamlet Quotes Flashcards

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Proverbs and Idioms flashcards
1
Q

“What art thou that usurp’st this time of night Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march?”

A
  • Horatio to Ghost 1.1
  • Ghost dressed in armour, prepared for war, foreshadows conflict to come, unfinished business.
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2
Q

“This bodes some strange eruption to our state”

A
  • Marcellus 1.1
  • Foreshadowing corruption to come, nature reflects state of Denmark, imagery of corruption in form of volcano or disease.
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3
Q

“Now sir, young Fortinbras Of unimproved mettle hot and full”

A
  • Horatio about Fortinbras 1.1
  • Fortinbras antithesis of Hamlet- untamed and passionate.
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4
Q

“And even like the precurse of feared events As harbingers precoding still fates And prologue to the omen coming on, Have heaven and earth together demonstated Unto our climatures and country men.
[Enter Ghost]”

A
  • Horatio 1.1
  • Nature foreshadowing destruction and corruption, semantic field of warnings, dramatic effect causes audiences to believe the ghost has something to do with corruption.
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5
Q

“Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe”

A
  • Claudius to the court 1.2
  • Presents himself as honourable, royal address, unity, come together to mourn.
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6
Q

“young Fortinbras Holding a weak supposal of our worth, Or thinking by our late dear brother’s death Our state to be disjointed out of frame Colleagued with this dream of his advantage”

A
  • Claudius about Fortinbras 1.2
  • Fortinbras assuming Denmark is weak or fragile due to King Hamlet’s death, tries to invade, only ally is his dreams/ ambition.
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7
Q

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

A
  • Hamlet about Claudius 1.2
  • Negative/ distant relationship, commenting on confusing status, juxtaposition.
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8
Q

“Good Hamlet, cast they nighted colour off And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark”

A
  • Gertrude to Hamlet 1.2
  • Telling him to take off black attire/ stop grieving, accept Claudius as king and support him.
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9
Q

“but to persevere In obstinate condolement is a course Of impious subborness, ‘tis unmanly grief”

A
  • Claudius to Hamlet 1.2
  • Shaming him for his grief, suggesting it is disrespectful
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10
Q

“O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!”

A
  • Hamlet 1.2 (soliloquy)
  • Angry with himself and the world, would rather not exist than suffer, water imagery = feminine fluidity/ emotion.
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11
Q

“tis an unweeded garden That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely”

A
  • Hamlet 1.2
  • Denmark corrupted by Claudius (revealed later), growing out of control, chaos, anarchy
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12
Q

“So excellent a king; that was, to this Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother, That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly.

A
  • Hamlet 1.2
  • Claudius incomparable to Old Hamlet, not honourable or a good man, lecherous and sexual, comparing a divine God to a half man half goat creature.
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13
Q

“Let me not think on’t - Frailty, thy name is woman! - A little month; or ere those shoes were old With which she followed my poor father’s body Like Niobe all tears”

A
  • Hamlet about Gertrude 1.2
  • Comparing women to ‘frailty’, misogyny, Niobe boasted of her 12 children who were then killed as revenge, cried and turned to stone, Gertrude’s tears are meaningless to Hamlet, betrayal.
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14
Q

“My father’s brother; but no more like my father Than I to Hercules”

A
  • Hamlet about Claudius 1.2
  • Claudius is nothing like Old Hamlet- compares himself to Hercules to justify this- Old Hamlet strong and loyal, Claudius week and dishonourable.
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15
Q

“O, most wicked speed to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!”

A
  • Hamlet about the marriage
  • Gertrude’s actions are evil in their hate, wasted no time to enter into a relationship with her brother in law- incestuous.
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16
Q

“The funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage table”

A
  • Hamlet about the marriage 1.2
  • The food from the funeral was still fresh at the wedding, metaphorically suggesting little time had passed.
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17
Q

“Fear it Ophelia, fear it my dear sister, And keep you in the rear of your affection, Out of shot and danger of desire”

A
  • Laertes to Ophelia 1.3
  • Emphasising potential danger Hamlet may pose to her, military metaphor- Ophelia must stay away from the danger of pursuing desire.
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18
Q

“The canker galls the infants of the spring Too oft before their buttons be disclosed”

A
  • Laertes to Ophelia 1.3
  • Motif of corruption, innocence and purity poisoned by disease and corruption - Hamlet would ruin her before she had the chance to blossom.
19
Q

“Do not as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorn way to heaven, While like a puffed and reckless libertine Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks his own reed”

A
  • Ophelia to Laertes 1.3
  • She tells him to stop being a hypocrite, does not practice what he preaches instead choosing the easy route of flirtation and seduction.
20
Q

“Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar”

A
  • Polonius to Laertes 1.3
  • Ironic, we find out that Polonius is overtly nosy and over-involved, hypocritical
21
Q

“My lord he hath importuned me with love In honourable fashion”

A
  • Ophelia about Hamlet to Polonius 1.3
  • Hamlet has been respectful and honourable toward her - he truly loves her.
22
Q

“Ay, springes to catch wood cocks. I do know When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows”

A
  • Polonius to Ophelia 1.3
  • He believes Hamlet is trying to trick and manipulate her by using the metaphor of prey and traps, when aroused things aren’t meant or honest
23
Q

“Angels and ministers of grace defend us. Be thou a spirit of health or of goblin damned, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from Hell”

A
  • Hamlet to the Ghost 1.4
  • Oxymorons/ juxtaposition, uncertain whether he can trust the ghost or not- symbol of corruption and chaos.
24
Q

“but tell, Why thy canoniseed bones, hearsed in death Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre Wherein we saw thee quietly interred Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws, To cast thee up again.”

A
  • Hamlet to the Ghost 1.4
  • Personification - he has risen from death, risen after being respectfully buried, sound devices.
25
Q

“I do not set my life at a pins fee”

A
  • Hamlet 1.4
  • His life is worth less to him than knowledge/ what his father has to say (clarity), life is not worth living without being able to move on- foreshadows death.
26
Q

“What if it tempt you toward the flood my lord, And there assume some other horrible form Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason And draw you into madness?”

A
  • Horatio to Hamlet 1.4
  • The ghost could corrupt Hamlet and lead him to madness- link to ‘mad as the sea’, Ghosts feared in society, Horatio ideal wise and caring man.
27
Q

“Haste me to know’t, that I with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep my revenge”

A
  • Hamlet to the ghost 1.5
  • Determination, desperate to avenge his father, semantic field of peace/ relaxation opposes the violence, revenge unnatural but may bring peace to him.
28
Q

“A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused”

A
  • Ghost to Hamlet 1.5
  • Allusion to the Bible, corruption in Denmark a result of sin, the court is being deceived/ manipulated.
29
Q

“won to his shameful lust The will of my most seeming-virtuous Queen”

A
  • Ghost about Gertrude 1.5
  • Claudius corrupted Gertrude, her morality is ambiguous/ unknown, was she deceived or part of the plot? Link to Branagh affair interpretation.
30
Q

“Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole and With juice of cursed Herbona in a vial, And in the porches of my ear did pour The leperous distilment”

A
  • Ghost about Claudius 1.5
  • Claudius like a criminal/ thief stealing life, poured poison in ear, corruption/ disease.
31
Q

“As I perchance hereafter shall think meet, To put an antic disposition on”

A
  • Hamlet 1.5
  • Vows to put on a mad act to try to catch out Claudius and his schemes.
32
Q

“Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth”

A
  • Polonius to Reynaldo 2.1
  • Use deception to catch and find out the truth, metaphor of fishing highlights how everything for gain/power/control
33
Q

“Lord Hamlet with his doublet all unbraced, No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled… Comes before me”

A
  • Ophelia to Polonius about Hamlet 2.1
  • Hamlet disheveled, antic disposition physically represented, dramatic irony
34
Q

“For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, bring a good kissing carrion”

A
  • Hamlet to Polonius 2.2
  • Sun was thought to breed maggots in dead flesh, uses a pun to suggest that if the daughter is kissed she may breed.
35
Q

“[Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t”

A
  • Polonius about Hamlet 2.2
  • Notices that the madness may be falsified, dramatic irony
36
Q

“this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why it appears no other thing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours”

A
  • Hamlet 2.2
  • Nature is disrupted/ corrupt, stars represent fate, Denmark’s fate is uncertain/ negative
37
Q

“I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw”

A
  • Hamlet 2.2
  • Only mad sometimes, link to ‘antic disposition’, madness falsified, confusing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with riddles, knows their are loyal to Claudius.
38
Q

“O what a rogue and peasant slave am I!”

A
  • Hamlet 2.2
  • Angry with himself for not taking action, ‘slave’ suggests he is disobedient and disrespecting toward his father’s commands.
39
Q

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

A
  • Hamlet 2.2
  • Questioning how the players can act with such passion and rage when he can’t with a true reason.
40
Q

“A dull and muddle-mettled rascal, peak, Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause”

A
  • Hamlet 2.2
  • Lacks motivation or spirit, inspiration/ passion has faded, all her does is procrastinate and delay the revenge/ duty.
41
Q

“I am pigeon-livered and lack gall To make oppression bitter, or ere this I should have fatted all the region kites With this slave’s offal”

A
  • Hamlet 2.2
  • Lacks passion or motivation for duty, uses gruesome imagery to reveal how he should’ve brutally slaughtered Claudius immediately, ‘slave’ references devil.
42
Q

“Bloody, bawdy villain, Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!”

A
  • Hamlet 2.2
  • Sees Claudius as malevolent/ devilish, actions are unnatural/ evil, sibilance mimics rage.
43
Q

“I’ll have these players Play something like the murder of my father Before mine uncle; I’ll observe his looks”

A
  • Hamlet 2.2
  • Finally plotting the revenge, moral conscience stopping him prom acting, requires evidence to be able to move forward.

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