Hamlet Quotes Flashcards
“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?”
- Horatio to Ghost 1.1
- Ghost dressed in armour, prepared for war, foreshadows conflict to come, unfinished business.
“This bodes some strange eruption to our state”
- Marcellus 1.1
- Foreshadowing corruption to come, nature reflects state of Denmark, imagery of corruption in form of volcano or disease.
“Now sir, young Fortinbras Of unimproved mettle hot and full”
- Horatio about Fortinbras 1.1
- Fortinbras antithesis of Hamlet- untamed and passionate.
“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]”
- 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.
“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”
- Claudius to the court 1.2
- Presents himself as honourable, royal address, unity, come together to mourn.
“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”
- 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.
“(Aside) A little more than kin, and less than kind.”
- Hamlet about Claudius 1.2
- Negative/ distant relationship, commenting on confusing status, juxtaposition.
“Good Hamlet, cast they nighted colour off And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark”
- Gertrude to Hamlet 1.2
- Telling him to take off black attire/ stop grieving, accept Claudius as king and support him.
“but to persevere In obstinate condolement is a course Of impious subborness, ‘tis unmanly grief”
- Claudius to Hamlet 1.2
- Shaming him for his grief, suggesting it is disrespectful
“O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!”
- Hamlet 1.2 (soliloquy)
- Angry with himself and the world, would rather not exist than suffer, water imagery = feminine fluidity/ emotion.
“tis an unweeded garden That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely”
- Hamlet 1.2
- Denmark corrupted by Claudius (revealed later), growing out of control, chaos, anarchy
“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.
- 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.
“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”
- 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.
“My father’s brother; but no more like my father Than I to Hercules”
- 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.
“O, most wicked speed to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!”
- 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.
“The funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage table”
- Hamlet about the marriage 1.2
- The food from the funeral was still fresh at the wedding, metaphorically suggesting little time had passed.
“Fear it Ophelia, fear it my dear sister, And keep you in the rear of your affection, Out of shot and danger of desire”
- 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.
“The canker galls the infants of the spring Too oft before their buttons be disclosed”
- 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.
“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”
- 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.
“Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar”
- Polonius to Laertes 1.3
- Ironic, we find out that Polonius is overtly nosy and over-involved, hypocritical
“My lord he hath importuned me with love In honourable fashion”
- Ophelia about Hamlet to Polonius 1.3
- Hamlet has been respectful and honourable toward her - he truly loves her.
“Ay, springes to catch wood cocks. I do know When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows”
- 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
“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”
- Hamlet to the Ghost 1.4
- Oxymorons/ juxtaposition, uncertain whether he can trust the ghost or not- symbol of corruption and chaos.
“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.”
- Hamlet to the Ghost 1.4
- Personification - he has risen from death, risen after being respectfully buried, sound devices.
“I do not set my life at a pins fee”
- 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.
“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?”
- 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.
“Haste me to know’t, that I with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep my revenge”
- 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.
“A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused”
- Ghost to Hamlet 1.5
- Allusion to the Bible, corruption in Denmark a result of sin, the court is being deceived/ manipulated.
“won to his shameful lust The will of my most seeming-virtuous Queen”
- 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.
“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”
- Ghost about Claudius 1.5
- Claudius like a criminal/ thief stealing life, poured poison in ear, corruption/ disease.
“As I perchance hereafter shall think meet, To put an antic disposition on”
- Hamlet 1.5
- Vows to put on a mad act to try to catch out Claudius and his schemes.
“Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth”
- Polonius to Reynaldo 2.1
- Use deception to catch and find out the truth, metaphor of fishing highlights how everything for gain/power/control
“Lord Hamlet with his doublet all unbraced, No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled… Comes before me”
- Ophelia to Polonius about Hamlet 2.1
- Hamlet disheveled, antic disposition physically represented, dramatic irony
“For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, bring a good kissing carrion”
- 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.
“[Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t”
- Polonius about Hamlet 2.2
- Notices that the madness may be falsified, dramatic irony
“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”
- Hamlet 2.2
- Nature is disrupted/ corrupt, stars represent fate, Denmark’s fate is uncertain/ negative
“I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw”
- Hamlet 2.2
- Only mad sometimes, link to ‘antic disposition’, madness falsified, confusing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with riddles, knows their are loyal to Claudius.
“O what a rogue and peasant slave am I!”
- Hamlet 2.2
- Angry with himself for not taking action, ‘slave’ suggests he is disobedient and disrespecting toward his father’s commands.
“What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba That he should weep for her?”
- Hamlet 2.2
- Questioning how the players can act with such passion and rage when he can’t with a true reason.
“A dull and muddle-mettled rascal, peak, Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause”
- Hamlet 2.2
- Lacks motivation or spirit, inspiration/ passion has faded, all her does is procrastinate and delay the revenge/ duty.
“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”
- 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.
“Bloody, bawdy villain, Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!”
- Hamlet 2.2
- Sees Claudius as malevolent/ devilish, actions are unnatural/ evil, sibilance mimics rage.
“I’ll have these players Play something like the murder of my father Before mine uncle; I’ll observe his looks”
- Hamlet 2.2
- Finally plotting the revenge, moral conscience stopping him prom acting, requires evidence to be able to move forward.
“The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil, and the devil hath power
T’assume as pleasing shape.”
- Hamlet 2.2
- Claudius could be the devil- malevolent.
- Devil using him to corrupt Denmark.
“the play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King”
- Hamlet 2.2
- Commits to his plot- relying on the play to end his moral struggle.
“I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams”
- Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern 2.2
- Hamlet’s unstable mental state limits his ambition/ motivation.
- Restricted by his moral dilemma when he has the power to do anything.
“And yet to me , what is this quintessence of dust?”
- Hamlet 2.2
- World is worthless to him- no value for his life anymore. All that remains of the beauty in life is dust.
- Corruption has destroyed Denmark.
“the son of a dear father murder’d,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words”
- Hamlet 2.2
- Revenge is his duty to his father and God- not fulfilling purpose.
- All he does is quarrel with his morality and limit himself- immasculation.
“For murder though it have no tongue, will speak me with most miraculous organ”
- Hamlet 2.2
- Murderers rarely confess, but the action hangs on the conscious- burdensome.
- Guilt easy to spot on the face.
“Her father and myself, lawful espials, Will bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen, We may of their encounter frankly judge.”
- Claudius about his plan 3.1
- Plotting to spy on their children to find out the cause of Hamlet’s madness.
- Ironic- prime example of corruption/ deception.
“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?”
- Hamlet 3.1
- Questions whether it is easier to face his fears/ doubts and kill Claudius, or to end his own life from the guilt of not avenging his father.
- Let fate happen or take action.
“To die, to sleep-
To sleep, perchance a dream, ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coin
Must give us pause”
- Hamlet 3.1
- Sleep allows for nightmares- death can stop all hardship, making time for relaxation and easiness.
- Death is an easy way out.
“there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life”
- Hamlet 3.1
- Must endure suffering as what comes after is uncertain.
- People fear the afterlife so don’t rush to it.
“But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourne
No traveller returns”
- Hamlet 3.1
- Fear of the afterlife/ what happens after death.
- Anything could happen so it’s easier to live than to die.
“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all”
- Hamlet 3.1
- Our own fate terrifies us.
- The thought of going to the uncertain afterlife is terrifying to humans.
“Get thee to a nunnery, why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?”
- Hamlet to Ophelia 3.1
- Commanding her to protect her chastity by being celibate- humans are sinners. Misogyny/ objectification.
“I am myself indifferent honest,
but yet I could accuse me of such things, that it were better my mother had not borne me.”
- Hamlet to Ophelia 3.1
- Believes he is somewhat virtuous but has committed many unholy acts.
- Thinks he should not even be alive with some of the things he has done.
“be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny”
- Hamlet to Ophelia 3.1
- Imagery of winter/ white- purity and innocence.
- Remain pure to escape people’s slander- marrying Hamlet will lead to shame.
“marry a fool for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them”
- Hamlet to Ophelia 3.1
- Intelligent men see how their wives deceive them- misogyny.
- Commenting on Gertrude- Old Hamlet did not see how she could betray him.
“Go to, I’ll no more on’t, it hath made me mad.”
- Hamlet to Ophelia 3.1
- Women make him mad- Ophelia and Gertrude- misogyny.
- Blaming women for his own faults.
“There is something in his soul
O’er which his melancholy sits on brood.”
- Claudius 3.1
- Something else is bothering Hamlet- unable to shed his sadness after his father’s death.
“I will speak daggers to her, but use none”
- Hamlet about Gertrude 3.2
- Vows not to hurt her but verbally punish her. Cut into her soul.
“you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O it offends me to the soul, to he a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters”
- Hamlet to the players 3.2
- Regulate their emotions and don’t be too dramatic as it may ruin the effect and believability of the action.
“If his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen.”
- Hamlet to Horatio 3.2
- If Claudius doesn’t show any emotion toward the play that may suggest distress, the ghost lied to Hamlet and falsified its murder.
“For ‘tis a question left us yet to prove,
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.”
- Player King 3.2
- Questions if fate is predetermined or if our actions can influence our future.
“Your majesty and we that have free souls, it touches us not.”
- Hamlet to Claudius 3.2
- Those who have a clean conscience will be unaffected by the play and the sins depicted within it.
“O my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t, A brother’s murder”
- Claudius 3.3
- Admits his guilt to the audience for the first time.
- Actions affect his position in after life- corruption imagery- disease visible to God.
- Curse = Cain cursed by God for killing Abel.
“What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow?”
- Claudius 3.3
- Action too sinful to find salvation for it. He is too guilty to be forgiven by God.
- Imagery of water = purity.
” I am still possessed
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition and my Queen.
May one be pardoned and retain the offence?”
- Claudius 3.3
- He still has the gains of his murder, so cannot repent.
- Shows he greed as he wants to keep the rewards but repent for the sins.
“But ‘tis not so above;
There is no shuffling, the the action lies
In his true nature”
- Claudius 3.3
- Heaven/ God see actions as they are- upon judgement Claudius cannot deceive or manipulate and will pay for his sins.
“O wretched state, o bosom black as death”
- Claudius 3.3
- His mental state is dangerous and fragile due to how dark and corrupted his soul is.
“this is hire and salary, not revenge”
- Hamlet 3.3
- Killing Claudius while he is praying would reward him with Heaven.
- To enact the revenge he needs to ensure he will be punished and suffer.
“You got not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the in most part of you”
- Hamlet to Gertrude 3.4
- Hamlet vows to confront her on her actions.
- Glass = mirror- show her her had deeds and sins.
“Thou wretched rash, intruding fool, farewell.”
- Hamlet to Polonius 3.4
- Imagery of disease/ corruption spreading. Polonius dies in a way fit for him- foolish.
“Such an act…
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there.”
- Hamlet to Gertrude 3.4
- Imagery of disease and corruption.
- Gertrude allowing Claudius’ corruption to spread.
- Honourable leader replaced with manipulator- Body Politic.
“Thou turns’t mine eyes into my very soul
And there I see such black and grained spots”
- Gertrude to Hamlet 3.4
- He has shown her her sins/ ill choices when she didn’t want to look or admit to them.
- Corruption- vision blurred/ damaged- her actions have added to the corruption.
“Alas how is’t with you,
That you bend your eye on vacancy
And with th’ incorporal air do hold discourse?”
- Gertrude to Hamlet 3.4
- She can’t see the ghost (DE)
- Appearing mad as he is talking to nothing but air.
“And do not spread the compost on the weeds
To make them ranker”
- Hamlet to Gertrude 3.4
- She allows Claudius’ corruption to spread by validating and supporting him in front of the court and by loving him- link to 1.2.
“I essentially am not in madness But mad in craft.”
- Hamlet to Gertrude 3.4
- His madness is a facade ‘antic disposition’- idea of theatre/ acting.
- using madness to get to the truth.
“For ‘tis the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his own petard”
- Hamlet 3.4
- Plans to undercut Claudius’ own plan with his own.
- Using his plan against him with the metaphor of a bomb.
“Mad as the sea and wind when both contend
Which is mightier.”
- Gertrude 4.1
- Loyal to Hamlet- pretending that Hamlet is mad and insane to deceive Claudius and help undercut his plan.
- Idea of danger/ storms- madness, chaos.
“Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrained and out of haunt
This mad young man”
- Claudius 4.1
- It was their responsibility to ensure Hamlet was looked after and didn’t go mad, but they gave him too much freedom.
- They will be blamed for his actions if he isn’t.
“this vile deed
We must with all our majesty and skill,
Both countenance and excuse.”
- Claudius 4.1
- To protect the court, he must force Hamlet to take responsibility for his actions.
- Shows effective leadership- immediately taking action.
“Transports his poisoned show, may miss our name”
- Claudius 4.1
- He is trying to avoid the blame at all costs and will do anything to protect himself.
“to be demanded of a sponge…that soaks up the King’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities.”
- Hamlet to R&G 4.2
- Hamlet does not trust them, acknowledging that they are only loyal to the King as he rewards them.
“a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear”
- Hamlet 4.2
- R&G are too stupid to understand his riddles and jokes. His references do not pass through their ears.
“He’s loved of the distracted multitude
Who like not in their judgement, but their eyes,
And where ‘tis so, th’ offenders scourge is weighed”
- Claudius 4.3
- Hamlet is loved by the public who see him as innocent and princely.
- Claudius is very well informed politically, maintaining a great deal of control over his court.
- The public ignore Hamlet’s misdemeanours.
“we fat ourselves for maggots; your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table - that’s the end”
- Hamlet 4.3
- Commentary on the circle of life- we fatten ourselves only to be eaten by maggots in death.
- In death everyone is equal.
“Till I know ‘tis done,
Howe’er my haps, my joys were ne’er begun.”
- Claudius 4.3
- Until Hamlet is dead, he cannot rest. Hamlet threatens his control/ power and causes him to experience guilt.
- Sign of a good leader? Acts quickly and ensures things get done.
“How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge!”
- Hamlet 4.4
- Finally motivated to avenge his father when he sees how easily Fortinbras takes action.
“What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed?”
- Hamlet 4.4
- Refuses to fall himself a man if he fails to take action and avenge his father. ‘Man’ associated with strength and power but he is opposing that.
“whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking to precisely on the event”
- Hamlet 4.4
- Questions why he delays- he doesn’t know if he is stupid or thinking way too deeply about the revenge.
- Trying to justify his delay/ hesitation in avenging his father.
“A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward”
- Hamlet 4.4
- Suggests that his cowardice overpowers his motivation and intentions. Not strong enough to overcome his fears and anxieties.
“The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds.”
- Hamlet 4.4
- Compares the brave soldiers going to war like a daily job/ action.
“O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be blood, or be nothing worth!”
- Hamlet 4.4
- Finally resolves to take action- dramatic effect as audiences question if he actually will.
“Her speech is nothing,
Yet the unshaped use of it doth move The hearers to collection”
- Gentleman 4.5
- Ophelia’s speech is meaningless and discombobulated, but people who hear her want to try to figure out what she is saying.
“To my sick soul, as sin’s true nature is, Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss.”
- Gertrude about Ophelia 4.5
- The things she say often eventually come true.
“[Sings] Landed all with sweet flowers,
Which bewept to the grave did not go
With true love showers”
- Ophelia 4.5
- Singing = dramatic effect- madness.
- Commenting on the cover up of Polonius’ death- not mourned.
- ‘True love showers’ = tears
“O rose of may,
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia-
O heavens, is’t possible a young maid’s wits
Should be as mortal as an old mans life!”
- Laertes to Ophelia 4.5
- Her fathers death has resulted in Ophelia entirely loosing her mind.
- Ophelia’s description extremely pure and innocent, corrupted with her father’s death.
- Laertes shows his affection for her.
“There’s a daisy, I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died”
- Ophelia to Claudius 4.5
- ‘Daisy’ - inconstant love
- ‘Violets’ - faithfulness
- Suggesting he wasn’t faithful to Polonius.
“And of all Christian souls I pray God. God buy you.”
- Ophelia 4.5
- Dramatic effect- never seen again- goes to Heaven.
- Ends in purity.
“If by direct or by collateral hand
They find us touched, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, all that we call ours
To you in satisfaction; but if not,
Be you consent to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labour with your soul
To give it due content.”
- Claudius to Laertes 4.5
- If Laertes finds Claudius responsible in any way he will give him everything and do anything to apologise. If not, they will work together to find who is responsible.
- Foreshadows Laertes being used.
- Dramatic effect- Claudius knows Hamlet did it.
“my revenge will come”
- Laertes 4.7
- Determination to get revenge on Hamlet.
“I will work him
To an exploit, now ripe in my device,
Under the which he shall not choose but fall.”
- Claudius to Laertes 4.7
- Claudius is going to make sure Hamlet has no choice but to die.
- Death is the only way Laertes will feel justice has been served.
“Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy,
That he could nothing do but wish and beg
Your sudden coming o’er to play with him.”
- Claudius to Laertes 4.7
- Lying to him- suggesting Hamlet wants to duel with him to rial him up and encourage him to fight.
“Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
A sword unbated”
- Claudius to Laertes 4.7
- Encouraging deception- suggesting he could choose a sharpened sword to stab and kill Hamlet.
“One woe doth tread upon another’s heel
So fast they follow: your sister’s drowned’
- Gertrude to Laertes 4.7
- Dramatic- encourages Laertes to enact his revenge even more.
- Builds tension for final act.
“And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up… As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element”
- Gertrude to Laertes about Ophelia 4.7
- ‘mermaid-like’ - return to liquid woman- milk, blood, amniotic fluid- returned to her natural state.
- No struggle- died peacefully.
- ‘native’ - death was the ideal ending for her.
“He that hath killed my father and whored my mother.”
- Hamlet 5.2
- Personal vendetta against Claudius- sees the marriage as sinful and irreligious.
“I am satisfied in nature… but in my terms of honour I stand aloof.”
- Hamlet 5.2
- Justice and vengeance are different. Hamlet does not feel like he needs to avenge his father anymore, but is continuing to protect his honour and reputation.
“The foul practice
Hath turned itself on me…
the King, the King’s to blame’
- Laertes to Hamlet 5.2
- His conscience gets the better of him. Claudius’ corruption of him was superficial, and Laertes was too good natured to not feel guilty.
“And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.”
- Hamlet to Horatio 5.2
- Honesty and loyalty prevails over corruption. Horatio to tell Hamlet’s true story- responsible, honest, loyal friend.
“Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage.”
- Fortinbras 5.2
- Mutual respect/ admiration.
“Go bid the soldiers shoot”
- Fortinbras 5.2
- Good resolution- everyone got what they deserved. New beginning for Denmark.
