Hamlet Quotes Flashcards
Claudius thinks that Hamlet would have killed him (not polonius) if he had been there -
“It had been so with us, had we been there”
Gertrude says that Hamlet is “Mad as…
…the sea and wind when both contend”
Claudius wants Hamlet imprisoned -
“His liberty is full of threats to us all”
Claudius is worried that they will be blamed for Hamlet’s actions (killing polonius)
“It will be laid to us”
Hamlet is liked by the masses
“He is loved by the distracted multitude, who like not in their judgement, but in their eyes”
Fortinbras is prepared to surrender
“Two thousand should and twenty thousand ducats” for “and eggshell”
Fortinbras is concerned about his name
“We go to gain a little patch of ground, that hath no profit but in the name”
(Declared by captain)
Hamlet can’t act, unlike his players
“What’s Hecuba to him, Or he to Hecuba?”
Hamlet resolves after seeing Fortinbras that he will revenge
“Oh from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth”
At first hamlet wonders if his father’s ghost is
The “devil” in a “pleasing shape”
The ghost makes it clear that learning the truth makes hamlet bound to avenge it
“So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear”
Hamlet says he only exists to revenge
“Ever I was born to set it right”
Hamlet believes in fate
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends”
Fortinbras is goal orientated and has…
…“divine ambition”
Hamlet only acts on impulse, killing Claudius, once he is dying and has nothing to lose
“I am dead”
Hamlet wishes he could commit suicide
“o that this too too solid flesh would melt”
Hamlet cannot commit suicide
“Or that the everlasting had not fix’d his cannon ‘gainst self slaughter”
Fortinbras is hot headed and driven
“Of unimproved mettle hot and full”
Claudius wants to create kingdom solidarity
“Our whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe”
Gertrude describes hamlets grief as
“Unmanly”
The kings ghost is caught in purgatory
“Doomed for a certain term to walk the night”
The king’s ghost begs to remain in Hamlet’s memory
“Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me! Remember me”
Claudius regrets his actions and refers to Cain and Abel
“O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven / it hath the primal eldest curse upon’t / a brother’s murder”
Hamlet discusses the transience of life with the skull in his hand
“That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once”
Hamlet is in love with ophelia
“Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”
Hamlet philosophises about thought and it’s effect on life
“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so”
Hamlet talks about his madness plan
“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.”
Claudius talks about the lack of truth in his holy words
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”
Gertrude is falsely nice to ophelia after death
“Sweets to the sweet.”
Polonius gives Laertes some key advice
“This above all: to thine own self be true.”
It is unclear whether Gertrude sees the parallels with herself and the queen in the play
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
Hamlet’s madness is not real
“I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is
southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw. “
Bernado is loyal to the king
“Long live the king”
Irony is created in the first scene through calm
“Not a mouse stirring”
Barnado makes heavy sounds when recalling the ghost
“The bell then beating one”
Norway are prepared for war
“This same strict and most observant watch”
The ghost must leave
“The cock crows”
Claudius claims to be both happy and sad
“One auspicious and one drooping eye”
Hamlet says that Claudius is not quite his relative in an aside
“A little more than Kin and less than kind”
Claudius says that he respects hamlets mourning
“Tis sweet and commendable in your nature hamlet”
Claudius says that death is natural
“Your father lost a father, that father lost, lost his”
Ophelia describes hamlet when he is mad as
“Head thus waving up and down”
Claudius suspects hamlet
He “puts on this confusion”
In the final scene hamlet declares that he was in fact mad, in the 3rd person
“His madness is poor hamlets enemy”
The king calls ophelia’s madness
“The poison of deep grief”
Polonius’ funeral is rushed and described as
“Hugger-mugger”
Ophelia’s speech is
“Nothing” and is marked by “half sense”
Ophelia’s open madness contrast with her submissive nature in act 1
“I do not know my lord, what I should think”
Laertes warns Ophelia of syphilis
“Contagious blastments”
Hamlet says unfaithful women ruin their husbands
“Marry a fool. For wise men know well enough what monsters make of them.”
Hamlet thinks his lack of action makes him womanly
“Must like a whore unpack my heart with words”
Only king hamlet dies in an unmanly way which emphasises that it is
“Strange, and unnatural”
