quotes Flashcards
THEMES: action + inaction, madness, corruption, death
MEANING: ACT 3 SOLILOQUY - contemplating suicide - Jorgensen
ANALYSIS: juxtaposing “being” with “not being” repetition, DIACOPE (repeating something close together) - makes it more substantial, showcases the insignificant difference between being and not being - shows life is meaningless
Hamlet: “To be or not to be”
THEMES: SETTING - corruption, poison, honor + revenge
MEANING: noticing that the relationships between royals are inauthentic - mendacity
ANALYSIS: METAPHOR - ROTTEN - at the beginning it is good, at the end there is mold - fruit goes bad
Marcellus: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”
THEMES: SETTING - corruption, poison, honor + revenge
MEANING: he knows he can’t escape - society/ghost stopping him - has no power
ANALYSIS: METAPHOR - PRISON - brutal, no escape, forced place, his only motivation are laws - crime has been committed - in prison for a crime he didn’t commit but Claudius did - criticising the legitimacy of laws and corruption - POWER OVER YOU
Hamlet: Denmark’s a prison
THEME: gender, feminism, madness
MEANING: she is going mad by what she’s seen - horrified by it
ANALYSIS: DIACOPE
Ophelia: “O, woe is me, / To have seen what I have seen”
THEME: family, corruption, revenge, illusion v reality
MEANING: KIN = family, Claudius is his family but he is not kind
ANALYSIS: PUN - kin, kind - contrasting the ideas
Hamlet about Cladius: A little more kin, and less than kind
THEME: masculinity, madness,
MEANING: can’t be a man and grieve - not masculine
ANALYSIS: unmanly
Claudius: Unmanly grief
THEME: gender, misogyny, feminism critique
MEANING: FRAILTY = weak like a woman, saying that women are weak
ANALYSIS: PERSONIFICATION - addressing frailty - thy = you, direct address
Hamlet: “Frailty, thy name is woman!”
THEME: family, corruption, love, revenge, law
MEANING: INCESTUOUS = between family. Claudius and Gertrude are being incestuous because he’s her brother in law - not technically incest but could be morally wrong
ANALYSIS: SHEETS - sexual reference
Hamlet: incestuous sheets
THEME: revenge, corruption
MEANING: he wants Hamlet to get revenge
ANALYSIS: FOUL - rotten, moldy
Ghost to Hamlet: Revenge his foul […] murder
THEME: gender, misogyny
MEANING: he’s saying she’s a whore who needs to go a nunnery (where the nuns live, religious place) to get rid of her sin
ANALYSIS: NUNNERY - zoom in on, exclamation mark
Hamlet: get thee to a nunnery!
THEME: madness, mental illness
MEANING: WIT = intelligence, mind - he’s saying going crazy
ANALYSIS: METAPHOR - diseased - rotten - ill
Hamlet: my wit’s diseased
THEME: murder, revenge, corruption
MEANING: deed = an action performed, legal meaning (ownership)
ANALYSIS: METAPHOR - bloody - hostile word, HYPERBOLIC
Hamlet about Claudius’ murder: a bloody deed
THEME: murder, revenge, corruption, family
MEANING: has said to Gertrude that Claudius murdered old Hamlet - saying that he doesn’t see any shock on her face - assuming that she was involved
ANALYSIS: BLUSH = emotion of shame, shock
Hamlet to Gertrude: where is thy blush
THEME: madness, mental illness
MEANING: Hamlet is mad !
ANALYSIS: metaphor - wind makes the sea rough
Gertrude about Hamlet: mad as the sea and wind
THEME: revenge
MEANING: there’s no limit to what he would go to to get revenge
ANALYSIS: BOUNDS - edge of something
Claudius: revenge should have no bounds
THEME: death
MEANING:
ANALYSIS: foreshadowing that Hamlet will lose
Horatio: You will lose my lord
THEME: death
MEANING: Hamlet is dying
ANALYSIS: SILENCE - his thoughts disappearing, no more talking, finally being freed - suggests that death is the greatest equalizer / ultimate freedom
Hamlet: the rest is silence
THEME: female experience, appearance vs reality, deception, self-deception
MEANING: the lady’s actions are so strong that they’re overdone and weak. sarcastically stated during the play within a play - directed at the queen character who is declaring her love for her husband - suggests that Gertrude is lying too
ANALYSIS: ironic (as it’s coming from a woman), PROTEST in time period meant to declare solemnly rather than object loudly
Gertrude: The lady doth protest too much
THEME: women, death, madness
MEANING: Gertrude explains Ophelia’s death - fell into a river or brook
ANALYSIS: WEEPING BROOK - personifies the brook as someone crying, suggests nature is mourning her. REPETITION drowned drowned - mirrors how overwhelming her death was, creates an echoing sound like funeral bells aka mourning
Gertrude: Fell in the weeping brook/drowned drowned
THEME: patriarchy, obedience, love vs duty
MEANING: Shows her complete obedience and lack of power towards he father
ANALYSIS: brief quote - shows a lack of agency/just has to do as he says. FORESHADOWS her death bc her obedience to her father is what triggers it. JUXTAPOSES with Hamlet’s rebellious nature. MY LORD - a status symbol, spoken to her father
Ophelia: I shall obey, my lord
THEME: appearance vs reality, madness, love, deception
MEANING: Polonius thinks that Hamlet’s madness is out of love for his daughter Ophelia - doesn’t understand or recognise how serious it is - dismissive - Polonius tends to oversimplify situations to prove he’s right and get things wrong instead - FOOL ROLE
ANALYSIS: ECSTASY: overwhelming emotional state, linked to madness or irrationality. VERY - creates a certain tone, as if it’s the only explanation. S uses DRAMATIC IRONY - the audience know Hamlet’s madness is feigned/linked to his fathers death. FORESHADOWS that Ophelia will actually go mad from love and die.
Polonius to Ophelia: This is the very ecstasy of love
THEME: appearance vs reality, madness, deception/lies
MEANING: Polonius begins to realise that Hamlet’s madness isn’t completely honest - saying that there is ‘method’ aka reasoning behind it
ANALYSIS: DRAMATIC IRONY - the audience knows Hamlet’s madness is fake - highlights how Hamlet is complex and on one hand, is faking it and on another is actually going mad - he’s smart. JUXTAPOSES method and madness - opposites
Polonius: Though this be madness, yet is method in it
THEME: revenge, action vs inaction (action), fate
MEANING: Laertes is saying he’s gonna kill Hamlet cause he killed his dad and sister. The action that leads us to the tragic ending aka hammy’s death
ANALYSIS: PERSONAL PRONOUN ‘my’ - shows how personal this is for him, emphasises its importance. FORESHADOWING ‘will come’ - he’s going to get his revenge eventually. IRONY - mirrors Hamlet’s determination for revenge for his father.
Laertes: My revenge will come
THEME; revenge, corruption, immorality, supernatural, religion
MEANING: wants him to get revenge on his mother and stepfather and prevent Gertrude/Claudius from poisoning Denmark (link to something is rotten)
ANALYSIS: SYMBOLISM/METAPHOR - royal bed - emphasises how dangerous he thinks this marriage is, has sexual connotations. METAPHOR: couch for luxury - indulgence, lust rather than love. RELIGION: damned incest - condemns the marriage, links to ideas of sin and eternal punishment (hell).
Ghost: Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury and damnèd incest.
THEME: supernatural, sin/redemption, fate, religion
MEANING: he’s going to need to wander around like this until he finds peace aka his death is avenged - links to Catholic biblical ideas around death and purgatory/limbo
ANALYSIS: HYPERBOLE: doomed - can’t go elsewhere, he’s stuck here. FOUL CRIMES - emphasises how bad the crimes are, they’re sinful/sick/etc. METAPHOR: burnt and purged - fire imagery, reflects on ideas around hell and the cleansing power of fire (e.g. it’ll burn and purge and then he can move on, his soul will be purified). FORESHADOWS Hamlet’s attempts at revenge.
Ghost: Doomed to […] walk the night Till the foul crimes […] Are burnt and purged away.
THEME: love, appearance vs reality, deception, gender roles
MEANING: advises Ophelia to be cautious in her relationship with Hamlet - warns love can be dangerous and unsafe. Doesn’t approve of hammy :( reflects restrictive gender roles and control of women by men - she needs to suppress her desires for safety
ANALYSIS: IRONY - he’s telling her to be cautious but he later acts out of anger (hypocrite). FORESHADOWS - that this is Hamlet’s fear (of Claudius/revenge) will later be unsafe too. PERSONIFICATION: lies in fear - fear is necessary for survival/safety.
Laertes: best safety lies in fear
THEME: religion, revenge, death
MEANING: Laertes getting revenge, basically telling Hamlet to go to hell
ANALYSIS: BIBLICAL - devil/soul - suggests that he thinks Hamlet deserves to die in hell (harsh bro). CURSE - he’s cursing Hamlet to go to hell basically. Implies he thinks that Hamlet has sinned too much.
Laertes: The devil take thy soul!
THEME: madness, mental illness
MEANING: Hamlet is crazy
ANALYSIS: LUNACY - madness, insanity - believed to be related to the moon (werewolf)
Polonius to Claudius: Hamlet’s lunacy
THEME: love, gender, misogyny
MEANING: Ophelia is pretty - FAIR = pretty - he’s saying he loves her - says it right before he is super mean, leading to her death
ANALYSIS: IRONY because he’s so mean to he
Hamlet: the fair Ophelia
