THEME: Madness Flashcards
HAMLET (ACT 1 SCENE 5)
“To put an antic disposition on.”
POLONIUS (ACT 2 SCENE 2)- METHOD
“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.”
HAMLET (ACT 2 SCENE 2) - HAWK AND HANDSAW
“I am but mad north- north west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk form a handsaw.” - Hamlet directs these lines to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. His words imply that, just as the wind only occasionally blows from the north-north-west, so too is he only occasionally struck by madness. These words also contain a warning. When Hamlet uses the proverbial expression “I know a hawk from a handsaw,” he indicates that he remains mostly in control of his faculties and that he can still distinguish between like and unlike things. In effect, Hamlet is warning his companions that he can tell the difference between a friend and an enemy.
CLAUDIUS (ACT 3 SCENE 1) - OPHELIA
“…poor Ophelia/ Divided from herself and her fair judgement.”
CLADIUS (ACT 3 SCENE 1)
“Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.”
HAMLET (ACT 5 SCENE 1)- DANGEROUS
“Yet have I in me something dangerous,/ Which let thy wisdom fear.”
HAMLET (ACT 4 SCENE 2)- BODY OF KING
“the body is with the King but the King is not with the body.” - Hamlet says this to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. His words sound like an example of madness, and his two companions appear to take it as such. However, as with many other examples of Hamlet’s double-speak, there is a method to the (apparent) madness. Here Hamlet refers to the metaphysical distinction between the king’s physical body and the body of the state for which he serves as the head. The first half of the sentence may refer to either of these two understandings of body, but the second half seems to refer directly to Polonius, a “king” who’s been separated from his body through death.
HAMLET (ACT 5 SCENE 2)
“And when he’s not himself does wrong Laertes, then Hamlet does it not. Hamlet denies it. Who does it then? His madness.” - Just before they begin their fencing match, Hamlet acknowledges the pain he has caused Laertes. In these lines, however, Hamlet also denies responsibility for having killed Laertes’ father. He indicates that his fit of madness effectively separated himself from himself, and he underscores this sense of distance from himself by speaking in the third person. Having been separated from himself, Hamlet argues that he cannot be held responsible for any act that his madness, in fact, committed.
HAMLET (ACT 3 SCENE 4)- CRAFT
“That I essentially am not in madness but mad in craft.”
GERTRUDE (ACT 4 SCENE 1)- SEA AND WIND
“Mad as the se and wind, where both contend/which is mightier.”
POLONIUS (ACT 3 SCENE 3)
“Something touching Lord Hamlet.”
OPHELIA (ACT 4 SCENE 5)- OWL
‘They say the owl was the bakers daughter.”
OPHELIA (ACT 4 SCENE 5)- FLOWERS
There’s fennel for you and columbines. There’s rue for you and here’s some for me… and there’s daisy. I would give you some violets but they are withered when my father died.’
(ACT 5 SCENE 2)
“His madness is poor Hamlets enemy.”
