| All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity (Act 1 Scene 2) | Gertrude to Hamlet comforting him over Old Hamlet’s death |
| Oh most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets!/ It is not and cannot come to good (Act 1 Scene 2) | 1st soliloquy Hamlet to himself cursing his mother for being a hoe so quickly after the death of his father |
| Hear you, sir/ Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice/ Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment (Act 1 Scene 3) | Polonius to Laertes giving advice to his son before he leaves for Paris |
| This above all- to thine own self be true;/ Ad it must follow, as the night the day,/ Thou canst not then be false to any man (Act 1 Scene 3) | Polonius to Laertes giving important advice to his son (most important piece of advice) |
| Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love (Act 2 Scene 2) | Polonius to Gertrude reading Hamlet’s letter to Ophelia. Hamlet saying doubt everything else before you doubt I love you |
| What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel! in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust (Act 2 Scene 2) | Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet confessing he no longer has any meaning for life, saying human greatness becomes useless when we are dead |
| To be, or not to be, that is the question:Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to sufferThe Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,And by opposing end them (Act 3 Scene 1) | Hamlet to himself talking about suicide |
| The lady doth protest too much, methinks (Act 3 scene 2) | Gertrude to Hamlet talking about the play within a play |
| Let me be cruel, not unnatural; I will speak daggers to her, but use none (Act 3 scene 2) | Hamlet to himself talking about how he will talk to Gertrude and use his words to hurt |
| My words fly up, my thoughts remain below/ Words without thoughts never to heaven go (Act 3 Scene 3) | Claudius to himself trying to pray but he is still guilty |
| Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;/ And now I’ll do’t: and so he goes to heaven;/ And so am I revenged (Act 3 Scene 3) | Hamlet to himself contemplating whether or not he should kill Claudius while he prays |
| I must be cruel, only to be kind: Thus bad begins and worse remains behind (Act 3 Scene 4) | Hamlet to himself telling himself he must be mean to Gertrude in order to knock sense into her |
| When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but battalions (Act 4 Scene 5) | Claudius to Gertrude talking about how when things are bad, they are terrible and they all come at once |
| I’m lost in it, my lord. But let him come/ It warms the very sickness in my heart,/ That I shall live and tell him to his teeth/’Thus digest thou (Act 4 Scene 7) | Laertes to Claudius. Laertes telling Claudius he is ready for revenge. Claudius is edging him on and using him as a pawn |
| I lov’d Ophelia: forty thousand brother/ Could not, with all their quantity of love/ Make up my sum (Act 5 Scene 1) | Hamlet to Laertes confessing his love for Ophelia even though she is dead |
| Sweets to the sweet! Farewell/ I thought thy bride bed to have decked, sweet maid,/ And not have strewed thy grave (Act 5 Scene 1) | Gertrude to Ophelia wishing Ophelia had a different fate and wished that she was her daughter |
| Hamlet, thou art slain… Thy mother’s poisoned./ I can no more. The King, the King’s to blame (Act 5 Scene 2) | Laertes to Hamlet saying there was poison on the sword and reveals Claudius’ plot to kill Hamlet |
| Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet Prince,/ And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest (Act 5 Scene 2) | Horatio to dead Hamlet paying his respects |
| Why man, they did make love to this employment./ They are not near my conscience. Their defeat/ Does by their own insinuation grow (Act 5 Scene 2) | Hamlet to Horatio saying he doesn’t give a hoot about the death of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern because they betrayed him and plotted against him |
| Let four captains/ Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage…/ Such a sight as this/ Becomes the field, but here show much amiss (Act 5 Scene 2) | Fortinbras to everybody honoring Hamlet and saying that he should be loved |
| act I- “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt… but break, my hart; for I must hold my tongue” | soliloquy theme: disgust and anger,key events: Claudius and Gertrude tell Hamlet that his grief is “unmanly” and to get over his father’s death; Hamlet confronts the ghost for the first time |
| act 2- “O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I…More relative than this: the play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king” | soliloquy theme: cowardice, shame, self- disgustkey events: Polonius decides that Hamlet is mad because Ophelia has rejected him; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive as spies for claudius |
| act 3- “to be or not to be… be all my sins remember’d””now might I do it pat, now he is praying…as hell, whereto it goes. M mother stays: this physic but prolongs thy sickly days” | soliloquy 1 theme: merit in living or dying, moralitysoliloquy 2 theme: guilt, forgiveness, greedkey events: Play within a play confirms Claudius’ guilt for Hamlet; Hamlet “accidentally” stabs Polonius; Hamlet berates Ophelia for her honesty and behavior |
| act 4- “how all occasions do inform against me, and spur my dull revenge!… My thought be bloody, or be nothing worth” | soliloquy theme: revenge, resolve for actionkey events: Ophelia “drowns” in a pond surrounded by flowers; Hamlet plans to return to avenge his father’s death after learning of Fortenbra’s bravery; Laertes and Claudius plot to kill Hamlet doing a sword fight |
| sponge metaphor- Hamlet and Rosencrantz | R soaks up the king’s approval and rewards and decisions, when the king needs what R has gathered he just squeezes it out of him and R then will be sent on a new mission, “filling himself up” with something else the king needs; when r does’t understand what Hamlet is saying, Hamlet calls him a fool |
| worm imagery- Claudius and Hamlet | it does’t matter if you are a king or a poor man, once buried, the worms eat you no matter what you are; aso, the worms eating the deceased is supposed to reflect corruption “eating” denmark |
Hamlet quotes
August 14, 2019