Hamlet quotes by theme

Madness ‘What I have done/ that might your nature, honour and exception/ roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness’ Hamlet 5.2’His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.’ Hamlet (5,2)’Poor Ophelia, divided from herself and her fair judgement, without the which we are mere pictures and beasts”taint not thy mind’ Ghost’though this be madness, yet there is method in it’ Polonius’Hamlet’s lunacy’ Polonius’My too much changed son.’ Gertrude’Madness in great ones must not unwatched go’ Claudius’I essentially am not in madness/ But mad in craft’ Hamlet
Class ‘The more pity that great folk should have count’nance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even Christens’ Clown 5.1’the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense’ Hamlet 5.1’Yet must we not put the strong law on him, he’s loved of the distracted multitude.’ Claudius’Let four captains/Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage’ Fortinbras (5,2)’A king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar’ Hamlet’There’s such divinity doth hedge a king’ Claudius
Death Who ‘builds stronger’ ‘the gallows maker, for that frame outlives a thousand tenants’. Clown 5.1’That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once.’ Hamlet 5.1’Where be your jibes now?’ Hamlet 5.1 ‘Alas poor Yorrick, I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest’ Hamlet, 5.1’Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust.’ Hamlet, 5.1’So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to’t’ Horatio, 5.2’Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched”Till that her garments, heavy with their drink/ pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay/to muddy death’ Gertrude (4.7)’what is this quintessence of dust?’ Hamlet’How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!’ Hamlet (3.4)’I’ll lug the guts into the neighbour room.’ Hamlet (3.4)’The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body’ Hamlet (4,2)’Here’s yet some liquor left.’ Horatio (5,2)’Thou wretched, rash intruding fool, farewell! I took thee for thy better’ Hamlet (3,4)’A king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.’ Hamlet’throws down the skull’ (SD) Hamlet – flippant attitude to death’fell in the weeping brook…drowned, drowned!’ Gertrude’the undiscovered country’ Hamlet’this fell sergeant, Death/is strict in his arrest.’ Hamlet
Religious ‘Thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the church’ Clown 5.1’There’s a divinity that shapes our ends/Rough-hew them how we will.’ Hamlet, 5.2’And is it not to be damned, to let this canker of our nature come in further evil?’ Hamlet’Come, let me wipe thy face.’ Gertrude (5,2)’Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.’ Hamlet’the primal eldest curse’ Claudius’the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown’ Ghost
Words/Inaction ‘We must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us.’ Hamlet, 5.1’And is it not to be damned to let this canker of our nature come in further evil?”I…prompted to revenge by heaven and hell/Must, like a *****, unpack my heart with words.’ Hamlet’a coward…pigeon-livered”What is Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?”Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all/And thus the native hue of resolution/is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.”And yet it is almost against my conscience.’ Laertes (5,2)’These words like daggers enter my ears.’ Gertrude’Words, words, words’ ‘These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.’ Horatio(1,5)’I have words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb.’ Hamlet’unpregnant of my cause’ ‘how pregnant sometimes his replies are.’
Criticism of the English monarchy (in England) ‘there the men are as mad as he’ Clown, 5.1(Of Claudius) ‘this canker of our nature’ Hamlet, 5.2’Let not the royal bed of Denmark be/a couch for luxury and damned incest.’
Afterlife ‘I could to you a tale unfold, whose lightest word/would harrow up thy soul.’ Ghost’I am thy father’s spirit/doom’d for a certain term to walk the night…’til the foul crimes done in my days…are burnt and purged away.”I dare damnation’ Laertes’am I then reveng’d/to take him in the purging of his soul…?’ – Hamlet (3.3)’sulph’rous and tormenting flames’ – Ghost’a spirit of health or goblin damned.’ Hamlet’undiscovered country’ Hamlet
Revenge ‘I find thee apt.”The drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me a bastard”A coward…pigeon-livered.”What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba?”while memory holds a seat/ in this distracted globe. Remember thee!…thy commandment alone shall live”The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right’ Hamlet’And is it not to be damned to let this canker of our nature come in further evil?’ Hamlet, 5,2’And yet it is almost against my conscience.’ Laertes (5,2)’Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland.’ Osric (5,2)RUBENFELD – to be or not to be
Sin/evil ‘O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!’ Hamlet’Thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, drink off this poison.’ Hamlet’his heels may kick at heaven,/And that his soul may be as damn’d and black as hell/whereto it goes’ Hamlet’O my offence is rank, it smells to heaven/it hath the primal eldest curse upon’t’ – Claudius’brother’s blood’ ‘white as snow’ – Claudius’The treacherous instrument is in thy hand/unbated and envenom’d’ Laertes (5,2)’O, such a deed/As from the body of contraction plucks/The very soul, and sweet religion makes/A rhapsody of words’ Hamlet 3,4’the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown”adulterate beast”he who hath kill’d my king and whor’d my mother’
Women ‘Frailty thy name is woman.’ Hamlet’With a larger tether may he walk.’ Laertes’Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting’ Polonius’Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes’ Laertes’Do not as some ungracious pastors do show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, whiles like a puff’d and reckless libertine, himself the primrose path of dalliance treads and recks not his own rede.’ Ophelia’I do not know, my lord, what I should think.”your chaste treasure.’ Laertes’Fear it, Ophelia, fear it.’ Laertes’Hamlet thou hast thy father…mother you have my father.’ (Idea that women’s opinions are twisted and devalued)’you are a fishmonger’ Hamlet (slang for someone who sells women, suggests he is willing to through his daughter away for power).’get thee to a nunnery’ can also mean brothel.’mermaid-like’ calling her beautiful is the biggest compliment she can pay her.’Th’imperial jointress to this warlike state.’ Claudius’In the morn and liquid dew of youth, contagious blastments are most imminent.’ Laertes’By cock they are to blame.’ Ophelia’Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?’ Hamlet’You speak like a green girl.’ Polonius’Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered.’ Hamlet to Ophelia
Conflict ‘I will speak daggers to her, but use none’ Hamlet (3.3)’Not so, my lord, I am too much in the sun.’ Hamlet’To persevere in obstinate condolences is a course of impious stubbornness’ Claudius’Get thee to a nunnery’ Hamlet’These words like daggers enter my ear.’ Gertrude (3.4)’I must be cruel only to be kind.’ Hamlet’O most pernicious woman.’ Hamlet’And let me wring your heart, for so I shall if it be made of penetrable stuff.’ Hamlet’Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland.’ Osric
Seeming/being ‘Seems, madam, nay it is, I know not seems.”tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother.”fruitful river of the eye”but I have that within which passes show”O it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters.’ Hamlet
Love/compassion ‘doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love.’ Hamlet’I loved Ophelia, forty brothers with all their quantity of love could not make up my sum.”Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge, it could not move thus.’ Laertes’I loved you not.’ Hamlet’Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.’ Polonius’For by the image of my cause I see the portraiture of his.’ Hamlet, 5,2’Good night, sweet prince/And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.’ Horatio (5,2)’I will hold him in my heart as I do thee’ Hamlet
Chance/fate ‘even in that was heaven ordinant’ Hamlet (5,2)’there’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will’ Hamlet (5,2)’If it be now, ’tis not to come, if it be not to come, it will be now.’ Hamlet (5,2) shows his measured acceptance of fate by the end of the play.
Corruption ‘Why, man, they did make love to this employment….their defeat does by their own insinuation grow’ Hamlet, 5,2’I am justly kill’d with mine own treachery’ Laertes, 5,2’He that hath kill’d my king and whor’d my mother’ Hamlet, 5,2’The treacherous instrument is in thy hand/unbated and envenom’d’ Laertes (5,2)’So shall you hear of bloody, carnal and unnatural acts.’ Horatio (5,2)’Avenge his foul and most unnatural murder.’ Ghost’tis an unweeded garden.’ Hamlet’the serpent that did sting his life now wears his crown.’ Ghost(a sponge) ‘that soaks up the king’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities’ Hamlet’Yet must we not put the strong law on him, he’s loved of the distracted multitude.’ Claudius’Let not the royal bed of Denmark become a couch for luxury and damned incest.’ Ghost’Will you play upon this pipe?…it is as easy as lying’ Hamlet
Isolation ‘but to know a man well were to know himself’ Hamlet (5,2)’But thou wouldst not think how ill all’s here about my heart; but it is no matter.’ Hamlet (5,2)
Humour ‘What’s his weapon’/’Rapier and dagger’/’that’s two of his weapons, but well.’ Hamlet (5,2)’Who builds stronger?’ ‘The gallows maker, for his frame outlives a thousand tenants’ (5,1)’One that was a woman once”A king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar”He is loved of the distracted multitude”Tis pity that great folk hath countenance to drown or hang themselves more than their even Christens.”Words words words.”Will you play upon this pipe”And sponge you shall be dry again.”(a sponge) that soaks up the King’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities.’ Hamlet to Rosencrantz (4,2)Did you think I meant country matters?’ Hamlet
Suicide ‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wish’d”To die, to sleep, no more.”Here’s yet some liquor left.’ Horatio’Tis an unweeded garden.”How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world.”I do not set my life at a pin’s fee.’ Hamlet’quintessence of dust.’ Hamlet
Grief ‘This is the very poison of grief, it springs all from her father’s death.’ Claudius’Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, to give these mourning duties to your father.’ Claudius’Your father, lost a father, that father lost his.’ Claudius’Tis not alone my inky cloak good mother.’ Hamlet’These indeed seem for they are actions which a man might play… but I have that within which passes show, these but the trappings and the suits of woe.’ Hamlet’I would give you violets, but they all withered when my father died.’ Ophelia’Thou knowst tis common, all that lives must die.’ Gertrude’Our whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe.’ Claudius’
Animal imagery ‘the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown.’ Ghost (‘incestuous, murderous’)’pigeon-livered’ Hamlet’a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer’ Hamlet about Gertrude’Poor Ophelia, divided from herself and her fair judgement, without the which we are…mere beasts’ Claudius’that adulterate beast’ Ghost about Claudius
Decay ‘my wit’s diseased.’ Hamlet’something is rotten in the state of Denmark.’ Marcellus’How foul and rank is my offence, it stinks to heaven.’ Claudius’foul and most unnatural murder.’ Ghost.
Body Politic ‘Our whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe.’ Claudius’The whole ear of Denmark…is…rankly abused.’ Ghost’courses through the natural gates and alleys of the body.’ Ghost
The Backstory ‘this fell sergeant, Death/ is strict in his arrest.’ Hamlet’My father’s spirit in arms, all is not well.’ Hamlet’doth make the night joint labourer with the day.’ Horatio’Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland.’ Osric’a little patch of ground”Tis bitter cold, and I am sick at heart.’ Francisco’Th’imperial jointress to this warlike state.’ Claudius’What art thou that usurpst this time of night?’ Horatio’honest soldier’ Marcellus, they are guarding
Moments of decisive action ‘Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent… and that his soul may be as damn’d and black as hell whereto it goes’ 3.3 Hamlet’How now a rat?…dead for a ducat dead!’ Hamlet 3.4
Judgement ‘his heals may kick at heaven and his soul be as damn’d and black as hell whereto it goes’ Hamlet 3.4’Leave her to heaven and those thorns that in her bosom lodge to prick and sting her’ Ghost (of Gertrude) 1.4’where the offence is, let the great axe fall’ Claudius
Importance of the father figure ‘he has born me on his back a thousand times’ Hamlet (of Yorrick)’it springs all from her father’s death’ Claudius’I would give you violets, but they all withered when my father died’ Ophelia’I shall not look upon his like again.”But no more like my father than I to Hercules.”he might not beteem the winds visit her face to roughly”My father’s spirit in arms, all is not well.’
Hamlet’s anger at Gertrude ‘a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer”I’ll speak daggers to her but use none”Let me wring your heart, for so I shall if it be made of penetrable stuff’