| Queen: “To whom do you speak this?”Hamlet: “Do you see nothing there?”Queen: “Nothing at all; yet all is that I see”(Page 179, Line 149-151)Queen to Hamlet as he is the only one who can see his father’s Ghost | Deception/Appearance and Reality |
| “The serpent that did sting thy father’s lifeNow wears his crown.”-Act 1, Scene 5 (Page 59, Line 46-47)Ghost to Hamlet | Deception/Appearance and Reality |
| “Ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle,Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,And with a look so piteous in purportAs if he had been loosèd out of hellTo speak of horrors- he comes before me.”-Act 2, Scene 1 (Page 79, Line 90-94)Ophelia to Polonius | Deception/Appearance and Reality |
| “That, being of so young days brought up with himAnd sith so neighbored to his youth and havior,That you vouchsafe your rest here in our courtSome little time, so by your companiesTo draw him on to pleasures, and to gatherSo much as from occasion you may glean,[Whether aught to us afflicts him thus]”-Act 2, Scene 2 (Page 83, Line 11-17)Claudius to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern | Deception/Appearance and Reality |
| “Anything but to th’ purpose. You were sentfor, and there is a kind of confession in your lookswhich your modesties have not craft enough tocolor. I know the good king and queen have sent for you.”- Act 2, Scene 2 (Page 101, Line 300-304) Hamlet speaking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern | Deception/Appearance and Reality |
| “I will be brief. Your Noble son is mad.”-Act 2, Scene 2 (Page 89, Line 99)Polonius to King and Queen | Melancholy, Madness and Sanity |
| “Though this be madness, yet there ismethod in’t.- will you walk out of the air, my Lord?”-Act 2, Scene 2 (Page 95, Line 223-224)Polonius in aside while conversing with Hamlet | Melancholy, Madness and Sanity |
| “Look whe’er he has not turned his color andhas tears in ‘s eyes. Prithee, no more.”- Act 2, Scene 2 (Page 115, Line 545-546)Polonius to Hamlet during the Players’ powerful speech | Melancholy, Madness and Sanity |
| “Alas, how is ‘t with you,That you do bend your eye on vacancyAnd with th’ incorporal air do hold discourse?”-Act 3, Scene 3 (Page 177, Line 133-135)Queen to Hamlet while the Ghost is instructing him as to what to say | Melancholy, Madness and Sanity |
| “Haste me to know ‘t, that I, with wings as swiftAs meditation or the thoughts of love,May sweep to my revenge.”-Act 1, Scene 5 (Page 57-59, Line 35-37)Hamlet to the Ghost | Passion and Reason |
| “Horatio says ’tis but our fantasyAnd will not let belief take hold of himTouching this dreaded sight twice seen of us.”Act 1, Scene 1 (Page 9, Line 28-30)Marcellus to Barnardo (And Horatio) | Passion and Reason |
| “Now might I do it pat now he is praying,And now I’ll do it, and so he goes to heaven.And so am I revenged, that would be scanned.A villain kills my father; and for that,I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven.O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.He took my father grossly, full of bread – With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May.And how his audit stands, who knows save heaven?But in our circumstance and course of thought,’Tis heavy with him, and am I, then, revenged;To take him in the purging of his soul,When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?No.Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent:When he is drunk asleep or in his rage;Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed;At gaming, swearing or about some actThat has no relish of salvation in it.Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,And that his soul may be as damned and blackAs hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays,This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.”-Act 3, Scene 3 (Page 167, Line 77-102)Hamlet’s soliloquy about killing the king while he is praying | Passion and Reason |
| “Denmark’s a prison.”-Act 2, Scene 2 (Page 99, Line 262)Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern | Decay and Corruption |
| “But two months dead- nay, not so much, not two.”-Act 1, Scene 2 (Page 29, Line 142)Hamlet to the King and Queen | Decay and Corruption |
| “Murder most foul, as in the best it isBut this most foul, strange, and unnatural.”-Act 1, Scene 5 (Page 57, Line 33)Ghost to Hamlet | Decay and Corruption |
| “Though inclination be sharp as will.”-Act 3, Scene 3 (Page 165, line 43)King in a soliloquy | Decay and Corruption |
| “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder”-Act 1, Scene 5 (Page 57, Line 31)Ghost to Hamlet | Revenge |
| “Play something like the murder if my fatherBefore mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks;I’ll tent him to the quick. If he do blench,I know my course.”-Act 2, Scene 2 (Page 119, Line 624-627)Hamlet in his soliloquy while scheming. | Revenge |
| “Tis now the very witching time of night,When churchyards yawn and hell itself (breathes) outContagion to this world. Now could I drink hotblood.”-Act 3, Scene 2 (Page 161, Line 419-425)Hamlet in yet another soliloquy | Revenge |
Honors English 11 Hamlet Quotes and Themes
September 7, 2019