Performance in 'Hamlet'

Gravediggers A5S1 - double standards, class inequality - Ophelia’s burial

'If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o' Christian burial'

Gravediggers A5S1 - double standards, class inequality, drowning/hanging

'the more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even-Christen'

Gravediggers A5S1 - corruption of the court under Claudius that he can request a specific burial through the coroner

'But is this law?' 'Ay, marry is't, crowner's quest law'

Hamlet to Horatio about Osric A5S2 - trivial and superficial nature of courtiers

‘Dost know this water-fly?’

A5S2 Hamlet exposes the daftness of courtiers, they agree with anything people higher up do/say - similar to Polonius

‘it is very hot’ - O

‘tis very cold’ - H

‘It is indifferent cold my lord, indeed’ - H

A5S2 Horatio - believes Osric has no more words to ‘spend’ because he has used all his flouncy words, H joins in on the mockery

‘His purse is empty already, all’s golden words are spent.’

A2S2 Hamlet to Polonius - P effectively sells his daughter, H demotes Polonius to that status of a brothel owner, selling women for his own advantage

‘Excellent well. You are a fishmonger’

A2S2 Hamlet calls Polonius this - Jeptha was foolish for sacrificing his daughter, demonstrates he is not a great father

‘old Jeptha’

A2S2 Hamlet - honesty and the performativity of the court - A vs R

'To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand'

A3S2 Polonius blindly agrees with Hamlet

‘almost in shape of a camel…tis like a camel indeed’

A4S3 Hamlet - grotesque, cyclical nature of life, food chain

‘We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots’

A4S3 Hamlet to Claudius - reality of status and equality, we are equal in the end when we become dust, we all are fed to the maggots

‘Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service - two dishes but to one table’

A4S2 - H to R + G, yesmen, soaking up the rewards

‘to be demanded of a sponge, what replication should be made by the son of a king?'

A4S2 H to R + G - do anything for social elevation

‘soaks up the king’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities’

A4S2 H to R + G - Claudius utilises them as tools, they themselves have no real power

‘keeps them like an ape in the corner of his jaw, first mouthed to be last swallowe'd’

A3S2 flattery of R + G from H’s view

‘let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp and crook the pregnant hinges of the knee’

A1S2 Hamlet to Claudius - pun, Hamlet claims they are not the same type of person, disgust towards C and Hamlet’s comment that he is related to Claudius in 2 ways at once as an uncle and step-father

‘a little more kin and less than kind’