Hamlet Quotations

"A little more than kin, and less than kind."

a) Hamlet insulting King Claudius

b) incest; characterization of Hamlet: witty, insulting

"We pray you throw to earth this unprevailing woe, and think of us as a father..."

a) King Claudius to Hamlet; get over your dad's death

b) characterization of King Claudius: insensitive

"O that this too too sullied flesh would melt..."

a) Hamlet Soliloquy; beggining of play

b) suicide motif; characterization of Hamlet: suicidal, doesn't want to face problems

"Frailty, thy name is woman...O most wicked speed! To post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets!"

a) Hamlet Soliloquy about his Mother

b) incest; women and misogyny

"Do not as some ungracious pastors do, show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, while like a puff'd and reckless libertine himself the primrose path of dalliance treads..."

a) Ophelia to Laertes after Laertes tries to give her advice

b) women and misogyny (double standard)

"This above all: to thine own self be true..."

a) Polonius giving advice to Laertes

b) are we responsible only to ourselves or to something larger? (Polonius is saying only to ourselves and to only act if it is in your nature)

"When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul lends the tongue vows."

a) Polonius to Ophelia; warning being with Hamlet

b) appearances often present a false image that conceals deceptive reality (lust vs. true feeling); women and misogyny

"The dram of evil doth all the noble substance often dout to his own scandal."

a) Hamlet to Horatio about King Claudius drinking

b) poison, corruption; drinking erases any good qualities

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

a) Marcellus to Horatio as Hamlet follows the Ghost

b) decay, disease, rot (Ghost = bad omen)

"Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder."

a) Ghost to Hamlet

b) are we responsible only to ourselves or to something larger?

"Haste me to know't, that I with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love may sweep to my revenge."

a) Hamlet to Ghost

b) are we responsible only to ourselves or to something larger? (Hamlet believes yes, and is eager to enact revenge)

"The serpent that did sting your father's life now wears his crown."..."O my prophetic soul! My uncle!"

a) Ghost to Hamlet

b) biblical allusion: Garden of Eden (King Hamlet killed by Claudius in a garden, referring to Claudius as a serpent, associated Claudius with the devil and evil)

"O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling damned villain!...That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain."

a) Hamlet soliloquy; after learning about the affair and murder from the Ghost

b) appearances often present a false image that conceals deceptive reality (Claudius and Mother have been lying)

"There are more things in heaven and earth, ...Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

a) Hamlet to Horatio

b) character foil: Hamlet vs. Horatio (rational vs. emotional, philosophy vs. theology)

"The time is out of joint. O cursed spite, that I was born to set it right."

a) Hamlet

b) are we responsible only for ourselves or to something larger? (Hamlet begins to doubt weather he can do it)

"I doubt it is no other but the main, his father's death and our o'er-hasty marriage."

a) Gertrude to Claudius trying to justify why Hamlet is mad

b) dramatic irony: we know Hamlet is mad, because of the news from the Ghost; incest

"Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit."

a) Polonius to Gertrude and Claudius after rambling

b) verbal irony: Polonius is saying to be brief is to be intelligent, when he was the opposite of that

"Words, words, words."...."Though this be madness, yet there is method in't"

a) Hamlet to Polonius then Polonius to Hamlet; when Polonius is trying to get information out of Hamlet

b) madness, pretend or real, wears the mask of sanity (Hamlet is insulting Polonius while acting mad)

"What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties..."

a) Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; after they admit to being spies

b) biblical allusion: latter refers to humanity as dust (God made Adam & Eve out of dust); spying; characterization of Hamlet: pessimistic, sees humanity as worthless dust

"I'll observe his looks...If he do blench, I know my course...The spirit that I have seen may be a devil, and the devil hath power t'assume a pleasing shape...The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King."

a) Hamlet soliloquy

b) are we responsible only to ourselves or to something larger?; characterization of Hamlet: hesitation and procrastination

"'Tis too much prov'd, that with devotion's visage and pious action we do sugar o'er the devil himself."

a) Polonius to Ophelia

b) appearances often present a false image that conceals deceptive reality; spying (using Ophelia as a spy on Hamlet)

"To be or not to be, that is the question...And makes us rather bear those ills we have then fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience makes cowards of us all..."

a) Hamlet soliloquy (Ophelia off in corner)

b) suicide; characterization of Hamlet: suicidal and all talk no action

"Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind."

a) Ophelia to Hamlet; Ophelia offering the love letters back to Hamlet

b) dramatic irony: Hamlet doesn't know Ophelia is only doing this, because Polonius told her to; spying

"Get thee to a nunnery, farewell. Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them."

a) Hamlet to Ophelia after he realizes she is lying

b) women and misogyny (nunnery is slang for brothel)

"Madness in great ones must not unwatched go."

a) Claudius to Polonius; Claudius wants to send Hamlet to England

b) madness, pretended or real, wears the mask of sanity (Claudius beginning to become suspicious of Hamlet)

"Suit the action to the word, the word to the action."

a) Hamlet to the First Player

b) irony: Hamlet telling the First Player to have his actions match his words, when Hamlet hasn't done this in the play

"Give me that man that is not passion's slave, and I will wear him in my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, as I do thee."

a) Hamlet to Horatio

b) character foil: Hamlet vs. Horatio (passion vs. reason)

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks,"

a) Gertrude to Hamlet about the play

b) characterization of Gertrude: exposing the potential affair

"We that have free souls, it touches us not."

a) Hamlet to Claudius during play

b) verbal irony and sarcasm: Hamlet says this knowing Claudius' soul is not free

"'Tis the very witching time of night, when churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world."

a) Hamlet soliloquy after the play

b) characterization of Hamlet: finally gonna do it after all the talk

"I will speak daggers to her, but use none."

a) Hamlet soliloquy; reffering to Gertrude

b) metaphor: words to daggers; characterization of Hamlet: all talk, little action (not fulfilling the Ghost wishes to leave Gertrude alone)

"'Forgive me my foul murder'? That cannot be, since I am still possess'd of those effects for which I did the murder- My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen."

a) Claudius soliloquy; admitting to the murder

b) characterization of Claudius: remorseful, but selfish

"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

a) Claudius soliloquy; after Hamlet almost followed through with a murder, but thought he was praying for forgivness

b) characterization of Hamlet: all talk, little action (had the opportunity to accomplish his goal and didn't)

"A bloody deed. Almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry his brother."

a) Hamlet to Gertrude after he killed Polonius

b) incest; corruption; characterization of Hamlet: all talk, little action (harassing Gertrude, killed wrong person)

"Speak no more. Thou turn'st my eyes into my very soul... Speak no more. These words like daggers enter in my ears."

a) Gertrude to Hamlet

b) characterization of Hamlet: all talk, little action (harassing and harming the wrong person); characterization of Gertrude: sees her faults

"Do you not come your tardy son to chide, that, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by th' important acting of your dread command?"

a) Hamlet to the Ghost

b) characterization of Hamlet: all talk, little action (scared Ghost is here to scold him for not doing what he was told)

"Confess yourself to heaven, repent what's past, avoid what is to come; and do not spread the compost on the weeds to make them ranker."

a) Hamlet to Gertrude

b) weeds (Hamlet comparing Gertrude and Claudius' relationship to a weed); corruption

"That I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft."

a) Hamlet to Gertrude

b) appearances often present a false image that conceals deceptive reality (hiding his intention to kill Claudius); Madness, pretended or real, wears the mask of sanity (pretending to be mad)

"In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him in the other place yourself."

a) Hamlet to Claudius; in response to Claudius asking where is Poloinus' body

b) corruption (Claudius and Polonius going to hell for corruption); characterization of Hamlet: witty and insulting

"How all occasions do inform against me, and spur my dull revenge...O, from this time forth my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth."

a) Hamlet soliloquy

b) characterization of Hamlet; all talk little action (constantly reminded this as he sees other characters like Fortinbras act on their vengeance)

"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance- pray you, love, remember."

a) Ophelia to Laertes

b) madness, pretended or real, wears the mask of sanity (Ophelia seems made, but the plants she gives out have meaning: rosemary = remembrance & death; fennel = male adultery; rue = female adultery)

"Alas, my poor Yorick. I knew him, . . ., a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy."

a) Hamlet to Horatio

b) Yorick's skull: personification of death in Hamlet's hand (death touches us all at some point in our lives)

"Who is this they follow? And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken the corse they follow did with desperate hand fordo it own life."

a) Hamlet to Horatio questioning who's funeral it is

b) dramatic irony: as an audience we know it is Ophelia's funeral, but Hamlet does not know that

"I lov'd her. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum."

a) Hamlet to everyone at Ophelia's funeral

b) characterization of Hamlet: all talk, little action (when he finally admits his love for Ophelia it is too late)

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will-"

a) Hamlet to Horatio; about when he left the boat to England to return home

b) only together can human action and divine providence conspire to elicit human destiny (providence pushed him to act, then his destiny was fulfilled); fate, fortune, & providence

"Not a whit. We defy augury. There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all."

a) Hamlet to Horatio after accepting his fight with Laertes

b) biblical allusion: in the Bible God oversees even every action of a sparrow, so he must weigh into every human's life; only together can human action and divine providence conspire to elicit human destiny; fate, fortune, & providence (everyone will die)

"I am justly killed with my own treachery."

a) Laertes after Hamlet hits him with the poisonous sword

b) vengeance is a devastating, all-consuming passion that causes people to ignore reason and act blindly; poison, corruption; character foil: Hamlet vs. Laertes (revenge with hesitation vs. revenge with passion)

"Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, drink of this potion. Is thy union here? Follow my mother."

a) Hamlet to Claudius as Hamlet kills Claudius

b) vengeance is a devastating, all-consuming passion (in Hamlet's case it makes him doubt and procrastinate everything); poison and corruption; characterization of Hamlet; all talk, little action (he finally finishes his task, but it's too late)

"Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."

a) Horatio to Hamlet after Hamlet dies

b) characterization of Horatio: noble man of sorrow

"So you shall hear of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, of accidental judgments, casual slaughters, of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause, and, in this upshot, purposes mistook fallen on the inventors' heads."

a) Horatio to the Ambassador and Fortinbras; resolution

b) characterization of Horatio: a noble man of his word