Hamlet 101:

Act 1 Scene 1:

“This bodes some strange eruption to our state”

Act 1 Scene 2:

“A little more than kin and less than kind”

“Good Hamlet, cast thy knighted colour off”

“All that lives must die”

“Tis unmanly grief”

“We pray you throw to earth, this unprevailing woe” pointless sorrow

“O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew”

“Frailty, thy name is woman”

“My father’s brother, but no more like my father, Than I to Hercules:”

“But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue”

Act 1 scene 3:

“His will is not his own, For he himself is subject to his birth.” - Laertes

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be”

“I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, Have you so slander any moment leisure, as to give
words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.”

Act 1 scene 4:

“ The dram of evil, Doth all the noble substance over-daub, to his own scandal”

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” – Marcellus

Act 1 scene 5:

“Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder”.

“May sweep to my revenge.”

“The serpent that did sting thy father’s life, now wears his crown.”

“Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,”

“O, most pernicious woman!,

O villain, villain, smiling damned villain!”

“That one may smile and smile and be a villain.”

“O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right!”

Act 2 scene 1:

None

Act 2 scene 2: (2nd soliloquy)

“If, like a crab you could go backward” Hamlet mocks Polonius

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t” – speech appears mad, there is logic in it.

“Denmark’s a prison”

“I am but mad north-north west, when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw”.

“O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!”

“But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall”.

“The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King” rhyming couplet

Act 3 scene 1: (3rd soliloquy)

“To be, or not to be; that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and

arrows of outrageous fortune.”

“To die, to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream.”

“Thus, conscience does make cowards of us all.” – Trying to be rational can make you a fool

“Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?” – Go to a covenant, don’t get

married, and breed more sinner children.

“Wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them.” – Marry a fool, as reasonably ones

know you cheat on them.

Act 3 scene 2: (actors)

“Give me that man, that is not passions’ slave, and I will wear him in my heart’s core” – Horatio

doesn’t let his emotions get to him and Hamlet admires that and wants that for himself.

“I must be idle” – Pretend to be mad, act the fool

“Tis brief, my lord.” – Ophelia

“As woman’s love” – Hamlet views women as an obstacle for men

“The lady protests too much, methinks” – Gertrude believes the actor’s words of love are so

overdone they lack credibility. Trying the save face? Or simply commenting on acting quality.

“Do you think I am easier to be played on then a pipe? – Rhetorical

“Let me be cruel, not unnatural. I will speak daggers to her but use none.”

Act 3 scene 3: ( Hamlet’s departure and Claudius’s confession)

“O, my offence is rank! It smells to heaven. It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t, A brother’s

murder.” – In the Bible, Cain killed his brother Abel and was cursed by God as a result. [Motif]

imagery of disease and death.

“My crown, mine own ambition, and my Queen” – Claudius [give up achievements]

“Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent” – Hamlet [must put sword away until something

occurs]

“My words fly up; my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go” –

rhyming couplet

Act 3 scene 4:[ Polonius’s death, hamlet unrepentant, Ghost reappears]

“Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.” – Gertrude

“Mother, you have my father much offended.” – Hamlet mocks her [snappy reply]

“Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell. I took thee for thy better.” – Hamlet’s true opinion on

Polonius.

“O Hamlet, speak no more! Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul, And there I see such black and

grained spots” Gertude remorse

“I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft”.

Act 4 scene 1: [ Gert tells Clad about Polonius death and he is threatened]

“Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend which is the mightier” – simile [Hamlet’s welfare]

“Shows itself pure- he weeps for what is done” – Gertrude exaggerates madness

Act 4 scene 2: [ Hamlet refuses to reveal location of body, exposes Claudius to R & G, runs away]

“When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry

again.” – Hamlet warns them that King will dispose them.

Act 4 scene 3: [Hamlet’s staged execution]

“He’s loved of the distracted[irrational] multitude, who like not in their judgment but their eyes, and

where ‘tis so, the offender’s scourge[punishment] is weighed, but never the offence.” – Citizens like

his appearance rather than forming an op on Hamlet – Claudius.

Act 4 scene 4: [Contrast between Fortinbras and Hamlet, end of procrastination, Soliloquy]

“How all occasions do inform against me and spur my dull revenge!” evidence against Hamlet but

wasn’t done anything, urges him to act. – Hamlet

“O, from this time forth my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! – promises violence

Act 4 scene 5: [Ophelia mad, Laertes and Claudius plan, flowers]

“Only I’ll be revenged most thoroughly for my father.” – Laertes man of action

“And where th’offence is, let the great axe fall. I pray you go with me.” – Claudius [irony]

Act 4 scene 7: [Ophelia’s death, hamlet is coming back]

“She’s so conjunctive to my life and soul… I could not but by her ” – Claudius affection towards

Gertude
“The rather, if you could devise it so that I might be the organ” – Laertes theme of revenge

“Revenge should have no bounds” – Claudius – irony

“I’ll touch my point” – plan to kill Hamlet

“Till that her garments , heavy with their drink, pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay to

muddy death.” – shows admiration for her and personification and alliteration

Act 5 scene 1: [Gravediggers, Laertes and Hamlet see each other, Laertes jumps in grave, Hanlet

realises what ever important everyone turns to dust”

“My Lady Worms” – Hamlet

“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio – a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent

fancy[ imagination]. He hath borne me on his back a 1000 times and now, how abhorred [horrid] in

my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it” – Hamlet – Major theme of death, hamlet sees changes in

personality.

“I loved Ophelia. Forty thousands brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my

sum.” – Hamlet - Could be genuine or trying to outshine Laertes extravagant, hysterical expressions

of sorrow.

Act 5 scene 2:[ Final scene, death of R & G, Osric details to the fencing match, Apologies for

madness, Gertrude dies , Claud half-hearted attempt to save her, Laertes guilty, Poision-tipped

sword stabs both, confession from Laertes, hamlet kills King forcibly, Fortinbras new king.

“I here proclaim was madness” – not putting up a front, true insanity.” – Hamlet

“I am justly killed by my own treachery” – Laertes.

“I am poisoned” – Gertrude.

“The King, the King’s to blame” – Laertes

“Treason, treason!” – people

“Drink off this potion. Is thy union[pearl] here? Follow my mother.” – Hamlet

“Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince.” – Horatio – His opinion on him, religious

language and admiration for him.

“He has my dying voice… The rest is silence” – Hamlet [last line]

“To thine own self to true” – Polonius

Initial performance in 1602

Setting - Late middle ages

Theme of Innocence- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern caught in the crossfire of political intrigue and

betrayal

 Shakespeare uses antithesis to express Hamlet’s confusion at seeing the

ghost of his father: “Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned, Bring
with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or
charitable, Thou com’st in such a questionable shape” (1.4.40-3)

Antithesis in iconic line, “To be or not to be”