Hamlet analysis
Marie Burrell
Kelly Hasapis
April 13, 2008
AP English IV
Who’s there
Said by Barnardo in Act I Scene one when he and Marcellus enter the castle grounds and come across Horatio.
And let us once again assail your ears/ that are so fortified against our story.
Barnardo says this in act I Scene I to Horatio to get him to sit and listen to his and Marcellus’ story of the ghost sighting.
Nor have we herein barr’e / Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone/ with this affair along.
Said by King Claudius in Act I Scene II, while he is talking to Hamlet about his marriage to his mother and how he acknowledges Hamlets feelings on the topic.
‘tis an unweeded garden / That grows to see, things rank and gross in nature/ posses it merely
Hamlet says this in a sillioqy in Act I Scence II about his mothers hasty marriage to his uncle after his father’s death and how he wishes his death to be rid of all of the foul things in the world.
O God a beast that wants discourse of reason/ would have mourn’d longer-
Hamlet says this to himself in Act I Scene II about how he does not want to think of how his mother remarried only tow months after his fathers death and then goes on about how she is impulsive and incestuous.
I’ll call thee Hamlet, king, father, royal Dane
In Act I Scene IV, Hamlet says this to the ghost who is meandering about the casltle grounds at night. He calls him this to try and get the ghost to speak to him about why he is not resting peacefully.
Heaven will direct it
In Act I Scene IV, Horatio says this in response to Marcellus saying that something foul is afoot in the kingdom. He is agreeing and says that God will take care of it.
The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/ Now wears his crown
In Act I scene V, the ghost says this to Hamlet about who murdered him, meaning that the now king and husband to Hamlet’s mother, Claudius, the ghosts brother, killed him. This brings in Hamlets idea for revenge.
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,/ Unhous’led, disappointed, unanal’d
Act I scene V, the ghost explains how his brother killed him before he could repent for his sins committed in life and that is why he is doomed to be a ghost until he is avenged.
O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right!
Act I scene V, Hamlet says this towards Horatio and the ghost about how he is the one who has to fix everything now despite what he really wants. He asks Horatio to not speak of the encounter and promises revenge for the ghost.
By indirections find directions out
Act II scene I, Polonius says this to Reynaldo about indirectly spying on is son for him to make sure he stays out of trouble in Paris.
Brevity is the soul of wit
Act II scene II, Polonius says this to Gertrude by cutting to the chase and telling her that Hamlet has gone mad. In the end, Hamlet is not really mad as the others perceive him, he just plays along with it to confuse them.
For there is nothing either good or bad, but brevity makes it so
Act II scene II, Hamlet says this to Rosencrantz and Guilderstern about how Denmark has become a prison to him, where he is to be watched by his own friends and not allowed to mourn his father’s death and nothing really goes on in his life anymore to where it has become dull.
What, my young lady and mistress! By’ lady, your ladyship is near to heaven than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine
Act II scene II, one of the players says this to another he has not seen in a while about how they have grown taller and he hopes his voiced hasn’t changed yet since he will not be able to play the part of a girl anymore.
So as a painted tyrant Pyrrhus stood/ And like a neutral to his will and matter,/ Did nothing
The spirit I have seen/ may be a dev’l, and the dev’l hath power/ T’assume a pleasing shape, yea and perhaps,/ Out of my weakness and my melancholy… Abuses me to damn me.
Act II scene II, hamlet says a speech to one of the players in which Aeneus tells Dido of her husbands murder, which is in relation to the kings murder. He later goes into asking the players to perform a play in which he will gage his uncles reaction as it will recreate a scenario with the kings murder to see if he committed it or not.
The undiscovere’d country, from whose bourn/ No traveler returns puzzles the will,… Thus concience makes cowards of us all.
Act III scene I, Hamlet says this to himself while carrying a book into the area where Ophelia is set up to “bump” into him to see if he is mad over her love. He is talking about death and how he does not understand how people put up with life’s faults. Death is a place where no one retrns from and it is death that scares men alike into living.
To hold as ‘twere the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature… pressure.
Act III scene II, Hamlet says this to one of the players about how they say things during a play and how if they do not convey the messege they want, the it is lost and the people just laugh without knowing it
A second time I’ll kill my husband dead,/ When second husband kisses me in bed.
Act III scene II, the queen in the play Hamlet wrote, “The Mousetrap”, she speaks of how she would kill her first husband again all to be with her new husband. Hamlet adds this in there to show how the real queen is acting, how quickly she got over her first husband’s death to be with her second husband.
This is one Lucianus nephew to the king
Act III scene II, Hamlet says this to Ophelia upon Lucianus’ entrance into the play Hamlet made. He plays what would be Claudius’ role in life, the murderer to the king.
Some act/ That has no relish of salvation in’t-
Act II scene III, Hamlet says this while he watches the king pray when he was just about to kill hi but decided not to. He decides that he will kill him when he catches him doing some faithless act, which is better that while he is “repenting.” Claudius isn’t really praying though, he can’t really find it in him to do so.
A bloody deed! Almost as bad good mother/ As kill a king and marry with his brother
Act III scene IV, Hamlet says this to his mother about the fact that he just killed who he thought was the king behind a curtain, but was really Polonius, which is almost as bad as her marriage to her recently murdered husband’s brother. He saw it as a king for a king.
Thou turn’st my eyes into my very soul/ And thee I see such black and grained spots/ As will not leave their tinct,
Act III scene IV, Gertrude says this to Hamlet when he begins telling her of her faults ands makes her realize what she has done although she doesn’t want to admit it.
Heaven hath pleas’d it so/ To punish me with this, and this with me,/ That I must be their scourge and minister
Act III scene IV, hamlet says this to Gertrude about his murder of Polonius and how he has been sent to make right of another unjust murder, he is both good and evil.
My mother: father and mother is man and wife, and man and wife is one flesh- so my mother
Act IV scene III, Hamlet says this to Claudius when he said that he is now his father. Hamlet says that since he married his mother, he became apart of her, therefore, he cannot be his father, he is his mother and he will acknowledge him so.
Now, whether it be/ Bestial oblivion or some craven scruple/ of thinking too precisely on th’ event… I do not know/ Why yet I live to say, “This thing’s to do,”
Act IV scene IV, Hamlet says this after the others leave when they meet one of Fortinbras’ men. He talks of what a waist a person can be when they do nothing with any of their power.
To cut his throat I’th; church
Act IV scene IV, Larates says this to the King while plotting Hamlet’s murder with him. He plans to get revenge on him for killing his father and not even a curch will protect him. Afterwards, it will be named and accident.
This is I,/ Hamlet the Dane!
Act V scene I, Hamlet says this when he jumps into Ophelia’s grave. He and Larates argue over who loved her more.
There’s a divinity that shapes out end, Rough-hew them how we will
Act v scene II, says this to Horatio when telling him of his escape from the pirates. He says that things will always work out on the end with God no matter how much they screw up.
He should those bearers put to sudden death,/ Not shriving time allowed
Act V scene II, Hamlet tells Horatio that the letter he wrote that he gave to Rosencrantz and Guilderstern said that whoever delivered it should die, and that’s how they died and this gave him time to get away.
So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to’t
Act V scene II, Horatio asks Hamlet if he meant for them to die and Hamlet said they asked for it because they interfered in matters bigger than themselves.
It’s not perfect conscience/ to quit him with this arm? And is’t not to be damn’d. To let this canker of our nature come/ In further evil?
Act V scene II, Hamlet asks Horatio if it would be better for him to kill the king now with a sword and an easy conscience than to let him live on and do more horrible things.
The readiness is all
Act V scene II, Hamlet says this to Horatio about how things are destined to work out in the end and that one must be prepaired.
Drink of this poison! Is thy union here? Follow my mother!
Act V scene II, Hamlet says this to the king when his mother dies after drinking the poison cup destined for Hamlet the king set up. Hamlet forces the king to follow his love into death by taking poison himself.
Absent they from felicity a while, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain/ to tell my story
Act V scene II, the dying Hamlet stops Horati from taking poison and tells him to live on to tell his story to others.
But I do prophesy th’ election lights on Fortinbras, he has my dying voice
Act V scene II, Hamlet gives his dying approval of Fortinbras to be the next king of Denmark.
Now, cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
ACT V SCENE II, HORATIO SAYS THIS WHEN HAMLET DIES AND THEN HE HEARS THE ADVANCE OF DRUMS IN THE CASTLE.
Give order that these bodies high on a stae be placed to view and let me speak to th’yet unknowing world how these things came about.
Horatio asks that the bodies be placed on view and that he will tell Fortinbras what went on with their deaths.