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‘Mother, you have my father much offended’ |
Hamlet to Gertrude in reply |
3.4 |
Uses her phrasing to play on the words - reminds her that her hasty marriage is an offence to King Hamlet. |
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‘A bloody deed. Almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king and marry with his brother.’ |
Hamlet to Gertrude | 3.4 |
A couplet in which he tells her what he knows about Claudius’ involvement in his father’s death. |
| ‘O shame, where is thy blush?’ | Hamlet to Gertrude | 3.4 |
Suggests that as Gertrude doesn’t show embarrassment, she’s party to the murder. |
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‘This is the very coinage of your brain’ |
Gertrude to Hamlet |
3.4 |
She can’t see the Ghost and suggests that it’s all in Hamlet’s imagination - casting doubt for the audience. |
| ‘I must be cruel only to be kind’ | Hamlet to Gertrude | 3.4 |
A sane comment implying fondness for his mother and, perhaps, Ophelia? |
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‘… I essentially am not in madness/ But mad in craft.’ |
Hamlet to Gertrude | 3.4 |
Echoing Polonius’ earlier observation that Hamlet’s madness is a pretence for a purpose. |
| ‘Mad as the sea and wind’ | Gertrude to Claudius | 4.1 | A simile to describe Hamlet’s mental state. |
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‘… if indeed you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs...’ |
Hamlet to Claudius |
4.3 |
A gross and cold joke from Hamlet about the whereabouts of Polonius’ body. |
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‘The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England’ |
Claudius soliloquy | 4.3 |
Makes it clear to the audience that Hamlet is being sent to his death. |
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‘… The queen his mother/ Lives almost by his looks,’ |
Claudius to Laertes | 4.7 |
An excuse as to why he hasn’t arrested Hamlet after the murder of Polonius. |
| ‘… my revenge will come’ | Laertes to Claudius | 4.7 |
An ominous declaration, suggesting impending tragedy. |
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‘… are you like the painting of a sorrow, A face without a heart?’ |
Claudius to Laertes | 4.7 |
A simile of emotional blackmail - suggesting that if Laertes loved his father, he’d seek revenge. |
| ‘Revenge should have no bounds’ | Claudius to Laertes | 4.7 |
An ironic statement - the finale of the play shows ‘no bounds’ but ends in tragedy. |
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‘Fell in the weeping brook… Drowned, drowned’ |
Gertrude to Laertes | 4.7 | Telling of Ophelia’s fate. |
| ‘Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio’ | Hamlet to Horatio | 5.1 |
Hamlet famously musing about physical and moral corruption. |