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Pride and Prejudice
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet
Of Mice and Men
Frankenstein

Pride and Prejudice
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet
Of Mice and Men
Frankenstein

Hamlet Character Quotes

A little more than kin, and less than kind.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet’s first words in the play and one of his ironic witticisms. He plays on words in a withering assessment of his relationship with the new king of Denmark, his uncle Claudius, who poisoned his father. Claudius is twice related to him, as uncle and stepfather, but he sees him as neither his kin or kind.

Not so, my lord; I am too much i’ the sun.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet’s response to the King’s question on why he is acting so miserably, "How is it that the clouds still hang on you?" Hamlet is speaking ironically and punning here that Claudius has called him "son" once too often.

Seems, madam! Nay, it is; I know not "seems."

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet’s response when Gertrude asks him why his father’s death "seems" to be affecting him so particularly. Irritated by his mother’s use of the word, Hamlet is genuinely upset about his father’s death and doesn’t just "seem" to be.

But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet makes this reply when his mother asks him why he still seems to upset about his father’s death. He says he doesn’t just seem to be in mourning, but he has feelings inside him that surpass what others can see on the outside with his black mourning clothes.

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy we learn that, following the death of his father and his mother’s remarriage to his father’s brother, Hamlet believes his life is pointless. He wishes that God had not made suicide a sin. Even before he hears the shocking revelations about his father’s death, Hamlet is clearly deeply troubled. Note the use of a metaphor comparing Hamlet’s flesh to melting ice, indicating how depressed he feels.

‘Tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet compares his world to a neglected garden filled with rotting weeds. He is depressed at the corruption that has overtaken the state of Denmark.

That it should come to this!

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet is shocked and furious that his mother has remarried his uncle less than two months after his father’s death.

So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet says that the old king, his father, was a far better king than his uncle. He was so loving towards his mother that he kept the wind from blowing too hard on her face. Using hyperbole, he compares old Hamlet to the Greek god Hyperion and Claudius to a satyr, a woodland horse-like creature that engaged in debauchery and revelry.

Why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet recalls that when his father was alive, his mother loved him very much so that the more time she spent with him the more she wanted to be with him.

Frailty, thy name is woman!

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet’s most famous comment about Gertrude, Queen of Denmark and his mother, is an bitter condemnation of women in general. He is lashing out at his mother’s quick remarriage to his uncle after his father’s death.

A little month.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet is angry that in just a month, before his mother Gertrude had broken in the shoes that she wore to her husband’s funeral, she wed his father’s brother.

Like Niobe, all tears.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet on his mother after his father’s death. But unlike Niobe, Gertrude’s grief didn’t last very long. Niobe, who was Queen of Thebes, had her children slain by the gods because of her arrogance. Zeus turned Niobe to stone – yet still her tears flowed from the rock.

My father’s brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet is expressing his dislike and opposition to King Claudius, whom he sees as the antithesis of King Hamlet, his late father.

She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not, nor it cannot come to good.
But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet is not only disgusted with his mother’s remarriage after his father’s death, but also the fact that she committed "incest" by wedding his father’s brother. In Shakespearean times such a marriage of close relatives would have been regarded as incest.

It is not, nor it cannot come to good.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet believes his mother’s marriage to Claudius and the manner in which it came about is an ominous omen for Denmark. There is a hint of foreshadowing here of the bad things to come.

Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet uses black humor to explain that the reason for his mother’s hasty remarriage after his father’s death, was so that she could save money by serving the leftover funeral food to the wedding guests. Hw is furious at the hypocrisy of meats baked for a funeral coldly furnishing forth the wedding festivities of his uncle and mother.

In my mind’s eye, Horatio.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. When Horatio arrives to tell Hamlet of the sightings of his father’s ghost, Hamlet pre-empts the convervation by saying he thinks he sees him in his "mind’s eye" (in his head).

He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Hamlet’s response to Horatio’s compliment about his late father being a "goodly king." Hamlet’s words are an elegant tribute to the irreplaceable presence his father was in his life. Hamlet clearly loved his father very much.

All is not well;
I doubt some foul play.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. After hearing about the Ghost, Hamlet suspects foul play and political corruption in the death of his father. This is foreshadowing of revelations and events to come.

Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. After the appearance of the Ghost of his father, wearing armor, Hamlet says how he suspects foul play – political corruption – in the death of his King Hamlet. The lines foreshadow that bad deeds, no matter how deeply hidden, will be revealed.

A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute; no more.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. Overprotective brother Laertes warns his sister Ophelia to spurn the advances of her suitor Hamlet. He says his motives are not honest and he will use her as a plaything.

But you must fear,
His greatness weigh’d, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth:
He may not, as unvalued persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The safety and health of this whole state;
And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
Unto the voice and yielding of that body
Whereof he is the head.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. Laertes tells Ophelia that Hamlet cannot marry who he wants to. He is bound by the needs of the royal family and has to marry with the safety and security of the entire country in mind. In other words a marriage between Ophelia and Hamlet is impossible.

And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire,
The chariest maid is prodigal enough
If she unmasks her beauty to the moon.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. Some brotherly advice from Laertes as he warns his sister off Hamlet. He advises Ophelia not to give herself to a man outside of mariage because a "deflowered" woman is seen as damaged goods that no man wishes to marry.

The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. Laertes is warning his sister Ophelia away from her relationship with Hamlet, whom he compares with a disease that will ruin the flower of her youthful chasity before it blossoms.

You speak like a green girl,
Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. Polonius is disgusted at his daughter Ophelia’s romantic relationship with Hamlet. Treating her as if she were a child, he belittles her as an innocent girl, inexperienced in the ways of love and sex. Polonius manipulates and exerts control over his daughter.

My lord, he hath importuned me with love
In honourable fashion.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. Ophelia defends Hamlet despite the fact that her father and brother have both warned her about the dangers of their realationship. Polonius then twists her words and dismisses Hamlet’s romantic advances as mere "fashion."

Springes to catch woodcocks.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. Using the metaphor of a bird trap, Polonius tells his daughter Ophelia that Hamlet’s displays of affection to her are traps to enshare fools.

When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. When you’re in lust, you will be quick to say things you don’t means to get what you want, Polonius warns daughter Ophelia. He is referring to Hamlet’s attentions to her, suggesting he is more after her body than anything.

Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. A controlling and protective Polonius advises Ophelia to play hard to get when it come to her crush Hamlet. He cautions his daughter to make herself a little more unavailable to him. He really doesn’t want her to see him at all! Poor Ophelia cannot even choose her own relationships.

But to my mind, – though I am native here
And to the manner born, – it is a custom
More honour’d in the breach than the observance.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 4. The custom of the Danes drinking too much wine would be more honored by quitting it altogether, observes Hamlet. He says this as Claudius stays up all night partying, carousing and dancing. The passage is suggestive of an atmosphere of corruption lingering over the royal palace of Elsinore.

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