Hamlet Irony Quotes

Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death
The memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe…
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we, as ’twere with a defeated joy, –
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole, –
Taken to wife. Nor have we herein barr’d
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Claudius’ first appearance depicts him giving a speech to Queen Gertrude, Hamlet, Polonius and other attendants, that is full of startling hypocrisy. He orders everyone to mourn deeply the death of his brother, the former King Hamlet. He justifies his marriage to his “sometime sister” and King Hamlet’s widow Gertrude and downplays any immorality people may see in it. The audience is not yet aware of the truth of King Hamlet’s murder (by Claudius it will be revealed), and the hypocrisy of Claudius who is not actually mourning King Hamlet’s death. It is an irony to hear him refer to "our dead brother", when he in fact killed him.

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 says this in response to Horatio’s compliment about his late father being a “goodly king.” Hamlet clearly loved his father very much, as shown by this heartfelt tribute to the king and the unique role he played in the prince’s life. Hamlet’s comment that he will never see the like of him again is ironic, since he will meet his father’s Ghost in the next scene.

Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion’d thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be:
For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all, – to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. This famous piece of fatherly advice is by Polonius to Laertes just before the latter leaves for France. Polonius is bidding his son farewell and giving him this rather long list of advice on how he should behave. It shows how much Polonius loves his son. But it also shows the hypocrisy of Polonius as a lot of the advice he dishes out, ironically he doesn’t follow it himself. A case of, do as I say, don’t do as I do.

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. The keynote of Polonius’ famous speech to Laertes who is about to depart for Paris are these final words of wisdom. He counsels his son to be true to himself, which means he cannot be false to anyone else. One cannot overlook the deep irony in Polonius’ oft quoted exercise in sagacity and moral advice. For Polonius is a hypocrite who doesn’t practice what he preaches. After offering his blessing to Laertes to go to Paris, the deceitful Polonius sends someone to spy on him, he spies on daughter Ophelia and Hamlet, and he interferes in Ophelia’s romantic relationship with Hamlet, which contributes to her taking her life.

This is the very ecstasy of love.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 1. Polonius to Ophelia, speaking about Hamlet’s crazy love, after he burst into Ophelia’s chamber half dressed and frantic. Polonius says that his daughter’s rejection of Hamlet has left him mad and they must report this to the King. For a man who prides himself on his superior insights and and his clever stratagems, it is an irony that Polonius is immediately taken in by Hamlet’s pretence of madness because of lovesickness.

The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2. Hamlet wants to gather more evidence on whether Claudius is guilty of murdering his father, as the Ghost has claimed. So he uses theater to assess the truth and test the guilt of the King. He plans to stage a play about a similar murder and watch his uncle’s reaction to it. An example of dramatic irony, as Claudius, along with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern know nothing of Hamlet’s plan to confirm his suspicions about the King.

Are you honest?…
Are you fair?…
For the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to be a bawd…
I did love you once.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1. Hamlet to Ophelia, asking her if she is pure and beautiful. He says that the power of beauty is more likely to change a good girl into a whore, and adds that he used to love her. He is very insulting to Ophelia’s chastity. This is an example of dramatic irony, as Hamlet is really venting his anger towards his mother Gertrude, being disgusted by the process of love and marriage, and believing that beauty corrupts virtue. The cruel and cynical outburst to Ophelia is misdirected here, she is being used by all the men in the scene, her father Polonius, Claudius and by Hamlet to vent his frustrations towards his mother.

O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s eye, tongue, sword;
The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
The observed of all observers!

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1. Ophelia says this when Hamlet leaves the stage after his "Get thee to a nunnery" speech. She is convinced that he is mad and she mourns the downfall of one of Denmark’s most promising young men. In bewailing the lost of such a "noble mind," her own descent into madness is being foreshadowed. Ophelia’s speech is poignantly ironic. Having no inkling of Hamlet’s true motivations for his cruelty, mocking and rejection of her, nor any idea of the real reason for his madness, she sings his praises as a soldier, scholar and courtier.

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I have pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the towncrier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2. Hamlet instructs the actors in the play he has written, advising them not to overact or use large gestures. He is telling the players to at realistically, a paradox because actors do not actout reality, and also dramatic irony because Claudius does not know the play is meant to expose his guilty conscience.

What! frighted with false fire?

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2. Hamlet asks this of Claudius, when Ophelia announces "The king rises," just it gets to the part of the play where the Player King is poisoned. It is obvious Claudius is displeased and appears to betray his guilt in the poisoning of King Hamlet. The murder of the king in the play has startled Claudius enough for him to stop the play. Hamlet’s remark is ironic because he and the audience know exactly why Claudius is acting the way he is but Hamlet must play ignorant and continue to appear mad.

‘Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your lingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2. When Guildenstern says that he cannot play the recorder, Hamlet suggests that it’s as easy as lying – which Guildenstern already does. He means, ironically, that Rosencrantz’s and Guildenstern’s lies sound as ridiculour as a person trying to play a musical instrument without knowing how.

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

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3. Claudius admits that he has not been praying in earnest, when asking God for forgiveness for his brother’s murder. His words reach to heaven, but his thought are in hell. Ironically Hamlet has just decided not to kill Claudius during prayer because he believes this would despatch his uncle straight to heaven. But he doesn’t realize Claudius’ prayer for forgiveness is false.

GERTRUDE: Here, Hamlet, take my napkin; rub thy brows.
The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. [She lifts the cup.]
HAMLET: Good madam.
CLAUDIUS: Gertrude, do not drink.
GERTRUDE: I will, my lord; I pray you pardon me. [She drinks.]
CLAUDIUS [aside] It is the poisoned cup. It is too late.
HAMLET: I dare not drink yet, madam – by and by.
GERTRUDE: Come, let me wipe thy face.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2. Gertrude drinks the cup of poisoned wine that Claudius has prepared for Hamlet, presumably to save her son from certain death. In a motherly gesture Gertrude also wipes the sweat from her son’s brow. In a terrible irony Claudius’ deceiving nature has killed his wife, after Gertrude’s love and loyalty were tested and torn throughout now her husband, in a botched attempt to kill her son, has killed her.
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