Hamlet Personification Quotes

But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastward hill.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 1. Horatio uses figurative language and vivid imagery to signal that it is daybreak and the sun is coming up. He uses the metaphor of “in russet mantle clad” to describe the dawn and its reddish-brown color. The morn is personified as having feet to walk over the dew of a high hill. The quote comes just after the exit of the Ghost, which has made another appearance on the castle battlements.

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 hasty remarriage soon after his father’s death, but also because he believes that she has committed “incest” by wedding his father’s brother. In Shakespearean times such a marriage of close relatives would have been regarded as incest. Personification is used to good effect in this passage, with sheets being described as “incestuous.”

Do not believe his vows; they are brokers,
Not of that dye which their investments show,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,
Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,
The better to beguile.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. Using a complex metaphor and personification, Polonius urges his daughter not to take Hamlet’s professions of love seriously, because his words and pledges cannot be trusted. Polonius likens the prince’s vows to brokers acting on his behalf. He says that they may be dressed in good clothes and pretending to be holy. But the reality is that they are pimps (“bawds”), pleading their unholy case (“suits”), in order to deceive and charm Ophelia, Polonius claims. He is telling her that Hamlet just wants her for sex.
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