Quotes & Possible Essay Questions for Hamlet

Quotations:

1. "Thrift, thrift, Horatio! The funeral baked meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables." 1.2 (Hamlet)

2. "The serpent that did sting thy father’s life / Now wears his crown." 1.5 (Ghost)

3. "Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, / And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, / I will be brief." 2.2 (Polonius)

4. "Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t." 2.2 (Polonius)

5. "He’s for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps." 2.2 (Hamlet)

6. "Use every man after his desert, and who shall scape whipping? Use them after your own honor and dignity." 2.2 (Hamlet)

7. "The spirit that I have seen / May be a devil: and the devil hath power / T’assume a pleasing shape . . ." 2.2 (Hamlet)

8. "Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind." 3.1 (Ophelia)

9. "Love? His affections do not that way tend; / Nor what he spake, though it lackt form a little, / Was not like madness." 3.1 (Claudius)

10. "Die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year." 3.2 (Hamlet)

11. "O good Horatio, I’ll take the ghost’s word for a thousand pound." 3.2 (Hamlet)

12. "I will speak daggers to her, but use none." 3.2 (Hamlet)

13. "These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears." 3.4 (Gertrude)

14. "Besides, to be demanded of a sponge! What replication should be made by the son of a king?" 4.2 (Hamlet)

15. "Do it, England; / For like the hectic in my blood he rages, / And thou must cure me." 4.3 (Claudius)

16. "Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be." 4.5 (Ophelia)

17. "It warms the very sickness in my heart, / That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, / Thus diddest thou." 4.7 (Laertes)

18. "’Twill not be seen in him there; there the men are as mad as he." 5.1 (Clown)

19. "Forty thousand brothers / Could not, with all their quantity of love, / Make up my sum." 5.1 (Hamlet)

20. "So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to’t." 5.2 (Horatio)

21. "Dost know this water-fly? ... Thy state is the more gracious; for ’tis a vice to know him." 5.2 (Hamlet)

22. "He has my dying voice." 5.2 (Hamlet)

23. "For he was likely, had he been put on / To have proved most royal . . ." 5.2 (Fortinbras)

Possible Essay Questions:

1. Discuss Hamlet’s treatment of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In what way are they part of a pattern that includes Polonius, Osric, and Gertrude? How do they help to point the difference between the followers of fortune and the searchers for wisdom?

2. In what way is Hamlet a typical Renaissance prince? How do his problems and his character serve as a document and introduction to the changes that occurred during the Renaissance?

3. Ophelia falls into the water accidentally and passively drowns. Discuss her death as a symbol of her life, her honor, and her relationship with Hamlet.

4. Discuss Hamlet’s supernatural uncertainties and their ultimate resolution (if any). Does the play contradict or support any of the theories about the ghost?

5. Discuss Claudius as the poisoner of Denmark; does he use the same poison in the goblet at the end of the play as he used on Hamlet’s father before the play began? Does it matter?

6. Discuss Hamlet as the savior of Denmark.

7. It is possible to say that the other characters in the play are mirrors held up to Hamlet’s nature? Discuss the three-part harmony of approval (Laertes, Horatio, Fortinbras) at the end of the play in this context.

8. Why is Hamlet’s tragedy more profound if he does not have a tragic flaw but is, in fact, a superb example of the Renaissance man?

9. Discuss the strategy which Hamlet pursues in his play-long duel with his "mighty opposite," Claudius.

10. Compare and contrast the three pairs of fathers and sons in Hamlet.

11. Discuss the concept of honor as it is presented and attacked in the play.

12. The Renaissance view of death was essentially different from the modern one; compare and contrast the two visions, using examples from Hamlet.

13. Once Hamlet has determined that the King is guilty, he must then decide whether or not he has a right to kill him. Discuss the various Renaissance responses to this complex question.

14. Compare any or all of the Hamlets, including the Olivier, Kevin Kline, Mel Gibson, Branagh, and Jacobi versions.

15. Discuss any one of the Hamlets listed above.

16. Compare and contrast any two films of Hamlet.