QUOTES ANSWER KEY ACT 2
1. Polonius to Claudius- speaking about the agreement reached with Norway.
2. Polonius (aside) with Hamlet in the room- they are discussing Ophelia and
Hamlet’s relationship. Polonius, convinced that Hamlet is truly mad, nonetheless
recognizes in his speech some "method"—that is, a kind of artfulness and order.
Whether he appreciates Hamlet's point is unclear. Polonius diagnoses Hamlet's
madness as a form of "love-melancholy," considered a full-fledged disease in the
Renaissance.
3. Hamlet to Rosencrantz – he is saying that he feels as though Demark is a prison,
Rosencrantz disagrees and Hamlet says well then it must not be a prison to you.
4. Hamlet to Rosencrantz -- What piece of work is a
man? How noble his reason, how infinite his faculties. In form and
motion, how expressive and admirable in action! How like an angel, in his
apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world, the
paragon of animals. Yet to me, what is this quintessence of
dust? Man does not delight me, nor woman either - but by your
smiles, you seem to think so.
Man is the noblest of all God's pieces of work, the "quintessence of dust" (the
fifth, or purest, extract from the dust of which all things are compounded).
Despite the nobility, the reason, the grace, and the beauty of man, Hamlet cannot
be delighted. At least, so he tells the king's parasites, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern, as he explains his melancholia. This is one of the moments where
Hamlet's sincerity is genuinely in question. Hamlet's disgust here seems more
than an act, though perhaps he exaggerates for the benefit of the king's spies.
5. Hamlet to himself-- When exclaiming "The play's the thing!" we're seldom asked
the embarrassing question of what "thing" we mean, exactly. Prince Hamlet,
however, has something specific in mind. To elicit visible proof of what a rather
visible ghost has told him—that his uncle, King Claudius, murdered his father, the
former king—the prince turns playwright. His task: to sneak a few telling lines
into a play about regicide his uncle will be watching at court, and to wait for
Claudius to flinch.
If Hamlet's plan works, he'll be convinced of both the ghost's veracity and the
king's guilt and will (theoretically) feel better about paying his uncle back in kind.