Hamlet: Quotation Analysis
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Your analysis of several important quotes from Hamlet should follow these steps:
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4.
Identify the character who is speaking and the character(s) being spoken to.
Paraphrase the quotation. Return to that segment of the play and re-read; provide context as needed.
Interpret the quote. How does it relate to the theme(s) of the play?
Identify and explain any literary device(s) that relate to the quote.
Quote:
Character(s):
Paraphrase:
Interpretation:
Literary
Elements/Techniques/
Dramatic Devices:
Quote:
“But in the gross and scope of my opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state” (1.1.80-81).
Horatio is speaking to Marcellus and Bernardo.
In Horatio’s opinion, the appearance of the ghost indicates that something is terribly wrong within
their country.
Since the ghost of Denmark’s dead king has shown up near the castle for three nights straight, this
suggests that all is not well within their country. It is also the first instance of the play’s recurring
theme—namely that of a seemingly healthy exterior concealing an inward sickness.
Foreshadowing: The ghost’s revelation to Hamlet of his untimely murder and Claudius’s secret
treachery.
“These indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play;
But I have that within which passeth show—
These but the trappings and the suits of woe” (1.2.85-88).
Character(s):
Paraphrase:
Interpretation:
Literary
Elements/Techniques/
Dramatic Devices:
Quote:
Character(s):
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (1.4.100).
Paraphrase:
Interpretation:
Literary
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Quote:
Character(s):
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Interpretation:
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Dramatic Devices:
“The time is out of joint; O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right.” (1.5.207-208).
Quote:
“No, my good lord, but, as you did command,
I did repel his letters and denied
His access to me” (2.1.118-120).
Character(s):
Paraphrase:
Interpretation:
Literary
Elements/Techniques/
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Quote:
“…for there is nothing
either good or bad but thinking makes it so” (2.2.262-263).
Character(s):
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Interpretation:
Literary
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Quote:
“I’ll have grounds
More relative than this. The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King” (2.2.610-612) .
Character(s):
Paraphrase:
Interpretation:
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Elements/Techniques/
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Quote:
Character(s):
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Interpretation:
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Dramatic Devices:
“…To die—to sleep.
To sleep—perchance to dream: ay there’s the rub!” (3.1.72-73).
Quote:
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below;
Words without thoughts never to heaven go” (3.3.100-101).
Character(s):
Paraphrase:
Interpretation:
Literary
Elements/Techniques/
Dramatic Devices:
Quote:
“O, speak to me no more;
These words like daggers enter mine ears” (3.4.104-105).
Character(s):
Paraphrase:
Interpretation:
Literary
Elements/Techniques/
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Quote:
Character(s):
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Interpretation:
Literary
Elements/Techniques/
Dramatic Devices:
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,
And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up…
…But long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death” (4.7.199-208).
Quote:
“But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
That to Laertes I forgot myself;
For, by the image of my cause I see
The portraiture of his” (5.2.80-83).
Character(s):
Paraphrase:
Interpretation:
Literary
Elements/Techniques/
Dramatic Devices:
Quote:
“…we defy augury. There’s a
special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it
be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will
be now; if it be not now, yet it will come:
the readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what
he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes? Let be” (5.2.212-217).
Character(s):
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Interpretation:
Literary
Elements/Techniques/
Dramatic Devices:
Quote:
“Let four captains
Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage,
For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have proved most royal; and for his passage,
The soldier’s music and the rite of war
Speak loudly for him” (5.2.441-446).
Character(s):
Paraphrase:
Interpretation:
Literary
Elements/Techniques/
Dramatic Devices:
Vocabulary:
 trappings: decoration or dress
 woe: sorrow
 perchance: maybe
 rub: obstacle, problem
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augury; a sign or omen
providence: divine guidance
aught: anything
betimes: early