hamlet revenge essay with quotes

20 'Hamlet' Revenge Quotes Explained For Students And Parents

Hamlet is the longest play written by Shakespeare, with 30, 557 words. The story is set in Denmark.

Written between 1599 and 1601, 'Hamlet' is a Shakespeare tragedy . It follows Hamlet as he tries to exact vengeance on his uncle Claudius for murdering his father.

Adding to the tragedy, Claudius is his mother’s lover. But as a son, he must kill Claudius to avenge his father.

Claudius murdered Hamlet’s father for his throne and wife. Let us study these great 'Hamlet' quotes about revenge to get a better Hamlet character analysis. You'll come to know more about this play with the help of these quotes.

The story seems truly gripping, in every sense. If you like these quotes about revenge in 'Hamlet', check out [ 'Hamlet' madness quotes ] and 'King Lear' quotes .

Best Hamlet Revenge Quotes

These are some of the best Hamlet revenge quotes on Claudius from the play. These quotes by Shakespeare will truly impress you. Read on for 'Hamlet' revenge quotes in Act 1, 'Hamlet' revenge quotes in Act 2, 'Hamlet' revenge quotes in Act 4, 'Hamlet' revenge quotes Act 5 that will help you study and understand the play.

1. "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder."

- The Ghost.

Hamlet determines to revenge the treacherous death of his father throughout the play.

2. "I dare damnation. To this point I stand, That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes, only I'll be revenged Most thoroughly for my father."

Laertes swears to find out who killed his father Polonius and avenge him.

3. “O, from this point forth my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!”

Hamlet vows to think of nothing else but revenge against his uncle for killing his father.

4. “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying, / And now I’ll do’t. / And so he goes to heaven, / And so I am revenged. That would be scanned: / a villain kills my father, and for that, / I, his sole son, do this same villain send / to heaven.”

Hamlet finds a reason to not kill Claudius. He thinks killing Claudius while praying will send him to heaven and not hell.

5. “No place, indeed, should murder Sanctuarize; Revenge should have no bounds.”

- King Claudius.

King Claudius tells Laertes that revenge should have no bounds.

6. “What would he do, had he the motive and the cue for passion that I have?”

Hamlet is surprised at the passion the actor shows for Hecuba and implores everyone to imagine how he would react if he had the cause for feelings like him.

7. “O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!

/ Is it not monstrous that this player here, / But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, / Could force his soul so to his own conceit / That from her working all his visage wann’d, / Tears in his eyes, distraction in’s aspect, / A broken voice, and his whole function suiting / With forms to his conceit?

and all for nothing!

/ For Hecuba!”

Hamlet insults himself for failing to avenge his father. He then shows surprise at the performance of an actor who pretends to cry over Hecuba.

8. "Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric. / I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery."

By letting his emotions get the better of himself, Laertes succeeds in avenging his father but at the cost of his own life.

9. “For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ.”

Hamlet determines to find out the truth about the death of his father.

10. “Haste me to know ’t, that I, with wings as swift / As meditation or the thoughts of love, / May sweep to my revenge.”

Hamlets implies that he will take revenge as quickly as the mind can think.

11. “By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me.”

Hamlet says that he will make a ghost of anyone who tries to stop him from following the ghost.

12. “God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.”

Hamlet agrees that women should just be themselves, look and act as they are.

Famous Hamlet Revenge Quotes

Some more famous 'Hamlet' quotes about revenge are explained here. This play touched upon a lot of dramatic points, and has impressed people even centuries ahead of its time. Pick your favorite quotes from the best act and scene in the play.

13. “Leave her to heaven. And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, to prick and sting her.”

The ghost of Hamlet’s father returns and asks him to leave his mother be.

14. “Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange and unnatural.”

King Hamlet’s murder by Claudius is most foul because it is done in a sneaky way and it’s unnatural because a brother is supposed to love his brother, not kill him.

15. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

Hamlet says that nothing in this world is good or bad but what we think of it.

16. “Remember thee! Yea, from the table of my memory, I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records.”

He says he will wipe his mind of all the past fond memories and focus only on avenging his father.

17. “Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion!”

Hamlet says this to Claudius just before his death.

18. “Your worm is your only emperor for diet; we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots.”

Hamlet says that worms are the emperors of all diets. Just like we fatten up other creatures for our food, we fatten ourselves to be eaten by them upon our death.

19. “Though this be madness, yet there is a method in't.”

- Polonius.

Polonius implies that even though Hamlet is acting crazy, he is only pretending to be mad.

20. “I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.”

Hamlet is confused because he wants to kill his father’s murderer but doesn’t want to hurt his mother.

Here at Kidadl , we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 'Hamlet' revenge quotes explained for students and parents, then why not take a look at 'The Tempest' quotes and 'Twelfth Night' quotes ?

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Hamlet Revenge Quotes

Unhand me, gentlemen. By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me!

– William Shakespeare

So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.

Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

Haste me to know it, that I with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love May sweep to my revenge.

I find thee apt, And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, Wouldst thou not stir in this.

Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat In this distracted globe. Remember thee! Yea, from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records.

The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right!

POLONIUS: Will you walk out of the air, my lord? HAMLET: Into my grave.

What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her?

A dull and muddy-mettled rascal.

Am I a coward? Who calls me villain, breaks my pate across.

Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindles villain! O, vengeance! Why, what an ass am I!

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

This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.

Come: ‘the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.’

‘Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood. And do such bitter business as the day Would quake to look on.

Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; And now I’ll do ‘t. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be scann’d: A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven.

This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.

Dead, for a ducat, dead!

For this same lord, I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so, To punish me with this and this with me, That I must be their scourge and minister.

A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.

We go to gain a little patch of ground, That hath in it no profit but the name.

What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more… Sith I have cause and will and strength and means To do ‘t… Rightly to be great Is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When honour’s at the stake. How stand I then, That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d, Excitements of my reason and my blood, And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see The imminent death of twenty thousand men, That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause.

How all occasions do inform against me, And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.

One part wisdom and ever three parts coward.

How stand I then, That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d, Excitements of my reason, and my blood, And let all sleep, while to my shame I see The imminent death of twenty thousand men, That for a fantasy and trick of fame Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause.

From this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard, Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow Of my true mother.

How came he dead? I’ll not be juggled with: To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil! Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation. To this point I stand, That both the worlds, I give to negligence, Let come what comes; only I’ll be revenged Most thoroughly for my father.

Hamlet and Revenge

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What is arguably Shakespeare 's greatest play, "Hamlet,"​ is often understood to be a revenge tragedy, but it is quite an odd one at that. It is a play driven by a protagonist who spends most of the play contemplating revenge rather than exacting it.

Hamlet’s inability to avenge the murder of his father drives the plot and leads to the deaths of most of the major characters , including Polonius, Laertes, Ophelia, Gertrude, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. And Hamlet himself is tortured by his indecision and his inability to kill his father's murderer, Claudius, throughout the play.

When he finally does exact his revenge and kills Claudius, it is too late for him to derive any satisfaction from it; Laertes has struck him with a poisoned foil and Hamlet dies shortly after. Take a closer look at the theme of revenge in Hamlet.

Action and Inaction in Hamlet

To highlight Hamlet’s inability to take action, Shakespeare includes other characters capable of taking resolute and headstrong revenge as required. Fortinbras travels many miles to take his revenge and ultimately succeeds in conquering Denmark; Laertes plots to kill Hamlet to avenge the death of his father, Polonius.

Compared to these characters, Hamlet’s revenge is ineffectual. Once he decides to take action, he delays any action until the end of the play. It should be noted that this delay is not uncommon in Elizabethan revenge tragedies. What makes "Hamlet" different from other contemporary works is the way in which Shakespeare uses the delay to build Hamlet’s emotional and psychological complexity. The revenge itself ends up being almost an afterthought, and in many ways, is anticlimactic. 

Indeed, the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy is Hamlet's debate with himself about what to do and whether it will matter. Though the piece begins with his pondering suicide, Hamlet's desire to avenge his father becomes clearer as this speech continues. It's worth considering this soliloquy in its entirety. 

To be, or not to be- that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them. To die- to sleep- No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die- to sleep. To sleep- perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub! For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th' unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death- The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn No traveler returns- puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action.- Soft you now! The fair Ophelia!- Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins rememb'red.

Over the course of this eloquent musing on the nature of self and death and what actions he should take, Hamlet remains paralyzed by indecision.

How Hamlet's Revenge is Delayed

Hamlet’s revenge is delayed in three significant ways. First, he must establish Claudius’ guilt, which he does in Act 3, Scene 2 by presenting the murder of his father in a play. When Claudius storms out during the performance, Hamlet becomes convinced of his guilt.

Hamlet then considers his revenge at length, in contrast to the rash actions of Fortinbras and Laertes. For example, Hamlet has the opportunity to kill Claudius in Act 3, Scene 3. He draws his sword but is concerned that Claudius will go to heaven if killed while praying.

After killing Polonius, Hamlet is sent to England making it impossible for him to gain access to Claudius and carry out his revenge. During his trip, becomes more headstrong in his desire for revenge.

Although he does ultimately kill Claudius in the final scene of the play , it's not due to any scheme or plan by Hamlet, rather, it is Claudius’ plan to kill Hamlet that backfires.

• Hamlet Plot Summary
• Hamlet Themes
• 'Hamlet' Overview
• 'Hamlet' Themes and Literary Devices
• Death as a Theme in Hamlet
• 'Hamlet' Summary
• A Scene-by-Scene Breakdown of 'Hamlet'
• 'Hamlet' Characters: Descriptions and Analysis
• 'Hamlet' Quotes Explained
• Hamlet Character Analysis
• The Prevalent Social and Emotional Themes in the Play "Hamlet"
• A Study Guide for William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet,' Act 3
• 'Hamlet' Act 1 Summary, Scene by Scene
• What Is a Soliloquy? Literary Definition and Examples
• 'To Be, or Not to Be:' Exploring Shakespeare's Legendary Quote
• Tragic Flaw: Literary Definition and Examples

William Shakespeare

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Every society is defined by its codes of conduct—its rules about how to act and behave. In  Hamlet , the codes of conduct are largely defined by religion and an aristocratic code that demands honor—and revenge if honor has been soiled. As the play unfolds and Hamlet (in keeping with his country’s spoken and unspoken) rules) seeks revenge for his father’s murder, he begins to realize just how complicated vengeance, justice, and honor all truly are. As Hamlet plunges deeper and deeper into existential musings, he also begins to wonder about the true meaning of honor—and Shakespeare ultimately suggests that the codes of conduct by which any given society operates are, more often than not, muddy, contradictory, and confused.

As Hamlet begins considering what it would mean to actually get revenge—to actually commit murder—he begins waffling and languishing in indecision and inaction. His inability to act, however, is not necessarily a mark of cowardice or fear—rather, as the play progresses, Hamlet is forced to reckon very seriously with what retribution and violence in the name of retroactively reclaiming “honor” or glory actually accomplishes. This conundrum is felt most profoundly in the middle of Act 3, when Hamlet comes upon Claudius totally alone for the first time in the play. It is the perfect opportunity to kill the man uninterrupted and unseen—but Claudius is on his knees, praying. Hamlet worries that killing Claudius while he prays will mean that Claudius’s soul will go to heaven. Hamlet is ignorant of the fact that Claudius, just moments before, was lamenting that his prayers for absolution are empty because he will not take action to actually repent for the violence he’s done and the pain he’s caused. Hamlet is paralyzed in this moment, unable to reconcile religion with the things he’s been taught about goodness, honor, duty, and vengeance. This moment represents a serious, profound turning point in the play—once Hamlet chooses not to kill Claudius for fear of unwittingly sending his father’s murderer to heaven, thus failing at the concept of revenge entirely, he begins to think differently about the codes, institutions, and social structures which demand unthinking vengeance and religious piety in the same breath. Because the idea of a revenge killing runs counter to the very tenets of Christian goodness and charity at the core of Hamlet’s upbringing—regardless of whether or not he believes them on a personal level—he begins to see the artifice upon which all social codes are built.

The second half of the play charts Hamlet’s descent into a new worldview—one which is very similar to nihilism in its surrender to the randomness of the universe and the difficulty of living within the confines of so many rules and standards at one time. As Hamlet gets even more deeply existential about life and death, appearances versus reality, and even the common courtesies and decencies which define society, he exposes the many hypocrisies which define life for common people and nobility alike. Hamlet resolves to pursue revenge, claiming that his thoughts will be worth nothing if they are anything but “bloody,” but at the same time is exacting and calculating in the vengeances he does secure. He dispatches with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern , charged with bringing him to England for execution, by craftily outwitting them and sending them on to their own deaths. He laments to Horatio that all men, whether they be Alexander the Great or a common court jester, end up in the same ground. Finally, he warns off Horatio’s warning about dueling Laertes by claiming that he wants to leave his fate to God. Hamlet’s devil-may-care attitude and his increasingly reckless choices are the result of realizing that the social and moral codes he’s clung to for so long are inapplicable to his current circumstances—and perhaps more broadly irrelevant.

Hamlet is a deeply subversive text—one that asks hard, uncomfortable questions about the value of human life, the indifference of the universe, and the construction of society, culture, and common decency. As Hamlet pursues his society’s ingrained ideals of honor, he discovers that perhaps honor means something very different than what he’s been raised to believe it does—and confronts the full weight of society’s arbitrary, outdated expectations and demands.

Religion, Honor, and Revenge ThemeTracker

Religion, Honor, and Revenge Quotes in Hamlet

Thrift, thrift, Horatio! The funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

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.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

O, villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!

O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form, in moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

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

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

We defy augury. There is 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.

Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Revenge is the Overarching Theme of the Play Hamlet

This essay will analyze the theme of revenge in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” It will explore how the pursuit of vengeance drives the plot and shapes the characters, particularly Hamlet, Claudius, and Laertes. The piece will discuss how Shakespeare presents revenge as a complex and morally ambiguous force, examining its impact on the characters’ psyche and the overall tragedy. It will also consider how the theme of revenge in “Hamlet” reflects Elizabethan attitudes and contributes to the play’s enduring relevance and dramatic power. Also at PapersOwl you can find more free essay examples related to Hamlet.

How it works

Revenge is a strange idea. It has been around since the dawn of time. An Eye for an eye, right? If someone hits you, you hit them back harder. In the play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare, Revenge is the overarching theme of the play. It shows what revenge can do to a person. Hamlet views revenge as a good deed: something that he must complete to avenge his dad. Revenge is binary, meaning it isn’t only the act of revenge, there are many layers to it for example, who it hurts or who it benefits.

The play has several critical turning points where revenge is apparent and shows what revenge can do to people, especially Hamlet. Revenge is necessary to preserve honor, according to Hamlet, therefore, Hamlet’s actions to choose revenge were justified. Hamlet seeks revenge due to his existentialism if we examine his views on life we see he rejects the role of regular society to dictate morality and its role in the process of morality choices. Hamlets existentialism allows his decisions to be amplified and elevated and ultimately he justifies his behavior.the first point of emphasis on revenge occurs when Hamlet speaks to his father, Old Hamlet.

In Act 1 scene 1, Hamlet talks to his dad in the form of a ghost, and learns his father was murdered, by Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle and his father’s brother, Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.(1.5, 25) This quote is the beginning of Hamlet’s existential crisis. He is ordered from his father to murder his killer which Hamlet was ready to take revenge for his horrible murder. Hamlet believes that he will feel alleviated, relieved, and internally motivated due to avenging his father, Haste me to know ‘t, that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge.(1.5, 30) This quote reveals that Hamlet isn’t afraid to kill anyone, and is happy too. It shows that revenge is evident in the play, and that is will be a major factor in what the characters desire. But it isn’t that simple. Murder is against Hamlets morals, And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged. That would be scanned. A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven.(3.3,75-80) Here is yet another reason Hamlet should be justified in his quest for revenge. If Hamlet is going to kill Claudius, then he wants him to suffer for the rest of eternity for what he did to Hamlet’s father.

He doesn’t want to give Claudius the satisfaction of going to heaven and having a good afterlife because he was killed in prayer. Hamlet wants him to pay. Hamlet throughout the play does not act on the murder that he promised his father. In Act Two, scene two Hamlet expresses that he hasn’t done anything That I, the son of a dear father murdered, Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words And fall a-cursing like a very drab, A scullion! Fie upon ‘t, foh! (2.2, 545) Hamlet is only able to act through his emotions and words. He pours out his heart in his soliloquy at the end of this scene. He acknowledges his inadequacy in what his father had asked him to do. Hamlet regards to himself as an, ass and is conflicted, O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right! Nay, come, let’s go together.(1.5,190) Murder is still against Hamlet’s morals, but that is in opposition of what Hamlet is asked by his father. In addition, the way that he viewed his father is important to understand why there is a controversy in the first place. He viewed his father as a powerful, fair, and noble King, So excellent a King, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr. So loving to my mother(1.2, 140) which is why Hamlet was so dire for revenge.

In an ongoing battle between overcoming morality and his morals, Hamlet comes to the realization that all actions in one’s lifetime are meaningless. That, Alexander [the Great] was buried, Alexander returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam(5.1,190) That even the Conqueror and King of Macedonia is dead. He is now dirt that is useless, unless you are stopping up a hole. He is accepting the fact that there is no heaven or hell, or any afterlife for that matter. If your dead, your dead. This point in time is where hamlet rejects his morals and will continue with his plot to kill the King. Hamlet over the course of the play, develops depression as a result of his inadequacy.

In Hamlet’s most famous silique can reveal a lot about the character that he developed into: To be, or not to be? That is the question Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And, by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep No more and by a sleep to say we end (3.1, 57-63) Due to Hamlet’s duty bound revenge that was consequently forced upon Hamlet, he considers how easy it would be to kill himself and end all of his troubles. Hamlet toys with the idea: although a sin, is suicide another option for not getting revenge? Hamlet’s motifs to inflict harm on someone for a wrong suffered at their hands is due to the fact that Hamlet feels like nobody is on his side. His mother betrayed his father and then tells Hamlet, Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark… All that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.(1.2, 70) Hamlet is told by his own mother that death happens, she has no sympathy for Hamlet who just lost his father, even worse he was murdered. When the ghost of King Hamlet says, “That incestuous, that adulterate beast” (1.5,49) he is implying that she never loved him, cheated on him when he was alive, and used him for the power and wealth. Gertrude then makes Hamlet feel as if he is in the wrong for mourning his father’s death, Why seems it so particular with thee?(1.2, 75) asking why is this so particular or important to you? He feels that his own mother doesn’t even care about him or his dead father.

Hamlet feels attacked by both Gertrude and Claudius, Claudius tells Hamlet, To do obsequious sorrow. But to persevere In obstinate condolement is a course Of impious stubbornness. ‘Tis unmanly grief.(1.2, 90) Claudius is telling Hamlet to stop being a coward and face reality, that everyone dies, and to just get over it. Claudius wants Hamlet to now see himself as his father figure and King. Hamlet is justified in his revenge on Claudius due to many reasons, one being the fact that he asked god for forgiveness but asked- May one be pardoned and retain th’ offense? (3.3, 55) No, one cannot be pardoned, because if one is asking for forgiveness but is unable to take any responsibility they don’t deserve forgiveness, and in Claudius’ case, he deserves his fate.

The King and Queen send Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet to see why he is going crazy. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were Hamlets old friends, which Hamlet hadn’t seen for a while. And instantly, Hamlet realizes why they have came, in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore? To visit you, my lord, no other occasion.(2.2, 259) Hamlet knows that they are lying and believes that potentially they could be betraying his friendship and working for the King and queen. After the death of Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were asked by the King and Queen to take Hamlet to England, with a letter instructing Hamlet’s death. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern deny that they are working for the King, when in reality they are. Hamlet gets crossed by his two friends, and changes the letter to have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sent to their deaths. This highlights revenge and how once Hamlet rejected his morals, his views on others is diminished. Their deaths highlight negative effects of revenge because they are in a situation between the King and Queen, who at the time had total power, and could have anyone executed, at any time, and Hamlet who is their friend.

Shakespeare’s use of the two side characters played a big roll in how Hamlet’s conscience changed over the course of the play Unlike Hamlet, delaying executing revenge, Laertes does the opposite, That both the worlds I give to negligence. Let come what comes, only I’ll be revenged Most thoroughly for my father.(4.5, 108) Laertes, who at the time of his father’s death was in France, immediately came back to Denmark. Laertes like Hamlet was mournful of his father and sister, but unlike Hamlet Laertes promises that, But my revenge will come.(4.7, 29) He promises revenge, because contrasted to Hamlet, Laertes doesn’t have the same morals that he must overcome for vengeance. He already had bad blood with Hamlet, being that he and Laertes sister, Ophilia were in a romantic relationship. Laertes father Polonius was, a noble father and his sister, Stood challenger on mount of all the age For her perfections he praised them and now that they’re gone, Laertes needs to feel compensated for his loss, and the only way he can fill this empty void is through revenge.

William Shakespeare uses these characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as interesting characters in the play. Hamlet tries to blame his suffering on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern because they betrayed Hamlet. Hamlet is alienated by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern because once he was crossed by his uncle and mother he couldn’t trust that anyone. And due to his existentialism, and lack of morality, Hamlet acted in the manner he did, rather than realizing that they would have been executed by the King and Queen if they would have told Hamlet they were sent to spy on him. Revenge as a whole shapes the play, Hamlet.

A lot can be learned and taken away from the theme such as why people think revenge is necessary or what are its consequences, both good and bad. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the only thing that was achieved was revenge. Although it can be justified, the play comes to the conclusion that revenge is negative. Revenge isn’t just a theme in the play or an action that the characters take over the course of the play, but it serves as a greater role in understanding both Shakespeare’s writing styles, and the struggle one makes to obey their morals. Shakespeare’s creativity and knowledge allowed his plays to have the deep character archetypes that have complexity to them.

For example, Hamlet had a lot going on in his life: His girlfriend ended their relationship, his dad was murdered by his uncle and remarried to Hamlets mother. And this allows for more broad understanding of why Hamlet delayed so much in his revenge, rather than just, Hamlet wanted to kill Claudius because he did him wrong. In a sense that is correct, but that isn’t the full extent of theme in Hamlet.

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Hamlet Quotes

Is Hamlet the most quoted William Shakespeare play of all time? Quite possibly so, and with due reason!

As with so many of his plays, William Shakespeare brings the characters in Hamlet to life with memorable dialogue and some fantastic quotes. We’ve trawled the play to pull together these famous quotes from Hamlet

Read our selection of the very best Hamlet quotes below, along with speaker, act and scene:

“ O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt , Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!”

(Hamlet, act 1 scene 2)

“Listen to many, speak to a few.”

(Polonius, act 1 scene 3)

“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.”, “…though i am native here and to the manner born, it is a custom more honoured in the breach than the observance.”.

(Hamlet, act 1 scene 4)

“ Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. “

(Marcellus, act 1 scene 4)

“That one may smile and smile and be a villain.”

(Hamlet, act 1 scene 5)

“ There are more things in heaven and earth , Horatio, Than are dreamt of in our philosophy .”

“ brevity is the soul of wit. “.

(Polonius, act 2 scene 2)

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.”

“there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”.

(Hamlet, act 2 scene 2)

“ O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! “

“doubt thou the stars are fire; doubt that the sun doth move; doubt truth to be a liar; but never doubt i love.”, “what a piece of work is a man how noble in reason, how infinite in faculty in form and moving how express and admirable in action how like an angel in apprehension how like a god the beauty of the world the paragon of animals and yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust man delights not me; no, nor woman neither; though by your smiling you seem to say so..”, “ to be, or not to be, that is the question .”.

(Hamlet, act 3 scene 1)

“God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another.”

“to die, to sleep – to sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there’s the rub, for in this sleep of death what dreams may come…”, “ the lady doth protest too much, methinks. “.

(Gertrude, act 3 scene 2)

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

(Claudius, act 3 scene 3)

“ I must be cruel only to be kind ; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.”

(Hamlet, act 3 scene 4)

“ How all occasions do inform against me, and spur my dull revenge. “

(Hamlet, act 2 scene 4)

“ Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: A fellow of infinite jest. “

(Hamlet, act 5 scene 1)

“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.”

(Hamlet, act 5 scene 2)

“The rest is silence.”

“goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest”.

(Horatio, act 5 scene 2)

“Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. ”

We have separate pages dedicated to Hamlet soliloquys and Hamlet monologues , which include the text with an analysis of other famous Hamlet quotes, such as:

“ Oh my offence is rank, it smells to heaven “

(Spoken by Claudius, Act 3 Scene 3)

“ Now might I do it pat “

(Spoken by Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 3)

Are we missing any great William Shakespeare Hamlet quotes? Let us know your favourite quotes from Hamlet in the comments section below!

Read Hamlet quotes translated into modern English

See All Hamlet Resources

Hamlet | Hamlet summary | Hamlet characters : Claudius , Fortinbras , Horatio , Laertes , Ophelia . Osric , Polonius , Rosencrantz and Guildenstern | Hamlet settings | Hamlet themes  | Hamlet in modern English | Hamlet full text | Modern Hamlet ebook | Hamlet for kids ebooks | Hamlet quotes | Hamlet quote translations | Hamlet monologues | Hamlet soliloquies | Hamlet performance history | All about ‘To Be Or Not To Be’

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Not sure if I understood your question properly but it sound like: ‘There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face’ from Macbeth

Pansies , they are for thoughts . Rosemary for remembrance

I have forgotten the rest of the verse. over 60 years since i learned it

The dog will have his day. Undiscovered country Sweets to the sweet

Long live the king!

How could you forget that, my dear friends.

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

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Justice And Revenge In Hamlet

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays. The story revolves around Hamlet’s quest for revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who murdered Hamlet’s father in order to take the throne. Hamlet is a tragedy, and as such, it raises questions about the nature of revenge and justice.

On the one hand, Hamlet is motivated by a desire for revenge. He wants to kill Claudius in order to avenge his father’s death. This desire for revenge is what drives Hamlet to commit murder himself. On the other hand, Hamlet also feels that it is his duty to bring Claudius to justice. He wants to make sure that Claudius pays for his crime, and he does not want anyone else to suffer because of Claudius’s actions.

Hamlet is torn between these two impulses, and he struggles to decide what is the right thing to do. In the end, Hamlet chooses revenge over justice, and he kills Claudius. However, this choice comes at a great cost. Hamlet dies in the process, and his death brings about the downfall of Denmark.

So, what can we learn from Hamlet? Perhaps Shakespeare is trying to tell us that revenge is not always the best course of action. Or maybe he is trying to say that while revenge may be satisfying, it ultimately leads to more pain and suffering. Either way, Hamlet provides us with a complex portrait of the human condition, and raises important questions about the nature of justice and revenge.

Hamlet’s aims fluctuate between revenge and justice throughout the play, with this interior debate determining how events unfold. Revenge motivates Hamlet as his initial aim in his quest for vindication of his father’s death. Later, Hamlet’s torn sensibility and concern for justice are revealed in Soliloquy. Hamlet’s ability to act against Claudius is hampered as a result of this internal conflict. Only when Hamlet faces his own procrastination does inaction cease.

Hamlet swings towards his newfound realization that in order for justice to be carried out, Claudius’ wrongs must be righted through Hamlet’s own death. In the end, Hamlet chooses justice over revenge and both he and Claudius die.

Revenge is Hamlet’s dominant motive throughout much of the play. From the very beginning of the play, Hamlet is marked by his desire to avenge his father’s murder. Hamlet is unable to act on this feeling, however, because he is uncertain of Claudius’ guilt. Hamlet delay’s his revenge until he has absolute certainty that Claudius killed his father which leads him into a downward spiral as he attempts to Hamlet’s delay in revenge is caused by his uncertainty of Claudius’ guilt.

Hamlet’s soliloquies reveal his Hamlet’s thoughts and feelings to the audience, providing insight that would otherwise be unavailable. In Hamlet’s second soliloquy, Hamlet bemoans his inaction, cursing himself as a “dull and muddy-mettled rascal” (II.ii.560). Hamlet recognizes his own faults and weakness, yet he is still unable to take action against Claudius. Hamlet is again torn between his desire for revenge and his uncertainty of Claudius’ guilt, caught in a limbo between the two emotions.

However, Hamlet’s inaction is not simply caused by his uncertainty of Claudius’ guilt. Hamlet is also motivated by a desire for justice. Hamlet does not want to kill Claudius without just cause, as that would make Hamlet no better than a murderer himself. Hamlet wants Claudius to be punished for his crimes, but he also wants Claudius to suffer the same type of pain and anguish that he has been feeling since his father’s death.

Hamlet’s soliloquies make it clear that he is struggling with this internal conflict. In Hamlet’s fourth soliloquy, he contemplates suicide as a way to escape the pain and suffering that he has been experiencing. Hamlet is not sure whether death is the answer, but he recognizes that death may be preferable to the life that he is currently living. Hamlet is still motivated by his desire for revenge, but he is also motivated by his sense of justice.

Hamlet does not fully realize it until later in the play, but his desire for revenge and justice are actually two sides of the same coin. Hamlet wants Claudius to be punished for his crimes, and he wants Claudius to suffer as much as he has suffered.

Hamlet’s ultimate goal is to see that justice is done. Hamlet finally realizes this near the end of the play, when he decides to take action against Claudius even though he knows that it will lead to his own death. Hamlet’s decision to kill Claudius is motivated by his desire for justice, not revenge. Hamlet knows that he will die in the process, but he also knows that it is the only way to ensure that Claudius is punished for his crimes. Hamlet’s final act is one of justice, not revenge.

While Hamlet’s initial motivation is revenge, he eventually realizes that justice is more important. Hamlet’s journey from revenge to justice is a long and difficult one, but it is ultimately a successful one. Hamlet chooses to sacrifi ce himself in order to ensure that Claudius is punished for his crimes. In doing so, Hamlet ensures that justice is done. Hamlet’s story is a reminder that justice is more important than revenge.

Hamlet triumphs over his internal debate by combining opposed forces and justifying vengeance from the inside out. Hamlet’s will isn’t initially strong enough to act only on revenge. Even though Hamlet promised he would be “swift” and “sweep to my revenge,” he admits in the “rogue and peasant slave” soliloquy that he has been “unpregnant of my cause.” It is not until Hamlet grows weary of his own passivity that he begins to question Claudius’ culpability.

Hamlet’s procrastination is due to his conscience, which reminds Hamlet that murder is a sin. Hamlet must find a way to take revenge without becoming a sinner himself. Hamlet then decides that it is better to kill Claudius in public and suffer the consequences than to privately damning Claudius, who would go unpunished in the eyes of God.

Hamlet also justifies taking revenge as a form of justice as he believes that Claudius deserves to die for murdering Hamlet’s father and marrying Hamlet’s mother. Hamlet’s internal struggle between doing what is morally right and satisfying his thirst for revenge ultimately leads him to commit murder.

Revenge is often seen as an act that is motivated by anger and hatred. Hamlet is no different as he wants to revenge his father’s murder. However, Hamlet is also motivated by a sense of justice as he believes that Claudius deserves to be punished for his crimes. Hamlet’s inner struggle culminates in him committing murder, which can be seen as both an act of revenge and an act of justice.

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Jeffrey R. Wilson

Essays on hamlet.

Written as the author taught Hamlet every semester for a decade, these lightning essays ask big conceptual questions about the play with the urgency of a Shakespeare lover, and answer them with the rigor of a Shakespeare scholar. In doing so, Hamlet becomes a lens for life today, generating insights on everything from xenophobia, American fraternities, and religious fundamentalism to structural misogyny, suicide contagion, and toxic love.

Prioritizing close reading over historical context, these explorations are highly textual and highly theoretical, often philosophical, ethical, social, and political. Readers see King Hamlet as a pre-modern villain, King Claudius as a modern villain, and Prince Hamlet as a post-modern villain. Hamlet’s feigned madness becomes a window into failed insanity defenses in legal trials. He knows he’s being watched in “To be or not to be”: the soliloquy is a satire of philosophy. Horatio emerges as Shakespeare’s authorial avatar for meta-theatrical commentary, Fortinbras as the hero of the play. Fate becomes a viable concept for modern life, and honor a source of tragedy. The metaphor of music in the play makes Ophelia Hamlet’s instrument. Shakespeare, like the modern corporation, stands against sexism, yet perpetuates it unknowingly. We hear his thoughts on single parenting, sending children off to college, and the working class, plus his advice on acting and writing, and his claims to be the next Homer or Virgil. In the context of four centuries of Hamlet hate, we hear how the text draws audiences in, how it became so famous, and why it continues to captivate audiences.

At a time when the humanities are said to be in crisis, these essays are concrete examples of the mind-altering power of literature and literary studies, unravelling the ongoing implications of the English language’s most significant artistic object of the past millennium.

Publications

Why is Hamlet the most famous English artwork of the past millennium? Is it a sexist text? Why does Hamlet speak in prose? Why must he die? Does Hamlet depict revenge, or justice? How did the death of Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, transform into a story about a son dealing with the death of a father? Did Shakespeare know Aristotle’s theory of tragedy? How did our literary icon, Shakespeare, see his literary icons, Homer and Virgil? Why is there so much comedy in Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy? Why is love a force of evil in the play? Did Shakespeare believe there’s a divinity that shapes our ends? How did he define virtue? What did he think about psychology? politics? philosophy? What was Shakespeare’s image of himself as an author? What can he, arguably the greatest writer of all time, teach us about our own writing? What was his theory of literature? Why do people like Hamlet ? How do the Hamlet haters of today compare to those of yesteryears? Is it dangerous for our children to read a play that’s all about suicide? 

These are some of the questions asked in this book, a collection of essays on Shakespeare’s Hamlet stemming from my time teaching the play every semester in my Why Shakespeare? course at Harvard University. During this time, I saw a series of bright young minds from wildly diverse backgrounds find their footing in Hamlet, and it taught me a lot about how Shakespeare’s tragedy works, and why it remains with us in the modern world. Beyond ghosts, revenge, and tragedy, Hamlet is a play about being in college, being in love, gender, misogyny, friendship, theater, philosophy, theology, injustice, loss, comedy, depression, death, self-doubt, mental illness, white privilege, overbearing parents, existential angst, international politics, the classics, the afterlife, and the meaning of it all. 

These essays grow from the central paradox of the play: it helps us understand the world we live in, yet we don't really understand the text itself very well. For all the attention given to Hamlet , there’s no consensus on the big questions—how it works, why it grips people so fiercely, what it’s about. These essays pose first-order questions about what happens in Hamlet and why, mobilizing answers for reflections on life, making the essays both highly textual and highly theoretical. 

Each semester that I taught the play, I would write a new essay about Hamlet . They were meant to be models for students, the sort of essay that undergrads read and write – more rigorous than the puff pieces in the popular press, but riskier than the scholarship in most academic journals. While I later added scholarly outerwear, these pieces all began just like the essays I was assigning to students – as short close readings with a reader and a text and a desire to determine meaning when faced with a puzzling question or problem. 

The turn from text to context in recent scholarly books about Hamlet is quizzical since we still don’t have a strong sense of, to quote the title of John Dover Wilson’s 1935 book, What Happens in Hamlet. Is the ghost real? Is Hamlet mad, or just faking? Why does he delay? These are the kinds of questions students love to ask, but they haven’t been – can’t be – answered by reading the play in the context of its sources (recently addressed in Laurie Johnson’s The Tain of Hamlet [2013]), its multiple texts (analyzed by Paul Menzer in The Hamlets [2008] and Zachary Lesser in Hamlet after Q1 [2015]), the Protestant reformation (the focus of Stephen Greenblatt’s Hamlet in Purgatory [2001] and John E. Curran, Jr.’s Hamlet, Protestantism, and the Mourning of Contingency [2006]), Renaissance humanism (see Rhodri Lewis, Hamlet and the Vision of Darkness [2017]), Elizabethan political theory (see Margreta de Grazia, Hamlet without Hamlet [2007]), the play’s reception history (see David Bevington, Murder Most Foul: Hamlet through the Ages [2011]), its appropriation by modern philosophers (covered in Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster’s The Hamlet Doctrine [2013] and Andrew Cutrofello’s All for Nothing: Hamlet’s Negativity [2014]), or its recent global travels (addressed, for example, in Margaret Latvian’s Hamlet’s Arab Journey [2011] and Dominic Dromgoole’s Hamlet Globe to Globe [2017]). 

Considering the context and afterlives of Hamlet is a worthy pursuit. I certainly consulted the above books for my essays, yet the confidence that comes from introducing context obscures the sharp panic we feel when confronting Shakespeare’s text itself. Even as the excellent recent book from Sonya Freeman Loftis, Allison Kellar, and Lisa Ulevich announces Hamlet has entered “an age of textual exhaustion,” there’s an odd tendency to avoid the text of Hamlet —to grasp for something more firm—when writing about it. There is a need to return to the text in a more immediate way to understand how Hamlet operates as a literary work, and how it can help us understand the world in which we live. 

That latter goal, yes, clings nostalgically to the notion that literature can help us understand life. Questions about life send us to literature in search of answers. Those of us who love literature learn to ask and answer questions about it as we become professional literary scholars. But often our answers to the questions scholars ask of literature do not connect back up with the questions about life that sent us to literature in the first place—which are often philosophical, ethical, social, and political. Those first-order questions are diluted and avoided in the minutia of much scholarship, left unanswered. Thus, my goal was to pose questions about Hamlet with the urgency of a Shakespeare lover and to answer them with the rigor of a Shakespeare scholar. 

In doing so, these essays challenge the conventional relationship between literature and theory. They pursue a kind of criticism where literature is not merely the recipient of philosophical ideas in the service of exegesis. Instead, the creative risks of literature provide exemplars to be theorized outward to help us understand on-going issues in life today. Beyond an occasion for the demonstration of existing theory, literature is a source for the creation of new theory.

Chapter One How Hamlet Works

Whether you love or hate Hamlet , you can acknowledge its massive popularity. So how does Hamlet work? How does it create audience enjoyment? Why is it so appealing, and to whom? Of all the available options, why Hamlet ? This chapter entertains three possible explanations for why the play is so popular in the modern world: the literary answer (as the English language’s best artwork about death—one of the very few universal human experiences in a modern world increasingly marked by cultural differences— Hamlet is timeless); the theatrical answer (with its mixture of tragedy and comedy, the role of Hamlet requires the best actor of each age, and the play’s popularity derives from the celebrity of its stars); and the philosophical answer (the play invites, encourages, facilitates, and sustains philosophical introspection and conversation from people who do not usually do such things, who find themselves doing those things with Hamlet , who sometimes feel embarrassed about doing those things, but who ultimately find the experience of having done them rewarding).

Chapter Two “It Started Like a Guilty Thing”: The Beginning of Hamlet and the Beginning of Modern Politics

King Hamlet is a tyrant and King Claudius a traitor but, because Shakespeare asked us to experience the events in Hamlet from the perspective of the young Prince Hamlet, we are much more inclined to detect and detest King Claudius’s political failings than King Hamlet’s. If so, then Shakespeare’s play Hamlet , so often seen as the birth of modern psychology, might also tell us a little bit about the beginnings of modern politics as well.

Chapter Three Horatio as Author: Storytelling and Stoic Tragedy

This chapter addresses Horatio’s emotionlessness in light of his role as a narrator, using this discussion to think about Shakespeare’s motives for writing tragedy in the wake of his son’s death. By rationalizing pain and suffering as tragedy, both Horatio and Shakespeare were able to avoid the self-destruction entailed in Hamlet’s emotional response to life’s hardships and injustices. Thus, the stoic Horatio, rather than the passionate Hamlet who repeatedly interrupts ‘The Mousetrap’, is the best authorial avatar for a Shakespeare who strategically wrote himself and his own voice out of his works. This argument then expands into a theory of ‘authorial catharsis’ and the suggestion that we can conceive of Shakespeare as a ‘poet of reason’ in contrast to a ‘poet of emotion’.

Chapter Four “To thine own self be true”: What Shakespeare Says about Sending Our Children Off to College

What does “To thine own self be true” actually mean? Be yourself? Don’t change who you are? Follow your own convictions? Don’t lie to yourself? This chapter argues that, if we understand meaning as intent, then “To thine own self be true” means, paradoxically, that “the self” does not exist. Or, more accurately, Shakespeare’s Hamlet implies that “the self” exists only as a rhetorical, philosophical, and psychological construct that we use to make sense of our experiences and actions in the world, not as anything real. If this is so, then this passage may offer us a way of thinking about Shakespeare as not just a playwright but also a moral philosopher, one who did his ethics in drama.

Chapter Five In Defense of Polonius

Your wife dies. You raise two children by yourself. You build a great career to provide for your family. You send your son off to college in another country, though you know he’s not ready. Now the prince wants to marry your daughter—that’s not easy to navigate. Then—get this—while you’re trying to save the queen’s life, the prince murders you. Your death destroys your kids. They die tragically. And what do you get for your efforts? Centuries of Shakespeare scholars dumping on you. If we see Polonius not through the eyes of his enemy, Prince Hamlet—the point of view Shakespeare’s play asks audiences to adopt—but in analogy to the common challenges of twenty-first-century parenting, Polonius is a single father struggling with work-life balance who sadly choses his career over his daughter’s well-being.

Chapter Six Sigma Alpha Elsinore: The Culture of Drunkenness in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Claudius likes to party—a bit too much. He frequently binge drinks, is arguably an alcoholic, but not an aberration. Hamlet says Denmark is internationally known for heavy drinking. That’s what Shakespeare would have heard in the sixteenth century. By the seventeenth, English writers feared Denmark had taught their nation its drinking habits. Synthesizing criticism on alcoholism as an individual problem in Shakespeare’s texts and times with scholarship on national drinking habits in the early-modern age, this essay asks what the tragedy of alcoholism looks like when located not on the level of the individual, but on the level of a culture, as Shakespeare depicted in Hamlet. One window into these early-modern cultures of drunkenness is sociological studies of American college fraternities, especially the social-learning theories that explain how one person—one culture—teaches another its habits. For Claudius’s alcoholism is both culturally learned and culturally significant. And, as in fraternities, alcoholism in Hamlet is bound up with wealth, privilege, toxic masculinity, and tragedy. Thus, alcohol imagistically reappears in the vial of “cursed hebona,” Ophelia’s liquid death, and the poisoned cup in the final scene—moments that stand out in recent performances and adaptations with alcoholic Claudiuses and Gertrudes.

Chapter Seven Tragic Foundationalism

This chapter puts the modern philosopher Alain Badiou’s theory of foundationalism into dialogue with the early-modern playwright William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet . Doing so allows us to identify a new candidate for Hamlet’s traditionally hard-to-define hamartia – i.e., his “tragic mistake” – but it also allows us to consider the possibility of foundationalism as hamartia. Tragic foundationalism is the notion that fidelity to a single and substantive truth at the expense of an openness to evidence, reason, and change is an acute mistake which can lead to miscalculations of fact and virtue that create conflict and can end up in catastrophic destruction and the downfall of otherwise strong and noble people.

Chapter Eight “As a stranger give it welcome”: Shakespeare’s Advice for First-Year College Students

Encountering a new idea can be like meeting a strange person for the first time. Similarly, we dismiss new ideas before we get to know them. There is an answer to the problem of the human antipathy to strangeness in a somewhat strange place: a single line usually overlooked in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet . If the ghost is “wondrous strange,” Hamlet says, invoking the ancient ethics of hospitality, “Therefore as a stranger give it welcome.” In this word, strange, and the social conventions attached to it, is both the instinctual, animalistic fear and aggression toward what is new and different (the problem) and a cultivated, humane response in hospitality and curiosity (the solution). Intellectual xenia is the answer to intellectual xenophobia.

Chapter Nine Parallels in Hamlet

Hamlet is more parallely than other texts. Fortinbras, Hamlet, and Laertes have their fathers murdered, then seek revenge. Brothers King Hamlet and King Claudius mirror brothers Old Norway and Old Fortinbras. Hamlet and Ophelia both lose their fathers, go mad, but there’s a method in their madness, and become suicidal. King Hamlet and Polonius are both domineering fathers. Hamlet and Polonius are both scholars, actors, verbose, pedantic, detectives using indirection, spying upon others, “by indirections find directions out." King Hamlet and King Claudius are both kings who are killed. Claudius using Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet mirrors Polonius using Reynaldo to spy on Laertes. Reynaldo and Hamlet both pretend to be something other than what they are in order to spy on and detect foes. Young Fortinbras and Prince Hamlet both have their forward momentum “arrest[ed].” Pyrrhus and Hamlet are son seeking revenge but paused a “neutral to his will.” The main plot of Hamlet reappears in the play-within-the-play. The Act I duel between King Hamlet and Old Fortinbras echoes in the Act V duel between Hamlet and Laertes. Claudius and Hamlet are both king killers. Sheesh—why are there so many dang parallels in Hamlet ? Is there some detectable reason why the story of Hamlet would call for the literary device of parallelism?

Chapter Ten Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: Why Hamlet Has Two Childhood Friends, Not Just One

Why have two of Hamlet’s childhood friends rather than just one? Do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have individuated personalities? First of all, by increasing the number of friends who visit Hamlet, Shakespeare creates an atmosphere of being outnumbered, of multiple enemies encroaching upon Hamlet, of Hamlet feeling that the world is against him. Second, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are not interchangeable, as commonly thought. Shakespeare gave each an individuated personality. Guildenstern is friendlier with Hamlet, and their friendship collapses, while Rosencrantz is more distant and devious—a frenemy.

Chapter Eleven Shakespeare on the Classics, Shakespeare as a Classic: A Reading of Aeneas’s Tale to Dido

Of all the stories Shakespeare might have chosen, why have Hamlet ask the players to recite Aeneas’ tale to Dido of Pyrrhus’s slaughter of Priam? In this story, which comes not from Homer’s Iliad but from Virgil’s Aeneid and had already been adapted for the Elizabethan stage in Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragedy of Dido, Pyrrhus – more commonly known as Neoptolemus, the son of the famous Greek warrior Achilles – savagely slays Priam, the king of the Trojans and the father of Paris, who killed Pyrrhus’s father, Achilles, who killed Paris’s brother, Hector, who killed Achilles’s comrade, Patroclus. Clearly, the theme of revenge at work in this story would have appealed to Shakespeare as he was writing what would become the greatest revenge tragedy of all time. Moreover, Aeneas’s tale to Dido supplied Shakespeare with all of the connections he sought to make at this crucial point in his play and his career – connections between himself and Marlowe, between the start of Hamlet and the end, between Prince Hamlet and King Claudius, between epic poetry and tragic drama, and between the classical literature Shakespeare was still reading hundreds of years later and his own potential as a classic who might (and would) be read hundreds of years into the future.

Chapter Twelve How Theater Works, according to Hamlet

According to Hamlet, people who are guilty of a crime will, when seeing that crime represented on stage, “proclaim [their] malefactions”—but that simply isn’t how theater works. Guilty people sit though shows that depict their crimes all the time without being prompted to public confession. Why did Shakespeare—a remarkably observant student of theater—write this demonstrably false theory of drama into his protagonist? And why did Shakespeare then write the plot of the play to affirm that obviously inaccurate vision of theater? For Claudius is indeed stirred to confession by the play-within-the-play. Perhaps Hamlet’s theory of people proclaiming malefactions upon seeing their crimes represented onstage is not as outlandish as it first appears. Perhaps four centuries of obsession with Hamlet is the English-speaking world proclaiming its malefactions upon seeing them represented dramatically.

Chapter Thirteen “To be, or not to be”: Shakespeare Against Philosophy

This chapter hazards a new reading of the most famous passage in Western literature: “To be, or not to be” from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet . With this line, Hamlet poses his personal struggle, a question of life and death, as a metaphysical problem, as a question of existence and nothingness. However, “To be, or not to be” is not what it seems to be. It seems to be a representation of tragic angst, yet a consideration of the context of the speech reveals that “To be, or not to be” is actually a satire of philosophy and Shakespeare’s representation of the theatricality of everyday life. In this chapter, a close reading of the context and meaning of this passage leads into an attempt to formulate a Shakespearean image of philosophy.

Chapter Fourteen Contagious Suicide in and Around Hamlet

As in society today, suicide is contagious in Hamlet , at least in the example of Ophelia, the only death by suicide in the play, because she only becomes suicidal after hearing Hamlet talk about his own suicidal thoughts in “To be, or not to be.” Just as there are media guidelines for reporting on suicide, there are better and worse ways of handling Hamlet . Careful suicide coverage can change public misperceptions and reduce suicide contagion. Is the same true for careful literary criticism and classroom discussion of suicide texts? How can teachers and literary critics reduce suicide contagion and increase help-seeking behavior?

Chapter Fifteen Is Hamlet a Sexist Text? Overt Misogyny vs. Unconscious Bias

Students and fans of Shakespeare’s Hamlet persistently ask a question scholars and critics of the play have not yet definitively answered: is it a sexist text? The author of this text has been described as everything from a male chauvinist pig to a trailblazing proto-feminist, but recent work on the science behind discrimination and prejudice offers a new, better vocabulary in the notion of unconscious bias. More pervasive and slippery than explicit bigotry, unconscious bias involves the subtle, often unintentional words and actions which indicate the presence of biases we may not be aware of, ones we may even fight against. The Shakespeare who wrote Hamlet exhibited an unconscious bias against women, I argue, even as he sought to critique the mistreatment of women in a patriarchal society. The evidence for this unconscious bias is not to be found in the misogynistic statements made by the characters in the play. It exists, instead, in the demonstrable preference Shakespeare showed for men over women when deciding where to deploy his literary talents. Thus, Shakespeare's Hamlet is a powerful literary example – one which speaks to, say, the modern corporation – showing that deliberate efforts for egalitarianism do not insulate one from the effects of structural inequalities that both stem from and create unconscious bias.

Chapter Sixteen Style and Purpose in Acting and Writing

Purpose and style are connected in academic writing. To answer the question of style ( How should we write academic papers? ) we must first answer the question of purpose ( Why do we write academic papers? ). We can answer these questions, I suggest, by turning to an unexpected style guide that’s more than 400 years old: the famous passage on “the purpose of playing” in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet . In both acting and writing, a high style often accompanies an expressive purpose attempting to impress an elite audience yet actually alienating intellectual people, while a low style and mimetic purpose effectively engage an intellectual audience.

Chapter Seventeen 13 Ways of Looking at a Ghost

Why doesn’t Gertrude see the Ghost of King Hamlet in Act III, even though Horatio, Bernardo, Francisco, Marcellus, and Prince Hamlet all saw it in Act I? It’s a bit embarrassing that Shakespeare scholars don’t have a widely agreed-upon consensus that explains this really basic question that puzzles a lot of people who read or see Hamlet .

Chapter Eighteen The Tragedy of Love in Hamlet

The word “love” appears 84 times in Shakespeare’s Hamlet . “Father” only appears 73 times, “play” 60, “think” 55, “mother” 46, “mad” 44, “soul” 40, “God" 39, “death” 38, “life” 34, “nothing” 28, “son” 26, “honor” 21, “spirit” 19, “kill” 18, “revenge” 14, and “action” 12. Love isn’t the first theme that comes to mind when we think of Hamlet , but is surprisingly prominent. But love is tragic in Hamlet . The bloody catastrophe at the end of that play is principally driven not by hatred or a longing for revenge, but by love.

Chapter Nineteen Ophelia’s Songs: Moral Agency, Manipulation, and the Metaphor of Music in Hamlet

This chapter reads Ophelia’s songs in Act IV of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the context of the meaning of music established elsewhere in the play. While the songs are usually seen as a marker of Ophelia’s madness (as a result of the death of her father) or freedom (from the constraints of patriarchy), they come – when read in light of the metaphor of music as manipulation – to symbolize her role as a pawn in Hamlet’s efforts to deceive his family. Thus, music was Shakespeare’s platform for connecting Ophelia’s story to one of the central questions in Hamlet : Do we have control over our own actions (like the musician), or are we controlled by others (like the instrument)?

Chapter Twenty A Quantitative Study of Prose and Verse in Hamlet

Why does Hamlet have so much prose? Did Shakespeare deliberately shift from verse to prose to signal something to his audiences? How would actors have handled the shifts from verse to prose? Would audiences have detected shifts from verse to prose? Is there an overarching principle that governs Shakespeare’s decision to use prose—a coherent principle that says, “If X, then use prose?”

Chapter Twenty-One The Fortunes of Fate in Hamlet : Divine Providence and Social Determinism

In Hamlet , fate is attacked from both sides: “fortune” presents a world of random happenstance, “will” a theory of efficacious human action. On this backdrop, this essay considers—irrespective of what the characters say and believe—what the structure and imagery Shakespeare wrote into Hamlet say about the possibility that some version of fate is at work in the play. I contend the world of Hamlet is governed by neither fate nor fortune, nor even the Christianized version of fate called “providence.” Yet there is a modern, secular, disenchanted form of fate at work in Hamlet—what is sometimes called “social determinism”—which calls into question the freedom of the individual will. As such, Shakespeare’s Hamlet both commented on the transformation of pagan fate into Christian providence that happened in the centuries leading up to the play, and anticipated the further transformation of fate from a theological to a sociological idea, which occurred in the centuries following Hamlet .

Chapter Twenty-Two The Working Class in Hamlet

There’s a lot for working-class folks to hate about Hamlet —not just because it’s old, dusty, difficult to understand, crammed down our throats in school, and filled with frills, tights, and those weird lace neck thingies that are just socially awkward to think about. Peak Renaissance weirdness. Claustrophobicly cloistered inside the castle of Elsinore, quaintly angsty over royal family problems, Hamlet feels like the literary epitome of elitism. “Lawless resolutes” is how the Wittenberg scholar Horatio describes the soldiers who join Fortinbras’s army in exchange “for food.” The Prince Hamlet who has never worked a day in his life denigrates Polonius as a “fishmonger”: quite the insult for a royal advisor to be called a working man. And King Claudius complains of the simplicity of "the distracted multitude.” But, in Hamlet , Shakespeare juxtaposed the nobles’ denigrations of the working class as readily available metaphors for all-things-awful with the rather valuable behavior of working-class characters themselves. When allowed to represent themselves, the working class in Hamlet are characterized as makers of things—of material goods and services like ships, graves, and plays, but also of ethical and political virtues like security, education, justice, and democracy. Meanwhile, Elsinore has a bad case of affluenza, the make-believe disease invented by an American lawyer who argued that his client's social privilege was so great that it created an obliviousness to law. While social elites rot society through the twin corrosives of political corruption and scholarly detachment, the working class keeps the machine running. They build the ships, plays, and graves society needs to function, and monitor the nuts-and-bolts of the ideals—like education and justice—that we aspire to uphold.

Chapter Twenty-Three The Honor Code at Harvard and in Hamlet

Students at Harvard College are asked, when they first join the school and several times during their years there, to affirm their awareness of and commitment to the school’s honor code. But instead of “the foundation of our community” that it is at Harvard, honor is tragic in Hamlet —a source of anxiety, blunder, and catastrophe. As this chapter shows, looking at Hamlet from our place at Harvard can bring us to see what a tangled knot honor can be, and we can start to theorize the difference between heroic and tragic honor.

Chapter Twenty-Four The Meaning of Death in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

By connecting the ways characters live their lives in Hamlet to the ways they die – on-stage or off, poisoned or stabbed, etc. – Shakespeare symbolized hamartia in catastrophe. In advancing this argument, this chapter develops two supporting ideas. First, the dissemination of tragic necessity: Shakespeare distributed the Aristotelian notion of tragic necessity – a causal relationship between a character’s hamartia (fault or error) and the catastrophe at the end of the play – from the protagonist to the other characters, such that, in Hamlet , those who are guilty must die, and those who die are guilty. Second, the spectacularity of death: there exists in Hamlet a positive correlation between the severity of a character’s hamartia (error or flaw) and the “spectacularity” of his or her death – that is, the extent to which it is presented as a visible and visceral spectacle on-stage.

Chapter Twenty-Five Tragic Excess in Hamlet

In Hamlet , Shakespeare paralleled the situations of Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras (the father of each is killed, and each then seeks revenge) to promote the virtue of moderation: Hamlet moves too slowly, Laertes too swiftly – and they both die at the end of the play – but Fortinbras represents a golden mean which marries the slowness of Hamlet with the swiftness of Laertes. As argued in this essay, Shakespeare endorsed the virtue of balance by allowing Fortinbras to be one of the very few survivors of the play. In other words, excess is tragic in Hamlet .

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