Quotes by themes

• MADNESS:
• “I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is
southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw”
• Traduzione: “Sono solo pazzo nord-nord-ovest. Quando
il vento è da sud, conosco un falco da una sega a mano”
(Act II.scene ii)

• Hamlet directs these lines to Rosencrantz and

Guildenstern. His words imply that, just as the
wind only occasionally blows from the north-
north-west, so too is he only occasionally struck
by madness.
• These words also contain a warning. When Hamlet uses
the proverbial expression "I know a hawk from a
handsaw," he indicates that he remains mostly in control
of his faculties and that he can still distinguish between
like and unlike things. In effect, Hamlet is warning his
companions that he can tell the difference between a
friend and an enemy.
• The body is with the King, but the King is not with the
body.
(IV.ii.23–24)
• Hamlet says this to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. His
words sound like an example of madness, and his two
companions appear to take it as such. However, as with
many other examples of Hamlet's double-speak, there is
a method to the (apparent) madness.
• Here Hamlet refers to the metaphysical
distinction between the king's physical body and
the body of the state for which he serves as the
head.
• The first half of the sentence may refer to either
of these two understandings of body, but the
second half seems to refer directly to Polonius, a
"king" who's been separated from his body
through death.
• Young men will do’t if they come to’t,
By Cock they are to blame
(IV.v.)
• Unlike Hamlet’s madness, Ophelia’s madness is
unquestionably genuine. Nevertheless there is a
mystery about her mental condition.
• In her madness, Ophelia sings snatches of
songs, most of which sound like popular
songs of Shakespeare’s day. Her choice of
songs seems to reveal two obsessions.
The first is with the death of fathers and
old men, which isn’t surprising, because
her father has just died. The second is
with young men who seduce young
women but don’t marry them. Many
readers have wondered whether she is
thinking of Hamlet—but it’s impossible to
know for sure.
• PERFORMANCE:
• These indeed “seem”
For they are actions that a man might play (I,II)
• When Gertrude asks Hamlet why he still seems
so upset about his father’s death, Hamlet takes
offence at her use of the word “seems.” He
describes his clothes and appearance at some
length before agreeing—strangely—that
everything he’s said so far could indeed be an
actor’s performance.
• Both Hamlet and the audience will have to
wrestle with the difficulty of telling pretend or
performed feelings from the real feelings which
characters cannot “show”.
• The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King
(II.ii.)
• When the Players arrive, Hamlet decides to stage a play
in which Claudius’s crime is represented, because
Hamlet has heard that seeing their own crimes on stage
sometimes makes people reveal their guilt. Hamlet
believes very strongly in the power of theatre to touch
people’s innermost feelings. Nevertheless, Hamlet’s
decision to stage a play is a strange one. He has
struggled over and over with the difficulty of discovering
a person’s real feelings from their outward presentation,
and yet he seems to believe he will be able to discover
Claudius’s guilt by watching his face at the play. This line
suggests that Hamlet is not being entirely honest with
himself. The play may be just another delaying tactic.
• PLOTTING AND STRATAGEMS
• I'll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle. I'll observe his looks.
I'll tent him to the quick. If 'a do blench,
I know my course.
(II.ii)
• In a long soliloquy in Act II, Hamlet announces his
intention to use the troupe of players to set a trap for
Claudius. He will instruct the troupe to perform a scene
that reenacts Claudius' murder of the king. During the
performance Hamlet will spy on Claudius to see if his
reaction to the scene incriminates him. If Claudius "do
blench" (impallidisce) Hamlet will know what to do next.
• Let's further think of this,
Weigh what convenience both of time and means
May fit us to our shape. If this should fail,
And that our drift look through our bad performance,
'Twere better no assayed. Therefore this project
Should have a back or second that might hold
If this did blast in proof.
(IV.vii)

• Claudius utters these lines to Laertes as they fashion their

plot to kill Hamlet. Claudius emphasizes that he and
Laertes will have to perform like actors, and he worries that
if a "bad performance" should reveal their scheme, they will
need some backup plan to ensure Hamlet's death no
matter what. Following this quote, Claudius goes on to say
that if Laertes does not manage to kill Hamlet in their duel,
then a poisoned chalice of wine shall be offered to Hamlet
following the match.
• DECAY AND DECOMPOSITION
• O, my offence is rank; it smells (it stinks in the modern
version) to heaven
(III.iii.36)
• In a soliloquy—the only soliloquy in the play not spoken
by Hamlet—Claudius admits murdering his brother, and
he describes his guilt in the language of decay. His crime
smells bad, like something going off.
• Throughout Hamlet, moral faults are described in the
language of decay and disease. The Ghost’s “foul
crimes” must be “purged away” (I.v: purging was a
Renaissance medical procedure) and Gertrude sees
“black and grievèd spots” (III.iv.) on her soul. This line
creates a sense that the decay and sickness which
infects everything in Hamlet has a spiritual dimension:
the characters are not just doomed to die but doomed to
damnation.
• DOUBT:
• You should not have believed me
(III.i.116)

• In the space of five lines Hamlet tells Ophelia that “I did

love you once” (III.i.) and also that “I loved you not”
(III.i.). The audience finds itself in the same position as
Ophelia: we don’t know what to believe.
• Hamlet reveals more of his innermost thoughts than any
of Shakespeare’s characters, but he still remains in
many ways a mystery. We never learn whether he really
loved Ophelia, or why he decides to treat her so badly as
he pursues his revenge.
• It may even be that Hamlet himself does not know the
answer to these questions. At the heart of Hamlet lies
profound uncertainty and doubt.
• The rest is silence
(V.ii.342)

• These are Hamlet’s last words. Unlike many of

Shakespeare’s tragic heroes, Hamlet never
resigns himself to death or embraces it. He
spends his final moments imagining the world
after his death and begging Horatio to ‘report me
and my cause aright’ (V.ii.323).
• When death finally catches up to him, Hamlet’s
greatest regret is that he must stop talking.
Despite the thousands of dazzling
(impressionanti) words Hamlet has poured out,
he has gotten no closer to understanding the
truth or purpose of his life.